| Author | Message | ||
| Freeatlast Registered user Username: Freeatlast Post Number: 353 Registered: 5-2002 |
Based on my personal experiences with many rank-and-file Seventh-day Adventists, it seems to me as if the lay church membership functions like this fictional buffet restaurant: Every guest is directed to the carving station where you get your meat (the Sabbath). You can choose prime rib (read the Saturday morning newspaper, cheese omelette for breakfast, eat out after church, swim or ride bikes in the afternoon, go to a movie after sunset), fish (skip the paper, mushroom omelette, cook lunch after church, ride your bike and swim - but not at public beaches), or chicken (no paper, Ruskets for breakfast, the lunch was prepared on Friday, no secular activitiy of any kind and a long nap in the afternoon). The chicken people seem to get upset with those who picked fish or prime rib, and vice-versa. Nobody can seem to agree on which meat is best, but restaurant policy demands that you must have some sort of meat on your plate to eat there. No matter which meat you choose, every guest gets a ladle of state-of-the-dead gravy. You can surround your entrČe with whatever side dish(es) you like, and you can flavor them according to your own personal preference or tradition. Everyone agrees that the Investigative Judgement casserole is lumpy, but some guests think it needs salt while others insist that salt only makes it worse and that ketchup makes it palatable. The Health Message station is entirely optional. Due to popular demand, pepper, mustard, vinegar, butter, eggs, and cheese are all available at a special table but a few guests do threaten that if management does not remove it they will find another buffet to eat at. These guests tend to sit together in a far corner of the restaurant away from the other guests. The line leads every guest past the Ellen G. White Memorial Soda Fountain to get a drink. Most guests get a huge 64-ounce 7Up, but some donít want soda at all and ask for water instead. The restaurant does have a policy of serving water to such guests, but it is club soda, and it is only available from the memorial fountain. Plain water is not available at all inside the restaurant, although many guests do drink plain water whenever they are not in the restaurant. Many first-time guests who only found out about the restaurant from an unidentified generic flyer passed out in the parking lot have never heard about the memorial soda fountain until they are inside the restaurant and have already paid for their meal. If you eat all your meat, you get pudding (salvation) for dessert. The pudding server insists, ěIf you donít eat your meat, you canít have any pudding! How can you have any pudding if you donít eat your meat?!î Many guests find that the pudding has little or no flavor, but donít complain for fear of being ejected from the restaurant. Most attribute the lack of flavor to their poor taste buds and not the pudding. A mandatory 10% gratuity is added to all guest checks. Extra tipping is strongly encouraged. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1425 Registered: 3-2004  |
Freeatlast, I like your analogy. That sounds so true from what I know and remember of SDAs I knew. I say "knew" because I have not socialized with SDAs for years. Diana | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1857 Registered: 12-2003  |
Freeatlast--wonderful analogy! (Funny, too!) This seems an appropriate place to share a laugh we had. LLU is celebrating its 100th anniversary. They are giving employees, alums, etc. the opportunity to donate to a special fund. All who donate $100 or more will have a special paver with their name (or the name of one they wish to honor) inscribed theron for placement in a special walkway built in honor of the centennial. Every seventh paver will be a lighter color. These Sabbath pavers [I kid you not!] will bear the names of those who give $200! Nothing like using your most loved, sacred doctrine as a fund-raising gimmick! We laughed... Colleen | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 1429 Registered: 3-2004 |
Colleen, That is funny because when the alumni association wrote me an e-mail last year, I wrote back and told them I was no longer SDA and why and please do not send me any more mail. I did not want any more mail from them. Haven't heard a thing since then. Diana | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 600 Registered: 10-2004  |
Colleen, will the "Sabbath pavers" have a halo of light around them? ;-) Freeatlast, your analogy is great! Jeremy (Message edited by jeremy on April 28, 2005) | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1859 Registered: 12-2003 |
Ha! The advancement office failed to mention that detail! Colleen | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 602 Registered: 10-2004 |
I Googled "Sabbath pavers" and there is only 1 result: http://www.llu.edu/centennial/pathway/sabbath.html There it is, y'all can read it for yourselves! I can't believe it...that is just...strange. Jeremy | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 241 Registered: 7-2004  |
Freeatlast. You just "redeemed" a Pink Floyd song for me. And gave me many laughs with my breakfast. Thanks for the great analogy! Staying with the classic rock theme can we get a chorus of "Won't get fooled again..." | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 408 Registered: 6-2004 |
I picked up on the Pink Floyd analogy right away. All we were in the SDA was "just another brick in the wall" while remaining "comfortably numb" with their teaching. | ||
| Freeatlast Registered user Username: Freeatlast Post Number: 355 Registered: 5-2002 |
I pick up my guitar and play Just like yesterday And I get on my knees and pray... We don't get fooled again | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 242 Registered: 7-2004 |
I can only smile. My wife and I went to see "The Wall" on either our first or second date (depending on which one of us you ask). This was right when it came out in theaters. Of course that was the end of my wife liking anything from Pink Floyd. So I decided against taking her to a late night showing of Quadrophenia. | ||
| Heretic Registered user Username: Heretic Post Number: 67 Registered: 2-2005 |
I've been on the "dark side of the moon" for over 30 years. Now I'm "learning to fly." Heretic | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 409 Registered: 6-2004 |
Hopefully some Pink Floyd fans will get this one.... Money, it's a hit... Don't give me any of that SDA b-------- | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 243 Registered: 7-2004 |
But I guess when you don't eat unclean meat there isn't any need for a shelter from pigs on the wing... Having such fun, I guess I could say to all of you that I wish you were here. | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 240 Registered: 7-2004  |
The Pink Floyd movie was definitely not our first date. That would be the movie "The World According to Garp" in July 1982. We saw Pink Floyd in the Fall of '82 when I was on home leave from AU. And it was pretty bizzare, especially considering I was very new to doing movies at that point. Regarding the Sabbath pavers, I read the link Jeremy gave, and it said that the weekly Sabbath will be fulfilled when we receive eternal rest at the second coming. Now how does that fit in with the SDA belief that we'll celebrate the Sabbath in heaven? I thought that was the whole point with SDA theology, that the Sabbath was never intended for fulfillment, that it was pre-sin, present, and post-sin. Interesting... | ||
| Pw Registered user Username: Pw Post Number: 410 Registered: 6-2004 |
Well, it looks like Raven is right about that Pink Floyd date....Have A Cigar! | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 1864 Registered: 12-2003 |
Raven, I guess it's another example of what Richard calls' the "moving target". The public statements of doctrine change as the world around the church changes--or, in this case, Adventism wants so desperately to be seen as "mainstream". I'm sure there's a Pink Floyd allusion in there somewhere, but being ignorant, I'll leave it to y'all...! Colleen | ||
| Ric_b Registered user Username: Ric_b Post Number: 244 Registered: 7-2004 |
By the way, which one is Pink? But she is wrong about when we saw The Wall. We saw it the second week it was out. Which places it in mid- to late-August, not the fall. But she did look up the release dates of the movies to "prove" to me that I was wrong about what we saw first. But I was more interested in having that first date than in what movie we saw. She had turned me down 3 previous times that I had asked her out, so I was just glad she finally changed her mind. I guess I can be forgiven for getting the movie wrong! | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 223 Registered: 3-2005 |
Did Pink Floyd also do "won't get fooled again", I guess I thought it was the Who. I know that "Dark side of the moon" was by Pink Floyd, and I loved it! Jeremy, that link was unbelievable! The moneychangers in the temple are busy! Stan | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 603 Registered: 10-2004 |
Raven, they say both. EGW implies both. They've never met a contradiction they didn't like. That statement from LLU also says that they "reverence the sacred hours of the Sabbath"! That sure sounds like idolatry to me! Jeremy |
