The Anti-Meat Pledge

On page 173 A. G. Daniells is said to have “balked” at circulating a proposed anti-meat pledge, after which Ellen White “discouraged any attempt to make the use of flesh food a ‘test of fellowship.’”CBPH 81.8

It is true that Elder A. G. Daniells was not enthusiastic about Ellen White’s proposal of an anti-meat pledge, but he did not make a unilateral decision to turn a deaf ear to her request. According to his own testimony, not knowing just how to implement her proposal, he immediately sought her counsel and subsequently took the course he did only because he had received her approval.CBPH 81.9

That Ellen White and leading brethren should counsel together as to how best to reach the people with the instruction given was not new or unique. Writing of this she reported: “In the early days of the cause, if some of the leading brethren were present when messages from the Lord were given, we would consult with them as to the best manner of bringing the instruction before the people” (Selected Messages 1:51).CBPH 81.10

Mrs. White’s letter to Daniells calling for the pledge to be signed by Seventh-day Adventists workers in Washington, D.C. was mailed to him in May, 1908. In response, Daniells wrote to W. C. White and expressed his conviction that a program of education should precede the circulating of a pledge. He then added: “As I am hoping to see you soon I ask the privilege of talking with you about this question before taking steps to circulate a pledge. When we have done this and counseled with your mother then I shall take the matter up just as she says the Lord directs that we should do.”—A. G. Daniells letter to W. C. White, July 17, 1908.CBPH 81.11

Later, in recalling the subsequent conference with Mrs. White, Daniells reported:CBPH 81.12

This interview was granted me on my first visit to Sister White’s home after making the request in my letter of July 17.CBPH 81.13

The conclusion reached by our study was that an extensive, well-balanced educational work should be carried on by physicians and ministers instead of entering precipitately upon an anti-meat pledge campaign. There was a clear understanding arrived at and Sister White thereafter treated me and the whole matter according to that understanding.—A. G. Daniells letter written April 11, 1928. White Estate Document File #509.CBPH 81.14

The records show that Daniells’ memory was correct. Mrs. White did not press the matter of a pledge, but she continued to write and speak in the strongest terms against the use of flesh food. In preparing her statement “Faithfulness in Health Reform” to be read at the General Conference Session in 1909, she included much of the appeal in her letter to Elder Daniells but omitted reference to a pledge. She declared: “God demands that the appetites be cleansed.... Flesh foods are injurious to the physical wellbeing, and we should learn to do without them” (Testimonies for the Church 9:153).CBPH 81.15

Later in the year she published these words, as a part of the full address in Testimonies for the Church, Vol. IX (see pages 153-165). So it can be said correctly, that Daniells was able to persuade Mrs. White to follow a different approach in calling for a revival of faithfulness in health reform instead of the one which she had suggested regarding the anti-meat pledge. Still, he promised to carry out her original suggestion if she insisted on it.CBPH 81.16

Prophetess of Health seems to insinuate that Daniells led Mrs. White to change her mind on making the use of flesh food a test of fellowship. Here a wrong impression has been given. This was no change in Ellen White’s position. In her 1881 statement quoted above she took the position that “The question whether we shall eat butter, meat, or cheese is not to be presented to anyone as a test.” (MS 5, 1881)CBPH 81.17

In her 1909 declaration she makes it clear that “we are not to make the use of flesh food a test of fellowship” (Testimonies for the Church 9:159). She never at any time even remotely suggested such an extreme stance. Instead, she recognized that a strict vegetarian diet was not always a practical possibility in all parts of the world (Testimonies for the Church 9:159).CBPH 82.1