Sean Pitman accuses Clifford Goldstein of Sarcasm — Cliff Goldstein Defended!

Dear Power of Pride,

Clifford Godstein does not support gay marriage. In fact, he is passionately opposed to gay marriage. The quote from him that you have on your website here was obviously a sarcastic statement if you actually read everything he wrote in the blog you refernece. Ever hear of sarcasm?

Sean Pitman, M.D.

!!YOUR ANSWERS FROM POWER OF PRIDE – GAY ADVENTIST NEWS!!

Dear Dr. Pitman,

Christian greetings in the precious Name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

First, congratulations on your great ministry in the area of creationism vs. evolution! Your “Geologic Column” is very well documented and attractively illustrated, and we recommend it to all our readers:

http://naturalselection.0catch.com/Files/geologiccolumn.html

You manifest a thorough knowledge of the creation/evolution controversy, and we pray that you may succeed in bringing precious light to millions of minds enslaved by the darkness of error.

Adventists have tried to be friends with everyone. We have invited them into our homes, our churches and our universities, but did not ensure they entered through the Door of Christ so those who could not were excluded. Now our institutions have been corrupted by poisonous lies. The enemy possesses our gates and blasphemes the revelation of Jesus Christ in the Holy Bible.

Few within the circle of this Message are truly born-again. The authority of God’s Word has been diluted by “the letter without the Spirit.”

You think you’ve seen apostasy and lies? You just wait a while. You haven’t seen nothing yet, compared to the total apostasy to come.

THE QUOTE

I find absolutely nothing sarcastic in the quote from our Adventist Brother Goldstein:

“I edit the Adult Sabbath School Bible Study Guides (the “Quarterly”), the official denominational teaching publication for the world SDA Church; the publisher is the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists.” (Clifford Goldstein, Graffiti in the Holy of Holies: An Impassioned Response to Recent Attacks on the Sanctuary and Ellen White, Pacific Press Publishing, 2003, p. 12)

DEFINITELY NOT SARCASM

But let’s make sure. We check the definition:

“A cutting, often ironic remark intended to wound.
A form of wit that is marked by the use of sarcastic language and is intended to make its victim the butt of contempt or ridicule.” (Sarcasm, answers.com)

There is zero evidence that our Adventist leader Goldstein intended to wound anyone. Also, there is no way that Elder Goldstein would want to make a fellow Christian “the butt of contempt or ridicule“. Dr. Pitman, unless you have any evidence to support your contention that Elder Goldstein was intending to wound or be funny, you are wrong about the sarcasm.

BUT WHAT IF DR. PITMAN COULD PRESENT PROOF THAT ELDER GOLDSTEIN INTENDED TO WOUND

The necessary elements of sarcasm are lacking in this situation.

But let’s play “what if”. What if it had been sarcasm?

“Satan has many helpers. Many who profess to be Christians are aiding the tempter to catch away the seeds of truth from other hearts. … The message that should be regarded as the word of the Lord to them is dwelt upon with trifling or sarcastic comment.” (Ellen G. White, Christ’s Object Lessons, p 45)

If Brother Goldstein had fallen into sarcasm, he would be one of Satan’s many little helpers. And we wouldn’t want that, now would we?

“I was shown that here is the danger of young ministers who engage in discussion: They turn their minds to the study of the word to gather the sharp things, and they become sarcastic … Those who engage in debates are not the most successful laborers, and the best adapted to build up the cause. By some, discussion is coveted, and they prefer this kind of labor above any other. They do not study the Bible with humility of mind, that they may know how to attain the love of God” (Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, p 181)

And where might these discussion laborers be hanging out? “Our goal is to foster community through conversation. This website is the online companion to SPECTRUM, a journal established to encourage Seventh-day Adventist participation in the discussion of contemporary issues from a Christian viewpoint”. http://spectrummagazine.org/about_us That’s the place where our Adventist leader Goldstein gets into debates.

In fact, if our Adventist leader Goldstein loved to debate, and was sarcastic, he would be totally unfit to be a pastor to the flock!!

“Those who love to debate are unfitted for being pastors to the flock. They have trained their minds to meet opponents, and to say sarcastic things” (Ellen G. White, Gospel Workers, pp 184, 185)

Obviously, there are plenty of straight chatrooms available to Elder Goldstein, but no, he went right to:

TOP PUBLISHER

“Charles Scriven is president of Kettering College of the Medical Arts and chairs the Adventist Forum/SPECTRUM board.” (Alexander Carpenter, Reconstructing Seventh-day Adventism – Charles Scriven, 26 June 2008, http://www.spectrummagazine.org/
podcast/2008/06/24/test)

“Owned and operated by Kettering Medical Center, KCMA is an integral part of the educational mission of the Seventh-day Adventist Church.” http://www.kcma.edu/AboutUs/sdaInfo.html

MOVING WITH THE TIMES

Dr. Scriven’s Adventist Spectrum magazine has carried articles of considerable interest to the Community, most notably:

Gay Theology Without Apology

Why Adventists Should Consider Supporting Gay Marriage

The Community rallies around the flag pictured at right. A flag with a full “spectrum” of diversity. Dr. Scriven’s publication deserves recognition for being true to its name!

HELPING HANDS

All of this would be way too much work for a busy man like Dr. Scriven, so he has help:

“Alexander Carpenter, a fifth-generation Adventist, was home-schooled, church-schooled, public-schooled, and attended a self-supporting academy before graduating from Andrews University summa cum laude (Religion and English Literature) … teaches full-time in the Department of Visual Arts at Pacific Union College. He has been a part of Spectrum since 2004.” http://spectrummagazine.org/about_us

A QUALITY ADVENTIST EDUCATION

“Pacific Union College is affiliated with the Seventh-day Adventist Church, a world-wide Christian community that runs one of the world’s largest Protestant school systems. The college is owned, operated and subsidized by the regional division of the Adventist Church, the Pacific Union Conference.” http://www.puc.edu/about-puc/about-our-adventist-faith

ADVENTIST LEADERS

Dr. Scriven leads an Adventist college and an Adventist chat club. Dr. Carpenter is an emerging leader. http://www.beatitudessociety.org/blog/alex_carpenter/20080609/883

How many Adventist leaders have had the PRIDE to publish a declaration like this?

“There are too many of us who are not sick, or inverted, or perverted, or even “effeminate,” but who just have a knack for falling in love with people of our own sex. When we have been damaged, it has not been due to our homosexuality but to your and our denial of it. The burden of proof now is not on us, to show that we are not sick, but rather on those who insist that we would be better off going back into the closet.” Posted by: Alexander Carpenter 17 June 2008 at 5:35
http://www.spectrummagazine.org/blog/2008/06/16/why_adventists_should_consider_supporting_gay_marriage

Dr. Pitman, you contend that Elder Clifford R. Goldstein has placed himself upon Satan’s ground:

“As soon as a preacher comes down from the position a minister should ever occupy, and descends to the comical to create a laugh over his opponent, or when he is sarcastic and sharp, and rails upon him, he does that which the Saviour of the world did not dare to do; for he places himself upon the enemy’s ground.” (Ellen White, Gospel Workers, p 189)

If what you say is true, Elder Goldstein is not qualified to be a minister of the gospel.

Cliff has always been a great friend of the Gay Community, so obviously gays are going to support Cliff against this unfair accusion.

pix:

http://www.detectingdesign.com/images/FrontPage/sean%20pitman4.jpg

http://www.sligochurch.org/images/gallery_photos/OSR/DSCN0416_edited.JPG

http://www.puc.edu/__data/assets/image/0004/31000/Carpenter_Alex.jpg