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Seventh-Day Adventist Thoughts On RecreationSeventh-Day Adventist Thoughts On Recreation
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RECREATION AND AMUSEMENTS. Early in their history Seventh-day Adventists devoted little time to recreation or amusements. Three reasons for this may be cited: (1) the Seventh-day Adventist Church arose in New England, an area noted for its Puritan background, (2) the church arose during the Victorian Age, noted for its conservatism, and probably most important, (3) the early SDA pioneers believed that the Lord’s coming was so imminent that what little time remained should be occupied in proclaiming the Second Advent and preparing for that solemn event. As time continued and the membership grew, the need to satisfy the social requirements of the young people became increasingly apparent. Efforts were made to set up guiding principles in choice of acceptable forms of recreation and amusements. As early as 1865 the Review and Herald (25:87, Feb. 7, 1865) dealt with the problem: “They [amusements] are not the business of life, but interludes, recreations, refreshments, thrown in at intervals to save us from being utterly broken down by unceasing and perpetual toil. While we study or labor, while we do our part to work or to prepare ourselves for work, it is right, nay it is our duty as well as our privilege, to give ourselves up, from time to time, to amusements.
“But when amusements become the chief thing, when they take the place of the serious duties which God has imposed on every man whom He has created, then they undermine our principles, and impair our faith in whatever is noblest in virtue, or most holy in religion.”
In 1868 L. D. Santee described an SDA New Year’s party, which indicates the kind of activity that was considered proper for SDAs 100 years ago: “It may perhaps interest some to know how the church in this place [Gridley, Illinois] spent New Year’s It was determined to provide a basket dinner and recreation for the church and Sabbath-school scholars. Some wondered what could be done for amusement, as we do not believe in the popular amusements of the day. . . . The little folks began to gather in good season. . . . They amused themselves in various ways until dinner. One of the Sabbath-school scholars read the 150th Psalm, after which the children gathered around a large table spread with an abundance of healthful food, the older ones being served afterward. Dinner over, another short Psalm was read, when nearly all adjourned to a wide lane and engaged in simple and athletic games calculated to give tone and vigor to the system. . . . After playing a suitable length of time, all returned to the house, where Bro. J. M. Santee addressed us for a short time on the debt of gratitude that we owe to our Creator and Preserver, and on the duty of children to their parents” (Review and Herald 31:83, Jan. 21, 1868).
A few years later, in 1873, G. I. Butler, then president of the General Conference, set forth in the Review and Herald (41:169, 170) certain principles for guiding SDAs in matters of recreation: “In the training of children, that course should be pursued which gives the best assurance of the formation of a right character. We want our children to grow up to manhood and womanhood with characters which will illustrate the principles of justice, truth, faithfulness, and the fear of God, that they may be kind and tenderhearted toward those deserving sympathy; cheerful, hopeful, and earnest in behalf of right; and that they may bear up with courage under adversity and suffering. We want them to have minds, able to discern, quick to detect, and with courage to expose and resist wrong. We want them, also, to have bodies properly developed and hardened by exercise. . . .
“So far, then, as amusements are consistent with and help bring about the proper formation of such characters as we have referred to, so far they should be encouraged, otherwise, they should be discouraged. Proper development, then, of the mental, physical, and moral is the great end to be kept in view in the training of children; the moral being the highest and most important of the three.
“We first inquire, Do children need amusements at all? We believe they do. . . .
“Children must be active and stirring. Any system of training so repressive in its character as to make children like old men and women will dwarf and hinder natural development, sour the disposition, and make the spirits gloomy and misanthropic. . . . Cheerfulness is better than discouragement; hopefulness than despondency; courage than gloominess. Let such a course be taken, then, as will be most likely to produce such results. We think a certain amount of amusement conducive to such an object. . . .
“But while I thus plead for innocent amusements, I would ever guard against giving children the impression that they are the main object of life. . . . That parent who grants reasonable recreation and ‘agreeable entertainment’ to his children will far more easily be able to make the proper distinction appear to the mind of the child than he who always holds him to the same level sameness of useful plodding. . . .
“If it then be granted that some amusements are proper, commonsense would seem to teach us to permit only those which are innocent, and reject those which are demoralizing, or those which will throw our children under bad influences.”
After setting forth the basic philosophy of what he considered constituted proper recreation and amusements, Butler applied these principles to various activities: “Music, in its various forms, seems to be a very proper means of recreation and enjoyment. Within reasonable bounds, it seems to be eminently worthy of cultivation. . . . But when it is made the great object of life, we respectfully submit that it has exceeded those limits. . . .
“Athletic exercises, such as skating, sliding, swimming, playing ball, pitching the quoit, running &c., &c., are all proper and innocent in themselves, when kept within proper limits, and when connected with proper associations. . . .
“I now notice another class, such as marbles, checkers, chess, fox and geese, dominoes, billiards, backgammon, cards, &c., many of them involving games of chance, and games which may lead to gambling. There is such a variety of these that it is impossible to speak definitely of all. Some are far more objectionable than others. How far should these be permitted or encouraged? and how far forbidden? . . .
“I will commence at the most simple, marbles. There can be nothing objectionable in children’s having marbles to roll upon the floor or smooth ground, so far as that is concerned. But it seems to me the idea should be most thoroughly instilled into the mind from the very first that gambling will not be permitted for the smallest amount. . . . Property gotten without giving a fair equivalent for it is not properly gotten. . . .
“It cannot be denied that chess, and checkers, &c., do afford discipline to the mind. The man who can play a game of chess or checkers, successfully, has got to think, and think sensibly. Neither are they ever used to any great extent in gambling. But they become so fascinating to the mind that they are apt to take far more time and attention than they are worth. . . . I therefore think they should be discouraged as amusements.
“Card-playing consists of a mixture of skill and chance, and is so universally associated with gambling and debasing associations that it should be frowned down.”
SDAs today face the problem of evaluating many kinds of entertainment, some completely unknown to their predessors.
The Seventh-day Adventist Encyclopedia. 2002. Review and Herald Publishing Association
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