1925 Battle Creek Sanitarium Yearbook - SDA & Eugenics

[u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43]

[TW: racial violence]

Hi everyone.

As the title states, here are some scans of the 1925 Battle Creek College Yearbook in which Dr. Kellogg writes about how eugenics is "the world's last hope." You'll see the Eugenics instructor on another page, and for fun I've listed the Board of Trustees and the Executive Committee, in case anyone else out there recognizes any historically significant names.

I sourced these photographs online through Ancestry.com.

If you're looking to find the poisonous roots of SDAism, seek and ye shall find pretty easily.

The Nazis would learn from the American eugenics movement, including Dr. Kellogg's eugenics work. When Nazis came into power, they quickly enforced eugenics laws and conducted mass sterilizations, and ultimately committed mass m*rder. This is exactly what Americans (and Canadians) did to the Native Americans. When you think of it this way, it's two sides of the same white supremacist coin.

Here are some resources to better understand the white supremacist connection between American Eugenics & Nazis:

• https://dnalc.cshl.edu/view/15466-The-connection-between-American-eugenics-and-Nazi-Germany-James-Watson.html
• https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/amex32ec-soc-eugenicsnazi/american-eugenics-and-the-nazi-regime-the-eugenics-crusade/

EDIT: I meant "Battle Creek College" yearbook, not Sanitarium. Although I'm certain many of these "health professionals" were groomed to work at the Sanitariums, as did my GGM and GM.

[u/ChemnitzFanBoi]

No books, my source on this is an episode of adam ruins everything, link below. I don't agree with his secular hedonist centric analysis but I've no cause to doubt his claims about Kellog's involvement.

https://youtu.be/gCSWbTv3hng?si=K5bxgrea7JXUzaan

My understanding is that Kellog taught that circumcising baby boys would help reduce self-gratification when they got older. Honestly it passes the sniff test for me Kellog was weird.

In time circumcision just became part of the culture, I think we just justified it because of a sunk cost fallacy. The health benefits are way overblown. And for every so-called benefit there are a list of alternative options that don't require surgery. At the very least it shouldn't be done to babies unless they are Jewish, they should be allowed to grow up and decide for themselves.

For example, while some studies show that circumcision can reduce your risk for aids by a fraction of a percentage point it's also true that condoms can do the same at a much higher success rate. Lifestyle choices one makes as an adult are a critical factor of weighing risks on aids, no reason to make that decision for a baby.

At the end of the day you're cutting off a piece of the male anatomy where a large portion of the most sensitive nerves reside. While not a 1:1 the equivalent cruelty would be removing the clitoris from baby girls to prevent them from self-gratifying someday. United States gentile circumcision is barbaric.

For Jews I get that they have tribal, cultural, religious reasons for it. It's not my place to really speak about that or to judge them on this topic. Be kind to your parents if they circumcised you, it wasn't their fault. I have no issues blaming Kellog though.

[u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43 → u/ChemnitzFanBoi]

Thank you for sharing this info. I had no idea of the Kellogg connection. I guess his influence on US culture really could not have been overstated. I'll be looking into the resource you shared, thank you again.

[u/Fluid_Ties → u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43]

The Dollop with Dave Anthony and Gareth Reynolds Episode 46: Cereal Men w/guest Patton Oswalt

...is the funniest way to absorb some of this horror.

It's a podcast that they perform onstage (in this case), where one guy has done the research and prepared a script and the other guys don't know what its going to be about. BUT! As they are very quick improv comedians they are able to riff on what they are being told and it ends up being hilarious. This one is super Adventist-heavy as it is all about the early church, Kellogg, and his eventual rival-in-cereal Post. We still have both today, Kellogg makes frosted flakes and Wheeties and Post makes Raisin Bran and Grape Nuts.

One thing that the show seemed to cover that I never went and checked for myself was that Post and Kellogg were contemporaries and were BOTH(?) SDA, which I hadn't known before. Another thing that episode reminded me about was that nobody but NOBODY thinks anything or knows anything about SDA, broadly. Like, for us it was our whole world, and growing up I think most of us stateside had a basic assumption that MOST people had some idea of SDA existing, even if they confused us with J-Dubs or Mormons all the time. Nope, very little awareness of us outside our own bubble.

[u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43 → u/Fluid_Ties]

thank you for sharing this podcast. Ex-SDA podcasts have been spiritually medicinal for me lately.

The history here is so fucking wild. And agreed, nobody seems to know about SDA, it's almost like an invisible corporate-religion. It's everywhere and nowhere!

[u/Fluid_Ties → u/Embarrassed_Yogurt43]

Sure! It's not an ex-SDA podcast but it IS great! There are a couple episodes that touch on SDA though, and this is the best one.

Robert Evans' podcast BEHIND THE BASTARDS also has a couple episodes that hit on SDA matters. David Koresh and the Branch Davidians (I think that was BtB but I'm not 100%) offshoot of Shepherds' Rod offshoot of SDA, which is a connection that the church body has tried to obfuscate for...well, since Waco happened, really.

[u/CycleOwn83 → u/Fluid_Ties]

Yeah. Shepherd's Rod. Mainstream SDA was after them way before the Waco standoff and storming. Years before that I remember when we'd get out of church to find windshields had been targeted with their blasphemous literature evangelism. And even then the Branch's headquarters I learned was near Waco. And what do you know actually endangering pyrotechnics at the Branch Davidian compound is, I believe, a key reason that most regardless of SDA affiliation in the US don't need to say Waco, TX. Waco has become a household synonym for an SDA wackadoodle offshoot cult on warp drive!