University of Alberta The Role of Dissent in the Creation of Seventh-day Adventist Identity By Timothy L. Dunfield A thesis submitted to the Faculty of Graduate Studies and Research in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Religious Studies © Timothy Dunfield Fall, 2009 Edmonton, Alberta, Canada Edmonton, Alberta Permission is hereby granted to the University of Alberta Libraries to reproduce single copies of this thesis and to lend or sell such copies for private, scholarly or scientific research purposes only. Where the thesis is converted to, or otherwise made available in digital form, the University of Alberta will advise potential users of the thesis of these terms. The author reserves all other publication and other rights in association with the copyright in the thesis and, except as herein before provided, neither the thesis nor any substantial portion thereof may be printed or otherwise reproduced in any material form whatsoever without the author's prior written permission Examining Committee Stephen Kent, Sociology Willi Braun, Religious Studies / History and Classics John Kitchen, Religious Studies / History and Classics Sylvia Brown, English Abstract This thesis studies the benefits that a religious organization acquires from its identification of, and reaction to, “deviants” within it. If an organization is to continue growing while still maintaining a unique identity, periodically it must have deviant movements within it. Theoretically, I apply insights from sociologists of deviance (particularly Durkheim and Erikson) about the functional benefits of deviance labeling for several aspects of group functioning, such as beliefs and the means of disseminating them, structure and hierarchy, internal policies, and leadership styles. I studied the Seventh-day Adventist organization, applying Festinger’s cognitive dissonance theory to it, in order to better illuminate its history and reaction to dissenters. I focused on three Adventist dissenters; Dudley Canright, John Harvey Kellogg, and the threat posed by Ellet J. Waggoner and Alonzo T. Jones, showing how the organization reinforced its boundaries and maintained control of its members by identifying and punishing these supposed deviants. Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………1 A Comment on Methodology and Sources..................................................8 Chapter 1: The Formation of Seventh-day Adventist Identity as a Strategy for Cognitive Dissonance Reduction…………………………………………..11 Millennialism…………………………………………………………….12 Spiritualism…………………………………………………………........15 Revivalism……………………………………………………………….19 William Miller and the Millerite Movement……………………………..21 Cognitive Dissonance and the Beginning of the Seventh-day Adventist Organization……………………………………………………………...26 Cognitive Dissonance Theory……………………………………………29 Adventist Formation as Dissonance Reducing Strategy…………………43 Ellen White: Adventist Prophet………………………………….47 Chapter 2: The Necessity of Dissent in Group Dynamics – Durkheim, Erikson, and the Rise of Adventist Dissenters………………………………...64 Dudley M. Canright……………………………………………………...68 Seventh-day Adventism Renounced……………………………...72 Life of Mrs. E. G. White, Seventh-day Adventist Prophet: Her Claims Refuted…………………………………………………...77 The Legitimacy of Ellen G. White as Adventist Identity Marker……………………………………………………79 Alternate Explanations for Ellen White’s Alleged Visions…………………………………………………...83 Contradictions and Mistakes in Ellen White’s Alleged Visions and Statements…………………………………..86 The Lord’s Day, from neither Catholics nor Pagans…………....93 Ellet J. Waggoner and Alonzo T. Jones…………………………………95 John Harvey Kellogg…………………………………………………...102 Chapter 3: Dissent and the Reintroduction of Cognitive Dissonance……..110 Seventh-day Adventist Response to Dissenters………………………..111 Organizational Response to Canright………………………….112 Organizational Response to Waggoner and Jones……………..114 Organizational Response to Kellogg…………………………..118 Response to Dissenters as Reinforcement of Group Identity………….121 Effects of Dissent on the Organizational Structure and Control Mechanisms of the SDA Organization…………………………123 Effects of Pantheism on the Theology of the SDA Organization……………………………………………………………………124 Reaffirmation of the Role of Ellen White Within the SDA Organization…………………………………………………….125 Sabbath, the Law, and Dissent………………………………….127 Group Identity – The Reintroduction of Cognitive Dissonance………..130 Chapter 4: Conclusion and Implications…………………………………….133 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………...145 Appendix 1: Examples of Ellen White’s Emotional Instability and the Dramatic and Public Nature of Her Early Visions and Healings………….157 1 Introduction “To those who cling to power through corruption and deceit and the silencing of dissent, know that you are on the wrong side of history…” (Obama, 2009: 11 italics added). In his inaugural address, President Barack Obama expressed an idea that Emile Durkheim (1895: 67) had stated over 100 years earlier; dissent is an important and vital part of any healthy society, and that those who attempt to silence it may in fact be damaging the very society they think they are defending. While nations like North Korea,1 China, Myanmar, or South Africa under apartheid immediately come to mind as targets for Obama’s words regarding the repression of dissidents, foreign nations are certainly not the only social groups capable of acts designed to silence dissenting voices.2 In the history of the United States, as recently as the twentieth century, American repression of dissidents such as Martin Luther King, Jr. and the civil rights movement or student protests against the Vietnam War symbolize the failed policies of governmental attempts at silencing dissent. The history of religion offers other views of dissident repression. The inquisition of the Middle Ages, the Anabaptist repression in Germany, and early Puritan and Quaker suppression in England (as well as the Puritan suppression of Quakers in New England) are only a few examples of attempted repression of 1 See Chol-Hwan Kang’s The Aquariums of Pyongyang: Ten Years in the North Korean Gulag (2000). 2 North Korean human rights atrocities against dissidents are so well catalogued by various media outlets that I will not give examples, and one need only remember the Chinese government’s crackdown on dissidents in Tiananmen Square or their repression of the Falun Gong organization to find examples of Chinese dissident suppression. In South Africa, the ruling party eventually murdered dissident Stephen Biko who spoke out against apartheid. Myanmar has kept pro-democracy advocate and dissident leader Aung San Suu Kyi under house arrest since 1989. 2 religious dissent. These repressions, however, all failed to silence the dissident movements. The inquisition failed to silence dissenting members (heretics) and eventually led to the Protestant Reformation, while the persecution of the Anabaptists gave added fuel to the Reformation under Martin Luther. As Kai Erikson demonstrated in Wayward Puritans (1966) the Puritan repression of Quakers in New England in the seventeenth century eventually contributed to the acceptance of religious toleration in the United States, something the Puritans firmly rejected and fought hard to defeat. These South African, American, and religious organizational examples represent one possible social response to dissent – initial persecution followed in time by an incorporation of the dissenting opinion into social life and a renegotiation of identity boundaries. Although society may or may not eventually incorporate a dissenting opinion, the act of dissent is vital for societal health. Therefore, I propose that the act of dissent and societies’ response to it may be as important as the actual content of the dissenting opinion. I also believe that society has at least three responses to dissent. The first is the silencing of dissent (through censure, incarceration, banishment from the group, or in extreme cases capital punishment) and a refusal to incorporate or entertain any of the dissenting opinions into its self-identity. The second response is one in which society initially rejects the dissenting opinion and initially punishes or suppresses the expression(s) of dissent, yet over time renegotiates its identity to include the dissenting opinion. Finally, society may co-opt dissent and thereby disarm it, by incorporating the dissenting opinion within its identity framework. 3 This current work will show that dissent is a necessary component of group identity formation. In my research I study the benefits that an established religious organization acquires from its identification of, and reaction to, ‘deviants’ (dissenters) within it. In order for a religious organization to continue growing numerically and theologically while still maintaining a belief in its own distinct identity and beliefs, periodically it must have deviant movements (or dissident members) in its midst. For the purpose of this thesis, I have chosen the Seventh-day Adventist (SDA) organization as a case study. The SDA organization arose in the aftermath of the Millerite disappointment of the mid nineteenth century in the United States under the leadership of self – proclaimed prophet, Ellen White. Commentators differ over how precisely to classify the Adventist organization since it holds a majority of its belief system in common with the larger Protestant community, yet encompasses features common to both cults3 and sects.4 For the