Ellen White: Woman of Vision

The Sanitarium Undenominational?

Another deep concern on the part of Ellen White was regarding the position that Dr. Kellogg was taking and advocating, that the Battle Creek Sanitarium was undenominational. This was being heard more and more frequently. Its seeds went back for almost 10 years when Kellogg began to envision the medical work being done by Seventh-day Adventists as a great Christian benevolent work, not particularly denominational in its character. In 1893 the Seventh-day Adventist Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association had been formed to succeed the earlier Health and Temperance Association. But in 1896 the name had been changed, dropping out the words “Seventh-day Adventist” and adding the word “International” (The Story of Our Health Message, 249). WV 401.6

Writing in 1898, Dr. Kellogg declared of this organization that it was developed to “carry forward medical and philanthropic work independent of any sectarian or denominational control, in home and foreign lands” (The Medical Missionary, January, 1898; quoted in The Story of Our Health Message, 249; italics supplied). WV 402.1

The following year at a convention of the association it was declared that the delegates were “here as Christians, and not as Seventh-day Adventists.” Nor were they present “for the purpose of presenting anything that is peculiarly Seventh-day Adventist in doctrine.” WV 402.2

The growing number of undenominational declarations on the part of Dr. Kellogg and his close associates provided sound basis for alarm, and of this Ellen White spoke in midsummer, 1902: WV 402.3

It has been stated that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not denominational. But if ever an institution was established to be denominational in every sense of the word, this sanitarium was. WV 402.4

Why are sanitariums established if it is not that they may be the right hand of the gospel in calling the attention of men and women to the truth that we are living amid the perils of the last days? And yet, in one sense, it is true that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is undenominational, in that it receives as patients people of all classes and all denominations (Letter 128, 1902 [The Story of Our Health Message, 253]). WV 402.5

And she pointed out: WV 402.6

We are not to take pains to declare that the Battle Creek Sanitarium is not a Seventh-day Adventist institution; for this it certainly is. As a Seventh-day Adventist institution it was established to represent the various features of gospel missionary work, thus to prepare the way for the coming of the Lord (Ibid.) WV 402.7