- Apr 18, 2007
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Longhair has PM'd me and asked me to provide proof of the anti-meat pledge letter to Daniells which I alluded to in my reported post.
http://www.ex-sda.com/experience_numbers.htm
In the 1890s after a lapse of several decades Mrs. White once again enthusiastically embraced health reform and vegetarianism, and she suggested to the President of the General Conference that Seventh-day Adventists now begin to circulate an anti-meat pledge analogous to the temperance pledge that had gone over so well in the church. Daniells, who had just returned from Europe, responded that this would be impractical, that such a device would undoubtedly split the church in two, and that certainly before circulating an anti-meat pledge we would want to embark on an educational campaign. Mrs. White subsequently backed down from this and at the next session of the General Conference endorsed Elder A. G. Daniells' view of things.
"Now," Arthur White said to me, "It would be very difficult for us to release this document to you because there are still some vegetarians in the church, primarily on the right wing, who would want to impose this upon the rest of us, and we could not allow this; so I am afraid you will not be able to quote it."
http://millennium.fortunecity.com/li...66/jezebel.htm
Did the fledgling Seventh-day Adventist Church, under the guidance of Ellen White's visions, command abstention from meats? Indeed it did!
A second document that was not released was a passage from W-11-1873 mentioning John Harvey Kellogg's view of James White as a monomaniac on money matters. And a third one was D-162-1908 regarding Ellen White's anti-meat pledge. I guess I should correct myself. I had attributed that to the 1890's. It was the next decade.
While the actual letter to Daniells does not seem to be available online, I did read a copy of it in the archives of the library where I went to college. It does exist. Nevertheless, Ron Numbers discusses it in his book Prophetess Of Health which has been sourced above.
The reason for it's unavailablity to the general SDA public might have something to do with the potential for abuse by the more fanatical vegetarians in our church, as Arthur White surmises:
"Now," Arthur White said to me, "It would be very difficult for us to release this document to you because there are still some vegetarians in the church, primarily on the right wing, who would want to impose this upon the rest of us, and we could not allow this; so I am afraid you will not be able to quote it."
I mistakenly assumed most seasoned SDA's here knew about this pledge. I guess I was wrong.
http://www.ex-sda.com/experience_numbers.htm
In the 1890s after a lapse of several decades Mrs. White once again enthusiastically embraced health reform and vegetarianism, and she suggested to the President of the General Conference that Seventh-day Adventists now begin to circulate an anti-meat pledge analogous to the temperance pledge that had gone over so well in the church. Daniells, who had just returned from Europe, responded that this would be impractical, that such a device would undoubtedly split the church in two, and that certainly before circulating an anti-meat pledge we would want to embark on an educational campaign. Mrs. White subsequently backed down from this and at the next session of the General Conference endorsed Elder A. G. Daniells' view of things.
"Now," Arthur White said to me, "It would be very difficult for us to release this document to you because there are still some vegetarians in the church, primarily on the right wing, who would want to impose this upon the rest of us, and we could not allow this; so I am afraid you will not be able to quote it."
http://millennium.fortunecity.com/li...66/jezebel.htm
Did the fledgling Seventh-day Adventist Church, under the guidance of Ellen White's visions, command abstention from meats? Indeed it did!
- The health ideas of the White Party did not come to be clearly expressed until 1860 and the formation of the Seventh Day Adventist church. They too were BASED UPON VISIONS ("testimonies") and were RIGIDLY STRESSED, at least in the early days of the movement.
- Mrs. White's visions gave "positive testimony against...FLESH-MEATS...." -- History of the Seventh Day Church of God, by Richard C. Nickels. 1988, p.l5.
- Now that she was once again in the vegetarian fold, Ellen White joined Dr. Kellogg in fighting the apathy and hostility that many felt toward dieting reform...Her plans for reviving health reforms was the so-called ANTIMEAT PLEDGE, modeled after those used in the temperance work. In a March 29, 1908, letter to Elder A.G. Daniells, then president of the General Conference, she urged that a pledge be circulated requiring TOTAL ABSTINENCE from "FLESH MEATS," tea, and coffee, and all injurious foods."...In 1872 she wrote: We bear positive testimony against tobacco, spirituous liquors, snuff, tea, coffee, FLESH-MEATS, butter, spices, rich cakes, mince pies, a large amount of salt, and all exciting substances used as articles of food. -- Prophetess of Health: A Study of Ellen G. White. Pages 173, 175.
A second document that was not released was a passage from W-11-1873 mentioning John Harvey Kellogg's view of James White as a monomaniac on money matters. And a third one was D-162-1908 regarding Ellen White's anti-meat pledge. I guess I should correct myself. I had attributed that to the 1890's. It was the next decade.
While the actual letter to Daniells does not seem to be available online, I did read a copy of it in the archives of the library where I went to college. It does exist. Nevertheless, Ron Numbers discusses it in his book Prophetess Of Health which has been sourced above.
The reason for it's unavailablity to the general SDA public might have something to do with the potential for abuse by the more fanatical vegetarians in our church, as Arthur White surmises:
"Now," Arthur White said to me, "It would be very difficult for us to release this document to you because there are still some vegetarians in the church, primarily on the right wing, who would want to impose this upon the rest of us, and we could not allow this; so I am afraid you will not be able to quote it."
I mistakenly assumed most seasoned SDA's here knew about this pledge. I guess I was wrong.
