Public Image and Private Life of the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the United States Browsing through the guidelines of the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) Church on their official homepage (Adventist.org) and seeing the humanitarian work done by the Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA) one would assume that the SDA is an American church that tries to emphasize the importance of empathy and attempts to lessen the condemning and judgmental attitudes of its followers. However, both reading the personal accounts and testimonies of former SDA members and analyzing the church founder Ellen G. White’s writings present a very different picture. My aim is to explore the two sides of Seventh-day Adventism; the accepting, humanitarian, health reformer image that the church communicates towards outsiders and the real-life SDA conduct which requires a rigidly obedient attitude to the ideals and prophecies of Ellen G. White. In contemporary consciousness SDA members are among the healthiest Americans (Secrets of Living Longer) and the ADRA is one of the most respected humanitarian organizations, Give Spot lists it as the third most efficient charity in the world (“GiveSpot 100”), dealing with AIDS patients in the Third World, in the world. The preventive attitude and modern health ideology in the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the twentieth century changed the position of the church in the public’s eye from being a post-Millerite cult into an accepted church. On one of the homepages dedicated to Seventh-Day Adventism one can read about the theological concept behind the healthy lifestyle ordained into the belief system of the church: “By combining the Biblical principles found in the Levitical Laws, the emphasis on self-control, with the emerging health and hygiene principles of the 19th century, the Seventh-day Adventist Church developed a unique teaching for the prevention and treatment of disease, that has
stood the test of time.” (“The Seventh-day Adventist Health Message”) The foundation of Battle Creek Sanitarium funded by SDA members made health-reformer H. J. Kellogg (the founder of the breakfast cereal company) able to attract such celebrities into the influence circle of Seventh-day Adventist Church. Among these celebrities was William Howard Taft, Amelia Earhart or Thomas Edison (Lippy 2067.) While, enjoying the healthy atmosphere of the sanitarium their presence made the extreme doctrines of the Seventh-day Adventist Church appreciated and valued by outside public. Today the various health centers founded and maintained by Seventh-day Adventist organizations, among them the prestigious Loma Linda University Medical Centre, and the ADRA present the public with a very positive image of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. Loma Linda University Medical Center is the successor of a SeventhDay Adventist sanitarium specializing in infant-heart transplantation and protontreatments for cancer. On their homepage they define themselves as being a holistic care center and their mission is to “continue the teaching and healing ministry of Jesus Christ.” Among their values is compassion, which they interpret as a concept “reflecting the love of God through caring, respect, and empathy.” (Lomalindahealth.org) Additionally, to the favorable appearance presented by the different holistic medical centers ADRA, with its compassionate modern missionary work in various Third World countries, also helps maintaining the admirable compassion ascribed to the Seventh-day Adventist Church in the public eye. The Principles and Values section on the official homepage of ADRA show a caring, tolerant and modern humanitarian view. For example they state that ADRA believes “in non-discrimination and respect for
differences, accepting people as equals regardless of race, ethnicity, gender, political, or religious affiliation.” (Adra.org) The above mentioned Seventh-day Adventist organizations show the tolerant and caring side of the church, which is generally admired by the public eye. However, with the publication of several controversial volumes about Seventh-day Adventism in the second half of the 20th century such as “The White Lie” or “White Washed: Uncovering the Myth of Ellen G. White” and the appearance of testimonies by former SDA Pastors and members of the church, have shown that Seventh-day Adventism have a less compassionate side, which is connected to the writings of Ellen G. White. (“Spirit Behind the Church”) To see clearly how Ellen G. White’s influence surrounds the Adventist Church it is important to know how Adventism was incited by the Millerite movement and the course of how she became the prophetess and the main authority in the church. Seventhday Adventism grew out of the Millerite movement at the second half of the 19th century. Henry Miller after several years of studying the Bible and in particular Revelations and the Book of Daniel calculated that the Second Coming of Christ would be “around 1843, 1844” (Land 2); later on, this date has been clarified by a Millerite preacher Samuel S. Snow to be 22nd October, 1844. After the prophesized date turned out to be false, which event is referred to as the “Great Disappointment” of 1844, most followers of Henry Miller either went back to their former churches or left religious circles altogether. The first group to explain the supposed miscalculation of Henry Miller differently would be the sabbatarian Adventists. They were of the opinion that Henry Miller’s and Samuel S. Snow’s calculations were true and the last days have come. However, 22nd October, 1844
instead of being identified as the start of Christ cleansing the Earth off sinners was understood by several sabbatarians Adventists as the date of Jesus entering the High Sanctuary of Heaven and beginning his work as a minister there; when he finished he would come for the saints of the Earth. This reinterpretation of the original Millerite theological idea would provide the foundation for the Seventh-Day Adventist Church. (Land 3) Gary Land in the introduction to “Historical Dictionary of the Seventh-Day Adventists” claims that Joseph Bates, the original founder of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church, having read the reinterpretations concerning 22nd October, 1844, “argued in a series of tracts that Christ's entrance into the Most Holy Place of the heavenly sanctuary opened a new emphasis on the Sabbath” (4.) Moreover, he emphasized the importance of the messages of the Three Angels in Revelations, which would be later adopted into the main three doctrines of Seventh-Day Adventism: Investigative Judgment, Seventh-Day Sabbath and Sunday: The Mark of the Beast. These founding concepts of the Adventist Church were reinforced by the visions of Ellen G. White, who was invited to the sabbatarians Adventist movement by Joseph Bates (“Introduction” Land.) In December 1844 Ellen G. White, née Ellen Harmon, experienced her first vision. She still being a follower of the Millerite movement at a conference met her future husband James White, who would convince her to observe Sabbath and then join the ranks of Joseph Bates together. The following few years after her first vision her importance in the ranks of the Adventist church became prominent and gained official standing in 1947 at one of the “Sabbath Conferences”, where sabbatarians agreed that her visions have divine inspiration. Ellen G. White’s role as a prophetess gradually raised her
to be the fundamental authorial figure of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church during her lifetime, a position she still claims today (“Introduction” Land.) The organized, disciplined and healthy lifestyle which are the attractive traits of the Seventh-day Adventist Church are the product of the interpretations of the visions of Ellen G. White’s. In her lifetime she dedicated thousands of pages to visions and among them twenty-eight fundamental beliefs which are to be observed as interpretations of the laws prescribed in the Holy Scripture (“Spirit Behind the Church.”) These interpretations included a specific vegetarian diet, the abstinence from alcohol, tobacco and caffeine. Moreover, they commanded the church members to wear specific clothes on specific days, ban women from wearing any kind of jewelry or wearing wigs. These doctrines were to be kept by church members so they would be among those who would be granted eternal life when Jesus came for the saints of the Earth. In one vision of Ellen G. White’s she describes how an angel is keeping records of every men’s deeds: Opposite each name in the books of heaven is entered with terrible exactness every wrong word, every selfish act, every unfulfilled duty, and every secret sin, with every artful dissembling. Heaven-sent warnings or reproofs neglected, wasted moments, unimproved opportunities, the influence exerted for good or for evil, with its far-reaching results, all are chronicled by the recording angel. The law of God is the standard by which the characters and the lives of men will be tested in the judgment. (White “Facing Life's Record”) A documentary produced by the organization for ex-SAD members called “Seventh-Day Adventism: The Spirit Behind a Church” thoroughly examined the figure of Ellen G. White. Very dedicated SDA pastors, most of them being second or third
generation SDAs, read through the whole ouvre of Ellen G. White and found traces of plagiarism and as one pastor put it “embarrassing ideology” in her books. For example one of her books contains a paragraph, which has racist connotations: "Since the flood there has been an amalgamation of man and (of) beast, as may be seen in almost endless varieties of species of animal, and in certain races of men (Ellen G. White qtd. “Spirit Behind the Church.”) Moreover, the testimonies, found on Exadventist.com, of former SDA members illuminate the truth on the rigidly obedient way of life the doctrines of Ellen G. White require. Most of these members came from closed-off SDA communities, where from kindergarten to college they would only attend SDA funded institution. The rules of abstinence from alcohol, caffeine, tobacco and even such community events as school dances and sport competitions isolated them from most of the world. Most testimonies found on the Exadventist Outreach site speak about how the constant fear of stepping out of line or not being good enough for the coming of Christ would make them pathologically anxious. More than one former SDA member in their frustration of this rigid lifestyle would turn to heavy drug use. Furthermore, one website dedicated to Leaving the Seventh-Day Adventist Church goes further and says than in extreme circumstances one can view Seventh-Day Adventism a cult. The article titled: “Is the Seventh-Day Adventist Church a Cult?” the author makes the observation that: In Lifton’s criteria for deciding whether a church is a cult or not, he looks at whether the church has a charismatic leader that controls, interrogates and bullies its members. The Seventh Day Adventist church has no such leader. Instead, it has an
interesting phenomena about it; instead of a leader doing this, the members fulfill this function themselves. (“Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult? “) Throughout the article the author’s main thought is that in an extremely conservative Seventh-Day Adventist community if a member is caught by another member doing something “unclean” the caught member would be constantly harassed and shamed by the other members of the church. Detailing a theoretical incident of having been caught ordering a pepperoni pizza slice the author claims: (The church) would never forget the incident, and would see the person as “not a real Adventist” since they purposely broke the rules of God. They would then, consciously or subconsciously, spend less time around them and avoid them because they are a bad influence. The more transgressions you make, the worse it gets. (“Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult”) This oppressing and destructive attitude experienced at a number of conservative Seventh-Day Adventist communities around the United States are in harsh contrast to the principles of compassion and tolerance included in the mission statements of several SDA organizations. My aim in this article was to show the two different aspects of today’s SeventhDay Adventist Church in the United States. My conclusion is that the open, world or nation wide organizations of the Seventh-Day Adventist Church focus on the compassionate and healthy way of living attitude of the twenty-eight fundamental beliefs of the church. Whereas, the small, closed-off Seventh-Day Adventist communities
compel their members to live an anxious, rigorously obedient life according to the rules of Ellen G. White.
Works Cited
Adra.org. Adventist Development and Relief Agency, 2013. Web. 7 April 2013.
Adventist.org. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists, 2013. Web. 7 April 2013.
ExAdventist.com. ExAdventist Outreach, 2007. Web. 9 April 2013.
“Givespot 100.” GiveSpot.com. Web. 9 April 2013.
“Is the Seventh Day Adventist Church a Cult?” Leavingsda.com. Leaving the Seventh-day Adventist Church, 2012. Web. 7 April 2013.
Land, Gary. “Introduction.” in Histortical Dictionary of the Seventh-day Adventists. Oxford: Scarecrow Press, 2005. Print: 1-11.
Lippy, Charles H. and Peter W. Williams. Encyclopedia of Religion in America. Thousand Oaks: CQ Press, 2010. Print: 2067.
LomaLindahealth.org Loma Linda University Medical Center, 2013. Web. 8 April 2013.
Secrets of Living Longer: The Seventh-day Adventists' Way. From Sights and Sounds of Longevity. Nationalgeographic.com. Web. 7 April 2013.
“Seventh-day Adventist Health Message.” Seventh-day Adventist Dietetic Association. Sdada.org. Web. 7 April 2013.
Seventh-day Adventism: The Spitit Behind the Church. Produced by: Exadventist.org. Exadventist.org. Web. 7 April 2013.
White, Ellen . “Chapter 28 – Facing Life's Record.” In Great Controversy. WhiteEstate.org. Web. 9 April 2013.