General Conference formally apologizes for banishing Ellen White to Australia

Ellen White spent the better part of a decade in Australia

Ellen White spent the better part of a decade in Australia

SILVER SPRING, Md. — Today, over 120 years after sending Ellen G. White to Australia, the General Conference has issued a formal statement apologizing for “what was unequivocally a low move.” White was sent as a missionary to Australia after she clashed with GC leaders in the early 1890s while advocating for a number of issues, including a more Christ-centered Adventist theology.

“To say it was uncool of us to send Ellen White to what at the time was little more than an uncultured den of criminality is a massive understatement,” said GC Director of Human Resources, Trent Cassidy. “Let me remind you that a century ago there were no veggie options at Outback Steak House. There was no Outback Steak House for that matter. There was just a massive, dusty Outback Down Under.”

White, who worked in Australia from 1891 – 1900, was recently named among the 100 Most Significant Americans of All Time by Smithsonian Magazine. “Quite frankly we don’t know what the church leaders back then were thinking,” said Cassidy. “Nobody here today would have done that. You’d think they were threatened by a strong woman or something.”


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18 Comments

  1. Wess Lawson

    “Nobody here today would have done that. You’d think they were threatened by a strong woman or something.”
    I instantly see red flags when I read a statement such as this.

    This statement glares at me; what is the GC’s stand on “strong women” in light of ordination of women in the Adventist church?

  2. liz hall

    While she was there, she did great good. God transformed our stupidity into blessings for Australia. However, I am not sure we would not send her into exile today. Ted Wilson would not but when many of our church related schools and hospitals ignore many of her counsels or at least pick or choose which ones to follow and ignore the rest, we have sent her in exile. I challenge each of us read her books on education and health and see what we do right and what we do wrong. The Bible and her writings should be studied broadly, deeply, and humbly. We would be so much effective if we did apply divine counsels to our lives and organization if we have agape love. I love Ellen White. Pride in opinion was one of the major factors in sending her away.

    1. Mike

      She had a vision in 1863, her first on health. This vision produced her first comment on health which was put into a booklet entitled: “Appeal to Mothers” It dealt with the topic of self abuse or secret vice which today is known as masturbation. In this vision which she claims was from heavenly origin, there are pointed out serious maladies which result from masturbation, even death. Here is a list of some of the afflictions caused by masturbation:

      Brain weakened, Cancerous tumors, Catarrh, Dropsy, Eye-sight weakened, Headache, Head decay, Insanity, Kidney disease, Liver disease, Lung disease, Memory loss, Nervous system damage, Neuralgia, Pains in the system, Premature death, Rheumatism, Spinal weakness/problems.

      I have been doing research trying to understand and verify these facts. I have not found anything to date to support her claims of such things. As a matter of fact, medical research confirms just the opposite. There are no physical maladies which result from such practice.

      1. Kevin Munene

        You will not find any. Her greatness is not from the visions she received, whatever the source, but from her conviction and what she did with what she thought she saw. The influence of her husband and Elder Bates can also not be trivialized.

    2. In my view the current stand of the SDA church on a varied doctrinal issues have not only sent Ellen White back to Australia but have silenced her teachings from the SDA Church.

      The only way an adventist believer can bannish her from the cburch is to treat her writings as uninspired. If the church continues baptising new converts to adventism who still subsist in meat (animal flesh), marry with unbelievers who are not of the same faith as SDzas, who do not read the testimonies and who are not pacifists the church has banished her for good from its midst for these are just but a few of the things which she espoused.

      Adventist must know that God has already made a wat where Ellen White’s teachings can be taught without hindrance and that I’d in the IMSSDARM not the SDA which had outlawed Ellen White’s teachings in adventism.

  3. Kenny Robbins

    Whats funny is that the GC believes they sent her. If God’s will was accomplished then we must allow for the possibility that God sent her and that she was a willing participant. K

  4. RB

    A satire of Adventists?

    By definition satire is “humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices”

    So to satire Adventists is to use humor, irony, exaggeration, or ridicule to expose and criticize people’s stupidity or vices in Adventism.

    But the authors of this website go a bit further by blatantly lying.

    In the December 14, 2014 article and other articles the authors create fictitious sources in the SDA church in order to cite an “authority” and mislead readers.

    Proverbs 6:16-19 There are six things that the Lord hates, seven that are an abomination to him: haughty eyes, a lying tongue… a false witness who breathes out lies, and one who sows discord among brothers.

    Proverbs 12:22 Lying lips are abomination to the LORD: but they that deal truly are his delight.

    The authors of this site obviously have talents. It is wonderful to imagine how these talents might be used in sharing Jesus Christ to the unreached of this world. It is painful to imagine how many seekers among the Hindus, Buddhist, and Muslims of this world will be confused about God’s message for this time in history if they stumble across this site and read these articles. We are all accountable for our influence upon others.

    The authors have already demonstrated sufficient awareness of the negative effect such writings have on other minds. In his Spectrum interview the author says “Some of the tirades from incensed readers illustrate the point behind our stories better than the stories themselves.” This individual seems to be the case of someone locked inside an Adventist culture divorced from the Biblical reality of the love of God designed to save from the judgment to come. At such a time as this the author wants to satire God’s church and message?

    After investigation I have learned the identity of at least one of the authors of this site. He is a baptized SDA, graduate of Andrews, and who teaches Sabbath School in his church. According to his Spectrum interview “we are staying anonymous [so] that the mystique sort of helps the mood of the site, keeps it light… But we’ll probably come out at some point.” Well it would be well for you to come out in the next few days and make yourself known. This will provide an opportunity for you to delete your articles and apologize to your readers for lying to them.

    “His wickedness shall be showed before the whole congregation.”

  5. It is sad that you have this website. You poke fun at people’s beliefs.

    Why not research E G White and compare her with the Bible? You will see things that are different and worth writing about.

    What would our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ say about this website?

    Or, do you want to poke fun at Him too?

  6. Pedro

    In my opinion, if Mrs. White were in this time, the leaders of the general conference would not send her to Australia, but to Mars, because she would be denouncing the great apostasies that these leaders want to convert to the Church of God. My opinion..

  7. Cindy

    “Most of the founders of Seventh-day Adventism would not be able to join the church today if they had to subscribe to the denomination’s fundamental beliefs. Most specifically, most would not be able to agree to belief number 2, which deals with the doctrine of the Trinity. For Joseph Bates the Trinity was an unscriptural doctrine, for James White it was that ‘old Trinitarian absurdity,’ and for M.E. Cornell it was a fruit of the great apostasy, along with such false doctrines as Sunday-keeping and the immortality of the soul” Ministry magazine Oct. 1993 p. 10, Article: “Adventists and Change”, written by George Raymond Knight who is a leading Seventh-day Adventist historian, author, and educator. He is emeritus professor of church history at Andrews University.

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