t the Adventist Review we avoid chasing rabbits, but occasionally allegations or rumors come along that we feel duty-bound to scotch before they spread further.

A long message recently released on the Internet calls for such rebuttal. Purporting to lament the fallen condition of our church, it lashes out at the 2000 General Conference session, theology, music, leaders, youth, Adventist publications, the Church Manual, and so on. You find not one positive statement about the church and its leaders.

Does the church have problems? Yes. Do we need revival? Absolutely. Is the situation as bleak as this document would have us believe? No way.

Among the litany of faults real or imagined, two allegations are especially hurtful. Referring to the report at the session of the dramatic growth in the Southern Asia Division, the sender states: “Unlike most of those listening, I wept rather than rejoiced. To know that many of those baptisms had nothing to do with conversions, since large numbers are bribed to be placed under the water all in the name of numbers and the claim of the increasing power of the Holy Spirit, wrenched at my heart.

. . . I understand that this practice is not limited to India.”

This is serious stuff. It clearly implies that the spectacular growth of the church in India, and perhaps elsewhere also, is a sham. As one who gave more than 15 years of service in that great country, and who keeps in fairly close touch with the progress of the work there, I am outraged.

I have seen the wave of new members firsthand (see “A New Mood in India,” July 8, 1999). I went, I saw, I wept—but in joy and thanksgiving.

Apparently the writer is not aware that the upsurge in India stems from the work of laypeople, not the clergy. Here, as in the other areas of the world church, Global Mission pioneers spearhead the rapid growth. These dedicated men and women receive only a basic stipend to support themselves; they simply do not have the means to bribe others!

Another factor: The dramatic increase in Southern Asia is accompanied by miracles. Prayers are being answered, the sick healed, lives spared.

Have some people “bribed” others to join the church? Possibly. That wouldn’t be anything new—in India or even in America. Even in Paul’s day some preached Christ out of wrong motives (Phil. 1:15-18). But it’s a far cry from scattered abuses to allegations of mass bribery.

What if the Holy Spirit is working in a marked way in India? Our Lord directed some of His sharpest warnings to the scribes and Pharisees who insulted the Holy Spirit by attributing His work to demonic activity (Matt. 12:22-32). Serious stuff indeed.

Another allegation is bizarre as well as pernicious: “Today, we face the reality that certain elements within the North American Division—liberal and uncommitted to the veracity of the Word of God and the Spirit of Prophecy—are well organized to keep North America, with its rapidly diminishing percentage of church membership, in control of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Sometimes I wonder why our overseas brethren do not perceive how easily they are being deceived.”

The ideas here are so way out as to be laughable. It has been many years since North America could entertain thoughts of “controlling” the world church, if it ever did. The General Conference is an international body, and both at head office and in the councils of the church North America plays a much reduced role.

But the allegation is pernicious because it pits one part of the church against another, sowing seeds of suspicion and distrust. Ellen White counseled: “There is no surer way of weakening spirituality than by cherishing envy, suspicion, faultfinding, and evil surmising” (The Acts of the Apostles, p. 549).

Over the years I have witnessed a strange but terrible thing: good people who become fixated with the faults of the church. At the local church level or in a wider sphere, they reach a point where seemingly they cannot accept that anything good can be happening.

I pray that will never happen to me. My church is weak, enfeebled, and defective; but she is the supreme object of Christ’s love, and He is working wonders in her midst as He prepares her for His soon return.

Remember the old rhyme about the two men who looked out from prison bars? One saw mud, the other stars.

I choose to see the stars.

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William G. Johnsson is editor of the Adventist Review.