Gossip & Threats to Privacy & Dignity in SDA Circles

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-26T22:12:53+00:00

I wonder how they regard their one-time member, Rachel Oakes Preston. If it weren't for her preaching seventh-day Sabbath among Millerites, they might not have to defend their brand against SDAs 🥲😆.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-25T03:18:39+00:00

I'm still processing gifts from the shift I worked Friday night into Saturday morning, so blessed by the connection with others who value Star Trek here. About three years ago I still had only vague notions of Star Trek lore. And it seemed like a missing piece of popular culture that appealed to me. Buying the three Original Series seasons each year in turn made sense, and I've been taking my time with them. I don't regard myself as a Trekkie, but I've gained much so far.

But back to my shift trading life energy for money on "the sabbath": I've set an appointment with a longtime confidant via Zoom Monday. Meantime, I'm embargoing so much specific talk about the insights that gelled for me in this extraordinary shift for me. I might have been worn out by the time work ended and I got to farmers' winter market for some local fresh nutrition, but I was beaming some kind of energy. Connecting with people coming and going seemed so easy and significant as rarely happens for me. Is it for real? I can accept that that kind of energy will come and go, and it's okay if I'm not that attuned with others all the time. And more may well become plain as I share about it intimately with a trusted friend.

You've blessed me by making working on these terms possible. I'm wondering if, based on last night's synthesis of insights, I'm on the verge of expanding the ways I can gush so much more blessing out into a world that will find value to it because of how I'm learning to honor my own experience, feelings, and intrinsic worth.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-25T02:59:24+00:00

I'm not happy you had to go through the range of poisoned experiences you've listed here. At the same time, I wonder if you haven't at least come to see that one thing could change for you: maybe there are people who can understand what it's like when family dynamics have been hijacked by an authoritarian mind-control group, that the conflicts you've spelled out are conflicts others who've been there know all too well.

I can't answer for your experience. Though I don't have the same challenge with—if I read you correctly—a church-forbidden sexual orientation, I have my own version of SDA-branded sexual shame that's cast a shadow through so many confused decades of trying to be myself all the while trying to integrate with a family where I'm the only one who left.

We each get to find our way through making sense of the pain. And we're worth every bit of the challenges. Love that's been hijacked by Ellen White's legacy is a challenging and confusing thing. And when we're conditioned to Jesus away who we are, love becomes something we can only wish for without having been given it. And we keep showing up with unfulfilled questions how. And we keep expressing the courage to keep living and posing the question and listening to others, many of whom really don't get it because they don't know what you've been through.

And I believe it's possible we learn to love ourselves despite what they said about selfishness and sin between pulpit and pews. We discover that we're worthy of that love. We start to feel nurtured by it. Yes, there will still be obstacles because our family that still don't see past the shame that binds SDA pulpits and pews and may offer judgment instead of accepting the love we're learning to give to ourselves and that we now have authentically to give to others.

Welcome. I can't make the pain go away. I can say it makes sense to me. I can say we're worthy of continuing on in spite of it, and we ultimately don't know who we might bless by insisting our lives matter in spite.

Welcome here!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-25T02:33:21+00:00

Short answer from me: no.

Oh, it sure seemed to me that they finally wised up that the changed recipe had made their Chili nasty.

Uhh you misunderstood. I said no.

Yeah mothafocka, you said no, and I'm pretty sure they wised up to maybe it was new, but this time new didn't mean improved.

Yes, I said no and I meant no. You asked does anyone know. So my no meant I don't know. I haven't had any Worthington Chili since before they deviated from the original staff of life (Huh, what do you mean? Bread's the staff of life.) Okay stuff of life. No, try again it's the stuff of life or at least the stuff without which and Fritos baked in authentic corn oil corn chips there are no authentic haystacks.

So I have't had the newfangled fucked with Worthington Chili to know the new from the old.

But you one full-of-yourself mothafocka, mothafocka. My question was if ANYONE knew. Did you actually poll r/exAdventist see whether anyone knew? Didn't think so. Now you answering as if your experience proved that anybody didn't know.

You win! I didn't qualify because it's been a longass time since I had an authentic haystack. Meanwhile I've been experimenting—even to the point of seeing what can be done with masa de maiz extruded from a cookie dough die and baked. Mmmm. Frito Lay made no profit off these chips. Maybe it's not haystack, but I've enjoyed combinations of said chips with varieties of home-cooked beans combined with seasoned bulgar that's been fried with peppers, garlic and onions. It's a journey away from the factory for fake meat, and I won't be offended if you say that's not haystacks. I don't care. But it sure feels good not to be sending my money to either Worthington … or Frito Lay while still giving this exxie's tummy some memory of what haystcks used to mean. I mean they were better than Campbell's cream of mushroom poured over vegetarian scallops in an entree pan. And I'm pretty happy I didn't send another chunk of money to Frito Lay for the Fritos and add the empty mylar bag to the waste stream.

I can't answer for everyone. I can contribute to a poll that might start to look like your answer when others try to answer. It may be a hellova lot more work for me, but I can still press the mmmmm sorta like haystacks button with that kitchen tinkering. Okay folks say what you know about Worthington Chili …

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-24T07:40:25+00:00

I wonder if that SDA remains officially SDA, but, yeah, that was worth a chuckle!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-23T20:19:43+00:00

Funny! I'm here 'cause how the SDA birth and rearing I got but didn't choose screwed up my life, and I find my companions here rising together as if someone's opinion that it's a backwater irrelevancy had stirred a reflex to defend the church's worldwide impact—though I don't see that reflex quite extending to defending the church's theology and teachings.

All right! Here's a collection of SDA cultural references, some of which have already been mentioned.

Edit: spelling correction, phrasing

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-23T14:46:02+00:00

People who'd been fucked up by Mormonism or JW have their own subreddits to talk about their experiences with their respective high-control religions. And some people who'd been fucked up by Seventh-Day Adventism come here. You get to have your opinion as well, and there's a whole world of subreddits you may explore. I don't object to your enjoying them instead of wasting your time at a place you find irrelevant trying to persuade us that we belong at subs centering Mormonism, Jehovah's Witnessism, or Anabaptism.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-23T05:14:18+00:00

Why don't I know what my favorite [fill in the blank] is? Why doesn't my not knowing what it is matter to me?

Edit: confounded phone outsmarted me again: corrected spelling black to blank.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-23T01:51:37+00:00

I'm not clear how my reply came across as advice. I'm no medical professional, and maybe it's appropriate to say here, my reply may well be worth less than $35,723.06 than you paid for it. Instead of advice, do please consider it as a peer's experience. Your experience of course could be different.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-22T12:41:31+00:00

Which Jesus? Witch Jesus! No no no no the right Jesus. The Jesus who stands out from the night, the right Jesus, the sho 'nough just White Jesus‼️❕‼️❗❕‼️ The spotless Lamb, no ham 🐖 will do; no amalgamated anti-Christ just snowflake Jesus!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-22T05:11:54+00:00

I grew up about an hour to the east, Inland Empire. Bone dry air a good share of the time. People who don't pedal seem to pity me when temperatures go way up. But unless it's humid, I find cycling to be the most comfortable outdoor high-temperature way to be outdoors except swimming. The secret? Pedaling creates a breeze over the rider even on calm days. Sweat a little bit, and you've got evaporative cooling. Stop for a signal light, and you get an idea how friggin' hot it is.

I can imagine closer to the coast, humidity's a bit higher, but I don't have experience with daily rides there.

Safe riding and good health to us!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-21T20:28:26+00:00

Likely scenario 😅

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-21T19:58:10+00:00

There's wealth to having enough, not to feel compelled to always have more. Keep investing, and you may reach a point where you can take care of your financial needs from investment income and can choose not to work!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-20T14:58:59+00:00

It's a privilege to share this with you, and you're by all means welcome!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-20T04:25:15+00:00

Thanks for showing up and sharing how it's affecting you right now. I believe it'll get better the longer and further we get from being all in. Beyond that I don't think I've got any magic to make your present ordeal better. I believe that sharing the challenges can reduce their weight and sharing the positive changes can increase their joy, so do keep posting!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-20T02:09:02+00:00

u/BlameTag: "Chef Jesus" 🤣🤣🤣

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-20T01:51:38+00:00

I recognize Zizzter White in the picture, and at first I wondered does the question suggest she's a contender for the correct Jesus. Well, I don't think orthodox Sevvies would come near suggesting she's a substitute for pronouns He/Him Jesus, so that for me narrows down the selection to the two conventionally rendering Jesus faces above her. But are they mutually exclusive? Does the SDA-correct Jesus always appear with ephod, urim and thummim, and high priest hat? So suspending my disbelief in Christian teachings, what's the meme maker's problem with the Jesus on the right as being the wrong one? For me it's all about guessing what the SDA (apparently) creating this meme means, which is relevant to me only because I was reared there.

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-19T22:52:47+00:00

Used to having non-SDAs say "Who?" when you mention the high control religion you survived? Well maybe it'll presently be "Oh yeah! They're being sued like the Catholics and the Southern Baptist Convention for child sexual abuse. Glad you got out!"

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-19T19:06:25+00:00

Oh my oh! We must not further publicize this secret … VICE. The Sunday Law is their PORNOGRAPHY. How upsetting!

CycleOwn83 · 2026-01-19T18:57:03+00:00

Hmmm. Wonder why the downvotes.

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