Seventh-day Adventism in popular culture

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This article describes representations of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in popular culture.

Contents

[edit] Representations in television

The television series Gilmore Girls includes a major character Lane Kim whose mother is a very strict, caricatured Seventh-day Adventist.[1]

In All in the Family, a very popular American situational comedy which ran during the 1970s and early 80s, the bigoted main character Archie Bunker says, "Raise him a Luferan if you want, raise him a Norman with seven wives, a holy roller, a Seventh-day Adventurer".[2]

In the British science fiction series Red Dwarf, the character Arnold Rimmer is said to come from a family of "Seventh Day Advent Hoppists" (a play on Seventh-day Adventists). They followed literally a misprinted edition of the Bible. This led them to spend each Sunday hopping, thanks to an incorrect translation of 1 Corinthians 13:13 reading, "Faith, hop, and charity, and the greatest of these is hop."[citation needed] The proper translation is "hope".

[edit] Representations in literature

The website adherents.com comments on literary science fiction or fantasy references as:

"This is a surprisingly short list. Seventh-day Adventists form one of the ten largest international churches in the world. They have distinctive history, culture, doctrine and literature which could certainly provide subject matter for fiction. Seventh-day Adventists are often well-educated as well as devoutly and alternatively religious. They would make interesting characters in any form of fiction. Yet the SDA Church and its members are rarely mentioned in science fiction, fantasy, or any other genre."[3]

It also speculates reasons why the cultural references are so few. According to the website there are no known science fiction or fantasy authors who are themselves Seventh-day Adventists.[3]

In Alas, Babylon by Pat Frank,

"He said, 'Jim, maybe I could be persuaded to trade for honey.'"
"'I'm sorry, Randy. We're Adventists. We don't drink whisky or trade in it.'"[4]

In The Stand by Stephen King,

"...biked out to north Boulder... Boulder's 'old' residents. Stan Nogotny said it was as if the Catholics, Baptist, and Seventh-day Adventists had gotten together with the Democrats and the Moonies to create a religious-political Disneyland."[5]

In Towing Jehovah by James Morrow,

"'The Lord was lookin' out for him.' The freckled sailor slipped a tiny gold chain from beneath his polo shirt, glancing at the attached cross like the White Rabbit consulting his pocket watch.
Neil winced. This wasn't the first time he'd encountered a Jesus aficionado. As a rule, he didn't mind them. Once at sea, they were usually diligent as hell, cleaning toilets and chipping rust without a whimper, but their agenda made him nervous. Often as not, the conversation got around to the precarious position of Neil's immortal soul. On the Stella, for example, a Seventh Day Adventist [sic] had somberly Neil that he could spare himself the "trouble of Armageddon" by accepting Jesus then and there."[6] (see: Seventh-day Adventist eschatology)

In The Terminal Experiment by Robert J. Sawyer,

"'But isn't immortality boring?'"
"...'Forgive me... but that's one of the silliest ideas I've ever heard... I want to read all the great books, and all the trashy ones, too. I want to learn about Buddhism and Judaism and Seventh Day Adventists.[sic] I want to visit Australia and Japan...'"[7]

Horror novelist Ray Garton was raised Adventist, as was fellow novelist Steven Spruill. They are the only Adventist novelists they know of.[8]

[edit] See also

[edit] External links

[edit] References

  1. ^ "Adventism according to Gilmore Girls" by Julius Nam. Paper presented at the Adventist Society for Religious Studies 2007 meeting (meeting version)
  2. ^ Adventism According to Gilmore Girls: A Prime Time Commentary | Spectrum
  3. ^ a b According to Seventh-day Adventists in Science Fiction on adherents.com. Retrieved 2007-10-16
  4. ^ Pat Frank. Alas, Babylon. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. (1959), p.160 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  5. ^ Stephen King. The Stand. Garden City, NY: Doubleday (1978), p.529 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  6. ^ James Morrow. Towing Jehovah. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. (1994), p.41 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  7. ^ Robert J. Sawyer. The Terminal Experiment. New York: HarperCollins (1995), p.197 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  8. ^ Spectrum magazine, a 2007/8 issue
William Miller

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