Seventh-day Adventists have traditionally taken a dim view of drama. Ellen White's comments against theater of her day probably are the main reason. I have done a thorough search of her writings and concluded that she would not speak as negatively of Christian drama as some do, particularly when it is used with some specific guiding principles.
In this age of high-tech visual arts, apparent in movies, television, and computers, our visual information-gathering skills have become more acute, even as our auditory skills have perhaps taken more of a back seat. To completely comprehend a message, people need to "see" it, absorb it, and integrate it for an extended period of time.
This does not negate the importance of the spoken message. Communication, however, is enhanced if the eye can be focused on some thing happening on the worship platform. Preaching becomes more attractive when something visual is added than when it is presented as just a monologue from behind the pulpit.
Communication is a complicated science and an exciting endeavor, at least for those of us who are involved in public speaking or media broadcasting.
H.M.S. Richards, Si., who started his radio ministry in 1926, had difficulty convincing Adventists that God could use radio in communicating the message! Today we not only use radio widely, but employ drama in Bible stories over the air, allowing the listener to use imagination in visualizing the scenes described.1
Without question, TV is the most powerful mass communication medium. Hollywood spends millions of dollars to put across their view of desirable morality and lifestyle. Using such a medium for spiritual teaching is controversial. It has taken courage to pioneer its use in and for the Church.
William Fagal of Faith For Today started using television in 1950, utilizing the "parable approach." Soon it became a worldwide ministry with a mass appeal. Today we have many radio and TV programs all over the world, presenting truth.
Drama in the Bible
Drama is not new. God used it to teach His people. Ezekiel's prophetic book is full of dramatic representations, which God used to convey a specific message. And who could forget the great drama of the Old Testament sanctuary, with each aspect of the temple and its sacrificial system symbolizing the great plan of redemption that the Messiah would bring? The sanctuary, particularly the daily sacrificing of the lamb, was a dramatic enactment of the salvation story, depicting the coming of the actual Lamb of God who was to take away the sin of the world.
Jesus employed a form of drama in His use of parables. He told stories and painted mental pictures to teach spiritual truths. He never taught without using parables (Matt. 13:34). Often His use of parables was specific and pointed.
At Simon's house, for example, a woman came in and anointed Jesus with expensive perfume and wept at His feet. Simon the Pharisee was unhappy that Jesus allowed her to do this. Jesus then told a parable about forgiveness and used the woman's dramatic actions to make His point to Simon (Luke 7:36-50).
Even Paul was shown something by the use of a kind of drama. On his way to Jerusalem the Holy Spirit moved a prophet named Agabus to meet Paul. Agabus took Paul's belt, tied his own hands and feet in a dramatic depiction of what awaited Paul in Jerusalem (Acts 21:10, 11).
Today the Adventist Church uses drama in its academies, colleges, and many churches demonstrate how following Christ can be done and is relevant to people today.
Ellen White and drama
What about Ellen White? I looked at over 100 references in her writings about drama and theater. There is a similarity in many of Mrs. White's statements, but one common theme is evident. Here's a statement that exemplifies it:
"Many of the amusements popular in the world today, even with those who claim to be Christians, tend to the same end as did those of the heathen. There are indeed few among them that Satan does not turn to account in destroying souls. Through the drama he has worked for ages to excite passion and glorify vice. The opera, with its fascinating display and bewildering music, the masquerade, the dance, the card table, Satan employs to break down the barriers of principle and open the door to sensual indulgence."2
In this and similar statements, Mrs. White condemns drama and other amusements that highlight sin. What she describes here in principle covers much of what we see in the TV and in today's theater. But she did see the use of drama as useful in the communication of truth, such as using the theater for an evangelistic meeting.3 In one place I found instruction to those who were learning to be actors.
Mrs. White's concern seems not to be so much with the medium (drama) as with what the medium usually attempts to depict. Her condemnations had to do with drama that seeks to "excite passion and glorify vice"; that which in the end "breaks down the barriers of principle and opens the door to sensual indulgence." Just as the use of parable or story may be used to break down or to build, so also with drama. Drama itself is not the major concern, but the values drama seeks to portray are at issue.
Ellen White was strikingly progressive in her counsels to the Church. Much of what she said is helpful when it comes to the times in which we live. "Men are needed who pray to God for wisdom, and who, under the guidance of God, can put new life into the old methods of labor and can invent new plans and new methods of awakening the interest of church members and reaching the men and women of the world."4 "Whatever may have been your former practice, it is not necessary to repeat it again and again in the same way. God would have new and untried methods followed. Break in upon the people surprise them."5
Along this line, Mrs. White makes a very pointed statement: "When new methods have been advocated, so many doubtful questions have been introduced, so many councils held that every difficulty might be discerned, that reformers have been handicapped, and [thus] some have ceased to urge reforms. They seem unable to stem the current of doubt and criticism."6
In December 1888 Ellen White wrote about a dramatized Christmas program put on by the Battle Creek Sabbath School. The children wore costumes. Ella White, Mrs. White's six-year-old granddaughter, was in the program, dressed to typify an angel. The play was called "The Lighthouse" and Mrs. White said, "I was pleased with the Lighthouse, and the scene which had required so much painstaking effort was one which could have been made most impressive, but failed to be made as forcible and striking as it might have been when it cost so much time and labor in preparing it." In the letter she says that more thought and planning should have gone into it. She also said that what is enacted needs to become reality in the lives of the actors.7
The overwhelming counsel to us is that secular drama tends to be demoralizing. To take part in such plays that moves us away from our faith in God is not the will of God. But it is not right to avoid the medium of drama completely just because people use it to communicate questionable values. Drama with a spiritual purpose can enhance worship. God can use it to communicate truth.
A picture can convey more meaning than a thousand words. Drama can help engage more of the senses than just hearing, thus increasing worshiper participation. Difficult subjects can be handled tastefully and sometimes even humorously with great effect. Our goal should always be to uplift Christ and bring others to know and follow Him.
1 For example, Your Story Hour, a radio program begun in 1949 in Benton Harbor, Michigan The "Uncle Dan and Aunt Sue" series continues today as an Adventist Supporting Ministry to encourage children to make sound decisions and build strong characters.
2 Ellen G. White, My Life Today (Washington D.C. Review and Herald Pub Assn., 1952), 87.
3 Ellen G. White, Ellen G White 1888 Materials, 4 vols (Silver Spring, Md Ellen G. White Estate, 1987), 1173.
4 Ellen G. White, Evangelism, (Hagerstown, Md. Review and Herald Pub Assn., 1970)1 105.
5 Ibid., 125.4
6 Ellen G. White, Testimonies for the Church (Nampa, Idaho. Pacific Press Pub Assn., 1948) 6 141, 142.
7 Ellen G White, Letter #5, December 26, 1888
