Elder Richard E. Tottress PhD- A Work in Progress
After his semi-retirement in 1965, noted guitarist Les Paul continued to perform every Monday night at the Indium Jazz Club in New York City. He continued this practice up until his demise (at the age of 94) in 2009. A driver would chauffer Mr. Paul from his suburban residence to the Manhattan Club every week. A Lincoln still sat in Les Paul’s driveway, but it was only a keepsake. Mr. Paul had given up driving years ago.
Notable Adventist pastor and evangelist Dr. Richard E. Tottress, like Les Paul, has continued to work throughout the course of his own semi-retirement. He can usually be found every Wednesday afternoon at the Berean Outreach Community Center food distribution, greeting the hundreds of participants, and sharing the Gospel Message with them. Dr. Tottress is several years older than Les Paul was when the guitarist’s work was interrupted, but he does not require a driver in order to make his way to the church. He can manage this task well enough on his own.
The majority of the lifework of Dr. Tottress predates the internet age, yet the footprints he has left in the course of his lengthy career can still be unearthed on the web. Here is the complete text of an entry concerning the Doctor from a Summer 2005 issue of “Viewpoint: The Journal of Pacific Union College:”
Richard E. Tottress, ’43, is the president, producer, and speaker of “Your Bible Speaks” radio show on radio station WAEC in Atlanta, Ga. For more than 50 years Pastor Tottress has ministered by way of his radio program to thousands of people in the greater Atlanta area.
This entry is somewhat misleading, for the field of Dr. Tottress’s radio ministry was much wider than merely the “greater Atlanta area.” It commenced in Charleston, SC while the Doctor was pastor at Shiloh Seventh-day Adventist Church, way back in the fifties.
The name of the radio show, “Your Bible Speaks,” seems to have been adopted by two Seventh-day Adventist congregations. The newest was formed in 2000 in Brooklyn, NY. The second is located on the opposite side of the continent in Portland, Oregon. Neither entity could be described as “megachurches,” and may be small enough to instead be designated “companies,” rather than churches. The group in Portland has parking spaces for about thirty cars.
Richard E. Tottress is a native of region of the United States that one does not immediately strongly associate with African Americans (despite it having been part of the Confederacy; Rogers & Hammerstein have shaped most Americans' initial perceptions of this place with their ubiquitous Broadway musical), the “Sooner State” of Oklahoma. Nevertheless, there exists an important, but not very well-known historical connection between blacks and Oklahoma. Along with the arrival of many relocated Native American tribes, African Americans were also there to help populate the territory. Oklahoma marked the endpoint of the “Trail of Tears,” an exodus whereby Native Americans were uprooted from their traditional homelands on the Eastern Seaboard, then ingloriously marched (at the point of the sword) to what was considered, at that time, to be the “uttermost ends of the earth.” Some of the first black residents of what would become the state of Oklahoma were actually slaves owned by the relocated Indians. Upon emancipation, most of these ex-slaves were granted tribal lands, but as an article on the Oklahoma Historical Society website notes, “…some Indians disliked that idea.”
As the non-native population of the country expanded, the Far West soon evolved into the Near West. The fertile Great Plains were an attractive magnet for new settlers from the now-teeming Eastern seaboard. Homesteaders were all looking for a patch of affordable, or even free soil. They lined up at the border of the newly opened territory for a land run in 1886, waiting for the official “starter’s pistol” that would signify the beginning of a government sanctioned land-grab. Most of these hopeful settlers were white, but blacks were present as well. Those who jumped the gun, whatever their heritage, were termed “Sooners.” Hence the state’s nickname.
Here is an enlightening quote from the Wikipedia entry regarding the early history of Oklahoma:
Oklahoma… has a rich African American history. There were many black towns that thrived in the early 20th century because of black settlers moving from neighboring states, especially Kansas. The politician Edward P. McCabe encouraged black settlers to come to what was then Indian Territory. He discussed with President Theodore Roosevelt the possibility of making Oklahoma a majority-black state.
The incendiary Kansas-Nebraska Act, which apportioned free or slave status to new states was, by the late nineteenth century, very much a thing of the past. The slaves were now free, or at least free on paper. The Nation of Islam, an advocate of the creation of a separate state for African Americans was still in the future, as was Marcus Garvey’s “Back to Africa” movement. Yet Edward P. McCabe had sagely decided that one of the best methods that citizens of African ancestry might claim and assert their newly won rights would be to establish a “critical mass,” a region where a plurality of black votes might ensure that at least two Senators of color might someday represent the minority populace in the upper house of the United State legislature. This strategy is very reminiscent of the creation, after World War II, of the exclusively “black” regional conferences of the Seventh-day Adventist Church. A “critical mass” is a prerequisite for any initiation of nuclear fission.
McCabe was… one of the three founders of Langston City, Oklahoma. “By 1881, several Negro leaders were planning for the potential resettlement of twenty or thirty thousand freedmen in Oklahoma” [a quote from a work by Philip Mellinger]. McCabe acquired a 320-acre tract near Guthrie, Oklahoma, which became the town of Langston in 1892. The city was an all-black area 10 miles northeast of Guthrie. The city was named after a black Virginia Congressman who had pledged his support for a black college in Langston City. Finally, in 1897, a “Colored Agricultural and Normal School” was opened, and this was later called Langston University.
Elder Tottress was born near the town of Newby, located in Creek County, Oklahoma. The current black population of this county is only 2 1/2 %. Over 10% of the current residents designate themselves as American Indians. Newby grew large enough to merit its own post office in 1902. Creek County was created in 1907, the same year that Oklahoma became a state.
The 1930 United States Census only contained the name of one Tottress in Oklahoma, a 16-year-old girl named Willie who rented a room from a young couple in Drumright Creek, but a baker’s dozen of folk named Tatress called Newby home. Five of the thirteen were the offspring of M.M. and Allie V. Tatress. Four of the thirteen were the children of Maranda and Fannie S. Tatress.
It is probably no coincidence that the second Newby “head of household,” Maranda Tatress, was also born in Texas (1867). His wife Fannie S. (born in 1892, and possibly his second wife in that age of high mortality) was a native of Arkansas, just as was M.M. Tatress’s wife Allie. In 1930 they had four children, and three of these were born back in Texas. Only the youngest child, a son named Robert (1917) was born in Oklahoma. His two big brothers were James (1910) and J.C. (1916), and his sister was named Victoria (1913).
It is safe to assume that Maranda and M.M. were father and son, and that they immigrated to Oklahoma together. Richard E. Tottress could have conceivably been one of the members of this family. He was most assuredly in Oklahoma on this date. As Dr. Tottress’s middle name is Edward, the fourth son of M.M. and Allie Tatress would make a likely suspect. The census taker for Newby Township, Henry G. Davidson, guessed that Edward may have been about five years old, for the year of Edward’s birth that he provided was only an estimate. This conjecture as to Richard Tottress’s nativity falls apart, however, when one considers that the individual known as Edward would have been only about eighteen-years-old when he graduated from Pacific Union College in 1943.
Details from the 1940 census reveal that the existence of the absent scholar was recorded in Euchee Township, which is located near Bristow (home of Lincoln High School, Dr. Tottress’s alma mater), but it is even nearer to the fabled boomtown of Slick. Census data reveals that he was twenty-two years old in 1940, and still single. His last place of residence was listed as “rural, Creek County, Oklahoma,” which is not very precise data. Some step-kin with the surname Nero were included as fellow household residents in the census (George, Pearlie, Laverne, and Ezra), but the similarity of the ages of these to the ages of M.A. and Edna’s natural children is a little confusing. The initials of Richard Tottress’s first and middle names, “R.E.” are followed by the letters “ab” in parenthesis, an indication that the person was currently absent from the household. Census category thirteen certifies that had either obtained, or was currently in the pursuit of higher education. Four of his siblings were also enrolled in school in 1940. The note “H4” signified that he had completed four years of high school. He did not have a job, and was not currently looking for a job. Why not? Category twenty-five notes that despite the fact that he was twenty-two years-old he was still a student. Government enumerator Bird Burgiss may have been surprised by this information, and perhaps a little bit jealous as well.
Richard Tottress’s father, M.A. Tottress was born in Texas in 1898. His wife Edna was an Oklahoma native. Richard was the eldest child, followed by Elvert (1923), Edwin (1925), daughter Victoria (1927, and named in the style of her presumed relatives Victory and Victoria #1), A.A. (1934), M.A. (1935, and conceivably a “M.A. Tottress Jr.”), Webster (1938), and bringing up the rear, another two daughters; Lenora (1939) and Mabelene (1940). All nine children were born in Oklahoma. Nine more would be added after 1940 for a total of eighteen Tottress siblings.
The other new listing for 1940, the “Totress” (single “T”) familiy was headed by James Totress, another native of Texas where he was born in 1909. His wife Lenard was born (1910) in Oklahoma, as were all four if the sons they had managed to produce by 1940. The names of these boys were J.D. (1932), Lee Roy (1934), Maurice (1936), and Ferdnan (1939).
A duplicate entry regarding Victoria Tottres/Totress (you make take your pick), born in 1927, reveals that “Maryander Totress” (listed in the 1930 census as “Marander Tatress”) was the father of M.A. Tottress, and was therefore Richard E. Tottress’s grandfather. He had had a daughter named Victoria in 1913. This name was reused for his granddaughter Victoria, who is listed twice in the 1940 census. The thirteen-year-old may have been “enumerated” at her parent’s house, and then mischievously ran down the street to her grandparent’s in order to be counted yet again.
The nearby oil boomtown of Slick, Oklahoma (named after the man who discovered petroleum there in 1920, and not petroleum surface residues) had already experienced, half a decade before 1930, its own population peak of 5,000 souls. By 1930, however, less than a tenth of this figure remained. Note: the oilfields were not allocated by God to Oklahoma landowners on the basis of race. African Americans like Mr. and Mrs. J.H. Roberts, for example, owned many acres of oil-rich property. The proceeds were often used to elevate their offspring to the professional class.
There is currently a Walmart Supercenter in Bristow, and also an “Advent Christian Church” on Chestnut Street. This Charlotte, NC based denomination was founded in 1860 in Salem, Massachusetts. It can only be described as a “first-day” Adventist denomination. The tenth of their eleven “Declarations of Principle” declares that Sunday was established by the early church as the proper day to worship God. This “establishment” unfortunately countermands God’s own thoughts upon this subject. They are all fans of William Miller, but not of Ellen White. They have slightly over 25,000 members in the United States. This number has neither increased or decreased for the last 90 years.
The brief footage taken by Solomon Sir Jones shows a procession of Lincoln High staff and students coming out of a brick school building. They are preceded by a well-dressed man who is presumably the notoriously under-documented principal of the original faculty, G.H. Kaynon. He had been replaced by the time Richard E. Tottress attended this school. It is evident from the film that modern notions as to what kind of student body constitutes a “high school” does not strictly apply to Lincoln High, as it is made up of students of practically all ages. A closing panorama of the school building reveals it to be sturdy and compact, but indisputably up-to-date. It is rather awkwardly connected to what appears to be a standard single-family residence. This residence may have been the original quarters of the institution. The later history of Lincoln High School is very hard to discover, but the underlying reasons for its existence were undoubtedly rendered null and void by the desegregation of public school system.
Historians note that Oklahoma was relatively free of prejudice until an influx of newcomers from the heart of Dixie brought their traditional sets of prejudices with them. “Jim Crow” was made the law of the territory in the 1890’s, and all-black schools like Lincoln High were the immediate result of this manifestation of just one of the many ugly consequences of the “sin of Southernism” [Dr. Tottress’s terminology for this persistent, yet morally bankrupt worldview]. Most American colleges were not integrated until the 1940’s. Public schools were separate, and mostly unequal until the Warren court put an end to this condition in 1955. All Okie commentators agree that Lincoln High placed a greater than average stress upon academic achievement, however, and young Richard Tottress was an exceptionally industrious scholar.
Here is another quote from the Oklahoma Historical Society: “Faced with the reality of white attitudes toward separation, blacks called for support of black educational institutions for their children, including the establishment the Colored Agricultural and Normal University at Langston in 1897.” Historians note that simultaneously with this effort by blacks to enhance their opportunities, whites (predominately those southern transplants, one suspects) inaugurated an effort to deny the vote to blacks. Whites (insecure whites, at any rate) were fearful of the prosperity of the black citizens of Oklahoma, and were also concerned that this wealth would make them “too powerful” to control effectively. Deep South attitudes and prejudices had taken root in what had formerly been an uncontaminated land of opportunity.
Dr. Tottress’s current residence, Atlanta, Georgia is not “without sin” in its own history of racial relations. A similarly untold number of black citizens lost their lives in a two-day riot that occurred in 1906, one which resulted in the geographical reallocation of “black” and “white” neighborhoods. Afterward, local academic W.E.B. Du Bois went and bought himself a shotgun. His activist stance toward the improvement of conditions for blacks was destined to replace the accommodationism of Booker T. Washington (and his many white supporters in the media).
The pretext for the Atlanta riot was, as in the case of the later Tulsa disturbances, a professed concern for the “sacred institution of white womanhood” that was manifested murderously in the wake of several rapes that were alleged to have been committed by black perpetrators. These frequent gross miscarriages of justice were not exclusively directed to blacks by the white citizenry of Georgia. In 1915 Jewish factory superintendent Leo Frank, who had been railroaded into a rape conviction, was liberated by a group of vigilantes from the state penitentiary, driven back to the Atlanta area, and then hung from a tree. In addition to peaches, “strange fruit” (a reference to the 1936 anti-lynching poem by Abel Meeropol) is also known to be a product of the state of Georgia.
It was San Francisco that young Richard Tottress was baptized into the Seventh-day Adventist Church. The man of God who was predominately responsible for this seminal and extremely consequential event was evangelist Byron Spears. The site of the immersion was Philadelphian Seventh-day Adventist Church. This congregation is currently housed in a building constructed in 1910, just four years after the Great Earthquake of 1906. It is located in the Pacific Heights neighborhood at 2520 Bush Street. Tax data reveals that this parcel has neither been bought nor sold since it was constructed, but a Fall 1961 edition of the “North American Informant” states that the present facility was purchased under the pastorate of W.C. Webb. The location of the church where Dr. Tottress was baptized remains unclear at present. An Adventist congregation occupied a Hamilton Square church prior to the acquisition of the Bush Street facility. The name of this company may have been “Philadelphian,” and the membership changed just their location. The membership of Philidelphian is presently (2016) in decline, and stands at 114. In 1961 it was 275 souls. The current extremely high cost of living in San Francisco may partially explain this decline. There is presently a “town and gown” friction that is evident in San Francisco, with the blue-collar natives of the city representing “town,” and the well-heeled entrepreneurs of the technology sector representing “gown.”
[All of these words, and Dr. Tottress has only just now become a Seventh-day Adventist. His papers are all at Andrews University, so you are free to take up the torch that I am temporarily laying aside.]
Elder Richard Edward Tottress has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as a Seventh-day Adventist pastor, evangelist, educator, broadcaster, and author.
Elder Tottress is the son of a Baptist minister. His father, M.A. Tottress was born in Texas in 1898. His mother Edna was an Oklahoma native. Richard is the eldest of a family of eighteen children. Three of his eleven brothers also became preachers. The 1940 U.S. Census notes that he was born in 1918. His birthplace was a farm near the Creek County township of Newby, Oklahoma. A few years after his birth oil was discovered in nearby Slick, Oklahoma. Selected landowners of all races prospered for a season, but a decade later the boom had peaked, and the boomtown of Slick was depopulated.
Dr. R.E. Tottress attended school in Bristow, Oklahoma, about ten miles away from Newby. At Lincoln High School he distinguished himself by winning a statewide oratory competition. Founded in 1922, Lincoln served as a premier learning environment for Bristow’s African American Community until Bristow High School integrated in 1958. Elder Tottress also assiduously studied the Bible as a youth, and noted the disparity between Scriptural precepts and the actions of most of the people who professed to be Christians.
Upon graduation from Lincoln High, Elder Tottress (like many other Oklahoma residents during the depths of the Great Depression) migrated to California. His first stop was in Fresno, where a company of Adventists had been formed in 1931. In Fresno Elder Tottress had not yet accepted the Advent message, but God intended that he would soon do so.
It was on the West Coast that Elder Tottress providentially encountered a book by African-American Adventist pioneer Elder F.L. Peterson. Its title is “The Hope of the Race.” This 1934 work advocates Jesus as the only solution to the problems that plague oppressed black Americans. It strongly recommends the Seventh-day Adventist denomination as an effective doctrine and discipline not only for the present, but for all eternity. Elder Tottress read this book and discovered answers to the questions that had been nagging him as a youth, and simultaneously discovered a satisfying model upon which he could pattern his own life. Apparently Adventists actually attempted to observe and obey the commandments of God. And while Adventists are by no means perfect people (for all have sinned, and fallen short of the glory of God), strict obedience is a certain proof against charges of hypocrisy.
The author of the book that so influenced young R.E. Tottress, Frank Loris Peterson, happened to be the first black student at Pacific Union College. This Adventist institution was founded in 1882. In 2012 the U.S. News & World Report ranked Pacific Union College second out of 219 national liberal arts colleges for campus ethnic diversity. F.L. Peterson inaugurated this trend toward diversity, graduating in 1916. In 1917 he became the first black teacher at another Adventist institution, one that was created in 1896 specifically for African Americans. Ironically, for the first two decades of its existence the staff of what was then known as “Oakwood Junior College” was all Caucasian.
Dr. Tottress not only fully embraced the faith that Elder Peterson had promulgated, but was also followed the trail that his mentor had blazed to Pacific Union College, and (ultimately) to Oakwood College as well.
Elder Tottress was further exposed to the Advent message in the San Francisco area through the evangelical activity of Elder Byron Spears. He was baptized in the Pacific Heights district of San Francisco by Elder Norman S. McLeod. This immersion occurred at Philadelphian Seventh-day Adventist Church. The fresh convert would now enroll in Pacific Union College, F.L. Peterson’s baliwick, 75 miles due north of the site of his baptism.
At Pacific Union Elder Tottress personally encountered the man of God who had influenced him to become an Adventist, F.L. Peterson himself Elder Tottress was practically adopted into the Peterson family, and was even roommates at Pacific Union with F.L. Peterson’s son, Frank Jr. While attending this institution Elder Tottress served as religion editor for the school newspaper, the “Campus Chronicle,” during 1941 and 1942. Future General Conference President Neal Wilson was concurrently the chapel editor of this publication, and in 1943 Frank Jr. was an associate editor.
Having earned his B.A. in theology in 1943, Elder Tottress now spent his internship assisting in a series of tent revivals that took place in the Lubbock, Texas area. This evangelical campaign was under the direction of Russell Nelson, a native of New York.
[This condensed version has only gotten the Doctor out of the first of four institutes of higher learning he would attend, but at least it is not discursive (a polite word for “rambling”).]
A SUMMARY OF “HEAVEN’S ENTRANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE RACES,” A TOTALLY UNOBTAINABLE 1955 BOOK
Here is a LINK to an online version of this treatise by Dr. Tottress.
A short book, or rather “treatise” by Dr. Tottress, written in1955 (over 60 years ago) is not currently available for purchase, but digitized versions owned by the Universities of California and Michigan may be examined online, courtesy of the copyright scofflaws at Google. It was printed by Comet Press Books. The history of this publisher spans from 1932-2007, but of the 184 books they produced, 178 of them were released in the eight-year period from 1952-1960. Their most prolific year was 1957, the date that Dr. Tottress’s book was released. The work is a significant artifact from the uphill ascent of the mid-century Civil Rights movement. It emphasizes Scriptural justifications for the equality of the races. It does not neglect to also include many of the main points of Adventist theology within its 50 pages. It is prefaced by three verses from the Book of Acts, including 10:34, a comment by Peter to centurion Cornelius and his household: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons.”
This book bears the intriguing title “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races.” As the author is a Christian, it is not difficult to anticipate what God’s “Entrance Requirement” may be, regardless of one’s race: “Repent, and be baptized in the name of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.” A good Adventist like Dr. Tottress does not neglect to include statements that are indicative of Christ’s frequently neglected follow-up instruction to a typically newly repentant sinner: “Go and sin no more!”
A year before this work was copyrighted the Warren Court had determined that “separate educational facilities are inherently unequal.” This landmark decision is known to history as “Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka.“ It was one of the first dominos to fall in the heyday of the struggle for Civil Rights. In December of 1955 Rosa Parks refused to relinquish her seat to a whte man in Montgomery, Alabama. The rest is history.
Dr. Tottress includes a poem in his book titled “Fare, Jim Crow?” Its concluding stanza accurately predicts a speedy end to segregation. It also alludes to the Adventist “great controversy” theme (the desperate, but temporary struggle between Christ and Satan that continues to lead toward the final defeat of Satan and his wicked helpers, and the ultimate victory of good over evil):
Burned out in hell by fire: Ruled out in heav’n by God:
Don’t let Jim Crow down you; Soon his last step’ll be trod!
We must choose for ourselves which side of the controversy between Christ and Satan we will be loyal to. One is not allowed to remain neutral. Here is a quote from the first chapter of the book, one titled “Kinship with Christ.” It reveals a very important point about God’s “entrance requirement” to heaven:
“The highest honor that we may have is the kinship with Christ as it is offered. If we maintain our relationship to Christ, heaven will be our home. It is, however, evident that we may lose it by ceasing to do the Father’s will. One who ceases to do the will of God becomes a full-fledged member of the other family- Satan’s family” [part of this was replicated by myself on the Amazon blog that relates to this very rare book].
In the second chapter of “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races” the prejudice displayed by whites toward blacks is compared to the prejudice the Jews of Scripture displayed to non-Jews. This latter attitude even rubbed off on the early Christian church at Jerusalem, who seemed to despise Paul for his association with the Gentiles. Martin Luther King’s famous statement regarding the “content of a man’s character” is foreshadowed by Dr. Tottress in the following quotation from the top of page nine:
“It is true that I am as proud of my color as any other man, and I love my race as dearly as any other, but I see no reason for hating a man of another race. Character should be the requirement in the choice of friends. It will be the requirement for entrance to heaven.”
As another instance of Biblical egalitarianism, Dr. Tottress cites Jesus’ amiable encounter with the woman at the well, a normally despised native of Samaria. Additionally, Jesus sat down to break bread with the tax collector Matthew (from Matthew 9). Pharisees harshly criticized Him for this similar display of tolerance for “second class citizens.”
The evil nature of unregenerate mankind is noted by Dr. Tottress near the conclusion of Chapter 2:
“If certain men of races did not have men of other races against whom they could direct their prejudices, they would doubtless find other outlets, such as castes and ranks” [The homogeneity of the Japanese people has caused them to, rather arbitrarily, chose to all look down their noses at those who tan leather for a living].
Acts Chapter 10, the story of Peter’s vision of the unclean foods, and its subsequently revealed meaning with regard to the inclusion of Gentiles in the Christian fold is referenced by the author in Chapter 3. A mighty truth had been revealed to Peter, and when he had absorbed this information he made the statement that had been quoted at the beginning of the book: “Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons” [the misinterpretation of this particular vision has misled the majority of Christian denominations into believing that it is OK to eat bacon. Christ Himself was a law-abiding Jew, and kept kosher. So did Peter, although he may have been tempted now and again to break God’s perfect dietary mandates].
The trepidation that Ellen G. White displayed with regard to the “southern work” of Adventist evangelism among the black populace is on display in a quote by the messenger of God that Dr. Tottress duplicates on page 16 of his treatise:
“As time advances, and race prejudices increase, it will become almost impossible, in many places, for white workers to labor for the colored people. Sometimes the white people who are not in sympathy with our work will unite with colored people to oppose it, claiming that our teaching is an effort to break up churches and bring in trouble over the Sabbath question. White ministers and colored ministers will make false statements, arousing in the minds of the people such a feeling of antagonism that they will be ready to destroy and to kill.”
The high level of tension and animosity that Sister White predicted was certainly on display at the height of the Civil Rights struggle, an era which fairly commenced around the time that Dr. Tottress promulgated his book. This animosity, however, was general in nature, and not targeted specifically toward Adventist doctrine and Sabbath observance, There nevertheless remains to this day plenty of anti-Adventist bias, and additionally there is no shortage of a more generalized anti-Christian hatred throughout the world. “You are a sinner in need of salvation,” I often state. “Who do you think you are? ” is the typical reply. They persist: “There isn’t a single thing wrong with me or my lifestyle! Who are you to judge!” In such cases only the Holy Spirit can pluck these purported paragons of virtue from the flames (a figure of speech, for while the fires of Hell may be eternal, the persons who shall be consigned to these flames are soon consigned to oblivion).
Chapter 4 of “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races” is titled “His Name in Vain.” It examines the hypocrisy that self-proclaimed Christians display to the world when they do not properly represent Christ. These blatant cases of false advertising are an offense to our Creator. In the beginning of this chapter, on page eighteen Dr. Tottress writes:
“To bear the name Christian, while clinging to practices contrary to those that lead us to follow in the straight and narrow path to heaven, is to bear Christ’s name in vain.”
Ellen G. White stands firmly in the immediate background of statements such as this one. The world is filled with talk about Jesus. Dr. Tottress urges us to demonstrate our faith by our works. Although works most certainly will not save a person (for by grace are ye saved by faith, and not of works lest any man should boast), we are yet commanded to put our faith into action. All denominations must heed this, yet it seems to be particularly emphasized by Adventists like Dr. Tottress. James 2:20 states: “But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead?” One may speak of loving one’s neighbor, but talk is cheap. Dr. Tottress, writing from the vantage of the mid-fifties, comments that the races each remained, for the most part, ensconced in their segregated fortresses and domains. Sixty years later this is still the case, even in the Seventh-day Adventist Church.
Chapter 5, “Crushed Hope” contains a report of an encounter that Dr. Tottress had with a genuine communist, an affable lady who enumerated the horrors, lynchings and killings perpetrated in the South by very same folk who might also happen to be sanctimonious church-goers. Dr. Tottress replied to her that these atrocities were the work of “professed” Christians, and not the genuine article. It was this genuine faith that had sustained the African American through the hard times of slavery, and also the contemporary trials that were personified by Jim Crow. The lady communist remained unmoved by Dr. Tottress’s remarks, wedded as she was to her own inflexible “faith” [you can’t argue with a Marxist].
Earlier in the book Dr. Tottress had briefly noted how offensive some common racial epithets were to his ears. In chapter six he elaborates upon this topic. He writes about these historically antagonistic terms: “I have refrained from using them, absolutely, in public or private. I do not use as a designation for my race what I would not want anyone else to use.” Six decades later, this still stands as a good model for all to emulate. The “N” word is too redolent with pejorative nuances to ever be amenable to a blanket amnesty!
Later in chapter six Dr. Tottress reveals that the model of Christ Himself, whom we are all urged to emulate, is a perfect model, and that our own goal should be nothing less than perfection [“Don’t underestimate yourself,” Ellen G. White has advised us]. Even if you are compelled to pluck out an eye, or cut off an arm, perfection is indeed the goal. You mat never reach it, but you are capable of coming much, much closer to it than you may presently think is possible. Try it! You’ll like it!]. The author states that “Happy is the man who does God’s will. He it is who is worthy to live.” Thus does the leitmotif of the treatise appear yet again. We are not only to love and honor God. We are to obey Him as well. This is universally applicable, but once again, it is more prominently asserted by Adventist than by most other denominations. A portion of dventist Fundamental Belief 19, the “Law of God” is replicated below:
“Salvation is all of grace and not of works, and its fruit is obedience to the Commandments. This obedience develops Christian character and results in a sense of well-being. It is evidence of our love for the Lord and our concern for our fellow human beings. The obedience of faith demonstrates the power of Christ to transform lives, and therefore strengthens Christian witness” [I can personally testify that commandment keeping most assuredly leads to a resplendent “sense of well-being"].
Chapter seven contains an intra-mural accusation by Dr. Tottress that (at least at the time of the book’s composition, the mid-fifties), all was not sweetness and light within the Adventist church itself. Many Caucasian, and even a handful of black Adventist congregations would grumble (as they do unto this day) when black Adventist leaders would seek to play an activist role in the coninuing struggle for equality and justice. The third president of the South Atlantic Conference, Warren S. Banfield, so offended white Adventists in the Tampa area with his work as president of the local chapter of the NAACP that they loudly complained to the General Conference about it. South Atlantic Conference president John Wagner was delegated to go and chastise Banfield for his impudence. “Keep up the good work,” said Wagner.]
Dr. Tottress appeals to Adventists to take the initiative in promoting harmony between the races. Some heeded this advice. Many more ignored it.
Dr. Tottress had the honor and immense responsibility of working extensively with youth during the long course of his ministry. Chapter seven is titled “The Negro Youth’s Plea.” The subsequent, and final chapter of the book “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races,” is called “The Negro Youth’s Pledge.” It seeks to address the problems the young (and Dr, Tottress is particularly addressing the next generation of up and coming black Adventist pastors) are faced with in a pragmatic manner. He confides that common sense was not, in that era, an attribute that was universally evident among black Adventist clergymen. Dr. Tottress, technically from the South, but in spirit a Westerner (who happened to be, at the time of his writing a leader of a church located in the very town that fired the first shots of the Civil War) provocatively, and fleetingly alludes to the “sin of Southernism” [I, the presumably detached typist, will interject that he has been a frontline witness to the injustices that typify all that are victimized by “the sin of Southernism.” I bear witness that many Southerners have a zeal for indefensible words and deeds].
The use of the notorious “N” word by preachers themselves draws the wrath of the author [this may have been still prevalent in the fifties when the book was written, but is no longer evident in the church]. But he does extract from a epithet-plagued and dialect-drenched sermon by a black pastor a remarkable metaphor that describes what our relationship to the Ten Commandments ought to be. The Ten Commandments are compared to the individual links in a chain. In modern English, here is the preacher’s insight: “If one of you African Americans [“N’ words] were hanging by a chain that was fashioned of links that were each representative of one of the Ten Commandments, how many of those links would have to break before you came down? Only one of them would have to break!”
[This “one link” was presumably then revealed to be the fourth commandment, as this metaphor would most admirably suit a sermon devoted to an admonition to strictly adhere to Sabbath (Saturday) worship, Sabbath observance is not an exclusive prerogative of the Seventh-day Adventist church, but it is often one of the most salient features of many Adventist evangelical campaigns. The neglected fourth commandment may initially appear to be some kind of quirky denominational fixation, but it is, in truth, a direct order issued by God, and one graven in tablets of stone with His very own finger.]
Dr. Tottress asks, at the conclusion of his treatise, that the youth of the church endeavor to preach the Word of God in a more dignified manner than was currently exhibited by the older generation. Jesus was doubtlessly as offended as he was by all of the tomfoolery and high-jinks that were on display [the Doctor is incontrovertibly a most dignified individual, and his cautions seem to have been largely heeded. Dignity need not totally suppress enthusiasm, however]. An assertion by the rising generation of Adventist clergy that they would henceforth exhibit a little dignity and restraint constituted part of the the “pledge” referred to in the title of this last chapter. These practices are neither “helpful, ethical, or necessary,” Dr. Tottress writes.
In an old issue of “The Journal of the Interdenominational Theological Center” Dr. Obery M. Hendricks, Jr. related a grievance similar to that of Dr. Tottress. Hendricks wote that the musical genre commonly called “Gospel” (referring specifically to its African American manifestation) represented a step backward from the more socially and politically engaged genre known as “Spiritual.” The article derided instances of “clowning” by Gospel music performers as being unsuitable handmaidens of the important content of the songs they may happen to be presenting. Dr. Hendricks lamented the politically disengaged nature of contemporary church music.
Dr. Tottress admits that racism has tainted the church, but reasserts that God stands far above such pollutants. He prefers a less-than-lily-white Messiah himself [a line from a movie produced by Billy Graham contains the line “You, know, Jesus had a healthy tan…”]. Christ’s hair is, after all, described as being like “lamb’s wool.” But the Doctor says that heaven will be neither white nor black. It is the inheritance of all of the redeemed of the earth, whatever their hue may be.
The author, even as he was writing six decades ago, noted some hopeful signs that the condition of the “negro” race, relative to the dominant white race, could easily be improved. The majority race would simply have to remove some arbitrary and unjust shackles with which they had traditionally immobilized the African American populace. Once they were unfettered, blacks would be free to demonstrate to the rest of the world their ungoverned potential. The entirety of the final paragraph on page 44 of the book will be replicated below:
“The Negro race thrown handicapped into the swift current of progress is swiftly and surely gaining its sure strokes and is demonstrating to the world that its mental and ingenious powers, though in many cases subdued by slavery, were and still are with it. Give a man a chance and then form your opinion. Let not your own dull mind boast of superiority to one whom you are suppressing and refusing an equal chance. Why race with a man on foot while you are in a car, and say that you outran him?”
The nature of the “pledge” that Dr. Tottress urges upon the young is more fully revealed on page 46:
“Every youth should be encouraged to fit himself (not by hypocritical words or even sincere words only) and pledge himself to do God’s work. Each should be denied no privilege to our institutions of higher learning, where barriers do not absolutely prohibit” [The qualification inherent in the last six words of this statement may no longer be applicable. It may be a reference to some particularly intransigent instances of “Jim Crow”]. While Seventh-day Adventist may continue, as a denomination, to strenuously object to equality (in the pulpit) based upon gender, there is not one word of Scripture that reveals that people are divinely sanctioned to discriminate (in or out of the pulpit) on the basis of race.
Former New York mayor Ed Koch asked everyone he met the same question: “How am I doing?” Dr. Richard E. Tottress ends his book with the full text of First Corinthians 13:1-13 (the whole chapter). He designates it “Gods Evaluation Chart,” and advises us, in capital letters, to “UNDERLINE EVERY WORD of it, mentally or otherwise.” It is so familiar to most, it can be identified just by citing its opening and closing words: “Though I speak with the tongues of men and angels… And now abideth faith, hope, and charity, these three; but the greatest of these is charity.”
First John 4:2 makes an obligatory appearance:
“If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar: for he that loveth not his brother whom he hath seen, how can he love God whom he hath not seen?”
The last, and most important element of Dr. Tottress’s “pledge” is now provided, here in the shadow of the two preceding Bible verses. This is the pledge of love, for we are called by Jesus to love all men. The book ends with a plea by the writer that we all live a life of love, strive for perfection, and offend no one by our thoughts or deeds. The sin of prejudice is a sin like any other, and must be rejected as such.
The bibliography listed for this book is headed by the King James Version of the Bible. The seventh citation in the succeeding list of ten is replicated below:
“White, Ellen G. The Great Controversy Between Christ and Satan. California. The Pacific Publishing Association.”
EPILOGUE
Google Books, who may be as confused as I often am, has an offering titled “Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races in Consideration of the Races,” presumably also published in 1955 by Nelsons Southern Printing and Publishing Company, a Charleston, SC company. It, like its Amazon cousin, is also unavailable for purchase. Eleven libraries around the nation currently have a copy of this book. As no review had ever been written, I wrote one and put it on Amazon. I will replicate it as a temporary finale to the ongoing task of digitizing some information about an exceptional man of God:
The author of this work [Heaven’s Entrance Requirement for the Races], Dr. Richard Edward Tottress is retired minister of the Seventh-day Adventist denomination. He is currently (2016) in his late nineties, but continues to drive himself around Atlanta, Georgia in his big gold Mercedes. He is a vegetarian, as are many Adventists, and though officially retired he remains active in ministry. This book emphasizes the color-blind nature of God. The “entrance requirement” to heaven that is referred to in the title of the book is that you do the will of God, a fundamental tenet of Adventist doctrine. Here is a quote from Chapter 1, from the bottom of page 3: “The highest honor that we may have is the kinship with Christ as it is offered. If we maintain our relationship to Christ, heaven will be our home. It is, however, evident that we may lose it by ceasing to do the Father’s will. One who ceases to do the will of God becomes a full-fledged member of the other family- Satan’s family.” Whosoever accepts grace must subsequently forsake sin.
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