THE BROKEN BLUEPRINT

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

  1914 AND 1915

DEEP APPREHENSIONS IN 1914

When the March 1914 CME constituency meeting convened, it rather quickly developed into a general discussion of CME problems.

J.A. Burden 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.--Minutes of CME Constituency Meeting, March 25, 1914.

S.E. Wright . . [said] if the school was devoted to the medical evangelistic course, more would be accomplished.--Ibid.

B.G. Wilkinson said that he was troubled on the question of standards. Are we struggling to meet the standard of the world or are we not?--Ibid.

This was the Benjamin G. Wilkinson (1872-1968), who later authored Truth Triumphant and Our Authorized Bible Vindicated.

R.S. Owen reminded us that Gods recognition should be first sought. That while we should train some to do the work of a physician, a larger number should be trained as medical evangelists.--Ibid.

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.--Ibid.

C.W. Flaiz thought that in view of the nearness of the end of the history of this world, we needed men to go out quickly into the field and bring men to a knowledge of the truth. He spoke of the limited funds, and that workers are not being sent out as in times past . . [due to the elephant-sized annual appropriation to CME].--Ibid.

Flaiz had touched on a special problem: At that time, $10,000 in general church funds, collected from the world field, were being sent each year to Loma Linda! That $10,000 (an enormous amount of money back then!) was being shifted to CME instead of being used to send out and support foreign missionaries!

What had we come to! Thirty-two years earlier, the church had been told:

If its responsible men seek to reach the worlds standard, if they copy the plans and methods of other colleges, the frown of God will be upon our school.

Our college [at Battle Creek] stands today in a position that God does not approve. I have been shown the dangers that threaten this important institution . . The time has come for me to speak decidedly. The purpose of God in the establishment of our college has been plainly stated. There is an urgent demand for laborers in the gospel field. Young men who design to enter the ministry cannot spend a number of years in obtaining an education. Teachers should have been able to comprehend the situation and adapt their instruction to the wants of this class. Special advantages should have been given them for a brief yet comprehensive study of the branches most needed to fit them for their work. But I have been shown that this has not been accomplished.--5 Testimonies, p. 27 (1882).

When, in 1905, Kellogg determined to get the American Medical Missionary College in Battle Creek approved by the AMA, she wrote:

The so-called higher education of the present day is a misnamed deception . . All this higher education that is being planned will be extinguished; for it is spurious. The more simple the education of our workers, the less connection they have with the men whom God is not leading, the more will be accomplished.

Work will [then] be done in the simplicity of true godliness, and the old, old times will be back when, under the Holy Spirits guidance, thousands were converted in a day. When the truth in its simplicity is lived in every place, then God will work through His angels as He worked on the day of Pentecost.--EGW, December 4, 1905; Series B, No. 7, p. 63;  quoted in Lake Union Herald, January 26, 1910.

As we have observed, the March 1914 board meeting was a crucial one. Those present came very close to making the right decision.

Discouragements shrouded the medical school in 1914. Some of the leading doctors had grave doubts that the institution could survive when the board met, for some of the members had blood in their eyes and a groan in their voice regarding the Loma Linda enterprise. Neff, For God and CME, p. 166.

But, on the evening of the last day of the session, it was hesitantly voted to keep the accreditation attempt going for another two years.

Another important event occurred that year: In August, Dr. Ruble resigned from the CME presidency and its intense pressures. An urgent call was given to Dr. Newton G. Evans, on the staff at Madison College and the University of Tennessee, to fill the vacancy.

When Evans arrived and saw the terrible extent of the ongoing crisis, he remembered a friend back in Tennessee, the fighting Irishman Percy Magan, who was always able to push any project through to completion.

That summer Elder E.E. Andross, president of the CME board, and Dr. Evans arrived in Nashville to talk with him about coming to Loma Linda. But Magan turned them down. He hesitated to go to CME, for he knew that the men there did not share his concern for true educational and medical self-supporting work (Neff, For God and CME, p. 172).

A C RATING IS BESTOWED

There were few shouts of victory when, in February 1915, church leaders learned that the Council on Education of the AMA had granted CME a C rating. The new leaders, in Chicago, had far more requirements for them to meet. Worldlings can be hard taskmasters. [Oddly enough, Neff says it was granted in 1908 (p. 164), and some other church historians say the year was 1913.]

THE 1915 CRISIS OVER LOS ANGELES

As early as 1912, President Ruble had been urging the board to open a dispensary in Los Angeles, to provide additional opportunities for the students. A small facility was opened on September 29, 1913, in that city.

But, by 1915, AMA pressures had become so intense that it demanded that, unless the church paid for the construction of an entire hospital in Los Angeles, it probably would never achieve its full-accreditation status. By now, well-over half a million dollars had been spent on accreditation requirements, and now more was required. They discovered it would take $60,000 just to get it started.

This required an initial outlay of more than $60,000. Some urged that the large indebtedness already incurred should first be met, but it was pointed out that the standing of the graduates would be imperiled by delay.--Robinson, Story of the Health Message, p. 394.

It should be kept in mind that, years earlier, Ellen White positively stated that we were to build no hospital in Los Angeles (7 Testimonies, p. 85). All of our medical facilities, with the exception of very small treatment rooms, were to be located outside the cities in rural areas. (For more on this, see the present authors book, The Medical Missionary Manual, which presents the blueprint on this and other matters.)

When asked, Ellen White had earlier said that Loma Linda should carry on missionary work in Redlands, Los Angeles, and beyond. She never said to build a large clinical hospital there.

This is what she had said, 10 years earlier, about plans for a very small hospital on Hill Street in the city:

The Lord has at no time guided in the large plans that have been laid for buildings in Los Angeles. He has given light as to how we should move, and yet movements have been made that are contrary to the light and instruction given.

The complete plan in regard to the purchase of the Hill Street property was not laid before me till my last visit to Los Angeles. I was then taken to see this property, and as I walked up the hill in front of it, I heard distinctly a voice that I well know. Had this voice said, This is the right place for Gods people to purchase, I should have been greatly astonished. But it said, Encourage no settlement here of any description. God forbids. My people must get away from such surroundings. This place is as Sodom for wickedness. The place where My institutions are established must be altogether different. Leave the cities, and like Enoch come from your retirement to warn the people of the cities . .

I was afterward instructed that the whole matter was inspired by human wisdom. Men have followed their own wisdom, which is foolishness with God, and which, if they continue to follow it, will lead to results that they do not now see. The spiritual eyesight has been blinded.--EGW to Dr. and Mrs. D.H. Kress, January 14, 1910; 1 Manuscript Releases, p. 250.

As we learned earlier in this present book, Gods plan was for our sanitariums to be located in the country, next to our schools. The patients were to be restored to health through natural methods, and this could only be effectively done away from the cities.

SEVEN MORE AMA DEMANDS

The Annual Council, held at Loma Linda, in 1915, was even more fiery than the one in 1913. But Daniells spoke to the assembly, trying to reassure them:

We must square up to this now . . Is there anything else in the world to do, but to encourage our young people who contemplate taking the medical course to go to this school? Minutes, Constituency of the College of Medical Evangelists, November 11, 1915.

In reply, we would say that, Yes, there were a few other things the worldwide Advent movement needed to do, besides placing such an immense amount of money into the accreditation struggle at Loma Linda. For decades, the Spirit of Prophecy had called for many small missionary facilities throughout the world instead of a few mammoth ones.

That same year, 1915, another important event occurred. Percy Magan agreed to accept an urgent call to come to Loma Linda. To Ed Sutherlands deep sorrow, Percy and Dr. Lillian left, nevermore to make Madison their home.

President Evans had told his associates that Magan was a terrific pusher and could greatly help them.

Prior to accepting the call, Magan was asked to accompany Ruble and Evans to the February 1915 meeting in Chicago of the AMA Council on Medical Education. They begged the great men of the world to grant them a B rating, but their petitions were denied. The scene recalls to mind Henry IV standing barefooted in the snow, anxiously pleading for Gregory VII to grant him a dispensation (Great Controversy, p. 57).

Instead, still more requirements were laid down. Here are seven demands, as officially presented by Dr. Nathan P. Colwell, Secretary of the AMA Council on Medical Education:

1. The clinical faculty of the Los Angeles division was not satisfactory, as it depended upon teachers from other medical schools.

2. The first and second year courses at Loma Linda were not arranged in a logical manner.

3. The anatomy laboratory was an insult to the college.

4. The pathology laboratory was inadequate; the course in pharmacology was weak.

5. The plan of registration and the provision for student credentials were inadequate.

6. It was unsatisfactory to do part of the work in Loma Linda and part in Los Angeles.

7. It was imperative that CME own and control a 200-bed clinical hospital in Los Angeles.--Magan to White, March 3, 1915.

That letter was read to Ellen White a little over four months before she died. Little wonder she expired!

It would appear that the AMA was placing every obstacle they could dream up in the path of our medical school, which was pleading so hard for acceptance by the world. It recalls to mind how many doctrinal modifications we made in the mid-1950s in order to receive approval from the Evangelicals (see our 198-page Evangelical Conferences and their Aftermath).

In the same eight-page letter, Magan made this comment:

I do not see that there is a way under heaven unless God works miracles whereby we can get out of this state of affairs.--Ibid.

It was done, not by miracles from heaven, but by the diversion of enormous amounts of mission funds to Loma Linda, plus immense debt.

Contrary to her continued counsel, on December 16, 1916, the foundation was laid for the Ellen G. White Memorial Hospital, and construction began. Did men think they could counterwork Gods commands, by the expediency of naming the hospital after the special messenger He sent to tell them not to do it?

The original blueprint called for one blueprint medical missionary training school, using simple methods, at Loma Linda. Through slavish submission to AMA requirements, Gods plan was changed into a two-hospital, two-medical school arrangement, specializing in drug medication and surgery.

And the seriousness of the problem did not ease with the passing of time. It continued for decades. The situation had developed into a gargantuan, two-headed money-eating monster.

Problems! There was a never-ending stream of them, with the medical school on two campuses. On one occasion President Magan declared, This whole matter of a divided institution is a very expensive one (Magan to G.H. Curtis, December 18, 1930). Many of the serious items came in pairs--two faculties, two hospitals, two nurses training schools, two sets of buildings.--Neff, For God and CME, p. 268.

MAGAN JOINS THE CME STAFF

In the fall of 1915, Magan was asked to attend the Autumn Council, to be held that year at Loma Linda. He took Dr. Lillian with him, so she could get a rest. While there, he for the first time saw the place.

Percy Magan, who believed with all his heart in the attainment of full accreditation for Loma Linda, commented on the verbal battles at that session. He afterward wrote that those who did not want the school to be accredited would, if they got their way, doom it to innocuous desuetude [des wah tood; obsolescence], or to maximum of deadly inefficiency (Magan to I.H. Evans, July 14, 1916). As you can see, in addition to having a good vocabulary, Magan had his mind made up.

Percy Magan desired CME to obtain legal recognition for Gods efficient superior, simple healing ministry. But that is a self-contradiction. How can those who are in charge of certifying a far lower method understand, much less be willing to approve, a superior method? Therefore we were told not to seek it.

On November 25, a week after the meeting ended, Magan was elected dean of the Los Angeles division of the medical school.

It was not until a full year later, that he found it possible to leave Madison, where conditions were also difficult. But as soon as he permanently moved to southern California, he hit the ground running.

Most of the brethren around here seem to feel it is useless to try to meet the AMA standard. I do not think that any of them have any really clearly defined view as to what the province of Loma Linda Medical College in this old world ought to be. God will have to raise up some men with a vision, who will put that thing through in the face of great opposition.--Magan to W.C. White, May 23, 1915.

Percy Magan was to prove a tireless boaster for full accreditation for CME--regardless of what it might cost. Years later, in heartbroken words, he would recognize his error.

Within a week after he joined the CME staff, Magan plunged into a fund-raising campaign. The first task was to raise $61,000 for the Los Angeles hospital. Previously a veteran fund-raiser for Madison, he traveled, it seems, non-stop to Adventist churches and meetings throughout the nation, constantly trying to raise money. By the summer of 1916 he had gathered pledges for over $40,000 (Magan to Paulson, July 3, 1916).

And he added:

We have purchased the land for the site, an entire block in the principal part of Los Angeles.--Ibid.

That was the Boyle Heights purchase. A month before that, he wrote Sutherland:

[Dr. Evans] was terribly discouraged when I got here; in fact, he was just about ready to quit. But the Lord has helped me to bat some of these fellows over the head and things are looking up.--Magan to Sutherland, May 1, 1916.

Daniells had found the man he was looking for. But his work was cut out for him. A related problem was the latest, new AMA requirement. It refused to allow physicians who taught at the University of Southern California Medical School to also be members of the CME Los Angeles hospital faculty, although the physicians were quite willing to do it.

  1916-1919 EVENTS

THE 1916 WARNING

In 1916, a prophetic warning came to Magan, through a friends accidental meeting with an AMA representative.

On my way home . . I happened to run across one of the most prominent and influential members on [the AMAs Council on] Medical Education. He incidentally mentioned to me that the status of Loma Linda was up before the committee at this time. Remarks which he made more than justified me in reiterating what I said to you in my former letter, that the future of Loma Linda medical school is absolutely hopeless.

The medical profession will not tolerate such a thing as a medical college under sectarian control. A medical school, to meet the ideas of the medical profession, must be purely scientific, standing apart from the theological or sectarian control of interests. I am as certain as I am alive that Loma Linda Sanitarium will never get any higher recognition than it gets now . . I am writing to you these facts because I feel if you were convinced that I am right you would hesitate to ask poor men and women who have barely sufficient to supply themselves with the necessaries of life and seldom are able to indulge in the smallest luxuries to invest their hard earnings in an enterprise that has no future.--Statement reprinted in Sun-Telegram, September 26, 1977; quoted in Richard A. Schaefer, Legacy: The Heritage of an International Medical Outreach, pp. 97-98.

In spite of the warning, as we have already learned, the foundation of the Los Angeles Hospital on Boyle Heights was laid in December 1916.

THE 1917 DRAFT CRISIS

In August 1917, the U.S. Government issued an order exempting certain medical students from the draft into World War I. Magan hurriedly traveled, first to Washington, D.C. and then to Chicago.

The Army accepted a reclassification of Loma Linda, subject to another examination by the AMA board. As fast as anything, Magan shot telegrams via Western Union to the Loma Linda and Los Angeles campuses, in which he demanded that, at any expense, a great variety of things must be purchased, done, or cleaned up. Dr. Colwell had promised to make the inspection trip within two weeks.

Following the inspection, on November 14, Dr. Colwell phoned Magan and told him CME had been given the B rating.

THE 1919 CRISIS AND MORE DEMANDS

On Sunday afternoon, April 21, 1918, as a crowd of over 2,000 were assembled for a dedicatory service in an open-air meeting outside the White Memorial Hospital, the largest earthquake in 18 years suddenly shook the city, and even damaged some of the buildings at Loma Linda.

By the summer of that year, CME faced another crisis. The U.S. Government wanted to force all recognized medical schools to combine the student enrollments or face serious problems. The students would have to carry knives and guns at the battlefront; and, because of certain technical problems, CME might be closed forever.

A telegram, sent by J.W. Christian (CME board president) and Dr. Magan to Dr. Newton Evans in Washington, sums up the problem:

Believe it vital to future welfare of denominational medical work you all find some way to avoid closing school and turning students to the world.--Telegram, J.W. Christian and Dr. Magan to Dr. Newton Evans, November 2, 1918.

We are told that the collapse would have ended the denominational medical-education program for all time (Neff, For God and CME,  p. 208). Yet unaccredited medical missionary training programs, such as was being conducted by Madison, were not affected in the slightest by the crisis.

Fortunately, the Armistice was signed only nine days later, on November 11, eliminating the crisis.

Percy Magan was able to return to his fund-raising trips. That same year the godly editor of the Review wrote these words:

If it is necessary for our denominational schools to maintain worldly standards, if their course of study must be arranged in order to meet the requirements of some university, why should we not send our sons and daughters to the schools of the world for their education?--F.M. Wilcox, Review, April 17, 1919.

After the influenza epidemic of 1918, Magan set to work raising another $16,500 to complete some more demanded accreditation projects. A large scoreboard was set up on the Loma Linda campus to indicate how the money was coming in. Various fund-raising teams were competing. It was said that the competition was fierce.

The names of our different teams are arranged on one side and the daily score for every day through the month of May . . will be recorded thereon. The whole Loma Linda Hill is aflame to go over the top in this matter.--Magan to Newton Evans, April 23, 1919.

When the campaign ended, Magan proclaimed a jubilee. But the achievement of that competitive goal did not end the money-raising projects. Ever higher they had to go. Full accreditation was the objective.

Little did they know in 1919 that, after they achieved their final accreditation goal, that within a little more than a decade the realization of that objective would start the downward course of the entire denomination. The problem: One accreditation requirement achieved leads to new and unexpected ones.

Their one grand accreditation requirement, once achieved, would lead to another nightmarish, gargantuan one--which would involve the entire denomination.

Do you remember what 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. Owen S. Parrett, M.D., Memoirs, March 1977.

THE 1921 DISAPPOINTMENT

By the spring of 1921, the staff at Loma Linda were certain they were about to be awarded the coveted Class A rating. But, following an inspection of both campuses of CME by Dr. W.E. Musgrave and C.J. Sullivan, they issued the Muskgrave Report, which announced that serious deficiencies still existed.

Everyone was bitterly disappointed. With their usual picky-picky attitude, the AMA had managed once again to demand that more money be spent.

A principal complaint was that the headquarters of the divided campuses should be located in Los Angeles! Loma Linda should only be the country outpost.

Other new requirements included:

The library had to be enlarged substantially.

The business office had to be totally revamped.

Many more teachers had to be hired on both campuses.

A fully salaried executive committee must be set up, to carry out the decisions of the board.

All controls must be centralized in the dean or the president.

The yearly operating budget of the entire institution--on both campuses--had to be increased by a full 25 percent!

Amid the ensuing campus storm, Magan tried to be the unfailing peacemaker, urging everyone to push onward, toward even more success till they achieve the elusive man-made goal.

For several months, the CME administration refused to face the facts; but Magan reminded them that, if they refused to let the AMA lead them around like a dog on the leash (although he did not use that phrase)--the AMAs Council would eventually shove them back down to C status and eventually close them down entirely. The AMA had the whip in its hand, and the dog had better do what it was told.

1922 ARRIVES

When Dr. Colwell visited the school early in 1922, he agreed with the Muskgrave findings.

More scrambling around followed in order to make the AMA happy.

On November 3, 1922, Dr. Colwell arrived for another inspection, and examined every nook and corner. After that, he was taken to a luncheon in his honor at the Athletic Club in Los Angeles. Over a dozen important area physicians were present, many of them non-Adventist.

Then Dr. Colwell arose and spoke. Magan recalls his words:

When the Seventh-day Adventists first started, how that from the beginning, a number of us felt that they were doomed for defeat. I told them over and over again not to make a start . . Today I walk over that same block covered with beautiful buildings, and veritable hive of medical activities. I have not completed my inspection yet, but I am almost certain as to the kind of report I will make, and I am sure you will all be satisfied with it.--Magan to May Covington, December 12, 1922.

The A rating, coveted more than most anything written in the Testimonies, was approved in Chicago on November 14. News of it reached Magan two days later.

It included hints that still more money would have to be spent to maintain the rating. Well, of course, didn't they expect that by this time? Today, as I write this, they are still doing it. It is a never-ending task.

The Council voted this high rating, fully confident that the places which are still comparatively weak will be strengthened, and that the institution will continue to improve.--Nathan P. Colwell to P.T. Magan, November 16, 1922.

What had we achieved? Serious trouble which would soon begin to damage the entire denomination.

The little medical missionary training school, at great expense, had been transformed into a first-class medical training center, rivaling anything in southern California, with one hospital located in Loma Linda and a second one (the White Memorial Hospital) at Boyle Heights in Los Angeles. Only instruction and remedies approved by the AMA were used. In accordance with AMA specifications, nothing else was permitted. Although, for a number of decades, hydrotherapy was taught in the physiotherapy department for non-medical specialists, eventually it too was dropped.

In accordance with the blueprint, under Elder Burdens leadership, Loma Linda had been two institutions: the Sanitarium and the medical missionary school, both working closely together as equal partners; the staff and students from both worked together in field evangelism. Graduating students left to become missionaries. Staff members had also learned how to be missionaries.

It had been the plan that this simple, inexpensive, and highly effective program would be copied all over the world as we started new medical missionary institutions.

But all that was what might have been.

Instead, Loma Linda became an enormous white elephant, continually requiring infusions of money from the denomination. This situation continues down to the present time. A percentage of the World Budget of the church, from offerings received Sabbath after Sabbath, goes to keep Loma Linda financially solvent. 

THE PREMEDIC CRISIS BEGINS

HOW IT STARTED

Loma Linda's connections with the AMA were a sinister cause of much trouble as the years passed. The AMA accrediting agency continued to make new demands. It had become the boss and we the servants.

In 1919, Elder Milton E. Kern, one of our leading educators at the time, wrote the inescapable truth:

Jesus did not seek recognition from the schools of His day; and it seems clear that if Paul had a diploma from the school of Gamaliel, it did not help him materially in his work. It was his experience on the road to Damascus rather than his university work at Jerusalem, to which he reverted so frequently. As one of our early leaders once said, We have no great men, but we have a great truth . . Let it be understood that the Advent message will never go forward by any prestige that men among us may have because they hold high academic degrees. The truth of God does not succeed that way.--M.E. Kern, Review, April 17, 1919.

Think not that our hidden masters in Chicago were done with us. Far from it. The next thing that the AMA began demanding--was that our other colleges become accredited! Now, they did not say it that way, but that is what it involved.

At this point, a little vocabulary instruction would help: A premedic is a student in a college who is taking a premedical course, so that he can then go to a medical school, such as Loma Linda, and, as a medical student, take the medical course.

By 1919, the AMA began to insist that the medical college accept only accredited premedics for their school. At that time, premedics only needed 14 grades, or two years of college, for premedical training.

The one new AMA requirement led to an invasion of worldliness into our church.

THE BEGINNING OF THE END

This new requirement, which had been placed on Loma Linda, would snowball into a number of terrible results, drastically affecting our entire church:

Aside from Loma Linda, our colleges did not belong to the educational associations. If any of them did, it would start locking them into servant hood to the whims and ever-increasing demands of secular accreditation agencies!

If even one or two of our colleges began receiving accreditation--the other ones would begin demanding it too.

Accredited colleges would require teachers with advanced degrees. Course requirements for such degrees would require the study of minutia which were not at all necessary.

Because our colleges could not issue Ph.D.s, the students would have to take their advanced training at outside institutions of so-called higher learning--all of which would be secular, Protestant, or Catholic universities.

As a result of all this attention to advanced degrees, many of our brightest students would lose their missionary zeal and switch from service for humanity to earning a doctorate from an outside university; so they too could be seen as great men and women of the world.

Accrediting agencies would gain total control, not only over our libraries and teacher training, but also the secularization of our schools. Any attempt by church officials to eliminate worldly teachers would result in prompt suspension of accreditation.

The future pastors, workers, and leaders of the church would take their training under men holding doctoral degrees from outside universities, who, as part of their doctoral training, had imbibed non-Adventist religious teachings, such as Antiochus Epiphanes as the little horn of Daniel 7 and 8, no sanctuary in heaven, grace without obedience, and much more. 

Graduates would go into local churches and leaven the beliefs of our congregations.

And so it has happened. Every year the resultant apostasy deepens.

But now, back to the story of how it came about.