How Shall We Regard Ellen White?

How Shall We Regard Ellen White?: A Review of "The Red Books: Our Search for Ellen White"

by Nathan Schilt (posted on Adventist Today Blog)

Did you ever hear the tune, "What do you do with a drunken sailor?" I'm not sure just how this old English chantey made it into the musical canon of my conservative Adventist childhood. But it's there - and to my great surprise, it recently flashed across my mental screen as I was driving home from a performance of the eagerly awaited "Red Books" at Loma Linda University Church. Perhaps it was the way in which Ellen White was caricatured; perhaps it was the still ringing question - "What do we do with Ellen White?" - that started me humming the tune. But there it was...with suddenly updated lyrics: "What do you do with a sullied prophet? "Well, unlike the drunken sailor, you can't just "put 'er in a long boat til she's sober"... can you? It's a bit more complicated with prophets and prophetic writings, more like putting Humpty Dumpty together again.

"Red Books: Our Search for Ellen White" provokes and stimulates, but proposes no satisfactory resolution of the question - "How shall we regard Ellen White?" Those who attend the play, anticipating a Norman Rockwell picture of a revered Adventist pioneer, will be disappointed. Unlike the advance billing, which hints at a bucolic stroll down memory lane, the actual production is for "mature" Adventists. It is, as the title suggests, more about us than about Ellen White. She is the central character, but not . . .

(Read Full Article At AdventistToday)