Organization and Disorganization

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Dec 12, 1907

Organization and Disorganization

It is not a satisfactory argument against a proper and effective system of organization to assert that some pervert it into a means of oppression, or that some take advantage of it to exercise arbitrary authority. The same method of reasoning would prove that it was wrong to confer freedom of will upon man, inasmuch as it made rebellion possible. We do not advocate the discontinuance of food because some eat to excess merely to gratify the appetite, or because others choose to include in their bill of fare articles which are really unfit for food. Eating is a condition of life and growth.

A divine system of organization imparted directly from heaven did not prevent the children of Israel from murmuring and rebelling, and was not a sufficient safeguard against injustice and oppression on the part of some of their rulers, but this was not chargeable to the system of organization. The same administrative machinery which is intended to be employed for the advancement of truth and righteousness may be used to disseminate falsehood and to establish iniquity, but the responsibility for this does not rest upon the plan of organization, but rather upon those who prostitute the plan to serve their own unrighteous purposes.

Under the fostering care of a superintending providence a good system of organization has been developed in this advent movement. It is possible for this system to be perverted here and there, and for those who are possessed with the spirit of arbitrary authority to reveal it temporarily in the administration of their office, and thus to bring discredit upon the whole system, but this is no sound reason for discarding all organization, and leaving each individual free to follow the caprices of his own mind. The cure for any evils which may exist, even under a good system of organization, is not disorganization. Such a suggestion would be to offer a remedy which is worse than the disease. An incompetent or a piratical captain may command the rudder to be turned in such a way as to direct the ship toward the rocks, but no one would regard this as a sufficient reason for sending a ship to sea without a rudder. We need thoroughly converted men in positions of responsibility, but we do not need our organization turned into disorganization.