| Author | Message | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 337 Registered: 6-2006  |
Hey Friends, I was remembering something this morning that got me wondering - Where did the "laws" forbidding dancing and going to movie theaters come from? I realize the dancing part isn't exclusively Adventist, but I was curious if those were in EGW's writings. When my husband and I were dating, those two rules came up during the SDA worship all too often (including eating meat) and I just remember wondering where exactly they started. If there weren't enough laws to obey in the first place!  Leigh Anne p.s. Happy Advent season! | ||
| Jeremy Registered user Username: Jeremy Post Number: 1635 Registered: 10-2004  |
Yep, they come from the Law of Ellen (which also contains many other commands and forbiddings). She speaks against theaters and dancing many times in her writings. Here are just a few examples:
Jeremy | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3113 Registered: 3-2004  |
Leigh Anne, I remember those coming from EGW. AS for non SDA, I have no idea where they got it. At family parties, such as weddings and birthdays, we danced. So I learned to dance at family get togethers with my Mom's Catholic family. My Dad's sister was SDA, but we did not associate with her and her family very much. Diana | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 737 Registered: 8-2004  |
Dancing and Theater prohibitions were also part of Methodist, Baptist, and Puritan teachings. Probably others as well. Part of the 'if God didn't expressly say we could then we probably can't' school. | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 338 Registered: 6-2006 |
Thanks all! Jeremy, "There are amusements, such as dancing, card playing, chess, checkers, etc., which we cannot approve because Heaven condemns them." I wonder if she was "shown" that from her angel-guide boyfriend... So I guess Rook is out - YAY I hate that game! | ||
| Loneviking Registered user Username: Loneviking Post Number: 525 Registered: 7-2000 |
Hey! Rook is Adventist poker and a near sacrosanct tradition!! Sure made long bus rides easier.... | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3114 Registered: 3-2004 |
I never learned to play Rook. My parents let us play dominoes and as an adult I learned to play chess and even taught it to my son. Of course the last, teaching chess to my son, was done after my name had been taken off the church books, unknown to me. Diana | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 659 Registered: 7-2004  |
In my family, we never learned to play cards, Rook, or Chess and to this day I have no clue and think I'm too old to learn, although I did play Rook a couple times as a very young adult. Occasionally we were allowed to play Checkers, but were usually admonished what a waste of time it was. Instead, we got to play Bird, Flower, and Tree cards - did anyone else do this? It was a way of learning the names of the various types and somehow they were put together in sets that you collected as you asked people if they had something that belonged to your set. It sure made boring Sabbath afternoons pass by a little quicker. I thought it was amusing our last couple years in the SDA church when we would go to the home of some good friends on Sabbath afternoon with the intent to play pool after sundown. We (except me because I couldn't get the hang of it) would play real cards during Sabbath until we could play pool. These friends, who were stuanch, conservative church-office holding members, felt playing cards was an acceptable Sabbath activity, but pool was not. We would have done either, but it was yet another odd thing that helped us analyze what's wrong with the SDA picture. | ||
| Flyinglady Registered user Username: Flyinglady Post Number: 3116 Registered: 3-2004 |
We played authors, non SDA famous authors like Dicken and right now I cannot remember other authors. I bought the bird card game for my son when he was little and he only played with it on sabbath. What a time!!!! Thank God I am free of that. Diana | ||
| River Registered user Username: River Post Number: 188 Registered: 9-2006  |
It ain't no wonder them folks got no sense of humor. Now when we kicked the chairs back and brought out the fiddles, guitars and banjos and played music till two in the morning Ellen would have surely condemned us fer such foot stompin. now the girls wouldn't let me dance fer fear of gettin stepped on.Course we didn't have to worry about Ellen cause we were so far back in them hills even a revanuer couldn't have found his way back in there. Our churches had every stringed instrument we could lay our hands on.If a person could have played a pine tree someone would have learned to play it. I guess we were a consternation to the lesser lights. | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 738 Registered: 8-2004 |
One of Ellen's boys, not sure if it was Willie, Henry, or Edson, got in big trouble after sneaking off to hear a military band play nearby. After all, that was devil's music! Mary | ||
| Colleentinker Registered user Username: Colleentinker Post Number: 5045 Registered: 12-2003  |
Ha! The Devil's music! Yes, we had the Flower Game. I remember that Mariposa Tulip belonged to the category "F". We played that game on many Sabbath afternoons when we had company. Colleen | ||
| Riverfonz Registered user Username: Riverfonz Post Number: 2348 Registered: 3-2005 |
Ellen White was just a product of her times as you could find the writings of other fundamentalists that she copied. In many ways SoCal SDAs are much more liberal in theater, dancing, mixed swimming than other fundamentalist churches. Forbidding alcohol is an American evangelical phenonomena, with temperance pledges also part of the Calvary Chapel movement and other fundamentalist groups. Adventists don't hold the game of "monopoly" for legalsism with extra-biblical rules. Stan | ||
| Helovesme2 Registered user Username: Helovesme2 Post Number: 739 Registered: 8-2004 |
yes, and even before the American Evangelicals got involved it came from the 'Women's Temperance Movement' which was not a particularly religious movement at all, IIRC. It does NOT extend back to the Early American Puritans. The Puritans did not allow dancing or frivolity, but drinking was a regular part of their everyday life. Mary | ||
| Bigal Registered user Username: Bigal Post Number: 51 Registered: 9-2006  |
I still have the "Trees, Birds, and Animals" games. The boxes the cards come in are all taped up with yellow non-sticking tape by now. They probably sit near the "Egypt to Caanan" game in a closet or box above the garage. We danced as Adventist. Raven don't you remember the "Grand Marches" in the RJA school gym? Alan (Message edited by bigal on December 04, 2006) | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 339 Registered: 6-2006 |
Stan, I think you're right about the So-Cal set. One of my bil's is an SDA pastor, and he goes to the movies all the time. (His wife wears a wedding ring as well.) My parents in law are more the old fashioned SDA type, especially with the Sabbath regulations and movies, although they don't follow nearly the amount of food laws as some I've read here. I think if they couldn't eat eggs or cheese they'd fall over dead! Leigh Anne | ||
| Susans Registered user Username: Susans Post Number: 232 Registered: 8-2006 |
Maybe they still feel that eggs are safe to eat, since Ellen said there would COME a time where you could not do this (and milk too, btw). As far as cheese, well, that rotten fermented stuff is made with hog rennet, you know. Unless they get the Amish stuff that has vegetable rennet (or they eat soy cheese) they are definitely disregarding the prophet. (I have no idea if cheese is still made with this, but that was one of the reasons, besides it being fermented and not fit to eat, that EGW railed against it. Although it wouldn't surprise me if one day it was discovered she ate bleu cheese ) Susan | ||
| Raven Registered user Username: Raven Post Number: 660 Registered: 7-2004 |
Bigal, weren't those "Grand Marches" Pathfinders related? I vaguely remember some such thing, but we weren't even allowed to be in Pathfinders except part of one year. It was considered unnecessary because my dad could teach us any of that stuff at home (except the marches!). In case anyone is wondering, yes my parents admired Weimar-type Adventism and I was so thankful we didn't live anywhere near one of those communities. | ||
| Bigal Registered user Username: Bigal Post Number: 52 Registered: 9-2006 |
The "Marches" (Adventist dancing) usually took place on a Saturday night at a church social. We would figure eight, weave, cross paths all over the gym in a line while following the person in front of you. Even side by side with mixed gender! I believe this was probably more an east coast type activity. I did march in pathfinders, but that was different than the Grand March. I wonder if Ellen took part in any Marches? Alan | ||
| Grace_alone Registered user Username: Grace_alone Post Number: 340 Registered: 6-2006 |
Raven, bless your heart, I sure hope you're living it up now! In fact, I hope all of you are fully enjoying your freedom in Christ! |
