Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Light From “a Catholic Woman”

In an attempt to provide further proof that Mrs. White did not live up to her own teachings, critics quote a statement by her as follows: EGWC 388.2

“When the selfishness of taking the lives of animals to gratify a perverted appetite was presented to me by a Catholic woman, I felt ashamed and distressed. I saw it in a new light, and I said, I will no longer patronize the butcher, I will not have the flesh of slain animals on my table.—U. T., Aug. 30, 1896.” Published in Instruction Relating to the Principles of Healthful Living, ^* (1st ed.), p. 97. EGWC 388.3

This statement is cited for two purposes: (1) to prove that Mrs. White, though writing against meat eating over many years of time, was, as late as 1896, not following her own teaching; (2) that she did not really receive her antimeat-eating view from a vision but from “a Catholic woman.” EGWC 388.4

The brief quotation is from a letter written by Mrs. White, August 30, 1896, while she was living in Australia, and is addressed to a family in America. The first part of the long letter discusses the question of eating meat. Mrs. White is encouraging this family to take meat from their diet, and relates her own experience in the following paragraph, which contains the sentence quoted above: EGWC 388.5

“I have a large family, which often numbers sixteen. In it there are men who work at the plough, and who fell trees. These have most vigorous exercise, but not a particle of the flesh of animals is placed on our table. Meat has not been used by us since the Brighton [Australia] Campmeeting [January, 1894]. It was not my purpose to have it on my table at any time, but urgent pleas were made that such a one was unable to eat this or that, and that his stomach could take care of meat better than it could anything else. Thus I was enticed to place it on my table. The use of cheese also began to creep in, because some liked cheese; but I soon controlled that. But when the selfishness of taking the lives of animals to gratify a perverted taste was presented to me by a Catholic woman, kneeling at my feet, I felt ashamed and distressed. I saw it in a new light, and I said, I will no longer patronize the butchers. I will not have the flesh of corpses on my table.”—Letter 73a, 1896. EGWC 388.6

Lay alongside this a statement by Mrs. White in a letter written about the same time: EGWC 389.1

“Since the camp meeting at Brighton (January, 1894) I have absolutely banished meat from my table. It is an understanding that whether I am at home or abroad, nothing of this kind is to be used in my family, or come upon my table, I have had much representation before my mind in the night season on this subject.”—Letter 76, 1895, published in Counsels on Diet and Foods, 488. EGWC 389.2