Welcome to Investigating Diversity, a blog published by Interactive Journalism students at Southern Adventist University! We are researching the topic of diversity within the Seventh-day Adventist church and within society, generally. If you visit our website regularly, you’ll find weekly updates on our research as well as personal insights on the topic. We welcome your engagement and feedback. So, please, don’t be a stranger!
About
We come from different backgrounds. We speak different languages. We eat different foods. We worship in different ways.
And yet, we are all members of a religious body boasting 17 million members around the globe.
In 2014, the Pew Research Center conducted a Religious Landscape Study, surveying more than 35,000 Americans. The study found the Seventh-day Adventist Church to be the most racially diverse religious group in the United States, with 37 percent of its adult members identifying themselves as white, 32 percent as black, 15 percent as Hispanic, eight percent as Asian and eight percent as another race or mixed race.
This semester, as students in the Interactive Journalism class at Southern Adventist University, we will look closer at the church demographics – analyzing the data, researching the background and documenting the trends, using interactive tools for an online audience.
We will tell the stories of people who represent church diversity based on race, ethnicity, culture and gender. And we will explore what diversity really means in today’s society, as well as the nuances of unity versus uniformity.
The project – led by professors Alva James-Johnson and Ryan Harrell – will result in an interactive website with loads of information. To meet us all and learn more about our backgrounds and why we’re involved in this project, read through our profiles here.
Along the way, we will update you – our audience – on our findings through weekly blog postings. So, before leaving this website, please subscribe!
Blog
Mapping out Adventist education
Adventist Education is widely spread across the globe. In the Northern American Division, there are over 1,000 schools providing Adventist education for grades pre-school up to college. In California alone, there are 119 schools that form part of the 1,035 schools available in the NAD. Education is an important part of a child’s development. …
Stepping out of the Adventist bubble
In the second-grade, I was in a multi-grade class with a teacher who was also the principal. It was tough for me to comprehend what she was teaching half of the time due to the distractions. Because I had difficulty learning in such an environment, my parents decided to pull me from that Adventist school. …
I felt excluded at a women’s retreat … Here’s why
In March, I attended a Hispanic Weekend Spiritual Retreat for ladies and girls, ages 10 years and up, in my local church conference. The retreat was held in Cohutta Springs, Georgia. I traveled there with my mother, sisters, and other women from my parents’ church. I enjoyed the event. However, throughout the weekend there was …
Continue reading “I felt excluded at a women’s retreat … Here’s why”
Contact
For more information about “Investigating Diversity: Exploring Race, Gender and Unity in the Adventist Church,” call 423-236-2762.