THE BROKEN BLUEPRINT

PART THREE - D
THE STORY OF LOMA LINDA: WHAT IT DID TO OUR CHURCH
(1905 - ONWARD)

  THE PARRETT MEMOIRS

AN EYEWITNESS RECALLS THE PAST

In March 1977, Owen S. Parrett, M.D., wrote his memoirs. He had come to Loma Linda in 1908 to complete his medical training and worked his way through school doing masonry work. While constructing buildings at the college and taking studies, he became a close friend of John Burden.

Parrott attended the school as an older student during the crucial years from 1907 to 1915. After graduating, he want to work at the Paradise Valley Sanitarium, to which Burden had been transferred. Parrett also knew many church leaders and workers. He was as close an eyewitness to what took place as anyone who lived at that time. Here are several excerpts from Dr. Parretts memoirs. They briefly overview certain events between 1907 and some time after 1915. Bracketed items are ours:

This is a difficult story to tell. The differences between Elders John Burden, founder of CME, and Arthur Daniells, GC president, focus on the question: Was a special preparation to be given to those desiring a regular training, or was a regular schooling to be given to those desiring a regular training? Did God desire at the College of Medical Evangelists to offer a special preparation for those of our youth who feel it their duty to practice as regularly qualified physicians [see Counsels to Teachers, pp. 479-481], or did God desire CME to merely train regularly qualified physicians? Ordinary or unique? Here it focused.

The conflict between these two men, and between these two ideas, first came out in the open at the medical convention held at Loma Linda the last of  October 1907. During the discussion regarding the future of the College of [Medical] Evangelists, Elder Daniells asked the leaders at Loma Linda if they contemplate the establishment of a full-fledged medical college that will be recognized--that will give students a preparation for graduation that will be recognized by legal bodies such as the American Medical Association? You know it must have such recognition to be worth a nickel [see Loma Linda Messages, p. 538].

Elder Burden replied:

The question of recognition by the legal bodies was, of course, brought up, but we thought we should seek the recognition and approval of God rather than of the world. We have come to an issue with the world. The issue is between the everlasting truth of God and the standard of the world. This we know is true in religious matters, and it is equally true in matters of this kind. There is no true education except in the Gospel of Christ. It takes in all truth. It seems very clear that we are to go ahead with the establishment of such a school, irrespective of the fact that we cannot see the end. I do not believe God will call us to do a work of this kind and then leave us in darkness. We shall of course expect to start in a very humble way, and grow gradually to the standard He has set. But we must make a beginning. The promise is that He will be with us if we obey Him, and He will cause us to ride on the high places of the earth  [see ibid.].

Elder Daniells countered that we must have a school whose graduates would have all the credits that were due him and would be prepared so he could demand recognition . . It makes but little difference what standard we have, or what we think is right or not right [see LLM 542-543; contrast 6T 142; 9T 175-176] . .

As a young man I participated in this competitive educational system and commercial medical practice because it was the voted program of the church. But through the years, as I have studied the Lords counsels regarding His health ministry, I have come to see that He had a much better way for us. He was offering us a banquet, but we chose merely a sandwich stuffed with sawdust. He wanted many schools of the prophets, but Elder Daniells, particularly, insisted that unless CME was accredited with the AMA, it would not be worth a nickel [LLM 538].

In the cleavage between the principles of simple health evangelistic tracing and the complex training of regular AMA doctors, major steps came in the spring of 1910. As already noted, Elder Burden desired to see a special training for Christian physicians, whereas Elder Daniells insisted that an AMA training be given at CME.

On January 26, 1910, the question was written out in a letter to Ellen White, who answered it the following day . . Sr. White was asked if sufficient training should be given to those who desired to become regularly qualified doctors, to qualify them to pass state board examinations and become registered, qualified physicians for public work [Robinson, Story of Our Health Message, 385].

She replied that a special preparation was to be given to those whose convictions would otherwise lead them to become regularly qualified (ibid., p. 386; MM 57-58] by attending worldly colleges. Sadly, this counsel was not generally interpreted or applied in harmony with many previous counsels, such as the following . . [FE 286, quoted].

In a letter to Burden three months later, Sr. White made clear that this special preparation would train physicians who can stand before the world as fully qualified and legally recognized physicians . . who have obtained their diplomas . . qualifications and authority to conduct an educational work . . in medical missionary lines without being guided by man-made laws and restrictions . . It is a lack of faith in the power of God that leads our physicians to lean so much upon the arm of the law, and to trust so much to the influence of worldly powers [April 27, 1910; in LLM  899-903].

Although the future results of the 1910-1912 board decisions were not apparent at that time, Elder Burden was concerned by the efforts to offer a regular education leading to AMA recognition. At the March 25, 1914 constituency meeting of CME, he emphasized the need of following out the plans laid down by the Lord, that it is merit and not recognition that counts. We have a work to do and need not ask the world for its sanction. He stated that our sanitariums should be the best hospitals, in which our students could gain experience in association with God-fearing, Christian physicians, that we have been viewing things in a wrong light.

Elder W.A. Spicer felt that we were to choose between two ways, either to equip the school to meet the standard of the world or not to seek for their recognition. .

As an older medical missionary student at CME from 1907 to 1915, I was very aware of the antagonism toward Elder Burden which was coming from Daniells, Ruble, Salisbury, and a few other denominational leaders. However, this disrespect was usually concealed by those who gradually maneuvered him from responsibility.

In May of 1910, Elder Burden had been asked to turn the chairmanship of the board over to Elder George A. Irwin, president of the Pacific Union Conference, but retained his position as business manager until April of 1912, when the board gave it to W.D. Salisbury.

At the annual constituency and board meetings held March 27 to mid-April, 1912, Elder A.G. Daniells reported that he placed before the members of the board the importance of having a solicitor devoting his entire time to raising funds . . The votes cast were for Brother Burden (Daniels to W.C. White, August 9, 1912; LLM 1008].

Although the brethren voted to give Burden the titular [titles only] position of Treasurer of the institution . . Chaplain . . and Business Superintendent of the Sanitarium, the confessed intention of Daniells was that Burden become a solicitor devoting his entire time to raising funds. This could easily keep Burden away from Loma Linda.

The opinion of some was echoed by Dr. W.E. Bliss [at the time, medical superintendent of the New England Sanitarium] in his letter to Ruble of May 17, 1912: Elder Burdens leaving Loma Linda will, according to my opinion, be the best thing that has happened for some time . . He is too narrow in his views to allow the work to progress the way it ought to . .

Elder Burden told me that soon Sr. White was so concerned by what the Lord was revealing to her about what might happen to him, that she sent for him to come and have an interview with her and her son, Willie.

She said, Elder Burden, what are they trying to do to get you out of this institution? . . The Lord sent you here, and your work for this institution is not finished . . Sr. White suddenly stopped; but added, These men will yet have to learn their lesson. They think that I do not know what is going on, but I know everything that is going on!

And to a larger group [at another time] she said, If any of you think you could have done, or could do better than Elder Burden has done, it is time for you to get down on your knees before God.

Once when talking with Elder and Sister Burden, Sr. White said she saw an angel standing between them, with a hand on each shoulder, saying, As true to duty as the needle to the pole . .

During the special constituency meeting held Janaury 27, 1913, the board chairman, Elder G.A. Irwin, reported on the widespread problem which had resulted from the changes made at the previous constituency meetings [held in April 1912] relative to Elder Burdens responsibilities.

Following the constituency meeting, various stories and rumors were afloat relative to the attitude of the General Conference Committee toward the work of the College, and the position and work of brother Burden. These rumors put our finances in jeopardy not only here at the institution, but injured our influence and chance of obtaining means in the field. Time and energy that should have been devoted by the officers to building up and strengthening the work had to be given to correcting these wrong impressions and restoring confidence in the work and the good intentions and attitude of the General Conference toward the work and workers at Loma Linda.

I was an older student at Loma Linda at that time, and know that a few leaders did not appreciate Burdens superior, yet simple plans for training Christian physicians. These leaders hurt their own reputation by demoting Burden. A number of Adventists who had loaned money to the institution, expecting that it would be managed by Elder Burden in harmony with Ellen Whites superior, simple counsels, began to withdraw their money. Their confidence in the institution was based upon Elder Burdens commitment to the Lords counsels. When he was removed from being business manager, their confidence in the General Conference leadership was injured. As a result, those who wished his removal were ready to accuse Burden of tying the institution up to one man--himself. Yet Daniells, Ruble and Salisbury were tying CME up with secular hospitals and the AMA!

Probably Elder Burdens final assignment was his appointment to a committee to promote financial plans for the purchase of land in Los Angeles for a hospital! On June 15, 1915, he was asked to join with A.G. Daniells and others, to support the purchase of Boyle Heights property in the slum section of the city.

The story of Ellen Whites alleged approval for this plan has through the decades been challenged by noble church leaders. We, too, believe the facts have been misrepresented.

Elder Burden was repeatedly warned against establishing any medical institutions of any description in the city [except small health food restaurants, treatment rooms, and chapels]. Sr. White urged him to buy property in the country for sanitarium purposes. So it is easy to see why this assignment to support the purchase of land in Los Angeles, was his last assignment. He was transferred to Paradise Valley Sanitarium in late 1915 [after Ellen Whites death].

A year or two later, after I had become Elder Burdens associate and medical director of the Paradise Valley Sanitarium, Dr. Ruble visited us. [Ruble resigned from the presidency of Loma Linda in August 1914.] Apparently his relationship with Burden had been a burden on his conscience, for Ruble apologized to Burden for treating him as he had while they were at Loma Linda. Ruble explained that when he was sent in 1910 [from the General Conference] to be president of CME, he had instructions from headquarters to get that man Burden out of the institution. He told Elder Burden, At heart, I believed in the same principles that you advocated, and if God ever should put us together again, I would be most happy to work with you once more. Noble confession! But too late, too late!

About the same time, Percy Magan came to visit us, with the hope of getting Burden transferred back to help CME and the E.G. White Memorial Hospital [probably in fund-raising]. In the course of their conversation, Burden said to Magan, What Elijah the prophet failed to accomplish, Jehu had to do. Magan, who had in a way replaced Burden, asked, Where do I come in? Burden replied, That is for you to decide.

[As we will learn in this book, it was through Magans later persistent efforts to aid Loma Linda's accreditation status, that the final collision of our tattered collegiate blueprint system occurred. We have never recovered since.]

Dr. Kress was another leader who encouraged us to hold the standard high, and explained why we were meeting opposition. He told me that years earlier, at the time of the Kellogg disaffection, Elder Daniells was called upon as General Conference president to deal kindly with the doctor. Sr. White likened the whole affair to a great ship striking an iceberg [1903; 1 SM 205-206], shattering the ice but not without some damage to the ship. Hoping to still save the doctor for Christ, she wrote Elder Daniells to put his arm around the man. Daniells was uncomfortable with this plea, and inquired of his GC associates what Sister White meant by saying, Put your arm around the man. A member of the committee spoke up and said, I know what she means, Brother Daniells. She means to put your arm around the man!

I was sorry to find him [Daniells] arrayed so strongly against the one man chosen by the prophet to head up the medical missionary evangelistic work at CME. I could see that he was happy to rid Loma Linda of this one man, and wondered what I might do to change the situation. So I phoned Elder Daniells while one of the annual CME board meetings was in session, asked if I could be allowed a few minutes to speak to the delegates. He was willing and set up an appointment for me during a morning session, at 10:00 a.m.

Arriving at the appointed time, I walked into the meeting and sat down. As soon as he saw me, he told the committee that he had promised that I be given a few minutes to present a matter to them; and knowing I had left my patients and office to be present, they would stop other business to let me speak.

With a silent prayer that the Holy Spirit would direct and give me courage, I went forward; and, turning half way around, I addressed Elder Daniells as follows:

Elder Daniells, you have served the cause of God around the world as a man chosen to lead our people in giving His last message to the world. The whole body of our people recognize that in 1901 God called you to be leader to this denomination, which had already seen your service both in Australia and these United States. Your promotion of foreign missions has rallied our people to enter many countries. We wish to thank you for your years of devotion to that phase of the work.

In like manner, the prophet chose a young man early in his life and prepared him for leadership in the medical missionary field, namely John A. Burden. Just as God called you to your field, He called brother Burden to locate, purchase, and lay the foundation of the College of Medical Evangelists in Loma Linda.

I can visualize that if you two men could work in harmony together, the force of this combination would be irresistible, for even while working separately you each have made your mark. For some time many in our denomination have felt that if each of you men could unite your forces together it would bring such a step forward, as to quickly finish the work and find us crossing the Jordan. If you two men could work together, each supporting the other in a great forward movement, including health reform [Daniells was still a meat eater], I believe it would fire the imagination of our entire world field and give God just the chance He has been waiting for to get our people out of this wilderness of sin. I am sure that Elder Burden would gladly unite with you in such a plan. I pray that this may take place.

As I finished speaking, I saw men all through the audience wiping tears from their eyes, and we were conscious that the Holy Spirit had come very near. One could feel the air was fairly charge with His presence, as I added one more sentence.

I appeal to you, Brother Daniells, to bury your antagonism and extend your hand to Elder Burden in loving cooperation.

My heart was too full to say more. Thanking the committee for hearing me, I turned to go. Daniells thanked me and walked me out the door [perhaps to ensure that he did not hang around to talk to the delegates afterward].

So far as I know, there was no change made in his attitude; although I am sure that Elder Burden would have been overjoyed to work in full cooperation, had brother Daniells been so disposed. But it just was not to be. Elder Daniells was a man of strong feelings whose likes and dislikes seemed not easily changed. His continued use of flesh foods could not but confuse his judgment: Erroneous eating and drinking result in erroneous thinking and acting (9T p. 160).

Years later, as Elder Burden looked back at the trend which his school was taking, he recalled a significant detail. For several months after its purchase, he and Elder Owen held in trust the title deed to the Loma Linda property, hoping it could soon be turned over to the conference. But when he suggested to Ellen White his desire to deed the property over to the conference, she thrice [three times] objected: Not yet. Not yet. Not yet! The conference brethren, apparently, were not sufficiently grounded in the Lords plans, for Loma Linda to be entrusted into their hands. But shortly thereafter, without getting clearance from the Lords Messenger, Burden went ahead and deeded the property over to the conference.

Years later, Burden confessed to me that that was one of the worst mistakes I ever made. I should have heeded Sr. Whites cautions, and not surrendered the property without permission. Owen S. Parrett, M.D., Memoirs, March 1977.

We have already learned that, several years earlier, Ellen White had been shown that there were times when it was not safe to entrust institutions and missionary projects to church ownership.

In the organization and management of the Madison school, it was not placed under the control of the conference. But the reasons why this school was not owned and controlled by the conference have not been duly considered.--EGW, SpTB11 p. 32.

In the providence of God, a man or a small group, pleading with God for help, will set to work amid great sacrifice and hardship to do a special work which should be done, which the church sees little value in doing (or it would be already doing it). If such a project were turned over to the denomination, committees at a distance, busy with a great variety of responsibilities, would henceforth be in charge of major project decisions. Independent ministries are not wrong, but they must be conducted in accordance with the blueprint, by men and women dedicated to adhering to it.

On July 16, 1915, at the age of 87, Ellen White passed to her rest. Within two months, Elder Burden was transferred to Paradise Valley Sanitarium. Shortly before her death, she had spoken to him.

In talking with Elder John Burden shortly before his death, he told me that, during his last visit with Sister White, she made the statement that God was going to lay her to rest in order to save her the heartbreaking experience of seeing her message to the church rejected.--S.A. Nagel, Newsletter, July 1961.

As a result of Daniells mismanagement in the crisis at Loma Linda and elsewhere, in the summer of 1922 he was ousted from the presidency of the General Conference.

We will now return to 1910, and continue the story of how the changeover occurred:

  OTHER EVENTS IN 1910

THE MAY 1910 MEETING

Events in 1910 laid the groundwork for that which followed. In January, the Pacific Union Conference, meeting in biennial session in Moain View, heard an appeal from leaders at CME for additional financial support. The session went beyond that, and voted a recommendation calling for Loma Linda to offer a full medical course, and that the controlling board be enlarged to include representation from the General Conference and all the union conferences in North America, and that all of them help support the new school.

In April, the Spring Council voted to approve that recommendation and suggested three General Conference members of that board, including Daniells.

These crucial decisions placed the control of CME in the hands of men who knew little about the medical missionary blueprint and who had never observed it in action.

A representative council convened at Loma Linda, on May 6-10, and enacted a number of important measures.

The college and the sanitarium were combined under a single organization. This action set aside Ellen Whites plan that they remain separate, blend as equals, and work very closely together. Henceforth, the college ranked highest and the sanitarium was merely an extension of it. No longer could the two learn from one other and, together, go out and do missionary work. From this time onward, medical studies, emulating more and more those in outside universities, stood foremost; and the patients were something to work on.

(The previous year, its name had been changed from The College of Evangelists to The College of Medical Evangelists.)

CME was made a General Conference institution; and a board of ten members was selected, which included the presidents of the General Conference, the Pacific Union Conference, and the Southern California Conference. Henceforth, Daniells could heavily influence decisions regarding the school as he thought best.

The first step was taken to make CME into a look-alike hospital, with the authorization of $25,000 for the construction of a small hospital on the campus, for the care of surgical and critical-care patients. In contrast, the blueprint tended to focus (not on a critical-care patient/in-patient-out pattern but) on treating patients with natural remedies, changing their lifestyle, and winning them to Christ.

Dr. W.A. Ruble was placed in charge, as president of the college. Although a sincere man, he did not understand the blueprint as had his predecessors.

The borrowing of money had begun. Although the leaders had earlier been warned not to launch out in any project which would involve Loma Linda in heavy debt, unless they fully understood how much was involved, they did it anyway.

I dare not advise you in such large plans as you propose. You need to make the Lord your wisdom in these matters. I do not feel that you should plan for such large outlay of means without your having some certainty that you can meet your obligations. I would caution you against gathering a large load of indebtedness.--EGW, Letter 82, 1908.

INSIGHTS ON SURGERY

Since (in May 1910) the board had just voted to start Loma Linda down a path that would lead to an ever-increasing emphasis on surgery and critical care, here are a few statements to consider.

Percy T. Magan, in 1915, was elected dean of the college at Loma Linda and wrote this the same year:

Surgical patients are not the best class of patients to teach the message to. They do not come to us with any idea in their heads as a rule, of having their habits of life corrected. They come to have a little mechanical work done on their bodies so that they can be fixed up and go on in the same old way, and I fail to see any very great results as far as the Truth is concerned in these sanitariums where surgical work is the main thing. I am not decrying legitimate surgery, but I do not believe that it is the big thing for which our sanitariums are especially meant. God has given us a special work in dietetics and righteous physical living in every way whereby we can excel and save souls to the truth of God . .

I do not believe that one of Gods sanitariums that is following out the light of the Lord is going to be put out of business by any worldly surgical hospital. Our mission is away beyond their power to check.--Magan to W.C. White, March 3, 1915.

Ellen White wrote this:

The study of surgery and other medical science receives much attention in the world, but the true science of medical missionary work, carried forward as Christ carried it, is new and strange to the denominational churches and to the world. But it will find its rightful place when as a people who have had great light, Seventh-day Adventists awaken to their responsibilities and improve their opportunities.--Evangelism, p. 518.

Last night I seemed to be in the operating room of a large hospital, to which people were being brought, and instruments were being prepared to cut off their limbs in a big hurry. One came in who seemed to have authority, and said to the physician, Is it necessary to bring these people into this room? Looking pityingly at the sufferers, He said, Never amputate a limb until everything possible has been done to restore it.

Examining the limbs which the physicians had been preparing to cut off, He said, They may be saved. The first work is to use every available means to restore these limbs . . Your conclusions have been too hastily drawn. Put these patients in the best room in the hospital, and give them the very best of care and treatment. Use every means in your power to save them from going through life in a crippled condition, their usefulness damaged for life. EGW, Professionalism vs. Simplicity, October 20, 1902; The Abiding Gift of Prophecy, pp. 326-327; Unpublished Testimonies, p. 267. [For another statement, see 8T 187.]

MEANWHILE AT MADISON

On September 29, 1910, the College of Medical Evangelists officially opened as the denominational medical school. It was now a General Conference-controlled institution.

Only 10 days earlier, Percy Magan started the medical course at the University of Tennessee. As he and Ed Sutherland worked at their studies month after month, and as reports arrived of the difficulties experienced by their sister school at Loma Linda, Magan told Sutherland emphatically that if he were out there, he would work as hard as he could and do whatever it took to get CME fully accredited with a Class A rating for the training of nurses and medical students.

He also shared his concerns with his wife, Dr. Lillian, and with Dr. Newton Evans, both of whom were staff physicians at Madison. Percy Magan little dreamed of the far-ranging impact of those words and the regret that, by the 1930s, he would experience.

It was indeed strange that this strong-minded Irishman would take this position. Over the years, he and Sutherland had received numerous letters from Ellen White. They were seemingly well-acquainted with all aspects of the educational blueprint. But here was an omission in their grasp of the blueprint. Both recognized that the training school and the medical treatments should be radically different than those in the world; yet neither one had a clear understanding of the fact that the medical and nurses training school should not strive for a mirror-image of that which the universities of the world offered.

In his many contacts with Daniells, Magan had found him frequently promoting worldly objectives.

These included resistance to vegetarianism and to Ellen Whites urgent calls for them to move church offices and institutions out of the cities. From bitter experience, Magan well-knew that Daniells was determined to bring every independent ministry under church control.

Yet Magan came to completely side with Daniells in his passion to fully accredit Loma Linda. The two men were eventually to work closely together in the achievement of that goal.

A DECISION TO BECOME THE TAIL

Now that Elder Daniells was in control, the changeover could begin to take place. But it would not occur without encountering many difficulties and receiving many setbacks. It repeatedly became obvious that this was a step which our denomination should never have taken. This realization grew into a gigantic nightmare as the teen years changed into the 20s, and then into the 30s. The entire denomination was irretrievably affected by decisions first made in 1910.

Although most may have had the best of intentions, our leaders decided to bravely push their way toward full-AMA approval of Loma Linda. In making this decision, not only did they violate clear and repeated Spirit of Prophecy counsels not to take that step, but they also violated a basic financial principle.

Great care must be manifested in the establishing of sanitariums; for this is an important work. Those having the work in charge should counsel with experienced brethren regarding the best plans to follow. They should count the cost of every step taken. They should not launch out into the work without knowing how much money they have to invest.--Medical Ministry, p. 153.

In their effort to please the AMA, within four years, they had driven CME into debt to the amount of over $400,000 (Merlin Neff, For God and CME, p. 175). Yet such a debt, contracted by 1914, was only the beginning of the great mountain of expenditures and debt that was yet to come.

Because the decision to obtain accreditation had been made, Loma Linda was no longer independent. Add these courses, remove those courses, textbooks on these subjects must be used, put all these into your library, add this equipment, remodel your buildings, increase the number of beds, add more M.D.s and R.N.s. On and on it went; ever more requirements and expenses were demanded. The present writer was told in the 1960s that, by that time, our hospitals were required to have smoking rooms for the visitors. What other requirements have been made? We know that Loma Linda University, today, has at least one full-time salaried Roman Catholic priest on its staff. When we start affiliating with the world, there is no stopping point.

There will have to be a second conversion in the hearts of some of our leading medical fraternity, and a cutting away from the men who are trying to guide the medical ship into the harbor, else they themselves will never reach the haven of rest. Christ calls, Come out from among them, and be ye separate . . All this higher education that is being planned [by some of our leading medical fraternity in Battle Creek for training regular AMA physicians] will be extinguished; for it is spurious. The more simple the education of our workers, the less connection they will have with the men whom God is not leading, the more will be accomplished.--EGW, Series B, No. 7, p. 63.

COLWELLS 1912 VISIT

Although, as early as 1910, Loma Linda began enlarging its facilities in order to be more like the other medical schools, it was not until early in 1912 that CME began in earnest to seek accreditation.

A year before that, in the fall of 1911, Dr. Nathan P. Colwell, an inspector of Medical Colleges of the American Medical Association, visited Loma Linda in order to see what was happening there.

No request had been made for accreditation, and Colwell had not come to ask them to apply for it. He just wanted to see what the place looked like.

But, since he was there, after being shown about the place, Elder Burden invited him to his office and the two sat down and had a discussion. Dr. Ruble, CME president, later described it:

This gentleman, whose business it is to inspect and examine into the entrance requirements, curriculum, equipment, faculty, and library of medical schools and offer recommendations to the association regarding their acceptance as accredited medical schools, visited us a month ago and made a thorough examination of the work we are doing. The first question he asked was, Why are you starting a new school when there are already a hundred fifty medical schools in the United States?

To this, reply was made practically as follows: Our object in establishing a new medical school is:

1. To prepare medical missionaries to go into foreign lands to preach the gospel.

2. To provide a school where we can educate our own Seventh-day Adventist young people  for our own work.

3. To give young people a training in the special lines of treatment which we pursue in our denominational institutions that are scattered throughout the world. To throw around our students an influence tending to keep them true to their determination to prepare themselves for medical work. To provide a first class medical college where our young people may get a medical education without being obliged to violate their consciences by engaging in work on the seventh day of the week.

His [Colwells] reply was that he was in full sympathy with such a movement and that he saw the need of such a school.W.A. Ruble, in The Medical Evangelist, January 1912, pp. 17-18.

Many years later, Elder Burden recalled more of that conversation:

After examining the workings of the school and conferring with the doctors regarding their plans and purposes, he [Dr. Colwell] immediately took up the financial backing that seemed to be the prominent test in his mind. The doctors brought him to my office and turned him over to me. His first question was, What is the financial backing of this school? I replied that it was 110,000 consecrated people who made up all deficits occurring in any part of our mission or educational work, and who also furnished the means for our buildings and facilities by popular subscriptions, legacies, and donations. I gave him an idea of the yearly financial budget of the denomination for its world work, which seemed to be quite a surprise to him . .

I said, Doctor, before going further into the financial side of the matter, I would like to lay before you our entire missionary program. We are a world organization. Wherever we go we build our gospel plan on a threefold foundation. The spiritual, the mental, and the physical. The Bible doctrines are the basis of the spiritual development. Christian education is the basis of the mental development and restoration; but first and foremost is the care of the body, which is supplied by our medical department. All our missionaries must have this threefold preparation to go to foreign fields, and those who remain at home need the same preparation.

Will you tell me, Doctor, to what school we can send our young people to equip them for this world mission work with this threefold preparation?

He replied that there was no such school in existence. Then I said, Do you propose to destroy this little medical school that we are seeking to develop that is in no way competing with your endowed medical colleges, but is our only means for supplying our missionary program with consecrated missionaries to carry forward our work?

His answer was indirect. Said he, Mr. Burden, when I took my medical course it was to become a medical missionary.

And I asked, Did you go to the mission field?

No, he said, the medical got me and the mission lost out.

I answered, Exactly, and that is where we will fail unless we can develop such a school as this so that we may impart to our students the medical missionary inspiration as well as the scientific preparation.

From that day Dr. Colwell became a friend of the College of Medical Evangelists, with all the stigma of its name. He understood its purposes, appreciated its objective, and did all he could from year to year to give it advanced rating. Oftentimes, seemingly to its friends, he strained a point to raise the grade of the College of Medical Evangelists from a C-grade school to an A-grade in a very short time, which name, apparently some of the students would now change.--John Burden, letter to Dr. E.H. Risley, June 3, 1929.

Before departing that afternoon, Dr. Colwell told our leaders at Loma Linda that, in view of the type of work they were doing--preparing missionary workers--they did not need AMA approval! No accreditation was needed. Colwell recognized something our leaders ultimately forgot. If they were preparing missionaries for overseas work, they needed no accreditation!

When Elder Burden asked Colwell if he proposed to destroy this little medical school that we are seeking to develop, he learned that Dr. Nathan Colwell had only made an informal visit, with no intention of classifying the school (Dr. W.F. Norwood, The Vision Bold, p. 193). Colwell did not come to adopt CME as a class-C child of the AMA. He was just curious what was happening there.

It was only because our leaders later begged for admission that Colwell eventually gave Loma Linda a C rating in late 1912. 

EVENTS IN 1912

THE 1912 INITIAL ACCREDITATION REQUEST

Loma Linda did not need accreditation, and should not have requested it. Here is how it happened:

Wilbur D. Salisbury, business manager at Loma Linda, went to Chicago in 1912 and told Dr. Colwell that CME was hard at work, trying to obtain an approval rating by the AMA. Colwell was astonished, for he had been impressed with his 1911 conversation with Elder Burden and recognized that they needed no such rating in order to do the work given them by their God. Norwood says it well:

Some months later, back in his Chicago office, Dr. Colwell scribbled a memo in pencil that a man named Salisbury [probably Wilbur D. Salisbury, business manager of Loma Linda Sanitarium in 1912] had called at Colwells office and reported that the college was going ahead with plans for an approved school.

After the interview, Colwell added that laconic note, They have gone and done what I told them not to. W. Frederick Norwood, M.D., The Vision Bold, p. 193.

RECOLLECTIONS BY FREEDA RUBENSTEIN

The following story by Freeda Rubenstein is significant:

It may be that some wonder just how our medical work became involved with the American Medical Association and the Association of American Medical Colleges, etc. There were some incidents that were related to me by a niece of Elder John Burden, founder of Loma Linda. At the time, I was a guest in the home of elderly Brother and Sister Lowell Weeks, now deceased. Sr. Weeks was in the first graduating class of Loma Linda, and an excellent masseuse [expert in massage] and hydrotherapist. Since I was ill at the time, I appreciated Sr. Weeks skills in this area, and often asked her about her early training at Loma Linda. Since Elder Burden was her uncle, she often used to relate incidents of interest in its pioneer days.

One time I asked Sr. Weeks how our medical work became involved with the AMA, which is a secular organization. She then related the following incidents to me.

Around the family dinner table at which Sr. Weeks sat with her Uncle Burden, the story of the first steps of SDA collaboration with the AMA unfolded . .

When, on several occasions, church leaders came to Sister White for counsel, she objected. When the AMA leaders persisted with their requirements, the brethren came again to Ellen White for counsel. She warned Adventists that if we joined them, we would be forming a confederacy with them and that in no case would we join any worldly confederacy.

Eventually the brethren came back to Sr. White again for counsel; and, after listening to what they had to say, she arose, quietly left their presence, went into her room and shut the door behind her.

Elder Burden said that sometime after one of these meetings, a few church leaders decided to fully conform to the AMA requirement to earn their recognition.Freeda Rubenstein, statement dated September 1973; quoted in David Lee, Stories of the Early College of Medical Evangelists, pp. 135-136.

So much light had earlier been given to our leaders, yet here they were asking for more.

WHY THE GIVING OF LIGHT CEASED

One might wonder why Ellen White did not stop our leaders from taking this terrible step. She had repeatedly instructed and warned them in earlier years, but without success. By 1912, she was in very poor health and busy working on her last books.

But there was also another reason:

Here you are crying before God, in the anguish of your souls, for more light. I am authorized from God to tell you that not another ray of light through the Testimonies will shine upon your pathway until you make a practical use of the light already given.

The Lord has walled you about with light; but you have not appreciated the light; you have trampled upon it. While some have despised the light, others have neglected it, or followed it but indifferently. A few have set their hearts to obey the light which God has been pleased to give them.2 Testimonies, p. 606.

Although written decades earlier, the following statement sounds like a prophecy of what happened to Loma Linda:

Some that have received special warnings through testimony have forgotten in a few weeks the reproof given. The testimonies to some have been several times repeated, but they have not thought them of sufficient importance to be carefully heeded. They have been to them like idle tales. Had they regarded the light given they would have avoided losses and trials which they think are hard and severe. They have only themselves to censure. They have placed upon their own necks a yoke which they find grievous to be borne. It is not the yoke which Christ has bound upon them. Gods care and love were exercised in their behalf; but their selfish, evil, unbelieving souls could not discern His goodness and mercy. They rush on in their own wisdom until, overwhelmed with trials and confused with perplexity, they are ensnared by Satan. When you gather up the rays of light which God has given in the past, then will He give an increase of light.2 Testimonies, pp. 606-607.

God has revealed to me that we are in positive danger of bringing into our educational work the customs and fashions that prevail in the schools of the world. If the teachers are not guarded, they will place on the necks of their students worldly yokes instead of the yoke of Christ. The plan of the schools we shall establish in these closing years of the message is to be of an entirely different order from those we have instituted.EGW, Counsels to Teachers, p. 532 (written 1908).

If you will do the work for yourselves which you know that you ought to do, then God will help you when you need help. You have left undone the very things which God has left for you to do. You have been calling upon God to do your work. Had you followed the light which He has given you, then He would cause more light to shine upon you; but while you neglect the counsels, warnings, and reproofs that have been given, how can you expect God to give you more light and blessings to neglect and despise? God is not as man; He will not be trifled with.2 Testimonies, pp. 604-605.

  EVENTS IN 1913

SEEKING THE C RATING

It was only because our leaders later begged for admission that Colwell would eventually give Loma Linda a C rating. But they were not to receive even that lowest rating for another two years.

There is no historical record of any kind that the accrediting agencies wanted to accredit our institutions. We pushed and pushed to get the door open, and they kept raising their standards (as they always do) in order to shut it again. That is why worldly accrediting agencies exist: to devise requirements to limit the number of institutions turning out graduates. As a result, there is a reduced number of training centers, so each can charge higher tuition and pay higher salaries to their administrators and teachers. Because there are a reduced number of graduates, those who graduate can charge more for their services because they have a degree.

Christ stated His way: Freely ye have received, freely give (Matt 10:8). The way of the world is radically different: Get as much money out of the customer and the employer as you can. In order to do this, the educational world uses accrediting agencies and degrees while workers use professional associations and labor unions.

By accepting that lowest AMA rating, we would publicly admit our lack of confidence in the superior medical missionary program God had already given our people.

The question may be asked, Are we to have no union whatever with the world? The Word of the Lord is to be our guide. Any connection with infidels and unbelievers which would identify us with them is forbidden by the Word. We are to come out from them and be separate. In no case are we to link ourselves with them in their plans or work. But we are not to live reclusive lives. We are to do worldlings all the good we possibly can.--Fundamentals of Christian Education, p. 482.

DANIELLS RECOGNIZED HIS MISTAKE

In October 1913, while chasing after a C rating from the AMA, Elder Daniells openly admitted that they had made a terrible blunder. Here is the official minutes of the board meeting:

Elder Daniells thought that possibly . . we had made a mistake in going ahead and establishing a full [regular AMA-approved] medical school when we were conducting a medical missionary school successfully . . [He went on to say:] We are in a situation that we must get out of, but we must get out right. Minutes of the CME Board, October 22, 1913, p. 682.

The only way they could get out was by terminating their pursuit of AMA practices. As you have discovered, the whole situation is comparable to a man dropping seeds on the ground, gradually leading a dove into a trap. Daniells could not get out by continuing to do what the AMA told them to do.

The AMA advocated a training program that indoctrinated the students in giving poisonous drugs to patients, as the remedy for their many ills. But the giving of poisonous compounds is wrong, and should not have been copied by us.

Not one of the schools of medicine so highly lauded in the world is approved in the courts above, nor do they bear the heavenly superscription and endorsement . .

I have spoken plainly in regard to your feelings concerning the methods of practice. The use of drugs has resulted in far more harm than good, and should our physicians who claim to believe the truth almost entirely dispense with medicine, and faithfully practice along the lines of hygiene, using natures remedies, far greater success would attend their efforts  . .

Brethren in the medical profession, I entreat you to think candidly and put away childish things. The Lord is not pleased with your attitude toward those who have graduated in what you call inferior schools. He does not approve of the spirit that actuates you. God will judge us by what we ought to have been, what we ought to have done had we been obedient children. We cannot escape the consequences of our omissions and mistakes, even though we cannot see them or estimate their results.--EGW, quoted in J.H.N. Tindalls Spirit of Prophecy compilation, Our Medical Setup and the Drug Question, pp. 54-55.

It should be mentioned here that movements had earlier been set in motion in the world, which would force us to either fight our way through to recognition on the basis of our unique, superior method of treatment (as the chiropractors and osteopaths were doing)--or submit fully to AMA accreditation requirements:

In 1908, Dr. Abraham Flexner was requested by organized medicine and the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching to conduct an investigation of American medical education. He accepted the assignment and visited over 150 institutions. His report focused public opinion on the tragic deficiencies of the majority of the schools. As the result of his survey, the worst ones were closed and a constructive program of improvement was made in those that survived.--Merlin Neff, For God and CME, p. 163.

The solution was simple enough: either push through for U.S. recognition as the chiropractors and osteopaths had done or focus on what Ellen White told us to do. Prepare medical missionaries at Loma Linda who could primarily become overseas missionaries.

Are you aware that, even today, the situation has not changed in Third World nations? With no degrees--or even formal schooling--of any kind, you can go to any of them and treat the sick. And the government will not merely tolerate you, it will welcome your efforts. For the great majority of sicknesses, our healing system is far superior to that offered by the world. Instead of weakening the body with poisonous compounds, we strengthen it through the use of natural remedies. And we point the sick to Christ, for healing of the soul.

THE 1913 CRISIS

The ongoing effort to have the school approved by the world appeared to be an effort of trying to fill a bottomless hole with money.

By 1913, a vast amount had already been spent, with not even the lowest rating to show for it. By the next year, according to Neff, over $400,000 would have been spent (For God and CME, p. 175). Yet the end was not in sight.

The financial burden continued to press heavily and was the occasion for serious misgiving on the part of many whose responsibilities were such that they must make important decisions. At length in 1913, when the board of trustees realistically faced a further necessary enlargement of the faculty and the addition of expensive buildings and equipment [in order to satisfy accreditation requirements], a crisis was reached.

A glance at the minutes of the meeting of the trustees of the College of Medical Evangelists, held in Takoma Park, Washington, D.C., in October 1913, in connection with the Autumn Council of the General Conference Committee, reveals a feeling of genuine dismay at the seemingly endless streams of money needed for the building program. Emergencies innumerable had been met by the borrowing of more money, and the indebtedness of the institution had been mounting yearly.

Besides this, increasing requirements from the American Medical Association were bringing added perplexities.--D.E. Robinson, Story of Our Health Message, p. 392.

Some were again questioning seriously the aim of furnishing a complete course for physicians . . Perhaps, said another, we made a mistake in going ahead and establishing a full medical school, when we were conducting a medical missionary school successfully. Ibid.

The primary source for the above statements is the Minutes of the Board of Trustees of the College of Medical Evangelists, October 21-27, 1913. According to those minutes, the entire project hung in the balance for several days; and church leaders almost decided to stop trying to achieve recognition and return to the training of medical missionaries. Oh, how changed the entire future course of Adventist higher education would have been, if they had made that decision!