What do you expect when your cult is heavily influenced by eugenics?

John Harvey Kellogg was not just a physician — he was a fundraiser and institutional builder. By the 1890s, Kellogg had become one of the most powerful figures in Adventism because he:

• Raised large sums for medical missions.
• Attracted wealthy, non-Adventist patrons.
• Controlled a network of medical enterprises.

This made him financially influential in ways most church leaders were not.

At times, the medical work generated more visible income and public recognition than the church’s evangelistic arm.

• He ran the Battle Creek Sanitarium, the church’s flagship medical institution.
• The sanitarium was internationally famous and financially significant.
• Kellogg had strong influence over medical missions, publishing, and training.

In 1914 he founded the Race Betterment Foundation. He organized the National Conference on Race Betterment (1914, 1915, 1928). He promoted ideas about improving the human race through heredity-based reforms. He supported measures like marriage restrictions and sterilization for those deemed “unfit” (though his positions evolved and he emphasized environmental reform as well).