Ellen White and the man who masturbated
The Seventh-day Adventist prophetess is Ellen White. She coerced a very ill man to confess he masturbated. Then she did this. Trigger warning: CSA. Sort of. It's gross.
About Victorians: The Victorian Era is when Queen Victoria reigned, from 1837 to 1901.
Middle-class Victorian Era people were known for their strict morals: “The values of the period—…can be classed as religion, morality, Evangelicalism, industrial work ethic, and personal improvement…”. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Victorian_morality
In practice, that meant patriarchy, tradwives, children “seen and not heard”, and only helping poors who were good enough to deserve help. The 1834 British Poor act coined a term for these poors—the “deserving poor”.
The Seventh-day Adventist Church was made by American Protestant Victorians and retains Victorian morals at its core.
About Ellen White: Ellen White (White) is the Seventh-Day Adventist (Adventist, SDA) Church’s prophetess. She lived from 1827-1915, suffered a head injury as a child, had visions, wrote a lot. Adventists teach God spoke to her and worked miracles through her.
White plagiarized a lot. She even plagiarized her “visions from God”.
Source on plagiarism: https://youtube.com/c/TesttheProphet
This blog post’s main source:
Ellen White’s article “Moral Pollution”. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/12886.884#902
Note: EGW Writings website is by the White Estate, an organization Ellen White set up to translate and publish her writings worldwide.
Under “Details” section of this book, the site says:
“First printings in individually numbered pamphlet form of Ellen G. White's "Testimonies for the Church," volumes 1-5, which she later reissued with personal references omitted and editorial improvements made to in the current 9-volume series.”
So at first printing, this story—written by Ellen White—was part of a pamphlet mailed to Seventh-day Adventists across the USA. Then all the pamphlets were reprinted into books and sold worldwide.
Of note: This wasn't a private letter. It should have been.
So first off, actul Victorian Era masturbation history: Victorian Era people were obsessed with masturbation. They called it “self-abuse”, “secret vice”, “Onanism”, “Onania”, “self-pollution”, and “solitary vice”. It caused all sorts of health problems, they said, and it was immoral.
The Victorians were influenced by a bunch of eminent white men from the 1700s on who wrote about immoral masturbation and its horrific consequences. One can read more here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_masturbation
Here’s an early list of masturbation maladies from a 1716 pamphlet printed in London. Titled “Onania, or the Heinous Sin of Self-pollution, And All Its Frightful Consequences, In Both Sexes, Considered: With Spiritual and Physical Advice To Those Who Have Already Injured Themselves By This Abominable Practice”, it says masturbation causes:
Disturbances of the stomach and digestion, loss of appetite or ravenous hunger, vomiting, nausea, weakening of the organs of breathing, coughing, hoarseness, paralysis, weakening of the organ of generation to the point of impotence, lack of libido, back pain, disorders of the eye and ear, total diminution of bodily powers, paleness, thinness, pimples on the face, decline of intellectual powers, loss of memory, attacks of rage, madness, idiocy, epilepsy, fever and finally suicide.
Masturbation causes everything from pimples to suicide, says that pamphlet.
Proper “spiritual and physical advice” would cure masturbation. Physical advice boiled down to make yourself exhausted, uncomfortable, and maybe tie your hands together while you slept. “Spiritual advice” meant praying very very hard and maybe confessing to your pastor about your masturbation.
In the 1700s and 1800s, people wrote books repeating this misinformation. Adventists did too.
Modern SDA anti-masturbation teachings: Adventist children and adults are still taught masturbation is an addiction. Usually, it’s the more conservative Adventists who say so. In Purity Culture books and Young Disciple Magazine and camps, I was taught that masturbation was an addiction as bad as any drug addiction and the same as cheating on my future husband.
(Here's a modern fringe SDA-member-created video saying masturbation is a sin. No, I didn't watch all 27 minutes.)
So anyways, in the 1800s, two Adventists wrote anti-masturbation books:
1870: Ellen White published her anti-masturbation book: “A Solemn Appeal Relative to Solitary Vice, and the Abuses and Excesses of the Marriage Relation”.
(Note: “Abuses and Excesses of the Marriage Relation” means “lots of fun heterosexual married sexy times”. White write God was against that.)
Masturbation, White wrote, caused different symptoms in men versus women.
In men, masturbation caused:
…numerous pains in the system, and various diseases, such as affection of the liver and lungs, neuralgia, rheumatism, affection of the spine, diseased kidneys, and cancerous humors. … there is often a sudden breaking down of the constitution; and death is the result. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/6.14#67
In women, masturbation caused:
“…catarrh, dropsy, headache, loss of memory and sight, great weakness in the back and loins, affections of the spine, and frequently, inward decay of the head. Cancerous humor, which would lie dormant in the system their lifetime, is inflamed, and commences its eating, destructive work. The mind is often utterly ruined, and insanity supervenes.”https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/6.14#102
Masturbation consequences per Ellen White: Both genders suffer normal aging, cancer, spine “affections”. Men get lung problems and drop dead. Women go insane.
White said masturbation made one evil because pseudoscience: White wrote masturbation “destroyed” one’s “brain nerve power” by ruining the “electric power of the brain nerves”. Damaged nerves prevented masturbators from being able to hear their conscience, so they could not obey God. Conscience-free, their wicked “lower powers” took over.
Per White: Masturbators were both physically ill and immoral. Oh, and male masturbators suffered lung diseases. https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/12886.884#890
1877: Then-Adventist Dr. Kellogg’s anti-masturbation book published. Dr. John Kellogg—of Kellogg’s cereal and The Road To Wellville fame—wrote “Plain Facts for Old and Young”. He wrote masturbation caused:
“…cancer of the womb, urinary diseases, nocturnal emissions, impotence, epilepsy, insanity, and mental and physical debility…” https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_masturbation
Kellogg and White were influenced by this early American anti-masturbator—Pastor Graham of graham cracker fame:
Sylvester Graham (July 5, 1794 – September 11, 1851) was an American Presbyterian minister and dietary reformer known for his emphasis on vegetarianism, the temperance movement, and eating whole-grain bread. His preaching inspired the graham flour, graham bread, and graham cracker products. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sylvester_Graham
1837: Pastor Graham’s book about masturbation: Pastor Graham wrote a book, “A lecture to young men on chastity: intended also for the serious consideration of parents and guardians”. Graham wrote:
the patient [person trying to stop masturbation] cannot be too careful to observe a strictly correct and undeviating regimen; nor too scrupulously avoid spirits, and wine, and malt liquors, and every other kind of alcoholic drinks—even in the smallest quantity; and opium, and tobacco, and coffee, and tea, and all other narcotics; and pepper, and ginger, and mustard, and horse-radish, and peppermint;—and, in short, every kind of stimulating and heating substances. https://archive.org/details/7704062.nlm.nih.gov
Instead, Graham wrote, one must be vegetarian, drink water, and eat graham flour products. All this reduced and/or prevented masturbation.
And so, American Victorians believed eating graham flour prevented masturbation. That's why graham crackers were invented. Yes, really.
^^^^^ (line break attempt) ^^^^^
The main story starts here:
1869: Ellen White committed this atrocity, published it, mailed it to devout Adventists across the USA.
In its time, this story was supposed to be cautionary anti-masturbation tale. It is a case study of coercive control.
I'm going to break it down sentence by sentence exactly as written here: https://m.egwwritings.org/en/book/12886.884#902
First paragraph:
My husband and myself attended a meeting in ——.
Adventist founding couple James White and Ellen White (Whites) had traveled to attend “a meeting” at location “— —” aka “location withheld”. That’s a modicum of privacy given; White showed some decency. Not enough, though. Adventists who knew the situation read White’s pamphlets and learned this man’s private business.
Now, in early Adventist-ese, “meeting” meant a conference or a camp meeting. Conferences were a get-together of church leaders. Camp meetings were for everyone and held in big tents. Like this:
This photo is titled “Ellen G. White attends the Moss, Norway, camp meeting in June 1887. Photo from the Ellen G. White Estate. https://www.nadadventist.org/news/camp-meeting-still-here-after-150-years
Story time! My great-great grandma was converted to Adventism circa 1910s at an SDA camp meeting. The SDAs came to town, put up a big white circus tent, and held free indoctrination meetings.
Nowadays many American SDA conferences use big circus tents at their private camp meetings.
Here's a 2015 photo of SDAs at a camp meeting in Maine, USA:
Source: http://www.fortfairfieldjournal.com/ffj/2015/09021503a.html
Our sympathies were enlisted for a brother who was a great sufferer with the phthisic.
A google says “phthisic” means a chronic lung disease, probably asthma or tuberculosis.
He was pale and emaciated.
Probably tuberculosis then. Per White’s pseudoscience book, published the next year, a man got lung “affections” from masturbation.
Coercive control tactic: Assume the worst of the person asking for your help.
He requested the prayers of the people of God. He said that his family were sick, and that he had lost a child. He spoke, with feeling, of his bereavement.
This man came to the Adventists for help. He was very sick. His child just died.
Coercive control tactic: White’s terminology here. She sets Adventists superior. They're “the people of God”; holier than the sick man.
He said that he had been waiting for some time to see Bro. and Sr. White. He had believed that if they would pray for him, he would be healed.
There was no cure for tuberculosis nor asthma then. This man was doomed to lingering death, he could not support his family, and he was trying his last resort—faith healing via God’s prophetess’s prayers.
After the meeting closed, the brethren called our attention to the case. They said that the church was assisting them. His wife was sick, and his child had died. The brethren had met at his house, and united in praying for the afflicted family.
I have been to thousands of hours of Adventist camp meetings, conferences, and Bible prophecy seminars. From experience, I know “after the meeting closed” was “at least 9pm”. Bedtime.
Coercive control tactic: Make them wait.
We were much worn, and had the burden of labor upon us during the meeting, and wished to be excused.
The Whites, understandably, were tired after traveling, presumably speaking, and the late hour. They wanted to go to bed. The local elders asked her to go pray with the sick man first.
Paragraph two, which ought to be at least three paragraphs but I digress:
I had resolved not to engage in prayer for any one, unless the Spirit of the Lord should dictate in the matter.
But wait! White had set a personal boundary.
She wouldn’t pray for anyone unless she wanted to. That's what “unless the Spirit of the Lord should dictate in the matter” means in plain English.
Coercive control here: Make what they're asking for a scarce commodity.
I had been shown that there was so much iniquity abounding, even among professed Sabbath-keepers, that I did not wish to unite in prayer for those of whose history I had no knowledge.
This means “White decided this guy totally masturbated, so it’s his fault he's sick, and also he was immoral”. She only was going to pray for deserving sick people. This is a Victorian thing: only give charity to deserving poor.
Coercive control tactic: Blame the ill for being ill. Label them immoral.
I stated my reason. I was assured by brethren that, as far as they knew, he was a worthy brother.
The SDA elders said he was probably a good bloke deserving of prayers. It speaks to the power White held that nobody called her “hurr durr, he's probably not worthy of my prayers” act. Instead the elders carefully used weasel words to defend the man’s character “as far as they knew”.
Coercive control tactic: Deniably gossip. Question others to see if the person is “worthy”.
I conversed a few words with the one who had solicited our prayers that he might be healed. I could not feel free. He wept.
Ellen White condescended to talk to the sick man. She had feelings.
Sick man wept.
A two sentence prayer could have sent this man happily on his way, but nope. Not even going to bed sooner could motivate White to pray for sick dude.
Coercive control tactic: Deny. Make them cry.
Said he had waited for us to come, and felt assured that if we would pray for him he would be restored to health. We told him we were unacquainted with his life; that we had rather those who knew him would pray for him.
Sick man has hope. The Whites said, nah, you might sin, let the locals pray for you.
That's a shitty pass the buck act. Sick man has already had the local Adventists pray for him. It didn't work. He's escalating his case here.
This still happens in SDA circles. The very sick person is told to vegan and pray away the thing. The LBGTQ+ person is told to vegan and pray away the things. And when it doesn’t work, they're told to vegan and pray away the thing.
No advice is ever given on what to do when prayer and veganing don’t work. The person is doing it wrong somehow. Or they're sinning. Or they lack faith.
Never is one permitted to ask “Wait, what if veganing and praying doesn’t work?”
Back to the story: But this guy is trying something different. He's escalated his case from God’s Last True Church(TM) elders’s prayers to God’s Last True Prophetess’s(TM) prayers.
Coercive control tactic: Advise cures that don't work. Tell person to keep trying cures that don't work.
He importuned us so earnestly that we decided to consider his case, and present it before the Lord that night; and if the way seemed all clear, we would comply with his request.
Sick man talked the Whites into praying to God to see if God’s ok with the White’s praying for the sick man.
Coercive control tactic: Put unnecessary extra steps in the way.
That night we bowed before God and presented his case before him. We entreated that we might know the will of God concerning him. All we desired was that God might be glorified. Would the Lord have us pray for this afflicted man? We left the burden with the Lord, and retired to rest.
The Whites prayed to God about the sick man to see if God wants them to pray to God about the sick man.
Coercive control tactic: Pretend a loving God doesn’t want some people prayed for.
In a dream the case of that brother was clearly presented. His course from his childhood up was shown, and if we should pray, the Lord would not hear us; for he regarded iniquity in his heart.
Ellen White dreamed a dream about the sick man. “Regarded iniquity in his heart” is a Bible phrase quote.
Coercive control tactic: Claim God himself sent you a dream about sick person’s guilt.
The next morning the brother came for us to pray for him. We took him aside, and told him we were sorry to be compelled to refuse his request.
Ellen White didn’t feel like praying for the sick man—that's the plain English version of her religious talk here. She tells him she's sorry won’t pray for him.
Coercive control tactic: Pretend you're very sorry when you refuse help.
I related my dream, which he acknowledged was true. He had practiced self-abuse from his boyhood up. He had continued the practice during his married life.
White was SO obsessed about masturbation, and SO SURE that an emaciated man masturbated, that she dreamed about him. Masturbating. As a kid. On up through adulthood.
Unabashed, she told him she dreamed she saw child!him masturbating.
Sick man he was so desperate he admitted it.
First off, science shows most people masturbate.
Secondly, science shows there’s health benefits to masturbation. A real God woulda told White this.
Third, Ellen White sees nothing inappropriate with telling this guy her voyeurism dreams about child!him masturbating.
Fourth, she was totally fine telling all the Victorian SDAs she's a creep.
Coercive control tactic: Accuse the person. Make them confess.
He said he would try to break himself of this sin.
He was desperate. He would say anything to get God’s last prophetess to pray for his healing.
This man had a long-established habit to overcome. He was in the middle age of life. His moral principles were so weak when brought in conflict with long-established indulgence, that they were overcome. The animal had gained the ascendency over the higher nature.
No, he had an incurable disease in the age before antibiotics, was doomed to a horrible death, could not support his family, just had his child die, knew he was leaving his family in poverty, and White is his last resort.
I asked him in regard to health reform. He could not live it, he said.
White asked prying questions into his lifestyle.
His body was wasting away. He likely needed heme iron (only available in animal food sources), and caffeine stimulants to survive his day. That’s against the SDA “health reform”.
Coercive control tactic: Pry. Throw all admissions of guilt or sin into the sick person’s face.
His wife would throw graham flour out of doors, if it was brought into the house.
Aaaaand here is the boundaries. Sick man’s wife knew damn well what Adventists bringing graham flour into her house meant. It meant they were low-key accusing her husband, herself, and her kids of causing their own illnesses by masturbation. The wife had none of that and threw the graham flour out.
Coercive control tactic: The people you are helping don’t accept unasked-for insulting “help”? Hold that against them.
This man had been helped by the church. Prayer also, had been offered in their behalf.
Their child had died, and the wife was sick, and the husband and father would leave his case upon us, for us to bring before a pure and holy God, that he might work a miracle for him and make him well. The moral sensibilities of this man were benumbed.
Graham flour and prayers are not much help.
White—voyeur, accuser, and prophetess of God—doesn’t know germ theory.
She blamed the man for his illness, his wife’s illness, and their child’s death.
She exploited him; telling thousands of SDAs his story to claim one can be too wicked to be prayed for.
Multi-step coercive control tactics here:
Demonize private harmless actions most people do—like masturbation.
Falsely connect harmless action to horrific consequences, including personal rejection by God.
Write down relevant example horrific story.
Send it to thousands of believers.
Because many of them masturbate, this story will instill guilt and terror in them.
Profit! Guilt-ridden, terrified people are easily controlled—they'll tithe, volunteer, attend church, buy the anti-masturbation book White soon published, and proselytize.