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A Critique of the Book Prophetess of Health

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    Teachings on Sex

    Beginning with page 150 Prophetess of Health takes up Ellen White’s sex teachings, including masturbation, excesses, and abuses, which were common both within and outside the marriage relation. It is said that:CBPH 71.1

    Ellen White followed another well-marked trail when she ventured into the potentially hazardous field of sex. From the appearance of Sylvester Graham’s Lecture to Young Men on Chastity in 1834 this subject had played an integral and highly visible role in health reform literature. Alcott, Coles, Trall, and Jackson, among others, had all spoken out on the dangers of what they regarded as excessive or abnormal sexual activities, particularly masturbation.—p. 150.CBPH 71.2

    And it is further stated:CBPH 71.3

    Given this background, and the knowledge that she possessed both Trall’s and Jackson’s books on sex by late 1863, it is not surprising that Ellen White’s very first book on health was a little volume entitled An Appeal to Mothers: The Great Cause of the Physical, Mental, and Moral Ruin of Many of the Children of Our Time (1864).—p. 150.CBPH 71.4

    First of all, we call attention to Appendix C which is a full reprint of the Ellen G. White article “An Appeal to Mothers.” Some of the assertions and conclusions in Prophetess of Health declare on page 150, that there were certain health books (ordered by James White) in her home at the time Appeal to Mothers was written and published. But she says that since Elder White’s “business gave him no time to peruse them, and as I determined not to read them until I had written out my views, the books remained in their wrappers” (The Review and Herald, October 8, 1867, 30:260). A comparison of Appeal to Mothers with the writings on masturbation by others has failed to show any literary similarity between her work and the works of her contemporaries on this subject. Now let us consider another factor which, though not conclusive, certainly must be given some weight. When all the circumstances are taken into consideration, it seems that it would have been utterly impossible for Ellen White to have researched a field as new and foreign to her, and prepared the copy for a pamphlet within the time frame the full documentation allows.CBPH 71.5

    The books on sex by Trall and Jackson most likely caught up with the White’s in November 1863 at Topsham, Maine, while they were on their four months trip east. She says they “remained in their wrappers,” yet Prophetess of Health implies she might have read them. Ellen White, who had had only about three years of formal education, was now the mother of three lively boys. In addition to her traveling and speaking she was trying desperately to finish her writing on Spiritual Gifts, Volume 3.CBPH 71.6

    Then while east in December, 1863, Henry contracted pneumonia and, on December 8, died. The family returned to Battle Creek for his funeral on December 17. Ellen White surely had no time for research in her bereavement as she was now faced with all the duties of a mother in the home after a four month’s absence.CBPH 71.7

    But she did press on with urgent writing. First she wrote personal testimonies based on the June 6, 1863 vision, for many subjects had been opened to her at that time. Then she prepared and published Testimony Number 10, an 80 page pamphlet, also based largely on the June 6 vision. It was ready for distribution on January 19.CBPH 71.8

    In the meantime her mother died. Then in early February, Willie came down with pneumonia. With the decision to treat him themselves, James and Ellen White were driven to exhaustion during the next couple of weeks. Copy for Appeal to Mothers, also based on the June 6, 1863 vision must have been prepared in March for it was published in early April and advertised as ready for sale on April 12 (The Review and Herald, April 12, 1864, 23:160).CBPH 71.9

    It was one thing for a busy mother and housewife to squeeze in the time to write materials based on the June 6 vision so vividly in her mind. It would have been quite another thing, a seemingly incredible thing, for her under these circumstances to conduct research in various books in order to gather material for publication as is strongly implied in Prophetess of Health.CBPH 71.10

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