Ellen White: Collusion?

Ellen G. White: Fraud and Collusion or Modern Prophet?

Ellen G. White was born in 1827 in Maine. During her 88 years on earth, she lived through a transformative time for the United States. Mrs. White was instrumental in the forming of the Sabbatarian Adventist movement that was a precursor to the Seventh Day Adventist church.

Critics of the Seventh Day Adventists and Mrs. White have two often repeated complaints.

1) Mrs. White was a plagiarist.

2) Mrs. White made prophecies that have been proven to not come true, revealing her to be a false prophet.

A number of the prophecies of Ellen White were of events that should have occurred during or immediately after her lifetime. If this is accurate and those prophecies were not fulfilled why was she not called out by the leaders of this nascent organization? Were they complicit in an attempt to either change the perception of the prophecy so that the failure would not be obvious or did they attempt to suppress any dissent (hence; a conspiracy)?

Mrs. White was a prolific writer, which may explain in part the claims of plagiarism. At the rate that she wrote, it was inevitable that parallels would be found in the works of others. Some critics believe that she engaged in literary theft and there was a lot more to the case than mere parallel concepts. Mrs. White didn’t write or publish in a vacuum. Why wasn’t this a concern at the time? Why wasn’t she called to task for this? Are we seeing another conspiracy?

Although this is ripe for a number of discussions, the one that intrigues me the most is 'are there contemporaneous attempts to decry her prophecies or her writing?' If there aren't and she was indeed making false prophecies and engaging in plagiarism, who was facilitating her deception?

Here is a site with a list of prophecies credited to Ellen White that the site’s author claims were false:
www.ellenwhiteexposed.com...


Here is a site discussing the alleged plagiarism of Ellen White:
www.nonsda.org...


Here is a site that offers a fairly detailed defense of Ellen White:
www.ellen-white.com...


I’m not very comfortable with these sites, as they are clearly either pro or con. I would prefer to use more scholarly, neutral sites and will try to dig some up. If I do, I’ll post them.

I would like to note that I am by no means an expert (or even reasonably knowledgeable) about Ellen White. I’m not claiming anything other than curiosity. This thread was created in response to the thread drift in another thread that delved into a discussion of the observance of a Saturday Sabbath.

Your thoughts would be appreciated.


Eric

In just the past few weeks, there has been a scholarly conference whose ostensible goal is to look at the White legacy impartially (or at least with both parties represented).

Here are some links to that effort, and you may be be able to follow up on the names of the people involved, etc.

ellenwhiteproject.wordpress.com...

usreligion.blogspot.com...

www.spectrummagazine.org...

Good luck with your search.

You might want to read at least one of her books " The Early Writings" in which she talks of the plagiarism accusations, and how they came about.

Actually very interesting, Ellen White claims she was not the first one called by God for the work that she did, in fact she was the third, in light of that bit of information that you will not find in any books or websites that make claim against her, Yes I would consider conspiracy; although maybe not exactly where you would think to find it.

Good luck on your research. Note: I would not venture to ask any SDA member about her as you will find Ellen White idolized by them; which unfortunately is something that she had taught her fledgling religion to not resort too.

reply to post by EricD

The following is a private letter Dr. M.G. Kellogg wrote to his brother Dr J.H. Kellogg on June 3, 1906...
...Dr M.G.Kellogg worked in close proximity with Ellen White for many years before and after this private letter was written...
...both were medically trained physicians to the standards of the time.

"In 1868, after talking with Dr. Trall, I began to suspect that Mrs. White's visions might not be what we had thereunto supposed them to be, and from that time onward I have been studying both Mrs. White and her visions, dreams and testimonies...

I have seen Mrs. White in vision quite a number of times between 1852 and 1859, in every instance she was simply in a state of catalepsy. In each instance she was suddenly seized, fell unconscious, and remained unconscious during the full time the fit lasted; every vital function was reduced to the lowest point compatible with life; pulse almost stopped and very infrequent breathing so slight as to be imperceptible except when she uttered short sentences; pupils dilated to great width, sense of hearing blunted; in fact all her senses so blunted that she could neither see, feel, nor hear; in fact was wholly unconscious, yet her mind was acutely active, the action being automatic and wholly involuntary, the whole vision being a conglomerated mental rehearsal of previous conceptions, scenes, meditations, and suggestions so vividly reproduced on her mind as to be to her a living reality. Catalepsy assumes many forms in its various victims, but in her case some phase of all forms was produced. I have seen many cases. Mrs. L.M. Hall's description of Mrs. W's condition in vision agrees with mine."

Ellen's symtoms are consistent with Partial Complex Siezures...
...which explains her 'vision' phenomena.

People afflicted with this condition can sometimes manifest hypergraphia...
...that is compulsive writing behaviour...
...which explains why she averaged two finished pages/day for most of her active life...
...even copying the works of others to satisfy her need to produce written material.

Well what is better, a prophecy that has come and gone and shown to be false? Or a one that never comes true and keeps everyone waiting and wondering? Calling her a false prophet is like the pot calling the kettle black.

[edit on 9-11-2009 by zaiger]

reply to post by EricD

1) Mrs. White was a plagiarist.

This has been proven to be false. See the 2008 issue of Plagiary @ www.plagiary.org... Also read Robert Macfarlane's book Original Copy: Plagiarism and Originality in Nineteenth-Century Literature--he is an Oxford University scholar in English Lit.

Ask yourself these questions:

1) If she really had been a plagiarist then how come she was never sued for it--like others were in her day?

2) How come they claimed in her day that she was a plagiarist and yet we have no evidence of the claimants informing the alleged victims, why? Doesn't that make them an accessory after the fact?