I was once given an ultimatum when I served in Queets, Washington as a missionary for the Seventh-day Adventist Church: Take my blog down and apologize and be able to maybe stay, or accept the $3000 check that Monte Church and Steve Huey of Native Ministries offered me and get the hell out.
My family and I chose the latter.
I took down the blog.
I did not apologize.
I left.
One year later I walked through Queets, Washington to see that the church that we left sits completely empty. Native Ministries has not been able to find a replacement for us. When I looked upon the property at Queets Days, I saw that the elderly family from Forks had driven 80 miles round trip to mow the lawn. Otherwise, the house sits there, rotting, while Native Americans live sometimes 3 to 5 families in other houses on the reservation.
What a waste.
Native Ministries has many such properties on reservations around the United States. From Washington, Montana, and Alaska, many sit empty on reservations that have housing crises. One of my best friends in Queets lives with 15 other people in a two bedroom house. Meanwhile, the two floor parsonage sits empty one block away. It's sad. And it does nothing at all for the people who live in that town.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church, along with Native Ministries and the Washington Conference could not deal with me questioning Ellen White. They could not deal with me asking hard questions. Instead, I was pushed out. They refused to deal with Jay Coon ending electricity payments to the church so he could build a Creation Park in Forks, the closest town, and one with a dying SDA church.
The Seventh-day Adventist church is dying, friends. And it has nothing to do with the end times. Rather, it has a lot to do with the systematic abuse that is present as well as the fact that people are researching and realizing that one of Adventist's founders and most revered individuals, Ellen G White, is a fraud. When people are pushed out of the church and a community for questioning, there is a problem. Yet, that's how Adventism works.
The truth is, I always regretted removing my blog. When I removed it and told Monte Church he said it was good to "let go of anger by removing it." Yet, the blog wasn't so much about anger as telling people the truth about the church. The empty parsonage and church in Queets, WA is a concrete manifestation of that truth that nobody can deny. Every person I talked to in Queets this summer mentioned how stupid it was that the church sits there empty. Some go as far as to call it a cult. I could not help but readily agree. I was learning that the Seventh-day Adventist church was indeed a cult when I was training at AFM. When I was punished and isolated by Jay Coon and spied on by Elder Victor Marshall, I knew for a fact that I was dealing with something I wanted absolutely no part of.
Ellen White's exacting rules are of no use to Native Americans who live off the land, hunt and fish. To tell them they need to change their lifestyles or God won't hear their prayers is insane to me. Prayer is such a huge part of Native American life, yet no pastor or professed Adventist could rebut the fact that Ellen G White states that those who eat meat are in danger of having their prayers ignored by God. Instead, I was told to "take a break from Ellen White until I was more mature, remove my blog, and apologize for exhausting the Forks church."
I imagine the Forks Seventh-day Adventist church had to already be quite exhausted by following Ellen G White's exacting and all-encompassing rules. In fact, I had found that the members of the Forks church were all quite conservative to the point where they lived and breathed Ellen G. To me, this was a terrifying world, and when I found out Ellen White was a fraud who could not follow her own rules, I knew that I had to tell the world. Yet, the church would not have it (study for yourself by reading https://nonegw.org/).
Sadly, when I presented information to one member, I was told that they "did not have time to read it" because they were "too busy." You are too busy to question what you believe? You are too busy to realize that you were fooled all your life? Too busy or too afraid of what that would mean for your life? Your identity? Your inner peace? Your legacy?
If you are thinking about serving with Native Ministries or the Washington Conference of Seventh-day Adventists know this: They will babysit you if you start to deviate. They will demand you apologize if you ask questions. And if you don't fall in line, they will give you money to "leave quietly."
"Are we dealing with a church or with the Mafia?" my wife once asked. I ask the same.
The church pushes for complete silence on issues that make it look bad. This has always been a point of importance and Ellen White stressed this. But now, with the internet, more people are speaking out. Now my story is live once more! People can research and decide for themselves. No more hiding! No more silence! No more abuse! No more pain!
It is time to tell the world about the intense darkness that exists in these organizations.
And I sincerely hope that one day the Adventist church leaves Queets and the people can take back the part of their land that they have lost to another colonizer.
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