Seventh-day Adventism in popular culture

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

One author wrote, "popular culture hasn’t often been very kind to Adventists."[1]

Representation in Cinema

The movie Evil Angels (released as A Cry in the Dark outside of Australia and New Zealand) portrays the events surrounding the death of Azaria Chamberlain, the daughter of Seventh-day Adventist Church pastor Michael Chamberlain and his wife Lindy. Her mother is falsely accused and convicted of killing the nine-week-old baby and the public's unfamiliarity with of the practices of the religion are shown as one of the causes of public opinion turning against the Chamberlains.

Representations in television

In the American series Gilmore Girls, one of the recurring characters, Mrs. Kim is a very strict, caricatured Seventh-day Adventist.[2][3]

In the House episode "Here Kitty", Dr. Gregory House refers to the events surrounding William Miller and the "Great Disappointment" of 1844. He remarks about Miller, "every time he was irrefutably proved wrong, it redoubled everyone's belief." Towards the end of the episode the patient rebuts House by saying "his followers never faded out, they became the Seventh-day Adventists – a major religion".[4]

All in the Family, a very popular American situational comedy which ran during the 1970s and early 80s, alludes briefly to Adventists. In the sixth season episode "The Little Atheist", the comical bigoted main character Archie Bunker says, speaking of his unborn grandson, "Raise him a Luferan if you want, raise him a Norman with seven wives, a holy roller, a Seventh-day Adventurer".[3] (These refer to Lutherans, Mormons – more accurately only fundamentalist Mormons; "Holy Roller" was a critical name used of Pentecostals; and Seventh-day Adventists).

The Simpsons makes several indirect allusions to Adventism. The sixteenth season episode "Thank God, It's Doomsday" contains a number of eerie similarities to the story of William Miller's Great Disappointment: although, whereas Miller came up with dates in 1843-44 via specific time periods mentioned in Biblical prophecy, Homer predicts the rapture by calculating random numbers in the Bible. Later on Homer's followers are seen to suffer financial hardship after giving away all their belongings in anticipation of Judgment Day, and Homer, like Miller, eventually concludes he miscalculated and announces a new date for the rapture. A couple episodes also refer to the Little Debbie snacks produced by McKee Foods, a company owned by Seventh-day Adventist businessmen. The eighteenth season episode "Marge Gamer" makes light of Little Debbie's religious connections when Homer says, "Marge, you have to get on the Net. It's where all the best conspiracy theories are. Did you know Hezbollah owns Little Debbie Food Snacks? This stuff will rock your world."[5]

The Family Guy tenth season episode "Livin' on a Prayer" makes light of some people's skepticism towards Adventists. The fictional character Lois Griffin, the mother from the main family in the series, states,

"I don't know who's crazier, these people or those Seventh-day Adventists."

(In context, this statement follows a conversation with a Christian Science family who resist modern medical treatment for their son with cancer.) The view cuts to a scene with two ordinary-looking men:

Man 1: "I'm a Methodist. We believe that the Lord is our Saviour, and we remember Him by going to church and praising him every Sunday."
Man 2: "I'm a Seventh-day Adventist. We believe all the same things that you believe, but we go to church on Saturdays."
Man 1: "What!!??..." (with a greatly exaggerated or hyperbolic, comical reaction).

Two and a Half Men child actor Angus T. Jones and recent Seventh Day convert, called Two and a Half Men "Filth," and urged fans to "stop watching." [6]

Girls' Season 4 episode "Tad & Loreen & Avi & Shanaz" complains (erroneously) about the bothersome persistence of door-to-door evangelist Adventists, confusing Jehovah's Witnesses with Seventh-day Adventists. The fictional character Avi Mensusen, states,

"Shanaz, do we get Watch Tower? It's those annoying Seventh-day Adventists, again."

The dialogue falsely attributes the Watch Tower Society to Adventists, but it is the well-known domain and literature often distributed by Jehovah's Witnesses.

The term Adventist is frequently mispronounced in television and movies. Whereas most Adventists place the accent or emphasis on the first syllable (AD-ven-tist), non-Adventists commonly place the stress on the second (ad-VEN-tist).[7]

Representations in literature

In Black Boy (1945) by Richard Wright, "Granny" is said to be a Seventh-day Adventist.

In Alas, Babylon (1959) 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.'"[8]

In The Stand (1978) 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."[9]

The Brothers K (1992) by David James Duncan includes Adventist characters.[10]

In Towing Jehovah (1994) 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 told Neil that he could spare himself the "trouble of Armageddon" by accepting Jesus then and there."[11] (see: Seventh-day Adventist eschatology)

In The Terminal Experiment (1995) 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...'"[12]

In the award-winning Tree of Smoke (2007) by Denis Johnson, a fictional character Kathy Jones, a Seventh-day Adventist aid worker, is included.[13]

Horror novelist Ray Garton was raised Adventist, as was fellow novelist Steven Spruill. They claim to be the only Adventist novelists they know of.[14]

Other media

Postage stamps have portrayed Adventist subjects.[15] For instance, in July 2001 the Russian Post issued a stamp portraying the Adventist church in Ryazan, as part of a series on religious buildings. This was the first depiction of an Adventist church on a Russian stamp.[16]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Gary B. Swanson, "The Adventists: Coming to a Screen Near You". Adventist Review (March 25, 2010), p18–
  2. ↑ "Adventism according to Gilmore Girls" by Julius Nam. Paper presented at the Adventist Society for Religious Studies 2007 meeting (meeting version)
  3. 1 2 Adventism According to Gilmore Girls: A Prime Time Commentary | Spectrum
  4. ↑ Peter Blake (2009-03-16). "Here Kitty". House. Season 5. Episode 18.
  5. ↑ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0988495/quotes
  6. ↑ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mALyLWvkSD8
  7. ↑ The ‘Adventist Review’ Defines Ad-ventist. Spectrum magazine. 09/14. Retrieved 2015-10-04.
  8. ↑ Pat Frank. Alas, Babylon. Philadelphia: J.B. Lippincott Co. (1959), p.160 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  9. ↑ Stephen King. The Stand. Garden City, NY: Doubleday (1978), p.529 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  10. ↑ Cited in "Joy" editorial by Nathan Brown. Record 114:27 (July 18, 2009), p2
  11. ↑ James Morrow. Towing Jehovah. New York: Harcourt Brace & Co. (1994), p.41 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  12. ↑ Robert J. Sawyer. The Terminal Experiment. New York: HarperCollins (1995), p.197 (as quoted on adherents.com)
  13. ↑ Tree of Smoke by Denis Johnson. As cited in Dwyer, Bonnie (Fall 2007). "Kathy Jones". Spectrum (Roseville, California: Adventist Forums) 35 (4): 2. ISSN 0890-0264.
  14. ↑ Spectrum 35:4 (Fall 2007)
  15. ↑ College and University Dialogue 13:2
  16. ↑ "Russian stamp portrays Adventist church", letter by Valerie Ivanov. Dialogue 13:3 (2001), p4

External links

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