Courageous Social Insight

Literary excellence was not Ellen White’s only asset as a writer. She was a provocative social commentator and moral leader well ahead of her day. Consider her words on racial equality, written, amazingly, during the time of slavery:

“Christ died for the whole human family, whether black or white. God has made man a free moral agent, whether white or black. The institution of slavery does away with this and permits man to exercise over his fellow man a power which God has never granted him, and which belongs alone to God … those who have dared chain down the body and the soul of the slave, to keep him in degradation like the brutes, will have their retribution.”

Also ahead of her time were her views on gender equality:

“Eve was created from a rib taken from the side of Adam, signifying that she was not to control him as the head, nor to be trampled under his feet as an inferior, but to stand by his side as an equal, to be loved and protected by him.”

Long before the health benefits of a plant-based diet were proven by science, she wrote:

“In grains, fruits, nuts and vegetables are to be found all the food elements that we need. If we come to the Lord in simplicity of mind, He will teach us how to prepare wholesome food free from the taint of flesh meat.”

These statements reveal only a tiny sample of this extraordinary author, who Paul Harvey believed should be honored alongside Martha Washington and Emily Dickenson. He said of Ellen, “Only now is the world coming to appreciate her recommended prescription for optimum spiritual and physical health … Ellen White! You don’t know her? Get to know her.”

Next: Steps to Christ
Learn More: Read more of her thoughts by visiting our Ask Ellen section.