A Subtle Attack on Our Children

In this transmission you will find a letter from one who is responsible for the GraceLink curriculum. It is authentic and is copied here verbatim. Following it, you will find a summary report of a meeting held in New England about the GraceLink curriculum by a concerned parent who was in attendance. The meeting was with key decision makers of the GraceLink curriculum. Again, our loyalty to the SDA church and God's truth, as well as our children's genuine relationship with Christ won't let us remain silent. [Our further comments in brackets].

Email:

From: Noelene Johnsson [johnno@and.Adventist.org]

Sent: Wednesday, November 10, 2000 4:23PM

To: Linday Dayen

Subject: Harry Sabnani message: GraceLink negatives

Harry,

While at Albany I heard that some in Northern New England were fussing about the new curriculum, particularly about the artwork. The North American Division and the Review and Herald want to be open to complaints. To help us understand the complaints, however, we need you to ask people to send us specific examples and tell us what specifically is the problem that they see with the material. They might photocopy a page and circle the problem and then state what they see as being the problem.

The content of the new curriculum teaches children in a very effective way about the grace of Jesus Christ. We want nothing to stand in the way of children understanding what Jesus has done for them and responding to Him. Ellen White tells us that we can undo this work by our criticism and fault finding. So if in a spirit of grace and peace people want to make suggestions, we are willing to listen.

Some messages of complaint have been against beginner and kindergarten GraceLink and that has not even come out yet. So, naturally, I cannot take those criticism seriously. Maybe the complaints are about the current lessons for those age levels. But I really don't have anything specific to go on so the complaint cannot be addressed.

In talking with people in Albany I learned that much of the negative talk was from people who are way conservative and closed minded in their thinking. They may be hoping to force the will of a minority on everybody. And I don't believe that church administrators are going to be supportive of that.

Also, you need to be aware that an independent group who support a competitive publication are trying to gain support for their product by criticizing the Sabbath school material from the General Conference. We want to stand firm against unfair attacks while at the same time making sure that the General Conference materials fit the needs of all as nearly as possible.

Please let us work together. Keep us informed. And also keep your new president in the loop. Criticism and complaints should be handled by you Harry. If you need support, and you probably should plan on needing it, bring your youth leader and administration into the loop. Let's make this a matter of prayer. When we are fighting over non-essentials, our children slip away from the church. Losing kids is always the price we pay when factions fight for control. This is not God's way. But neither is it his way to leave children unprotected from their rigidly narrow theology.

Let's make this a matter of prayer. Here at year end meetings I am hearing only positive reports from conference presidents, although some acknowledge pockets of resistance.

I just wanted to assure you and Linda that you can call on support. Don't let yourselves be battered. OK?

Noelene

Noelene Johnsson

North American Division of SDA

12501 Old Columbia Pike

Silver Spring, MD 20904

PH 301-680-6425

FAX 301-680-6464

Children's Ministries http://childmin.com

Adventurers http://adventurer-club.com

GraceLink Sabbath School Curriculum http://GraceLink.net

[How comforted would a concerned parent feel upon reading this letter about the "openness" of GraceLink leaders to hear concerns? Concerned parents who read this letter were surprised about the "good ol' boy" tactics used in it, especially when they are characterized as if they are narrow minded and rigid, merely because they have expressed their sincere convictions and genuine concerns about what they believe to be rendered spiritual fodder being fed to their children. It strikes us as significant that while professing an openness to hear genuine criticisms, the author is actually leading the witness by discounting the concerns raised, as coming from narrow and rigid people. At the same time the author defends the material on the basis of positive feedback from church leaders, most of whom would likely have no idea what's going on in the children's divisions of their local churches in their conferences. Concerned parents would also be nonplussed by the attitude of the GraceLink leaders toward alternative materials they characterize as "competitive," that many parents feel are far safer for their precious children than the GraceLink curriculum, though offered by self-supporting ministries. Incidentally, please refer to our previous transmission for much very good alternative material available for your children and Sabbath schools.]

[The following is a report of a meeting of concerned parents and some leaders in Northern New England with leaders responsible for the GraceLink curriculum.

The items in this report are personal notes of comments made by the GraceLink leaders at the meeting by one of the very concerned parents. The author's personal comments about what was said are also in brackets().]

SUMMARY OF FEBRUARY 25, 2001 MEETING REGARDING GRACELINK CURRICULUM

As many of you know, on February 25, 2001 there was a meeting in Portland, ME with two women from the GC, namely Pat Habada and Noelene Johnsson, and some persons from the Northern New England Conference who had concerns with the new GraceLink children's Sabbath School material. I was in attendance that day as a committee member and will attempt to share with you the events that took place and the things that were said. Keep in mind that these are my recollections and my interpretations of what took place. To my knowledge the meeting was not recorded, other than in our minds and with personal notes.

Let me start by saying that the weather on Sunday the 25th was very bad. A winter storm warning had been issued for the Northeast and we got all the weather that was predicted: snow, ice and freezing rain. Travel was treacherous for us over the mountains, but God kept my husband and me safe for the 12 hours we were on the road. Because of the terrible weather, four committee members, and (not) all the expected guests did not attend, leaving a much smaller group than was expected to discuss issues. This, I believe, proved to be a blessing, because I was afforded more time to speak with this smaller group.

We started at 10:00 with worship and then frittered away the first hour in congenialities (introductions and occupations and educational attainments etc.) The second hour was used up in listening politely to Pat and Noelene explain the history, development and theory behind this new material. I was getting frustrated with what seemed like a waste of time over non-essentials and in explaining what we all should have known before we got there. Here are a few things of importance that I did learn in the first two hours we were there:

1. Pat Habada was the only SDA woman in the US to hold a Ph.D. in curriculum development in the late 70's and early 80's when the church was seeking someone with that degree to help develop a new reading curriculum for our schools. There were three men with the same qualifications, but they did not want to move to the DC area for a three-year assignment, with no promise of future employment, so Pat took on the task of re-doing our reading series. When that task was finished, she was employed by Home Study Institute to revamp some of their curriculum. She stayed on at HSI until money ran out and was then employed by the GC to begin changing our children's S.S. curriculum. That began in the early 90's and is on-going.

(I want to interject something here. With the presentation of these facts, I became increasingly concerned. You see, I have used both the old and new SDA reading series in my teaching of children. In the mid 80's we replaced the most lovely reading series that contained mission stories from around the world, stories of our pioneer work and our church history and lovely, realistic art work throughout the books with lots of stories about city life, goofy art work and stories with little substance. To me, the change was not for the better. I was never completely happy with these new readers. One day while giving a Bible study to a lady in town, her lower grade son came home from public school and showed me his reader. I was amazed to see the same exact stories in his "Magic Carpet" reader. On my next visit to that home, I brought our SDA reader to compare contents. Lo and behold! we had purchased the printing rights from a worldly text book company, replaced the fairy tale section with some fictionalized Bible stories, wrapped it in a new cover and called it the SDA Reading Series. Now the lady responsible for these changes was telling me how she's doing the same thing with our S.S. material. Now back to the meeting.)

2. We were told that after Valugenesis, it was determined that our kids felt that salvation was somehow dependant upon works, or things we have to do to earn heaven. It was also said that many kids were not having family worship. So the church was setting about to create a set of lessons that would encourage whole family participation and would teach that salvation is a free gift and nothing earned. Meetings were held in England with representation from the USA, Russia, India, some European countries, and I don't remember any others. The representatives were excited to think we would be getting something that would teach salvation by grace alone and so the project began.

3. A young SDA artist from Tennessee was selected to illustrate the new quarterlies, but the GC decided after two quarterlies, that he was not capable of producing fast enough and with the quality that he had originally exhibited, so they turned to the Justinen group, also SDA. When I interjected that the Justinen group were capable of producing beautiful art, and that they didn't need to draw cartoons, Pat answered me with, "Yes, we know, but they are patterning after the Primary Treasure style art."

4. The material is written in English and produced on CDs for distribution to other countries for other nations to translate into their native languages and pare down to suit their needs. In India, for example, the GC was told that these lessons required far too much paper and materials for their country and they produce a much less extravagant version, minus many, or all, of the activities suggested in the helps. For some reason, and they don't know why, South America, with all their modern capabilities, has not translated the material yet and it is not in use in S. America to date (Praise Be to God! I say). They have met with some resistance in Africa too. The more modern countries are happy with GraceLink and are using it, but the poorer, more primitive countries like Malawi and Zimbabwe are resisting it (Interesting! so much for the idea that the Black and Spanish culture love this stuff, as Noelene Johnson has asserted on previous occasions).

5. The GC has a file folder about 2 inches thick of complaints from Northern New England Conference alone, while the file from the rest of the US is about one inch thick and the file from the world field is minimal. Pat wondered what was wrong up here. Harry Sabnani, our conference youth leader, said that it was the culture of New Englanders to speak their mind. "They don't hesitate to tell you what they think," he said. He too had a large stack of correspondence on his desk from around our conference. I say, "May God bless New England's Yankees and may they continue the revolution." To the rest of the N. American Division, please write and make your file folder 5 inches thick! They need to hear from you. I will give you the addresses at the end of this report.

6. The complaints from the world field have only been with art and NOT with any content in the text. (Well, if they are translating their own material, they are writing it how they want it and correcting and editing as they go. The GC has no way of knowing the difference. Other countries don't even use the graphics if they don't want to. So of course they aren't going to hear complaint about the text.)

7. The two publishing houses, R&H and Pacific Press have invested a lot of money into the printing of the new material and made the GC promise that the curriculum would not change for at least 10 years, and hopefully 15. (The investment figure I have written down is $300,000. I am not sure now if that is the GC investment or if that is the publishing houses' investment cost). Anyway, the publishing houses are presently mailing out about 55,000 junior level quarterlies and 6,500 early teen quarterlies world wide and the presses need years to recoup their investment. (I say praise God there is only a measly 61,500 copies going out worldwide. May that number plummet. But we are definitely stuck with a 10-year commitment and they are not going to renege on their promise to retain this material for that length of time. This pretty much brought us to noon. We were promised that we, as committee members, would get a chance to speak after lunch. Two committee members had to leave no later than 2:00, so we were under time constraints with a lunch break in between the two sessions. This upset me. We agreed to bring our food to the conference room and continue the meeting while eating.)

AFTERNOON SESSION

1. (During lunch I took the time to read a letter that a woman from our church had sent to the meeting for me to read. In the letter she told how she came to know our message through the simplicity and beauty of our children's S.S. department. She had been a catholic and had given up much to join our church, but has not regretted learning the truth. She made a simple appeal to the committee to retain the simplicity of the children's material that had drawn her into the SDA church, and she asked that the committee not dismiss us as fanatics). As soon as I finished reading the letter Harry stated that he could produce letters with the opposite sentiment and that it would be best if there were no more letters shared in that meeting. (This was odd to me since it was an open meeting and there was an open invitation for everyone with concerns to come and voice them).

2. There was one man who stated that it was important for us as a church to have some absolutes. If we are instructed in how to illustrate our literature by Ellen White, we should do it right. "There needs to be some black and white," he said. "This is a very confusing church for a new Adventist. The convert is told one thing and sees the people of the church and the leadership doing something else," he said. He repeated himself more than once, but he got told something to the effect, "Thank you Paul, we hear you." Paul is an older gentleman who has been an Adventist for 11 years and who stood up boldly Sunday for what he felt was right and true. He gave me courage. I saw him close his eyes several times, in what I assumed was prayer, as others were talking. Paul was also not afraid to speak up to the two ladies from the GC and to Harry. I thanked God for his presence. He traveled two hours to attend and was the only person there who was not a committee member.

3. I then told how I had compiled a quiz from the new S.S. material. Although the questions came from all levels of children's materials, Beginners through Early Teens, it would illustrate how much error the kids would be subjected to, in art, script and teacher's helps, if they did not have discerning teachers and parents to screen out the error. I asked if the committee would like to hear some of the quiz. One man answered that he would be interested. So I gave the following quiz, in part, orally.

TRUE OR FALSE QUIZ

1. Noah had never heard of, nor had he seen, any kind of a watercraft prior to God's instructions to build the ark.

2. No one guided the animals into the Ark; they simply came all by themselves like a big animal parade.

3. The first thing Noah and his family did when they disembarked from the Ark was look up and see a rainbow. Then they thanked God for the rainbow and the safe trip.

4. Korah, Dathan and Abihu rebelled against Moses when he told them that God directed them to turn back into the wilderness for 40 more year.

5. Noah "Hoped that his boat would float."

6. Mary and Joseph had room service provided in the manger. They were given blankets and food by the innkeeper's daughter.

7. The shepherds followed the star to the manger to find baby Jesus.

8. Mary and Joseph went to Jerusalem to be taxed.

9. Samson was still bald when he pulled down the pillars of the Philistine temple.

10. Joseph argued his case of innocence with Potipher.

11. When Jesus showed himself to Thomas in the upper room, he came up behind him and covered Thomas's eyes in a "peek-a-boo" fashion.

12. Several swine followed the prodigal son home.

13. The main lesson to be gleaned from the story of the Tower of Babel is that "God wants us to help people, even those that are different from us."

14. There were children that reached the banks of the Jordan before the priests bearing the ark did. As the priests were about to step into the Jordan, children frolicked about in the water.

15. Judas had the appearance of the devil with hair combed into two horns and a sinister face.

All answers are false according to Bible and SOP, yet all true according to the lessons and/or Teacher's lesson/helps.

BIBLE AND SOP ANSWERS

1. The antediluvians were "skillful in devising the most cunning and wonderful works; ......." PP 90.

They had had nearly 1000 years to think of a boat.

2. "Guided by holy angels, they (the animals) went in two and two unto Noah into the ark." PP 98.

3. "The first act after leaving the ark was to build an alter....thus manifesting his gratitude to God for deliverance and his faith in Christ, the great sacrifice." Then God sent the rainbow. See PP 105-106.

4. Korah, Dathan and Abiram. Numbers 16:1-12.

5. Noah had faith in what God said. See Hebrews 11:7 and PP 92-95.

6. "In a rude building where the beasts are sheltered they (Mary and Joseph) at last find refuge, and here the Redeemer is born. Men know it not, but the tidings fill heaven with rejoicing." DA 46.

7. Look up Luke 2:10-16.

8. Look up Luke 2: 4.

9. Samson had hair, not a bit of stubble spouting from his bald head. See PP 566. "As his hair grew, his power gradually returned; but his enemies, regarding him as a fettered and helpless prisoner, felt no apprehensions."

10. There is nothing in scripture or SOP to imply Joseph tried to clear himself, but to the contrary. Joseph is a type of Christ. Christ stood silent before his accusers and answered not a word.

11. John 20:26-27.

12. Read Luke 15: 12-32

13. Read PP 117-124 The moral of the story is more correctly interpreted "God bears long with the perversity of men, giving them ample opportunity for repentance; but He marks all their devices to resist the authority of His just and holy law. From time to time the unseen hand ....is stretched out to restrain iniquity."

14. The people of Israel were to fall back from the ark about a space of a half mile. PP 484

15. DA 294 says that Judas had a commanding appearance.

GRACELINK REFERENCE FOR QUIZ:

1. Beginner's Sample, Year A, Quarter #1 Lesson #2. (found on GC web site) 2. Same reference as #1. 3. Same reference as #1. 4. Primary 2nd Quarter 2001, lesson #7. 5. Beginner Program Helps, Words to the song: Noah Took A Hammer (pilot program). 6. JR./ET Year A, fourth Quarter, Lesson #9. 7. Jr./ET Year A, fourth Quarter, lesson 10. 8. Jr./ET Year A, fourth Quarter, Lesson #9, Teacher's Edition. 9. Jr./ET Year C, first Quarter, Lesson #3. 10. Jr./ET Year C, first Quarter, Lesson 11. 11. Jr./ET Year C, Third Quarter, lesson #8. 13. Jr./ET Year B, first Quarter, Front cover. 14. Primary First Quarter 2001, lesson #1 and teacher's helps. 15. Jr./ET, Year D, first Quarter, lesson # 3. 16. Jr./ET, Year C, 2nd quarter, Lesson #3.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

(I didn't give all the questions, but rather picked certain ones to make my points. By now even the pro-GraceLink people were listening. I saved the question about Korah, Dathan and Abihu until last. No one seemed to catch on that it was not Abihu, rather Abiram. Then I pointed out that this was in the Primary quarterly to be passed out in April 2001. I stated that my guess was about 90% of the teachers would never catch the mistake and would teach the lesson as it read. Then I stated that Mrs. Johnsson was listed on the cover as one of the authors and I asked if she could pick out which stories she had written. She said she couldn't remember which stories she had authored. So I asked her if she could tell me if she had written the lesson about Korah, Dathan and Abihu. Again she couldn't remember. I than asked Mrs. Habada, as Primary quarterly editor, if she was aware of the incorrect name. She said no.

One lady tried to defend the error as a typo, because she does some secretarial work and finds even after she rereads her work, mistakes slip by. I said that I did not believe that this was a typo, because it was repeated again and again in the teachers guide. By now Pat Habada was getting quite red. Pat Habada said she knew there were mistakes in the material. That is why we need to let her know whenever we see these errors, so corrections can be made).

4. Paul spoke up then and said he was getting a double message. First we were told that the art work couldn't be changed because of the cost, etc., yet that is the only thing that the world field has complained about. Now we were hearing that they could change the text, if we pointed out the mistakes. He told them it didn't make sense that we could change one, but not the other, and furthermore, it was not his job nor mine to point out the mistakes and do the editing. That was their job. Mrs. Johnson said she had never asked anyone to edit the quarterlies. Paul stated that she, indeed did, in a letter sent around to NNEC. In that letter she stated that we were to photocopy any mistakes, circle the error and mail it to them. Paul pointed out, quiet forcefully, that that was editing and that shouldn't have to be done by us.

5. I asked if the Beginner's lessons (Cradle Roll and Kindergarten) were going to be in the cartoon style found on the website. They said they were changing the sample on the web site because they had so many complaints. I pushed for an answer to the style of art they were going to use, for I knew from writing to Pat, that they were changing the wording of "animals came all by themselves into the ark" to "an angel led the animals into the ark." They were also making the angels all one race instead of oriental, black and white. I asked again if the style of art was going to remain in the "Weeble Wobble" fashion. The answer was yes, the style would remain the same. It would be kept in "the story book fashion," for they find that this kind of illustration "draws the kids into the word." I said, "So we are going to have cartoon picture rolls too?" I was told there will be no picture rolls.

6. A committee member spoke up and said she was having a hard time with all this trouble over such little things when other things were so much more important. She said that she had grown up in a good, solid Adventist home and had read many novels and she had loved reading fiction and letting her imagination go, and she doesn't have any trouble today telling truth from fiction. These pictures in the quarterlies were just illustrations and she saw nothing wrong with them. Another woman said that at first she had been upset with the picture of the prodigal son returning to the Father with two pigs hanging from his rags. Then she prayed about it and asked God to change her attitude. After that prayer, she saw the picture as a beautiful illustration of how we can come to the Father in any condition and these artists are trying to illustrate a point. There were some who felt that this was illustrative art, not cartoons, and even cartoons like Winney the Pooh taught love and friendship. They were O.K. because they were not violent. When I held up some older Primary Treasures from the 1960's with the realistic line art and asked if they couldn't hire that kind of work done, there was only silence.

7. I mentioned how I didn't like the way the artist had made Elijah in the chariot look like Santa Clause on the front cover of the Primary quarterly for 2nd quarter. That did not go over well. Harry said he needed to call this like it was "PICKY" and others agreed. Mrs. Johnsson said something to the effect that we needed to be more Christian in allowing the artists to have some freedom to interpret the scenes of the Bible. Paul said he didn't appreciate being called unchristian because he didn't like this kind of art.

8. I then read a portion of a letter that Mrs. Johnsson wrote to the Mountain View Conference on 12-21-00. It is telling conference officials how to handle the complainer. The following is an excerpt:

"We have been advised by the General Conference that people who voice such concerns (Pertaining to GraceLinks) can be told the following:

a. Home-schooling moms were prominent in the writing of the material.

b. For parents complaining about the artwork, churches are welcome to photocopy the plain version of the lesson found at the end of each program in the leader teacher guide.

c. Before criticizing the lessons, people should study with a child. The daily study sends kids into the Bible and is not shallow as some complain.

d. Serious students can be taught how to research their lesson, using a concordance, Bible Commentary, and SOP.

e. All lessons in GraceLink are approved by the GC department of Biblical research, the conservative watch dog for theological correctness. Every effort has been made to be Biblically correct in the lessons. The Church Corporation owns, publishes, and certifies these materials.

f. As directors we should be aware that off-shoot groups have been targeting the GraceLink material in an effort to promote their own material."

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I then told how I had written to the Biblical Research Institute three times in order to obtain an answer as to whether this was true or not and then I read the following answer from Dr. George Reid, head of BRI [At that time].

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Now, let's look briefly at the most important of your points. I have not seen Noelene Johnsson's instructions on meeting opponents of the lessons. In one matter what she says is surely misinformed at best. These lessons have not been reviewed in detail by the Biblical Research Institute, and certainly do not carry our endorsement beyond encouraging products of the Sabbath School Department. Possibly Mrs. Johnsson was led by someone to believe this is the case. I have checked with Dr. Rodriguez, who reports that he reviewed the Junior lessons carefully, but neither he nor anyone else at our Institute systematically went through the Primary lessons.

To begin with, as a research institute this time-consuming task lies not directly within our commission from the church. We are not the office of guaranteed orthodoxy. It is true that members of our staff review and are immediately involved in reviewing the senior lessons, but this approaches the limit of such direct involvement. Review of the children's' lessons is in the assignment of the Sabbath School Department, although we are happy to help out on request if a special need manifests itself. As I noted earlier, the foundation of this difficulty lies in the overall understanding of what these lessons should produce. The end product some want to see differs from the end product you anticipate. Actually, in my opinion this is the area where the discussion should center." Dr. George Reid, Head BRI

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Both Pat and Noelene seemed shaken at this point and asked for a copy of the letter or the date of the e-mail so they could talk to Dr. Reid when they got back.

8. Lastly Paul and I pushed for an alternative lesson or a list of alternatives for people who didn't want to use this new material. The answer was that there is no alternative that the GC can suggest, though there are alternative materials available from other sources. Pat mentioned the Young Disciple, but said that it was not "educationally sound," though theologically correct. It didn't have color, etc. If we want something else, we were to know that the GC is not going to give it to us. We will have to go elsewhere and we were cautioned to be very careful lest we obtain something that might be not the best. (I thought, It can't be any worse.)

Harry wrapped the meeting up with an appeal for all to read the article in the NAD Review entitled "If I Were The Devil." He really wanted all of us to read it if we hadn't. It is about how the devil will destroy our youth and their zeal with people who criticize drama and music etc. There is much more to it. Anyway, Paul spoke up and said, "Harry, if I were the devil, I would be using this S.S. material on our children." (Amen! Paul).

(There was more said, but I have given you the highlights. After we left, and I was in the parking lot, I was called back in to talk with Mrs. Habada privately. She hugged me and said she wanted me to know I had made an impact on her and she was now carefully reviewing every lesson before it goes to press. I quickly ran down a list of my objections to the insane activities in the teacher's guide. She told me to just skip them. I told her that would blow their theory that we must have those activities in order to reach the four types of thinkers on Sabbath morning. [We spent at least 30 minutes in the forenoon listening to Noelene tell us how important it was to use these lessons in order to reach the four different types of thinkers]. I said, "But if I left off one of those activities, some poor kid would be left in the dark according to the presentation we had just heard from Noelene this morning." Pat said something like, "Yes, but the truth of it is, we all have some of all four of those ways of thinking." [I wish she had said that in public] She also told me that she personally didn't like that art, but others did. She also said that she hadn't looked at a Jr./ ET quarterly in over a year, because she had been so busy with the Primary quarterly and lower lessons. Yet in the meeting she repeatedly told us, when I pushed for an answer for who was responsible for these productions, that the "Buck" stopped with her. I asked her to please sit down with her writers and ask them to make some changes. She said that a group of about 8 to 12 people get together to create a quarterly and the teacher's guide in about three weeks. It was often very hard to edit products like that.

Pat Habada (Primary quarterly editor and GraceLink Curriculum Coordinator)

Noelene Johnsson (NAD Children's Ministry Leader)

Kathleen Beagles (Power Points Editor)

Daniella Volf (Editorial Secretary for Power Points)

James Zackrison (World S.S. Director)

Lowell Cooper (General Conference Advisor)

Angel Rodriguez (Consulting Editor)

Reger Smith (Art Direction)

Dr. George Reid (Head of Biblical Research)

Debra Brill (NAD Vice-President of Children's Ministry)

All have the same address: General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists

12501 Old Columbia Pike

Silver Spring, MD 20904-6600

Sheryl Wright, a Sabbath School teacher and concerned parent attended the meeting, and was the author of these notes. Her name is published with permission.

[Our next transmission will include articles written by a concerned ordained conference pastor who cares for his "lambs." They address the theological imbalances portrayed in GraceLink and discuss the root sources of the theological and anti-Adventist bias in the GraceLink curriculum. Stay tuned].

[For a free copy of Entertainment Syndrome, by Colin and Russell Standish, email your postal address to Hartland@Hartland.edu. About the book: Never in our history has there been such a systematic attempt to destroy the minds of a generation. Perceptive Christians recognize that entertainment is the key to the final efforts of Satan to destroy the witness of the faithful. It may be the single most dangerous element in the disruption of productive lives in modern society. There is hardly a woe in the world that cannot be directly connected to entertainment. Entertainment Syndrome explores how this large increase in entertainment impacts the physical, emotional, social, intellectual & spiritual life of the human race. In graphic detail, the authors portray what can be the outcome of even the simplest forms of what many might consider to be "innocent" entertainment. The book includes suggestions for alternative activities.

Remember that you may also request copies of the pictures originally published in the GraceLink curriculum as well as copies of the cosmetic changes.

For those interested in our printed Hartland Ministry Report sent by regular mail six times per year, email your request and postal address to Hartland@hartland.edu. The Hartland Ministry Report brings news and progress of God's work at Hartland. At present this offer is only available to North American Addresses. You may also view the Hartland Ministry Report on line at www.hartland.edu.]

___________________________________________________

If you wish to unsubscribe to this publication, please type "unsubscribe" in the message field of a blank email.