April 16, 2003 Silver Spring, Maryland, United States .... Ansel Oliver/ANN

Adventist Church president Jan Paulsen signs the temperance pledge.

Seventh-day Adventist Church leaders--led by president Jan Paulsen--signed a temperance pledge April 16 at Spring Meeting, one of two business meetings of the church’s international executive committee. The signing is intended to highlight efforts to increase an awareness of the church’s principles of healthful living.

Commenting on the need to address the temperance issue in the church, Dr. Peter Landless, associate health ministries director for the Adventist Church, said that evidence shows a rise in the number of Adventist young people who drink alcohol. “In 1989 as many as 25 percent of our young people age 18 to 29 used wine at least monthly in the previous year,” says Landless. “It has significantly increased since then. Adventist colleges have not been left untouched by this surge in binge drinking.”

Addressing the problem of binge drinking on campuses, Landless says, was a challenge to college administrators who considered that open admission of the problem could bring negative reflections on institutions where such problems are acknowledged to exist.

Landless says it’s time for the Adventist Church to come out of “denominational denial” on the issue. “If we get out of a congregational/college closet mentality, we’ll recognize the issues we are facing,” he says. “This is the juncture where we talk about it.”

Roy Adams, an Adventist theologian and associate editor of the Adventist Review, says the temperance pledge used to be more prominent in the church. “I don’t know why it was discontinued,” he says.

Most Adventist young people used to sign the pledge--in Pathfinders, Missionary Volunteers, or in church Sabbath School class. “Many of the baby boomers on down have not heard of it,” says Adams.

With the pledge reemerging, Adams hopes it catches on. “If it’s done right, it can be very effective,” he says. “It’s like bell bottoms, when they come back there’s a little twist to them.”

Landless adds, “This isn’t part of a ‘dos and don’ts’ mentality, but out of a desire to enjoy wholeness in Christ. We’re losing our young people in droves because we’re not always addressing the issues that are relevant to them.

“We need to give honest answers on the effects of alcohol and we need to emphasize the major dangers associated with alcohol. You have a 15 percent chance of becoming an alcoholic if you drink,” he adds. “That’s a high chance. It’s even higher the younger you are when you start.”

Landless says temperance goes even further. “It’s also the example you set,” he says. “How are my children going to respond if I’m a ‘closet’ tippling Adventist?”

He concludes, “We as a church have got to do something. Jesus saves them. We’ve got to help them in the situation in which they find themselves.”

By an executive committee action at the Spring Meeting, the temperance pledge initiative is being recommended for promotion throughout the world church. The “pledge” card includes a reference to a Bible text from Joshua 24:15, and also states: “Recognizing the responsibility to both myself and to others, by the grace of God, I pledge to avoid alcohol and tobacco, as well as other harmful substances and practices.”