One of the major functions of the Adventist school system is to thoroughly indoctrinate the children in the ways of Ellen White. After all, if they hear this from childhood, they will probably remain pretty much captive. And with all the ridiculous teachings from the mouth of Ellen White, the Adventist church will need all the staunch supporters it can muster.” —From the World Wide Web.

I have been an Adventist all of my 21 years. My parents are Adventists, my grandparents are Adventists, many of my friends are Adventist. My grandfather is a pastor at the Azure Hills Church in Grand Terrace, California. I have attended Adventist schools since kindergarten. I learned Ellen White was a prophet and one of the pioneers of our church, but I didn’t learn this at school. I was encouraged to read from her writings, and I studied some of her books. But this was all in my spare time or as part of the Pathfinder program. Not once in my educational career have I been “made” to read any of Ellen White’s writings. They were not printed in our textbooks nor taught in our Bible classes! So you can imagine my surprise when I read the statement quoted above.

I’m not saying that our lack of Ellen-education is a good thing. I asked around my college campus to find out what students thought of Ellen. Surprisingly, most students I talked to were poorly informed. Many confused Ellen with other Adventist pioneers or recited “famous quotes” Ellen never wrote. Often what they “knew” turned out to be incorrect statements passed around the youth community. They shrugged off these strange quotes and beliefs as “stories” rather than helpful advice and revelations. A lot of this false information about Ellen White came from Web sites devoted to bashing Ellen and the Adventist church. These sites do not hesitate to misquote and to quote out of context.

When I began my own exploration of anti-Adventist Web sites, I was upset. Some sites claimed Ellen was a false prophet and that the Adventist church is steeped in lies. The sites even provided quotations from Ellen White’s books and writings to prove these points. At first I was heartbroken, not able to even think straight for hours. Then I decided to do what I had learned to do in my Bible classes in high school: do my own research and come to my own conclusions. In addition to the critical sites, I checked out sites that answered the critics. My study renewed my respect for the ministry of Ellen White.

One favorite accusation of the anti-Adventists is that if an Adventist renounces belief in Ellen White they are “thrown out” of the church. There have been a few cases of people in authoritative positions being asked to leave their positions because of their views on Ellen White. They were not, however, “thrown out” of the church. The church took action to preserve the beliefs of the church but not to remove these individuals from membership in it. It is not too much to ask that educators and church leaders believe in Ellen’s inspired writings. People in roles of power in any religion should have faith in their own roots and beliefs.

“Seventh Day Adventism cannot survive without Ellen White. Once an Adventist realizes that she is a false prophet, other Adventist doctrines go one by one.” This common belief is held not only by non-Adventists, but by a lot of our youth as well. But I don’t believe that without Ellen there would be no Adventist church. If God didn’t speak through Ellen, there would be some other way for us to learn. But we do have Ellen, and her writings are helpful and accurate. Perhaps in the past, the writings of Ellen White were read frequently and studied by people of all ages in the church. But now Ellen has become something of a ghost in our education and church system. Our own younger generations are unaware of her statements and predictions and the wonderful and interesting things she wrote. It is sad that Ellen is not taught adequately in many of our schools. We need to pull her back out and teach her messages to our members.

I believe Adventists of all generations should discover for themselves what Ellen White wrote in her books. Younger Adventists who are unaware of Ellen’s actual statements should be exposed to the real Ellen White.

Jenann Elias is a student at Union College, Lincoln, Nebraska.