Adventists do apologize, eventually. In 2005 German and Austrian leaders confessed that Adventists had shut out fellow citizens of Jewish origin under the Nazis. In 2015 the Lake Union apologized to Black Adventists for segregation. Both came decades late, roughly standard delivery time for institutional repentance.
Consider the divorced, who are hardly a fringe. A 1990s North American study found a quarter of Adventist respondents had divorced. Under 1942 policy, any member found guilty of adultery was disfellowshipped and could return only by rebaptism, even after reconciling.
The rules have softened. Since 2000 the Church Manual has accepted physical violence as a reason to separate or divorce. But a woman who divorces a husband for beating her has no “scriptural right to remarry” unless he remarries, commits adultery or dies, so her freedom waits on his next move. If she remarries anyway, she “shall be removed from membership,” as shall any member she marries. The man who hit her may face only censure.
Practice is gentler. Removal requires a vote at a business meeting, and many congregations never call one. An Adventist counselor in Germany observed in 2022 that divorce in church went “from punishable, to being ‘none of our business.'”
James and Ellen White called divorce “a lifelong, heartfelt sore.” Their son said Ellen never wanted her marriage counsel used as a rule. The Manual quotes her anyway.
So yes, apologize, and rewrite the rule. In 1999 the church’s own study commission proposed counting violence as breaking the marriage vow. Many congregations already extend the grace the Manual withholds. Make it official.
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