Could this be possible?

[Pythons]

The Amalgamation of man and beast ( ape / human hybrids ) is a teaching of the Seventh-day Adventist Church through the ministry of its prophet Ellen G. White. What I would like to do is offer this thread up for a spirited and open dialog with the real possibility of this topic ending with a determination of findings. As Ellen White is long dead I will attempt to show, in a forensic way, why I believe the first meaning a reader assigns to Ellen’s statement is the meaning she intended the reader to get. The quote,

But if there was one sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere.

Every species of animal which God had created were preserved in the ark. The confused species which God did not create, which were the result of amalgamation, were destroyed by the flood. Since the flood there has been amalgamation of man and beast, as may be seen in the almost endless varieties of species of animals, AND in certain races of men.

In the above two quotes from the prophet we may garner some simple facts that are irrefutable. 1st, Ellen believed that some species of animals AND certain races of MEN were NOT created by God as evidenced by her explicit statement that “living things died that God didn’t create” and 2nd , Confused species which were the result of one kind of animal breeding another kind of animal were exterminated by God, through the flood. It’s important to note that God killed unauthorized life and specifically targeted the offspring of male Orangutan’s and Human Females. You more or less are wondering where I got Orangutan’s, right? It’s very straightforward and simple to identify what the guilty beast is by looking back at what was accepted as biological fact in Ellen’s day and age. The following quotes are a drop of water in an ocean of quotes. Remember, the biology of Ellen’s day was based on “the Great Chain of Being” and it was UNIVERSALLY understood by any culture that had a written language that the base of the Great Chain was Hottentots, Wild Bushmen and certain American Indians. The following demonstrates the belief of that time.

I do not think that an Orang Outang husband would be a dishonour to an Hottentot Female; for what are the Hottentots?..............

Orangutans do not seem at all inferior in their intellectual faculties to many of the negro race; with some of whom, it is credible that they have the most intimate connexion and consanguinity. The amorous intercourse between them may be frequent; the negroes themselves bear testimony that such intercourse actually happens; and it is certain that both races agree perfectly well in lasciviousness of disposition

[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']One could presume that hairy savages are half breeds of apes and women... how many [wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth][wash my mouth]es have been suprised by a libertine troop of satyrs in the african forests, could have begotten half breeds? How many even of female chimps, wild messalinas have voluntarily prostituted themselves to the ardour of the Africans? One knows nothing about what kind of love goes on in these ancient forests, where the heat of the climate, the brutal life of the inhabitants, the solitude and the delirium of passion, without law, religion, morals can lead to daring everything; and these degraded beings, these monsters half way between humans and apes....... etc, etc, etc. [/font]
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[FONT='Times New Roman','serif']We see next that Ellen states that God cannot take the slave to heaven for one of the specific reasons listed above, “it’s a creature without law, religion or morals”.[/font]

God cannot take the slave to heaven, who has been kept in ignorance and degradation, knowing nothing of God, or the Bible, fearing nothing but his master's lash, and not holding so elevated a position as his master's brute beasts. But he does the best thing for him that a compassionate God can do. He lets him be as though he had not been; while the master has to suffer the seven last plagues, and then come up in the second resurrection, and suffer the second, most awful death. Then the wrath of God will be appeased.

In Ellen’s view, all of the species God created were marched into Noah’s Ark (man included) and saved while the species that were confused by amalgamation (to include Orang / human hybrids) were removed via the flood. Ellen simply reflected the common understanding of biology that was taught as fact in her day as the premise an ape could breed a human woman was believed to be certainly true.

For those who want to read about, “ the Great Chain of Being theory” and that the understanding of Biology required a belief that apes could breed human females I refer you to a book called “IMAGES of SAVAGES” by Gustav Jaohoda. The book is not religious in nature, it’s primary focus is to document and trace prejudice against certain American Indians, Wild Bushman and Certain races of black people from the Cape area of Africa – all of which were considered to be the result of inter-breeding between man and beast. Stalin was so convinced it was possible he attempted to breed an army of ape – humans.

Also, if you have time check out the “Hottentot Venus” story, it was really sad but shows how the western world thought of Sara the Hottentot girl who was used as a side show. Thomas Jefferson certainly believed it,

Hitler found quite a bit to admire about this country during its apartheid period. Writing in the early 1930s, he attributed white domination of North America to the fact that the “Germanic” peoples here had resisted intermarriage with — and held themselves apart from — “inferior” peoples, including the Negroes, whom he described as “half-apes.”

He was not alone in these sentiments. The effort to dehumanize black people by characterizing them as apes is central to our national history. Thomas Jefferson made the connection in his notorious book “Notes on the State of Virginia,” in which he asserted fantastically that male orangutans were sexually drawn to Negro women.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/28/opinion/28sat4.html

The theology of this teaching of Seventh-day Adventists should be a good one for discussion.


Peace.

 

[StormyOne]

The initial statement is flawed, as is the story of Noah.... sea life was created by God and was not in the ark i.e. whales, sea mammals and all sorts of fish..... likewise some species of animals are still being discovered, so it is tenuous to believe that a representative of everything God created was preserved in the ark...

Hybrid humans? During that period blacks were viewed as something other than human.... it was the prevailing view, and for some it still is.... There are those who believe that is what she was referring to when she said some races of men.... even though there is only one race of men, human.... various colors though.....

 

[AzA]

Pythons! Long time no see.

I know you spend a lot of time with the other Adventist group. It's possible I'm more comfortable than they are in acknowledging that the Adventist church and its early members and leading voices all grew into some convictions and grew out of others, had passing affairs with some ideas, and struggled for many years with others that gripped them more strongly. Neither the church nor its leaders have ever been static entities. And as you know from your discussions in the other section, some quarters of the church are still struggling with some ideas.

It's fairly easy for me to see that the half-breed story is one of many wacky, politically convenient, and scientifically inaccurate views of humankind that had currency in the 18th and 19th Century. Interestingly enough it still resurfaces in some nationalist literature today, and some critics of the current American president have brought it up in their comments about him. Remember the Curious George t-shirts? This thing comes from a long way back.

When I was studying the American Adventist church structure, though, I found that in the decades after the abolition of American slavery, Ellen spoke very strongly in favor of ensuring that "the colored people" had the same access to the information and church workers that White Americans were receiving. These were valid concerns given that there was a major literacy disparity between the two groups, there were still regions of the US where local politics made blanket evangelistic work very difficult, and for Ellen and her peers there was also a time imperative on getting "the truth" out.

The very act of evangelism in a Christian context recognizes the humanity of another: only children try to baptize their cats; adults don't bother. We say someone else's soul needs saving because we think our soul needs saving, and we put them on the same shaky footing that we think we stand on. This is equal opportunity wretchedness.

Of course, what the evangelist then does with that common-human recognition -- ie. whether subsequent behavior affirms or denies the others' humanity -- is a separate issue. We've all got historical cases we could pull up of peoples being evangelized and then slaughtered or tricked out of their land or rights. Recognizing humanity with one hand and then attempting to deny it with another is an old and sad part of our history as a species.

That said, I haven't heard of any church-wide evangelistic efforts being targeted at orangutans. Whereas Ellen may have swum with the half-breed narrative in 1864, by 1905-1909, she was pretty hardcore about demanding that the church and its members acknowledge their Black Americans as brethren. Forty years can do wonders to a woman., and in this case, did. She's been dead for a while, but bless her heart.