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True Blood: Race, Science, and Early Adventist Amalgamation Theory Revisited

In her 1864 book, Spiritual Gifts: Important Facts of Faith in Connection with the History of Holy Men of Old, Ellen White wrote that much of what we see in the natural world is the result of what she described as “the base crime of amalgamation.” Her enigmatic words, long understood by Seventh-day Adventists to refer to perverse but somehow scientifically possible sexual unions across diverse species, including humans and other creatures, became a source of anti-Adventist polemics from the moment they first appeared in print. They remain among the most perplexing lines the prophetess ever penned. Much of the saga of early Adventist amalgamation theory was documented by Gordon Shigley in a 1982 article in Spectrum magazine. Most Adventists will, however, be unaware of the historical facts, which have been omitted or at best hastily glossed over in all official church publications from the 1940s up to the present. In the light of ongoing discussions within the church over questions of faith and science, as well as recent attempts by some Adventists to revive White’s amalgamation statements as a plausible scientific explanation for the origins of some predatory animals, it is important to revisit what she and the other pioneers of the church actually said on the subjects of race, science, origins, and the “sin” of “amalgamated” blood.

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True Blood: Race, Science, and Early Adventist Amalgamation Theory Revisited

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