Petition for Historically Accurate and Ethnically Inclusive Illustrations in Adventist Children's Literature

I have had major challenges with these pictorial images for as long as I have been in this Body. I was raised in this Church and actively Pastor 25+ years. It is a blatant disregard of Biblical history and is ethically dishonest!

Also Lake Union

I concur

I feel it is significant to point out that SDAs are often confused with Mormons. This is possibly because of our tendency to portray Lucifer as dark skinned, and the Mormons for years taught that black people could not become Mormon, because they were directly descended from Lucifer who was also black. It is important to not fall into racially prejudiced pitfalls when trying to take the gospel to the world.

Very timely and over due.

No one in the Bible was white with blue eyes. The illustrations utilized should be reflective of that.

This is Much Needed! I believe Satan has decievied many Christians with this lie of the Identity of Gods People In his Word! A lie that The God Himself is White! Another Snare of the Enemy

For the accurate depiction of the Asian and African people that are in the Historical, biblical narrative.

I was born into a SDA family and I grew up thinking that Jesus was a white man and that the angels and all the biblical characters were white as well. That was until I started reading the bible for myself. The change we are petitioning for will make sure that my kids understand that they are represented too and that Jesus probably looked more like them than he did a white person, that black history is not only found in slavery, but that black people are a big part of not only biblical history but also the Adventist church. I want my kids to not feel like they need to racially migrate in order to belong. I support this petition.

It is VERY possible that Jesus was black!

As an artist I would love to see who creates the new images as well. The process would be rewarding to participate in.

So important, and long overdue!

I do really hope that this campaign will be successful!

I come from and live in a First Nations' community. All depictions of First Nations in our literature seem to overwhelmingly be "feather" oriented, almost always harken back to imagery of the death of the Indian, and are heavily romanticized. i.e. they are colonial, patriarchal, and usually based on a very narrow view centered on the Dakotas, completely ignoring not only the rest of North America, but also the rest of our history! We don't depict all black people as slaves or as living in Africa, nor are all Europeans settlers or cowboys, so it would be nice to see depictions of my own people that have the same sensitivity that we apply to ourselves.

This is one good way of moving past "thoughts and prayers" and into action.

Seeing representation and diversity is an amazing part of being able to share these stories with children. Allowing the children to see that people in the Bible were just like them is very important and vital to their growth and development.

There is such beauty in the different cultures and we should represent them accurately in our publications, especially for our children! Thank you

Having worked in Children's Ministries for many years, I believe this is a vital change to make.

We belong to a world Church. Our duty is to represent it in such a way that all its members and non-members see that we all matter and that the truth in everything is followed to the letter.

I have been worried about this very issue for many years but now that I have Black and brown children, it is even more salient for me. It seems like every Bible story book we read, Bible story video we watch, etc. I have to explain that the illustrations are not accurate and the people looked more like my kids.