Ellen G. White and Her Critics

Charge Number 4

“If the writings of Mrs. White were as she claimed, ‘What God has opened before me in vision,’ then what right had she to have God’s messages copyrighted so no one could broadcast God’s messages to His people or to the world without her consent? Or what right had she to demand ten per cent royalty on all the messages the Lord wanted to go to His people Can you think of Paul, or John, or Jeremiah getting a copyright on the revelations they received so they could have a ‘corner’ on their sale? What would you think of Paul’s epistles if you should find out that he refused to allow any one to copy them without first paying him for the privilege and used the money, or a part of it, to buy a two hundred acre ranch in the suburbs of Rome?” EGWC 526.3

We do not know what “a two hundred acre ranch in the suburbs of Rome” would have cost. Probably a great deal. But we do know that the large part of Mrs. White’s real estate holdings, far removed from San Francisco, cost only $4.58 an acre. Let us therefore leave the ranch and examine the other parts of the charge. We confess we do not know what Paul or John or Jeremiah might have done if there had been a copyright law in their day, and if there had been printing presses also, and if they had been involved in heavy costs for the production of plates and illustrations and for secretarial help. EGWC 526.4

But this much is certain, that if there had been printing presses in those long-ago days, and the prophets had been obligated to underwrite the cost of plates and illustrations and translations and the like, they would certainly have had to find the money somewhere. And what more sensible or equitable way could they have discovered for underwriting those costs than by asking for certain returns on the books that were sold? Furthermore, if the hope of receiving back the money that they expended to produce the books depended, at least in part, on protecting those books, why would we not expect them to copyright the books? ^* EGWC 527.1

The real point at issue, of course, is this: If, in ancient times, there had been printing presses and copyright laws, and the cost of production of his books was an obligation against the prophet-author, in what way would he have sinned against God or man if he had copyrighted his books and asked for royalty upon them, especially since most book authors are remunerated for their work only through royalty? The question answers itself. EGWC 527.2

Mrs. White might have stood apart from all the business features so inevitably involved in book production by leaving them wholly to the church, through a conference subsidy, or through gifts raised in the churches. We believe that it is an evidence of divine supervision that Mrs. White operated her affairs in a more or less autonomous fashion, so that she was not dependent upon any possible changing mood of administrators or of the constituency in order to bring forth such writings as she felt ought to go to the church. And by thus carrying on her work she deprived critics of the charge that could so plausibly have been made, that her published testimonies reflect only what the church was willing to print. EGWC 527.3