Is there any truth to the assertion that Mrs. E. G. White said or wrote that the last President of the United States would bear the name Roosevelt?
It would be well to read the chapter in the Testimonies written by Mrs. White sixty years ago entitled "Unfounded Reports." After citing a number of utterances that she was alleged to have made, and for which there was no foundation, she concluded with the following admonition:
"And now to all who have a desire for truth I would say, Do not give credence to unauthenticated reports as to what Sister White has done or said or written. If you desire to know what the Lord has revealed to her, read her published works. Are there any points of interest concerning which she has not written, do not eagerly catch up and report rumors as to what she has said."—Testimonies for the Church, Vol. V, p. 696.
Disregard for this reasonable request has resulted in a number of "unfounded reports" of what she was supposed to have said or written, and this alleged naming of the late President of the United States is one of such. For a number of years, letters have been coming to the office of the Ellen G. White Publications, asking for the source or reference of this "prediction," and as we have visited churches in various parts of the country, the same question has been asked.
Just after the election of Franklin D. Roosevelt for his third term of office as President, I spoke in one of our large city churches. At the close of the meeting, one of the members said in conversation, "Isn't it wonderful how everything that Mrs. White said about Roosevelt is being fulfilled!" When asked where Roosevelt was mentioned in - her writings, or what had been said by her, the inquirer could give no reference, but he had been "told" that Mrs. White had made certain predictions regarding the President.
Notwithstanding many oral and published denials on the part of the custodians of the Ellen G. White writings, the report has persisted. As one who was closely associated with Mrs. White for the last thirteen years of her life, I can testify that no such statement was spoken or written by her. Had there been, it could not possibly have been forgotten. This report has been manufactured out of whole cloth, and once having started in circulation, it has appeared in a number of variations as to the circumstances when it was supposed to have been spoken. Akin to it is the rumor that she wrote "somewhere, I am sure," that the last President would have an infirmity in one limb.
Now that our former President is dead, it is possible that it will not be long before some critic will have "discovered" this to be one of her predictions that has failed. F. D. Roosevelt was never mentioned in her writings.
D. E. ROBINSON.
[E. G. White Publications Staff.]
