Our Roots, Pt. 34

The tranquility following the 1901 General Conference Session was short-lived. It lasted through the rest of 1901, but 1902 saw a series of issues and events which were to cause conflict over organizational structure, even though most of them were not directly about structure.

One of these issues was over what title A. G. Daniells ought to use. Within a few weeks of the end of the 1901 Session Daniells had begun to refer to himself as the General Conference President, even though that title had been officially replaced by the title of Chairman of the executive committee. Daniells found this replacement title cumbersome, particularly when trying to explain his position to outside entities with whom the Church had business, so he went back to the convenient title of President. This reversion was formally agreed to by the members of the executive committee who happened to be in Battle Creek in February of 1902, but this group was not the full 25-person membership, and some of those left out of this decision took exception to it. (While they were at it, this partial executive committee also declared W. W. Prescott, who was serving as the secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, to be a vice president. This was the first time the Church had ever had a vice president.)

Another event which led to conflict was that on the night of February 18, 1902 two main buildings of the Battle Creek Sanitarium complex burned to the ground. The Battle Creek Sanitarium was under the control of the only remaining independent auxiliary, the International Medical Missionary and Benevolent Association. It was also the base of operations for the Benevolent Association’s leader, J. H. Kellogg. Kellogg immediately began envisioning rebuilding bigger and better. This concerned Church leaders because the Sanitarium was already carrying heavy debts and they did not wish to see either the Sanitarium or the Church take on more debt to fund the rebuilding. To help with the costs Kellogg proposed to donate the royalties from a book he was writing for use in a health reform campaign. This was agreed to.

During the summer of 1902 Daniells and Kellogg traveled together to Europe for some meetings being held there. While there Kellogg found land that he wanted to purchase near London to erect a new sanitarium in that area. He proposed to Daniells that the General Conference take out loans to fund this project. Daniells was seeking to institute a denomination-wide “no debt” policy. He refused to let the Church take on new debt to fund this establishment. This upset Kellogg. This was the model of expansion he had used all through the 1890’s—build on loans and convince the General Conference to assume responsibility for the debt. Daniells held firmly to his position and Kellogg returned to Battle Creek early and began talking against Daniells.

This conflict came to a head during the fall council of 1902. Kellogg had just finished writing his book, The Living Temple, with which church leaders had some substantial theological concerns. As this narrative is about organization rather than theology we won’t get into the issues associated with this book other than to say that Kellogg was adopting pantheistic views incompatible with the theological understandings of the Church. Whether or not the Church would endorse this book and consideration of the proposed no debt policy made the council an explosive one. On October 19, 1902 a small group of Church leaders, including Daniells, met with Ellen White in her home in California to discuss the issues they would face at the council. During this meeting Ellen White told Daniells to hold firm on the no debt policy.

When the council convened on November 11 Daniells made the case for his no debt policy, pointing out that by using loans to further its efforts the Church really ended up wasting large quantities of its resources to pay interest later. He further pointed out that he had been trying to raise funds to pay off the substantial debt that already existed, but that Church members were reluctant to contribute as they thought that their leaders would just run up more debt as soon as the earlier debts were eliminated. He substantiated his position with statements from Ellen White, which made clear her opposition to operating the Church on loans. After making his case Daniells proposed that the General Conference officially adopt a no debt policy. A committee was appointed to look into the matter and bring a recommendation back to the council.

Kellogg did some fuming and protesting about this, largely along the lines of needing to not impede the medical missionary work, but he failed to present a substantive argument in opposition to Daniells’ proposal. Instead, he tried to remove Daniells from chairmanship of the executive committee in favor of A. T. Jones. Jones was supporting Kellogg in his dispute with Daniells, but not because he opposed the no dept proposal. Jones objected to Daniells’ having taken back the title of General Conference President.

This procedural effort was possible for two reasons. First, under the new organizational configuration the chairman was elected by the executive committee from among its members. Second, no term of office was specified for the chairman. This was intentional; the new organizational strategy purposefully made it possible for a change of the chairmanship between General Conference Sessions whenever the committee might see fit.

The effort to replace Daniells as chairman failed, but it left the Church leadership deeply divided. The leaders in the medical work sided with Kellogg, as did Jones and Waggoner. Most of the administrators of the Church, including Prescott and W. C. White, sided with Daniells. Ellen White was not present, but the counsel she gave Daniells before the meeting makes it clear that he had her support.

A subcommittee of four that had been tasked with reviewing Kellogg’s book gave a majority report that there were no theological difficulties. (This majority was composed of Kellogg, Jones, and another doctor from the sanitarium named Paulson.) The fourth member of the subcommittee, Prescott, submitted a minority report expressing serious concerns with the theology in the book. The executive committee chose to accept the minority report and declined to endorse the book. The committee considering the no debt proposal reported back in favor of the proposal and presented language for an official policy which was approved by the council on November 21, 1902.

This conflict was decided, but it brought forward other issues which would be fought out at the 1903 General Conference Session. The new issues were whether the medical missionary work should continue to be an independent auxiliary and the need to further define how power was distributed and wielded at the General Conference.

On December 30, 1902 the Review and Herald publishing house in Battle Creek burned to the ground. The only part of the complex to survive was the West Building, which was the storehouse for completed books awaiting distribution. Ellen White had been warning of just such a catastrophe for some time; God was not pleased with the nature of many of the commercial publishing jobs they had been taking on, which included books on witchcraft, criticisms of religion, and sexually explicit material. The morning after the fire the Review and Herald board met and decided to put off any decisions about rebuilding until the 1903 General Conference Session, which was then just three months away.

Next: The Two Sides