Seventh Day Adventist Bookshop

[Bob_Crowley]

I went to a bookshop this afternoon run by an Adventist Church. I only went because I had this feeling I should go. I’d been feeling a bit cheesed off about things, and I had this spiritual sense that I might find something useful.

So I went, and purchased two books, one to do with creativity (I need a bit of a shove to get into writing, which is something I know I should be doing), and the other to do with how to deal with suffering, “The Blessing of Adversity” by Barry C. Black. I didn’t know him from a bar of soap, but it transpired he’s the chaplain of the US senate, according to the blurb on the back cover.

Now normally I wouldn’t go into an SDA bookshop, because of their reputation as anti-Catholic. There was an EG White shelf, which I just wasn’t interested in, and it was not anywhere near as well stocked as a much bigger protestant book shop a few kilometres down the road.

But as I was checking out the book, the girl asked me which church I go to . I said “Catholic” and then which one I attended. I was half expecting an argument, but she just went on to talk about Mr. Barry Black, and how he was rather blunt in his public prayers when all the hoo-haa about the US debt ceiling was going on last year.

So either she was different to other SDA adherents, or they are losing their anti-Catholic edge.

Do I normally shop there? No. It’s only the second time I’ve been. One of the problems in our neck of the woods is that in a city with a population of well over 2 million people and bounded by other urban councils with hundreds of thousands of people, there is only one decent Catholic bookshop. And it is located right in the middle of town, so I and probably many others, can’t get to it easily during or after work hours.

And I did get this sense I should go there. Anyway, I get the feeling the SDA attitude to Catholics and the Catholic church may be softening somewhat.

 

[WKW_69]

They disagree with the Catholic Church’s teachings and canon law. They don’t hate individual Catholics. They think they can save Catholics from the Church, so they want to influence a Catholic to see the “truth” through the teachings of the SDA.

 

[Dorothy]

The internet is a good way to shop for excellent Catholic books.

If people do not want to go the route of having a credit card, they can call and have an order sheet sent to them, and order the books they want with a check.

 

[rfournier103]

Anyway, I get the feeling the SDA attitude to Catholics and the Catholic church may be softening somewhat.

I think you just happened to encounter a very nice individual. And that’s all to the good.

As another poster said; the internet is probably the best way to shop for Catholic reading materials.

I don’t think the SDAs have changed their attitudes towards Catholicism. If you asked that nice girl at the shop, she’d probably tell you that she’s praying for your conversion. On the other hand, maybe we can pray for hers

 

[CarolNoel]

I think you just happened to encounter a very nice individual. And that’s all to the good.

As another poster said; the internet is probably the best way to shop for Catholic reading materials.

I don’t think the SDAs have changed their attitudes towards Catholicism. If you asked that nice girl at the shop, she’d probably tell you that she’s praying for your conversion. On the other hand, maybe we can pray for hers

I agree.

 

[Eileen_T]

I worked with some years with a SDA man and over time he came to the opinion that maybe I actually was “saved”, he just felt that I must be a heretic because the Catholic Church couldn’t possibly teach what I believed.

The London Book Depository is usually where I first go to find Catholic authors. It’s prices are very reasonable and it has free, worldwide shipping.

 

[SummitJim]

I’ve known individual Adventists who were totally OK with me being Catholic as we became friends. But I don’t think the official position of the SDA church has softened any. There is a very large billboard, actually the whole side of a three story building in San Francisco that I pass several times a week, that is rabidly anti-Catholic, painting the early Church Fathers as being Satan’s offspring (or something to that effect), very hateful.

 

[Missian_Alyssa]

Hi Bob, I think she was “handling” you aka “love bombing”. Those in offical positions within their church who have contact with the public are taught to handle people for the purpose of drawing them back, in this case to their bookstore.