Manuscript Releases, vol. 4 [Nos. 210-259]

MR No. 214—Materials Relating to Seventh-day Adventists and Their Institutions and Confederacies and Labor Unions

[There is considerable counsel in the Spirit of Prophecy writings of the 1890's and the early 1900's touching on confederacies, both within and without the church. The principle is clearly dealt with. See The Comprehensive Index, “Confederacies.” The term is used in dealing with the relationship of the publishing house to authors; of dealing with the wages of publishing house employees; of agreements by which sanitarium workers were bound to the institution; in dealing with Seventh-day Adventists and the Masonic Lodge; in connection with SDA medical institutions opening up their records to non-Adventists or accepting counsel from non-Adventists in the operation of our sanitariums; it is often used in connection with large trusts and oftener with labor unions.] 4MR 67.1

In 1911 Ellen White defined the term “confederacy” as she employed it: 4MR 67.2

“The question has been asked, What do you mean by a confederacy? Who have formed confederacies? You know what a confederacy is—a union of men in a work that does not bear the stamp of pure, straightforward, unswerving integrity.”—Manuscript 29, 1911, in The S.D.A. Bible Commentary 4:1142. 4MR 67.3

In another statement she explained that “association does not mean confederacy.” Here are her words written to a young minister: 4MR 67.4

“Do not feel that you are to be found in any way or necessarily to confederate with unbelievers. It is well always for ministers to make friendly visits with ministers and to seek by that friendly acquaintance to disarm opposition. The same with the physician. There is too much keeping apart with association with both parties. But association does not mean confederacy. You must not confederate with unbelievers or give them preference to our own people.”—Letter 107b, 1900, p. 1. (To Brother Brandstater, March 22, 1900.) 4MR 67.5