It is only within the last few decades that the Adventist Review has recognized editorially that there exists within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, at least in North America, "liberals," "liberal churches," "liberal colleges/universities" and "liberal conferences." Depending on the author and his/her agenda, Adventist liberals are compared and/or contrasted with "conservative Adventists," "historic Adventists," "Bible-believing (or EGW-believing) Adventists," "traditional Adventists," "evangelical Adventists," "cultural Adventists," and/or "ecumenical Adventists."

Regrettably, especially in America, "liberal" in general popular usage has largely lost its historical meaning of pertaining to a free person, i.e., not a slave (from the Latin liber "free"), as in "a liberal education" in a "liberal arts college." Rather, in many cases, the connotations of liberal as supporting certain economic and political agendas have compromised its usefulness for one who refers to different tendencies in individuals or institutions such as churches. Also, the popular sense of liberal as supporting a "libertine" or "anything goes" lifestyle further affects its value as an appropriate or helpful descriptive term.

Within the North American SDA community, "progressive Adventist" has been offered as a more helpful way to describe individuals or groups that welcome, foster and advance the current version of the 19th century Adventist "Present Truth" ethos. Most importantly, "progressive Adventist" stands in stark contrast to "fundamentalist Adventist," perhaps best exemplified in the stated beliefs of the Adventist Theological Society.

Progressive Adventism regrets the anti-intellectual, authoritarian and obscurant tendencies that characterize a significant segment of traditional, historic Adventism, along with the attempts at creating a creed out of the "27 Fundamental Doctrines." Depending on the interest and concerns of the individual member, progressive Adventism espouses open dialogue in a free press, academic freedom for its theologians and scientists, a redirection of resources away from a bloated ecclesiastical bureaucracy toward the local church, and an expectation that change in religious belief and practice may come if that is where the evidence persuasive to the individual believer leads.

It would be regrettable if any would propose that progressive Adventism should be associated with some specific set of propositional statements that purport to redefine, using contemporary vocabulary, some specific tradition of Christian or Adventist religiosity. Rather, I hope that progressive Adventism will be primarily associated with vision of a free and open servant church and the "priesthood of all believers." More importantly, it would be helpful if progressive Adventists would work for the day when the Adventist church will be mature enough to welcome and affirm equally the conservative, historic, traditional, evangelical, cultural, ecumenical, and progressive Adventists?-and members of the Friends of St. Thomas.