text: I'm puzzling, Bill, why you have such an attachment to strong authority. The historical record that Dr. Knight recounts shows that Ellen White had great concerns about a top-down, leader-centric church governance system. It is, in fact, one of the faults we note about the Catholic church. Ellen White wanted our denomination to have distributed power.
  
  The best organizations, just like the best families, have some flexibility built in. I can understand your not agreeing with the decision of the Pacific and Columbia Union Conferences to ordain women, but here you keep up a steady drumbeat about authority at the top. Could that say more about your personality than it does about the decisions being made?