THE NEXT ADVENTISM


Toward the Future of Black Progressive Adventism EXPANDING THE BIBLICAL CANON BY SYDNEY FREEMAN JR.


In June 2015, many Christians were mortified and angered by the murder of nine congregants engaging in Bible study at Emmanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. It was yet another senseless murder of unarmed Black people—this time in a church. Historically, Black people engage in spiritual bypassing—use of spiritual practices and beliefs to avoid dealing with our painful feelings, unresolved wounds, and developmental needs.1 But these murders felt different. For the first time, I was forced to sit with the fact that as a Black Christian, I could not be physically safe even in a church sanctuary. I also began to ask fundamental questions regarding the


response to such tragedies within my faith tradition. A simple theology of lament and forgiveness did not seem to adequately address the lack of humanity shown by white and other non- Black Adventist leaders. Aſter experiencing the tragic killings of Trayvon Martin in 2012 and then Michael Brown, Eric Garner, and Tamir Rice in 2014, I was tired of calling for General Conference (GC) leadership to declare unequivocally that Black Lives Matter, particularly in the United States. Moreover, the nonpublic, anti-Black responses of Adventist leaders caused some Black Seventh-day Adventists to feel physically and spiritually unsafe within our denomination. In 2020, during the height of the Black Lives Matter protests,


Black Adventists of all ages expressed their dismay at the silence of top denominational leadership on issues of racial injustice. Many felt that the comments of these leaders regarding traditionally Black worship styles and practices were racially insensitive. Tese moments forced me, as someone who has tithed


into this church for nearly four decades, to consider whether the Adventism passed down to me from my parents and grandparents was problematic and if I could continue as part of this spiritual movement. I even began asking myself (and others) whether Black Adventist churches in North America, and ministries currently affiliated with our white-led denominational structure, should investigate what independence and sovereignty would look like away from our current denominational structure. As I sit here in 2026, I am now contemplating what a progressive Black Adventism could look like. Tis brief essay


draws upon scriptures and inspired writings but also centers the lived experience of African descendants and fresh revelation for these times. Dr. Yvette Flunder, who presides over a multidenominational


coalition of more than 100 primarily African American congregations, challenged her audience at Princeton Teological Seminary in 2019 with these words: “We need a new canon. We absolutely need it, because we need


to write the societal and spiritual laws. We moved from an Old Testament to a New Testament. A group of people gathered in the older writings and then the newer writings, threw some of


How might understanding stories related to the Masada and Jewish resistance reorient our understanding of the need to confront injustice inside and outside the church? How might such additional authoritative writings help us all think about justice as it applies to the killings of unarmed Black people?


them out, and none of us know exactly what all got thrown out or why. Tey were just regular people making decisions based on their understanding, their knowledge, and their perceptions of God. Tat’s what we are: regular people who need to write based upon our knowledge and perceptions and understandings and experiences of God. And it’s time for a new cannon.”2 Tis amazing lecture helped me to understand that my


knowledge of God does not have to be relegated to the Bible and the Spirit of Prophecy. I began asking questions such as, Who were the members of the councils that decided what books would be included in the Bible? Did they include people of African descent, or women? If such councils had been more diverse, might they have come up with different books as cannon? What have we lost by not drawing from the Apocrypha3 (books not currently included in a typical Protestant Bible)?


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