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Consequences of the Deliberate Omission of a Prohibition on Theater
Attendance in the Twenty-eight Fundamentals By Colin and Russell Standish Click to go to our Home Page
God has spoken directly to us concerning
the defiling effects upon our characters from theater attendance. Among the most
dangerous resorts for pleasure is the theater. Instead of being a school for
morality and virtue, as is so often claimed, it is the very hotbed of
immorality. Vicious habits and sinful propensities are strengthened and
confirmed by these entertainments. Low songs, lewd gestures, expressions, and
attitudes, deprave the imagination and debase the morals. Every youth who
habitually attends such exhibitions will be corrupted in principle. There is
no influence in our land more powerful to poison the imagination, to destroy
religious impressions, and to blunt the relish for the tranquil pleasures and
sober realities of life than theatrical amusements. The love for these scenes
increases with every indulgence, as the desire for intoxicating drink strengthens
with its use. The only safe course is to shun the theater, the circus, and
every other questionable place of amusement. (Counsels
to Parents, Teachers and Students, pp. 334, 335). The deliberate omission of a prohibition
upon theater attendance in the Twenty-eight Fundamentals has achieved its
purpose. Theater attendance is now widespread and condoned in God’s Church. The Columbia Union Conference is the
Union in which the General Conference Headquarters is located. The
Communications Director of the Union in the Columbia Union Visitor
promoted the world to our young people. The writer did not appear to possess
the insight that although Christ will never forsake us, nevertheless when we
deliberately take ourselves to worldly venues WE DEPART FROM HIM: Did you know
that if you go into a movie theater, your guardian angel will have to abandon
you at the door? Fortunately, it’s a myth! Jesus Himself says: ‘I will never
leave you or forsake you.’ I guess that even counts for the projectionist
down at the mall. Not to worry, angels do go to movies! They are even there
working with Demi Moore [pornographic actress]. But that doesn’t
answer the question I hear at weeks of prayer, youth leader training seminars
and congregational retreats: ‘What about the movies?’ The question seems
omnipresent, although it’s asked much more often by adults than by youth. The
youth are already going to the theaters and find the question almost absurd.
They groan and wonder why anyone is wasting time talking about the subject. (Columbia Union Conference Visitor, July 15, 1996, p. 4). Here the author is placing words into
the minds of our young people, words which undoubtedly he devised.
Appallingly, the Union Communications Director suggests that our young people
trust their souls and their consciences to worldly, unconverted film
reviewers instead of the word of inspiration: Read the movie reviews in Time, Premiere, Entertainment
Weekly, 2020 and your local newspaper. Listen to the descriptions
of acting quality, production quality and content quality. All are described
thoroughly by the reviewers. (Ibid). In the final assessment, the youth are
left to their own judgments. Not a single word of counsel in this article
directs them to inspiration: Listen to the
reviewers. These folk are paid to tell you what to expect. Decide whether or
not you want this producer, and this movie, to have access to your mind.
Compare what you’ll be seeing with your personal convictions and values. (Ibid). The final paragraph of the article aptly
summarizes the spirit of the message given to our youth: Oh yes, if you
choose to go, stay alert and leave an empty seat beside you. You and your
angel may want to compare notes during the movie. (Ibid). The editor of the Visitor was Dr.
Dick Duerksen, then the Vice-President for Creative
Ministries of the Columbia Union Conference, the territory of which
encompasses the states of Delaware, Maryland, New Jersey, Ohio, Pennsylvania,
Virginia and West Virginia and also Washington D.C. A footnote to the article stated: While he is
constantly asked tough questions, as vice president for Creative Ministries,
Dirk Duerksen is always asking questions. As he is free, having accepted the message of grace and trading
control for freedom. Now instead of restricting behavior, he helps
guide choices. (Ibid). Providing our young people and members
with the infallible principles of the Lord in no way restricts the freedom of
the will. Rather it provides the rationale to understand God’s loving guidance which leads to life eternal. God’s people will, with anxiety of
hearts, recognize the peril of this stance, a stance which brings joy to the
heart of Satan, and imperils the souls of our youth and senior church members
alike. Dr.Duerksen is now a frequent presenter on the
General Conference Hope T.V. Channel, underlying the careless selection of
speakers on that channel. This is a warning to listeners of that channel of
the danger of listening to its presentations. Two years earlier The Columbia
Journal, April 15, 1994, the student newspaper of Columbia Union College
devoted four pages to articles on theater attendance under the general
headline “Seventh-day Adventists and the Movies.” These pages brought anguish
to Colin’s heart as he recalled the high and holy standards upheld on this
issue during his Presidency of this College (1974-1978). No Hollywood-type
movies were permitted to be screened on the College premises. What had intervened between Colin’s resignation from the Presidency
of the College to assume the role of Foundation Dean of Weimar College in
California, was the voting of the Twenty-seven Fundamentals at the Dallas
General Conference in 1980. This brought with it a series of College
Presidents who did not uphold God’s entertainment standards. The Columbia Journal cited contained a full page
recommending attendance at specific forbidden movies, thus inciting the
students to attend. (see
page 5 of cited Columbia Journal). It also included an article by
Camille R. Lofters entitled “The Issue is Principle
– Practice Educated Choice.” To my mind,
movie attendance is a personal thing. Yes, a great deal of today’s movies are
trashy, but if I decide not to see a movie it will be because I know that,
not because I think God will desert me at the door (which is a horrible, evil
concept – God never left Samson, Solomon, David or even King Manasseh – why
should he leave me if I want Him near?) If a movie is uplifting, if it
teaches something about what it means to be a human being, if it does not
degrade humanity by promoting triviality, over-cynicism, or disrespect for
human life, or if a movie provides another viewpoint – a different culture or
time than the one I am used to – if a movies does something for my mind,
then I see no reason not to see it. (The Columbia
Journal, April 15, 1994). Today our young people are taught to use
their own unsanctified judgments rather than to depend upon God’s mandates.
God has spoken in love and His word is final. A Church Elders’ Summit for the
Victorian Conference (Australia) was held July 19, 2004. Drs. Ray Roennfeldt, Chairman of the Theology Department at
Avondale College and Graeme Bradford, Senior Lecturer in the Department, led
out. Also present were the Victorian Conference President, Dr. Denis
Hankinson and the Conference Ministerial Secretary. One elder set forth a specious view that
theater-going (see Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, pp. 406, 407)
was banned in Sister White’s counsels because the theater-houses were
associated with brothels. No documentation of this association on a large
scale was understandably cited. Nor did the theologians counter this misguided
suggestion by pointing out that fiction, either written or viewed, was
condemned by God through His servant. Even more importantly, they did not
warn the elders that theater-goers will be destroyed with Satan. (Testimonies for the Church, Vol. 6, p. 407). Many of the
amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be
Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are
indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying
souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify
vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the
masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the
barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence. In every
gathering for pleasure where pride is fostered or appetite indulged, where
one is led to forget God and lose sight of eternal interests, there Satan is
binding his chains about the soul. (Adventist Home,
p. 515). Could a large
share of the books published be consumed, a plague would be stayed that is
doing a fearful work upon mind and heart. Love stories, frivolous and
exciting tales, and even that class of books called religious novels, – books
in which the author attaches to his story a moral lesson, – are a curse to
the readers. Religious sentiments may be woven all through a story-book, but,
in most cases, Satan is but clothed in angel-robes, the more effectively to
deceive and allure. (Messages to Young People, p.
272). No word of admonition and warning was
issued by either the Conference President or the Ministerial Secretary. The vast numbers of Seventh-day
Adventist pastors and laity who attended the blasphemous Mel Gibson film, The
Passion of Christ, demonstrates that the designed omission of the
prohibition on theater attendance in the Twenty-eight Fundamentals has reaped
a fearful consequence. This series
of articles is taken from The Twenty-eight Fundamentals: Apostasy Proclaimed in Silence by Colin and Russell Standish. Order
your own copy of the entire book through Hartland Publications: PO Box 1, Rapidan, VA, 22733. Phone: 1-800-774-3566. Or order
online at www.hartland.edu In our next e-magazine we will continue our series with a study
called “The Preamble”. If you
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