I was 12 when I first spoke in front of a congregation at
the East London Coastal Camp meeting, one would think 12 is relatively young, but
not when you’re raised in an Adventist home bombarded with daily quotes from
The Story of Redemption and the all too famous Ellen G. White. I still remember
I had read a verse from the book of Jeremiah 51v 50 ‘You who have escaped from
the sword leave and do not linger, remember the lord in a distant land and call
to mind Jerusalem’. I’d like to say that after that sermon I was a stand up
child and did as I was told by my parents, but I wasn’t, I still fall of the wagon
every now and again or rather I climb on once every Saturday.
At this point in my
life I thought there was no life outside of church, as a result I’ve never really
had non-Adventist friends, I just found it draining having to explain why I was
unable to go to their birthday parties on Saturday or why I wasn’t allowed to
go to Friday night valentines discos, even in my adult life I have only a
handful of friends outside the Adventist faith. My life was all Camporees and
pathfinder practices, these where the highlights of my childhood years. In high
school this mentality began to fade, Sabbath school lessons were soon replaced
with derby days, and church camps were nothing but socials, basically parents
paid for us to fraternize away from home.
Realize also that Adventism is more than just a set of beliefs;
it is an entire culture, Adventist basically live in a world of their own. It
becomes your identity, so it isn’t unusual for Adventist youth to be only acquainted
with other Adventist, and to have Adventist-is-best sentiment, ultimately
looking down upon people of different faiths.
Being part of the Adventist youth community means that some
issues are but a taboo to us, take homosexuality for instance, quite a large
number of our youth are either fully fledged homosexuals, have experimented or have
in some form or other been in close proximity with homosexuals, our church
seems to be sweeping things that matter under the carpet and are expecting the
youth to just blindly conform, forgetting that the government funded institutions
they send us to have instilled other teachings and have engaged us in these
topics they seem to be so afraid of.
Being born in an Adventist home I had felt deprived of some experiences
as a young person, but now I have come to realize that not being able to be at
every gathering has saved me from a lot of unnecessary worry the current youth
faces, also Adventist parents need to also realize that there is life outside of
church which we are a part of, and they need to trust to have raised us well
enough to be vigilant in which parts of this life we part take in.
