Personally, I don't much care about the particular flavor of Ben Carson's wing-nuttery. The fact that he's the leading contender for the Republican nomination is deeply disturbing. And the Republican leadership agrees with me, BTW:
Look, I grew up in a mixed SDA/Catholic household and I'm a bit sick of this crap every time we talk about Mormons, SDA, or Catholics. Its spreading FUD, and of course the establishment Republicans are going to throw a damn fit since Jeb is their candidate.
There's a salient difference between 7DAs and Catholics: it is possible to be a Catholic without abandoning science and reason. That's not possible for a 7D-adventist. Biblical literalism is one of the defining characteristics of 7D-adventism. It's the reason for the "Seventh Day" part of the name. I think it is perfectly reasonable for people to be doubtful and uncertain, even fearful, of the prospect of having someone who rejects science as president.
BTW, another defining characteristic of 7D-adventism is their belief that Jesus is coming back Real Soon Now. In this, they have common cause with Daesh, who believe they are doing the work of God by helping to bring about the last days. Again, I think it is perfectly reasonable to harbor fear, uncertainty, and doubt over someone like that having their finger on the nuclear button.
I am pretty aware of the difference given that I said I grew up in a mixed household. The Seventh Day part of the name is because of the rejection of the belief that the Catholic Church has the authority to move the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday (The Lords Day in Catholic terminology) thus they worship on the seventh day. Now I know your just trying to spread FUD.
> The Seventh Day part of the name is because of the rejection of the belief that the Catholic Church has the authority to move the day of worship from Saturday to Sunday
The word "Catholic" does not appear in that document. But this does:
God has revealed in Scripture the authentic and historical account of His creative activity. He created the universe, and in a recent six-day creation the Lord made “the heavens and the earth, the sea, and all that is in them” and rested on the seventh day. Thus He established the Sabbath as a perpetual memorial of the work He performed and completed during six literal days that together with the Sabbath constituted the same unit of time that we call a week today. The first man and woman were made in the image of God as the crowning work of Creation, given dominion over the world, and charged with responsibility to care for it. When the world was finished it was “very good,” declaring the glory of God. (Gen. 1-2; 5; 11; Exod. 20:8-11; Ps. 19:1-6; 33:6, 9; 104; Isa. 45:12, 18; Acts 17:24; Col. 1:16; Heb. 1:2; 11:3; Rev. 10:6; 14:7.)
So does this:
The second coming of Christ is the blessed hope of the church, the grand climax of the gospel. The Saviour’s coming will be literal, personal, visible, and worldwide. When He returns, the righteous dead will be resurrected, and together with the righteous living will be glorified and taken to heaven, but the unrighteous will die. The almost complete fulfillment of most lines of prophecy, together with the present condition of the world, indicates that Christ’s coming is near.
If quoting from the church's official web site is spreading FUD, well, so be it.
I'll quote Ellen White the prophet of SDA and its namer:
“Seventh-day Adventists, who profess to be looking for and loving the appearing of Christ, should not follow the course of worldlings. These are no criterion for commandment keepers. Neither should they pattern after first-day Adventists, who refuse to acknowledge the claims of the law of God and trample it under their feet.”—2 Testimonies, 450.
Adventist is the part of the name you are quoting. Seventh Day by the words of the person who named the church distinguished from 1st Day who took Sunday.
Plus, anyone who does not know the reason that Catholics and most of the other Christian churches switched to Sunday won't get the whole seventh day part of the name.
Once again, FUD. All Christian churches expect the imminent return of the Jesus. Its part of the base Christian belief.
> I'll quote Ellen White the prophet of SDA and its namer:
I don't see how that quote in any way contradicts what I said: the "seventh day" part of "seventh day adventism" derives from a belief in Biblical inerrancy, specifically the literal truth of the story of Creation in Genesis 1, and the "fact" that God rested on the seventh day.
> All Christian churches expect the imminent return of the Jesus.
Not true. All Christian churches expect the eventual return of Jesus, not His imminent return. There's a big, big difference.
> the reason that Catholics and most of the other Christian churches switched to Sunday
Well, the early Christians did it ostensibly because Jesus was crucified on a Sunday. But the real reason was to distinguish themselves from Judaism. And by the time there were "other" Christian churches the tradition had already been established for 1500 years or so.
> Once again, FUD.
No, these are salient issues for a presidential candidate. Someone who believes in the imminent return of Jesus is going to have a very different approach to long-term problems like climate change than someone who thinks Jesus may not be coming back for a long, long time (or at all). And someone who believes in the inerrancy of the Bible over science is going to have a very different approach to, well, just about everything.
7DA is a fundamentalist, apocalyptic religion. It's fundamentalist because they believe in Biblical inerrancy (that's what fundamentalist means) and it's apocalyptic because they believe Jesus is coming Real Soon Now. That's not FUD, those are simply facts. And they are facts that the American people ought to know if they are going to vote for a 7DA.