What does church leader Ellen G. White say?

Most people are aware that Jesus never said anything about homosexuality, but many Seventh-day Adventists erroneously assume that early church leader Ellen G. White did address it.

Using the Comprehensive Index of her writings, many have carefully studied every published reference she makes to each of the Bible texts that people often use to condemn gay people. Nowhere does she relate any of these texts to homosexuality. She is also not quoted on this issue within the Seventh-day Adventist Church Manual.

The most obvious place where Mrs. White may have condemned homosexuality is in her chapter titled The Destruction of Sodom, in "Patriarchs and Prophets." Still, she is silent on the subject. While it remains popular today to claim that God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality, there is no Biblical basis for it, and Ellen White's published writings do not support it. Her mention of the vile passions of the infamous crowd in the story does not receive superlative emphasis over the numerous other sins she specifically names.

Thankfully, a growing number of Christian pastors and speakers-both SDAs and those with other denominations-no longer use the story of Sodom and Gomorrah to mistreat gay people. Most have come to understand that it is actually a lesson about inhospitality.

Kinship believes the Bible does not condemn or even mentions homosexuality as a sexual orientation and that Ellen White's writings do not parallel any of the Bible texts often used to condemn gay people. Most of the anguish imposed upon God's gay children has its roots in a misunderstanding of what the Bible says.