Buy Nothing Day
By Nancy Lecourt
As I drove down into the valley I found myself thinking, I have a Buy Nothing Day every week: It’s also called Sabbath.
(December 29, 2004)

Joy to the World
By Richard Rice
You can’t kill Christmas. No matter how hard you try. And it looks like a lot of people are trying.
(December 22, 2004)

Conviction of Rwandan Adventist Pastor Upheld
By Alita Byrd
Pastor Ntakirutimana was the first clergyperson to be tried in an international tribunal.
(December 15, 2004)

In the Garden with Christ: Depression and the Dark Night of the Soul
By Susan Peabody
When I wake up the next day, getting out of bed feels like being whisked off to Caiaphas—although I am actually just going off to work.
(December 8, 2004)

Esperanza
By Scott Moncrieff
We’ve just got one, O-N-E "candidate" for baptism! Where, O Lord, are the fields of grain, ready for harvest?
(December 1, 2004)

Those Fat Americans
By Alita Byrd
Seventh-day Adventists were way ahead of their time when they began pushing a health message.
(November 24, 2004)

Politics and Practical Godliness
By Daniel Reynaud
Should my vote be directed to the party that offers the most financial reward? Or are there larger principles at stake?
(November 17, 2004)

The U.S. Election, "Dumb" Christians, and Enlightenment
By Ron Corson
Our battle is not with the Christian Right; in fact, we are very much a part of it.
(November 10, 2004)

Church Planters Sow New Denomination?
By Alexander Carpenter
According to the MCN leaders, they are Adventist in belief, but no longer Adventist in organizational philosophy.
(November 3, 2004)

An Adventist Woman Runs for Congress
By Norma Bork
The legislation I cared deeply about affected children, women, health care, students, education, and the environment.
(October 28, 2004)

The Remnant and the Republicans
By Douglas Morgan
The early Adventists’ sympathies leaned Republican because it was the party of liberty, human rights, and temperance.
(October 21, 2004—from the fall 2004 issue of Spectrum)

Hermeneutics in the Sixth Fundamental Belief
By Kim Osborn
A report on meetings of the General Conference Annual Council, October 11 and 13, 2004, concerning the "Affirmation of Creation" from the Faith and Science Conference, Denver, Colorado, August 2004.
(October 15, 2004)

Red Dragonflies
Four Seasons in Japan: Autumn
By Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson
Everything I know about life perhaps came to me during those years.
(October 7, 2004)

Marriage: A Religious Liberty Issue?
By Lester N. Wright
We would not accept efforts by government to determine our Sabbath, and we should not allow it to determine our definition of marriage.
(September 30, 2004)

The Old Testament: To Read or Not to Read?
A Report on a Presentation by Wonil Kim at the San Diego Adventist Forum, September 11, 2004
By Jim Kaatz
(September 24, 2004)

Thank God, We’re not Like Them
By James Coffin
We may have wasted money and risked our lives, but we had seen the movie without sullying our characters.
(September 16, 2004)

When Good Men Do Nothing: A Parable of a Soccer Coach
By Aileen Harkness
Wherever he went, his engaging personality and outstanding skills endeared him to all but the most suspecting.
(September 7, 2004)

In Memory of Jack Provonsha (1920–2004)
An Eloquent Spokesperson for a Distinctive Theology
By David R. Larson
Doctor Provonsha always returned to a vital question: Will the practice in question permanently increase or decrease self-determining freedom, the image of God in humanity?
(August 23, 2004)
A Reasonable Man of Faith
By Roy Branson
Any Seventh-day Adventist who espouses a reasonable faith owes a debt of gratitude to Jack Provonsha.
(August 20, 2004)
Remembering Jack Provonsha
By Charles Scriven
Jack was, among other things, the embodiment of hope.
(August 17, 2004)

Sinfully Moral
By Carlos Balarezo
Jesus calls us to voluntary transformation, not coerced goodness.
(August 10, 2004)

We Need Each Other
By Daniel Reynaud
Somebody, please, argue with me, fight me, affirm me. My soul needs it.
(August 3, 2004)

Kalahari Bushmen and the Culture of Pride
By Gregory Schneider
Lee slowly realized that his wealth of unshared food and his control of other resources made him a perfect target for the Bushmen’s way of enforcing humility.
(July 26, 2004)

You Will Enlarge My Heart
By Scott Moncrieff
By mile four I had long given up on finishing in the top third—how did those middle-aged guys run so fast?
(July 19, 2004)

Red Heifers (concluded)
By Loren Seibold
Our difficulty seems to lie in that we have never really learned to teach our most-loved teachings as New Testament doctrines.
(July 12, 2004)

Red Heifers
By Loren Seibold
We here in America are painfully aware of fanatical Muslims; what we don’t always realize is that there are equally angry religious Jews in Palestine who are not beyond provoking a world-destroying confrontation.
(July 6, 2004)

Cleansing the Temple: Putting Anger into Perspective
By Susan Peabody
Centered people…are not ashamed of anger. When they feel anger they process it rather than act on it. They put it into perspective.
(June 28, 2004)

Adventists and Human Rights or…What Do Ellen White and John the Revelator Have to do with Eleanor Roosevelt and Kofi Annan?
By Roy Branson
The moral mission of Adventism is to revive the vision of the prophets and the Seer of Patmos so that human rights are cherished.
(June 21, 2004)

A Reader Responds: Throwing Stones from Glass Houses
By Rick Pearce
I suggest we remember the saying: "People who live in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones."
(June 14, 2004)

Finding It Again, at Spicer
By Alexander Carpenter
Disgusted with the post-colonial rail service—six hours in a dirty, crowded, open-air coach—we were hungry and standing on the train platform in Pune, India, on a Friday afternoon.
(June 7, 2004)

South Pacific Division Convenes Ellen White Summit
By Arthur Patrick
Ellen White continues to evoke hostile attack, intense scrutiny, and spirited support in the South Pacific Division.
(May 31, 2004)

A Reader Responds:
The Moderate Manifesto Simplified
By Ron Corson
I believe that the greatest impediment to the United States is the assumption that it must make decisions.
(May 24, 2004)

The Lost Children of Adventism
By Bonnie Dwyer
When will our children get the same kind of attention as nonbelievers do? Are the souls of our children any less worthy of being saved?
(May 17, 2004)

A Moderate Manifesto
By James Coffin
If there was ever a time for moderation, it's now.
(May 10, 2004)

The Apocalypse at Carnegie Hall
By Stefanie Johnson
With the applause thundering in our ears, the first clarinetist leaned forward and said, "There are many kinds of fear. Some I like, and some I don't."
(May 3, 2004)

The Abundant Life
By Sasha Ross
How should the complex and profound Adventist hope in eternal life approach the despair in this life?
(April 26, 2004)

The Second Greatest Verse in the Bible
By Richard Rice
That night was the longest, most miserable night of my life.
(April 19, 2004)

Into the River
Four Seasons in Japan: Spring
By Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson
A hand raised me up. I looked into the smiling face of a man in a black gown.
(April 14, 2004)

The Real Question in the Kobe Bryant Case
By James Coffin
Rape and adultery are really a matter of different victim, similar pain.
(April 8, 2004)

The God of Hellos and Good-byes
By Heather Isaacs
In Christ, the Alpha and the Omega, the hello and good-bye, I can become human.
(March 29, 2004)

Weeping and Rejoicing with the World
By Gregory Schneider
When I heard news of her acquittal, a wave of visceral joy surged up in me.
(March 22, 2004)

God the Father and the Godfather
By Scott Moncrieff
The Godfather makes "an offer we can’t refuse." God, on the other hand, makes an offer we can refuse.
(March 15, 2004)

Thanks But No Thanks, Mr. Gibson
By James Coffin
My big concern about Gibson's movie has to do with a prohibition that the Bible claims was given by God himself.
(March 8, 2004)

Love Your Enemies
By Susan Peabody
The irony of my robber being concerned about me being robbed again did not escape me.
(March 1, 2004)

If American Presidents Were Angels
By Roy Branson
If George W. Bush does not serve a second term it will not be because he got bad intelligence about Iraq.
(February 23, 2004)

Ethical Standards, Mores, and Violation of Religious Freedom
By Patrick A. Travis
Civil laws that promote the ethical sensitivities and mores of the majority, which, in turn, derive from religious understanding, do not inherently violate the original meaning of separation.
(February 16, 2004)

Should Adventists Oppose Gay Civil Rights?
By Carrol Grady
On what basis does gay civil marriage threaten heterosexual marriage?
(February 9, 2004)

The Fullness of the Spirit
By Daniel Reynaud
When saved people labor in ministry without the outpouring of the Holy Spirit, they are condemned to good, hard, honest work with minimal results.
(February 2, 2004)

Living with Uncertainty
By Jennifer Cline
How I can reclaim my former identity and profession after I give birth to this baby?
(January 26, 2004)

Religious Freedom and Same-Sex Marriage
By Tim Dunston
It baffles me why certain Christian groups lobby so virulently for prayer and creation reforms in public schools when this undermines the very freedom of religion they are trying to protect.
(January 21, 2004)

Christmas, Part II—Already this December
By John McDowell
This is not the poem I want to write. This is not Gloria in Excelsis Deo.
(January 12, 2004)

Euthanasia—A Little Consistency, Please
By James Coffin
Our current middle-ground approach is far from the moral high ground.
(January 5, 2004)

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