ABOUT BYINGTON

 

 

We’re strange, aren’t we? We tell our kids the stories of Daniel, David, Esther, and  Joseph. We praise Daniel’s fidelity to God as Prime Minister of the greatest empire in the world, David’s time as a king after God’s own heart, Esther’s valiant and successful intercession for God’s people. Joseph’s wise preparation for famine that saved all of Egypt and even peoples from the surrounding lands. All ripping yarns, as they say in England, and so inspiring we can’t get enough of them.

 

But then a kid says, “hey, one day, I’d like to be the President, Prime Minister, a Secretary of State or a Minister of Health” and we drop our China cups off our trembling hands and exclaim “What? No child of mine will sully their Christian character by entering the filthy world of politics!”

 

And yet, that’s not the way early Adventists saw it. Ellen White put it this way –

 

Dear youth, what is the aim and purpose of your life? Are you ambitious for education that you may have a name and position in the world? Have you thoughts that you dare not express, that you may one day stand upon the summit of intellectual greatness; that you may sit in deliberative and legislative councils, and help to enact laws for the nation? There is nothing wrong in these aspirations. You may every one of you make your mark. You should be content with no mean attainments. Aim high, and spare no pains to reach the standard. Ellen G. White, Messages to Young People, P. 361 (emphasis added)

 

The Byington Center was founded by a group of Adventists who dedicated their lives to serving God and their church through careers in law and public policy. They share a vision for rigorous, thoughtful, and inspiring experiential religious liberty training for students who “aim high, and spare no pains to reach the standard.” Not from a secular perspective, but from a thoroughly and uniquely Seventh-day Adventist perspective. Not for their own glory, but for the glory of God. Not for a ho hum world that grinds on forever, but for a world about to go through unpresented events culminating in the coming of Christ.

 

 

The Byington Center is named after John Byington, the first president of the General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists and much more than that. John Byington was a vocal abolitionist whose home was a station on the Underground Railroad. Like Ellen White and so many of the founding generation of Adventists, he didn’t just talk about following Christ’s example, or aim for a life of secluded devotion. No. He stood up strongly, publicly, and courageously against slavery and he took the kind of action that someone like David, Daniel, Esther, or Joseph would recognize and applaud.

 

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John Byington as a Young Man

Generated by HotPot AI based on historical records

Most Adventists have completely forgotten about this hero who took a stand on the most controversial legal issue of his time.  It’s our goal to, like John Byington, to “stand for right though the heavens fall,” and to train a new generation of champions to act with character and compassion just like John Byington did, and in the process remind Adventists of the great example set by our pioneers.