We got mail…

Rescued From Despair, Drugs, and Adventism

I wanted to email you and tell you that I just made the decision last week to leave Adventism after finding your podcast. I want to tell you how God put you in my path. I was a fifth generation Adventist, born and raised in a strictly practicing home, and we were very involved in the cult. I went on mission trips. I went to the summer camp as a student and then worked at the summer camp when I was older. I was in Pathfinders, and then I taught  Pathfinders. 

My siblings and I were homeschooled until I was in eighth grade, and then I went boarding academy. It was there that I started to question Ellen White’s teachings. By my junior year I dropped out. On the way home from the academy, I was told by my mom that if I was not enrolled in Adventist school, I could not live with her. 

I never got to go home; I was dropped off at my cousin’s house with all my stuff. That was in February, 2007, and by June I was drinking, smoking, and dabbling in drugs. By January of 2008, I was pregnant and on a “road trip” with baby daddy (still using drugs). By September 1st I was two weeks from my due date, homeless, living in a tent, and panhandling for money for drugs. 

 I called my mom for the first time since she dropped me off at my cousin’s, and told her I needed a bus ticket home. She asked if I believed in Ellen; I told her no, and she said, “No, I cannot buy you a ticket.” My older brother ended up buying it for me, and four days later I showed up in my home town, hugely pregnant (I hadn’t told any of my family). My brother picked me up, and I stayed with him. 

My son was born in September, 2008; they drug tested him, and by the grace of God he was clean. We stayed with my brother for a year, and then I went back to my baby daddy in the state I had left. The day I got back, I was arrested for a felony possession charge. 

After a year on pretrial, my mom came out to get my son in the event I was put in prison, but by the grace of God, I was sentenced to probation. It took me two years to get transferred back to my home state. The transfer conditions required that I had to stay at a halfway house, and from there my parole officer sent me to rehab and then to secondary treatment. 

While I was there I met my husband, and a week after I got out, we moved in together. He is a Pentecostal, and my mother-in-law is very “in your face” about God. I had my daughter two years after we got together, and we got married two months after our girl was born. When she turned six months old, I told myself I needed to start taking the kids to the Adventist church. I even got my husband to come with us one time—but only one time. He said that church was CRAZY. 

I took the kids every week for five years, but only to Sabbath School. I even took them to campmeeting every year until 2019.  

In January, 2019, my mom called me and asked me again if I believed in Ellen White. I told her “No.” She asked why I didn’t, so I started looking for reasons to explain what was wrong with her. I just knew I didn’t believe her. 

I found an interview online that seemed to be several years old, and the man being interviewed said he had just started a magazine for former Adventists called Proclamation! I googled it, not thinking it was still a thing, but it was! I signed up and have been receiving the Proclamation! emails for two years. 

I never opened them. 

In January, 2020, my New Year’s resolution was to find the “truth”, whatever it was. I needed to know what to teach my kids! 

I started digging, asking my in-laws questions and not understanding ANYTHING I was reading or hearing—UNTIL two weeks ago. 

I was cleaning my email and opened a Proclamation! email for the first time. Inside I saw a link to your podcast, and I saw the series on the Adventist doctrines. I started from the first one, and by the time I got through the second one, I was digging for myself. I’ve been reading my Bible every day and listening to y’all on my way to and from work (I have an hour’s drive one way). 

I can’t put my Bible down, and I can’t explain this feeling of completion I feel. It’s as if I was missing something or someone my entire life, and I found Him! 

I am so thankful you have the podcast. My older brother is now listening, but my other family members have disowned me. I would choose God over them any and every time. Again, I am sorry this is so long, but the journey I went through is important, I think. I am so thankful you are doing what you are doing; may God continue to bless you and your work 

I was so confused, so depressed, and so lost until I found you all, and I could finally untangle the Ellen from the Bible. I decided to start reading in the New Testament and then read the Old. I bought a new Bible last Friday (my old one had too much Adventism in it), and today I finished Matthew and can’t stop reading! Thank you so much.

—VIA EMAIL

 

Ellen White’s Racism

I just listened to your podcast on Did Ellen White Teach Racism. Such an amazing podcast series! Could you share the references for where you read the Ellen white quotes mentioned?

—VIA EMAIL

Response: Thank you for writing. Here is a link to an article which lists the references for the quotes we used in the podcast: Adventism’s Racist Leanings Ignored In Charlottesville Statement

 

Pushing Me Away

I’ve heard quite a few of your podcasts. I listen to them on my headphones when I’m washing up the dishes on a Sabbath. It passes the time away, and the more I listen to them, the more it pushes me away from Adventism.

—VIA EMAIL