The Wedding Band, Ellen G. White, and the Seventh-Day Adventist Church

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Chapter 3—A Position For North America-A Personal Statement

I have served in North America as a pastor of three churches in Southern California (four years), as a professor of religion at Pacific Union College (eleven years), and—most recently—as senior pastor of the GC “headquarters” church in Takoma Park, (three years). In addition, my wife and I spent twelve years as missionaries in West Africa. And in our present work (I in the White Estate, she as an assistant auditor in the GC Auditing Service), we have traveled together in North America, Europe, Africa, and Asia. Neither of us has ever worn (or even owned) a wedding band. I am, however, willing to grant any SDA member his or her private conviction that the wedding band is, today, in North America, a matter of imperative social obligation. WBEGWSDAC 8.1

Although I do not myself yet see it that way, and although my policy and practice in North America continue in the direction of discouraging its wearing (for reasons to be set forth in detail below), I resist relating in any kind of judgmental, condemnatory manner toward those who feel that they in good conscience should wear it. WBEGWSDAC 8.2

In seeking to persuade wedding-band wearers to become non-wearers, I have strenuously endeavored to conduct myself in the right way (and not in what I perceive as the wrong way), and I have endeavored to use what I conceive to be the right reasons (even as I have endeavored to avoid using what I strongly believe to be the wrong reasons). Let me explain what I mean by this statement. WBEGWSDAC 8.3