Loewen, Marvin Elbert (1907–1998)

Marvin E. Loewen served as a pastor-evangelist and administrator in China, the Philippines, and the United States, and as director of Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty at the General Conference.

Early Years

He was born August 17, 1907, to Peter Walter Loewen (1884-1976) and Anna Weitz Loewen (1888-1974) in Texas County, Oklahoma, located in the “panhandle” formed by the boundaries of the western-most part of the state. Both Peter and Anna were second generation Seventh-day Adventists, born into German-speaking families that emigrated from southern Russia to the United States in the 1880s and 1890s. Marvin was their first born, followed by Delbert (1910-2004) and Beatrice (1911-2005).¹

Peter Loewen owned and operated a general store in Blaine County, central Oklahoma, where the family moved soon after Marvin was born.² In 1920 they moved to San Joaquin County in central California where Peter became an automobile dealer.³ Marvin graduated from Lodi Academy in 1925 and earned a bachelor of theology degree at Pacific Union College in Angwin, California, in 1930.⁴

Marriage and Ministry

At PUC, Marvin met Gertrude Wangerin, who was born in Seoul, Korea, in 1910. Her parents, Rufus C. Wangerin (1883-1917) and Theodora Scharffenberg Wangerin (1888-1978) were among the earliest Adventist missionaries to Korea. Her father contracted tuberculosis and died in 1917 but her mother served another 30 years in Korea, primarily in Sabbath School and Young People’s Missionary Volunteer departmental leadership and editorial work. Like Marvin, Gertrude graduated from PUC in 1930 and they married right afterward on June 6, 1930, in San Francisco.⁵

Loewen began ministry in the Northern California Conference, engaging in evangelistic and pastoral work at several locales from 1930 to 1934. He was ordained to gospel ministry by John E. Fulton, president of the Pacific Union Conference, on December 1, 1934.⁶

Mission Leadership in China

In 1935, the Loewens began overseas mission service in the China Division. Their daughter, Marvelyn Jeanne (Sturtevant) was born in Beijing on July 9, 1935. Two children also born in China died in infancy: Marvin Elbert in 1937,⁷ and in 1939, an unnamed daughter who survived only one hour.⁸

Elder Loewen was appointed superintendent of the Kiangsi Mission, part of the Central China Union Mission, in 1937, and then, in 1938, was placed in charge of the Honan Mission.⁹

A report by Loewen published in March 1939 provides a window on the church’s work amidst the Second Sino-Japanese War. He expressed gratitude that a majority of church members in the Honan Mission territory had not yet been directly affected by the war, and he cited several encouraging signs of progress In the church’s regular program of evangelistic, educational, and medical work. Many members, though, faced harrowing circumstances. Four churches were at the time in Japanese-occupied territory. Of these, one church building was partially destroyed, another destroyed entirely, and another congregation had completely dispersed. At Hsinhsiang (Xinxiang), which was subjected to repeated attacks, the Adventist church compound took in several hundred refugees, as did the Catholic mission across the street. On the brighter side, the Japanese general gave a large contribution to the annual Harvest Ingathering campaign and some of the soldiers attended Sabbath school.¹⁰

Outside the Japanese-occupied territory, a major flood left 13 elderly church members surrounded by water making it difficult to reach them with supplies. Yencheng (Yancheng), locale of mission headquarters, along with an Adventist school and hospital, was spared bombing for nearly a year until “nine bombers visited us” on a recent Sabbath afternoon, Loewen wrote. With the hospital thronged with victims and electricity knocked out, Dr. W. G. Nethery performed surgery by kerosene lamp late into the night.¹¹

Soon afterwards, Loewen was called to a higher level of responsibility as superintendent of the West China Union Mission, with headquarters in Chungking (Chongqing). But this assignment brought no respite from bombings. From 1938 to 1943 the Japanese military conducted hundreds of air raids intended to terrorize the city’s populace.¹² Nonetheless, Loewen served in this capacity for nearly two years before returning with his family to the United States in early 1941 to take up a different type of war-related assignment. Loewen told an informal gathering of faculty at PUC in December 1941 that he had been through 300 bombings while in China.¹³

Camp Pastor and Conference President

In 1941 Loewen accepted assignment in the Columbia Union Conference as assistant regional secretary of the War Service Commission. After the United States resumed the military draft in September 1940, the General Conference reactivated the Commission to provide guidance and support for Adventists endeavoring to be true to their faith while in the armed forces. A large part of Loewen’s responsibility was to encourage Adventist young men facing conscription to accept 1-A-0 classification allowing them to serve in the military as a noncombatant, consistent with the church’s longstanding position since the American Civil War in the 1860s.¹⁴

Known less formally as camp pastor, Loewen’s role was to minister to inductees stationed in training camps throughout the territory of the Columbia Union, counselling them regarding problems they encountered, and advocating for them with military authorities if issues arose over the privileges afforded them as registered noncombatants. He urged Adventist draftees both to be faithful to conscience and demonstrate patriotism through faithful service in their noncombatant roles.¹⁵

As in China, so in the United States, Loewen’s leadership abilities became readily apparent. Still only 36, he was elected president of the West Pennsylvania Conference in October 1943.¹⁶

Rebuilding in the Philippines

In 1946, Loewen was called back to the Far East to serve as president of the Philippine Union Mission. Though steady membership growth had continued through the years of World War II and Japanese occupation, rehabilitation and expansion of the church’s physical facilities became top priority after the war ended in 1945.

In October 1948 Loewen reported that, thanks to funding from the General Conference, 41 buildings had been constructed during the past two years in the Philippine Union to enhance every facet of the church’s mission. These included the Philippine Union Publishing House Press, Manila Sanitarium and Hospital, Philippine Union College Elementary School, 20 homes for college faculty, 10 buildings for academies—dormitories, administration buildings, and dining halls, and office headquarters for four missions as well as the union.

Conference President Again

Loewen’s final overseas posting was as pastor of the Hong Kong English church for the first half of 1949.¹⁷ Upon returning to the United States, Loewen took up studies toward a master’s degree at the Seventh-day Adventist Theological Seminary then located in Washington, D.C. It was his second stint at the seminary as he had previously studied there during the 1942 winter quarter.¹⁸ Once again, though, a call to new responsibility as president of the Ohio Conference came in early 1950 before he could complete his degree. The Loewens spent seven enjoyable years in Mount Vernon, locale of conference headquarters, by far the longest they had lived in any one place.¹⁹

From 1957 to 1959, Loewen served as president of a third conference in the Columbia Union, the Chesapeake Conference, which has the state of Delaware and most of Maryland as its territory. During this time he managed to complete his master of arts degree in theology at the SDA Seminary, awarded in 1958.²⁰

General Conference PARL Director

A new and final phase of Loewen’s career began in March 1959 with his appointment to direct the Religious Liberty Department of the Columbia Union Conference.²¹ However, this assignment turned out to be a short-lived prelude to worldwide responsibility. At the annual council in October 1959, Loewen was called to serve as director of the Department of Public Affairs at the General Conference, a newly-named department that combined the work of the Religious Liberty Department and the Bureau of Public Relations.²² In 1962, the department was renamed Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL), with Public Relations (later Communications) again made a distinct department.²³

During Loewen’s years (1959-1975) as PARL director at the General Conference, a large portion of the globe was governed by Communist and Islamist regimes that strongly suppressed religious freedom. In many other nations as well Adventists faced prosecution, sometimes leading to imprisonment, over conscientious objection to armed military service, public distribution and sale of religious literature, and Sabbath observance. Loewen’s responsibilities included monitoring and giving counsel on the efforts of Adventist religious liberty leaders throughout the divisions of the world church to address these matters.²⁴

His own work of speaking, writing, and advocacy, however, was mainly focused on the United States where Seventh-day Adventists had a long heritage of activism for religious liberty, undergirded by sharp separation of church and state. A leading issue all along for Adventists was Sunday legislation, seen as inherently religious in nature and thus prohibited by the U.S. Constitution. However, in 1961, early in Loewen’s tenure, the Supreme Court upheld the constitutionality of state and local Sunday blue laws, leading to widespread efforts in numerous states to pass stronger Sunday legislation as well as more rigorously enforce existing laws. In conjunction with union and local conference religious liberty leaders, PARL mobilized an intensive lobbying campaign that helped thwart the momentum of these endeavors. In Texas, for example, Loewen and his associate at PARL, W. Melvin Adams, engaged in a high profile campaign against a wave of local ordinances restricting commerce on Sundays, helping to defeat such measures in Austin, San Antonio, and Dallas.²⁵

Subsequent Supreme Court rulings in 1962 and 1963 against officially prescribed prayer and Bible readings in public schools sparked far greater national controversy. Widespread popular outrage prompted proposals for an amendment to the U.S. Constitution, such as set forth by Congressman Frank Becker of New York, permitting Bible reading and prayer in public schools and other governmental institutions provided that no one would be forced to participate. Loewen decried the drive to restore state-sponsored school prayer as expressing a form of “national religion” that, he said, was “a weak, watered-down, homogenized form of faith” with “all the earmarks of a comfortable superstition.” Despite its shallowness, he warned, in a time of crisis it could serve to rally a majority to “rise up and destroy any who dared to be a nonconformist by rejecting the popular ‘faith.’”²⁶

During congressional hearings in 1964, the Becker Amendment received vigorous support from conservative evangelicals and some influential Catholic leaders. Loewen, however, called the measure “potentially one of the most dangerous to religious liberty that has been considered by Congress in our generation.” PARL set out kits through its national network of conference religious liberty departments providing instructions for mobilizing Adventists to write their members of Congress in opposition to the amendment proposal. The Becker Amendment was defeated in committee but proposals of a similar nature have recurred from time to time since then.²⁷

Loewen’s years of PARL leadership also coincided with a dramatic increase in American federal government funding of higher education and health care. To administrators of Adventist colleges and universities, in particular, it seemed necessary, in order to remain viable, to accept some forms of government aid that the church had long denounced as an illicit union of church and state when provided to institutions of other religious persuasions. Loewen and other religious liberty leaders advocated firm adherence to the long-standing separationist policy but came to support the broad consensus that developed among church leaders that changed circumstances required greater flexibility without comprising the core principles of the Adventist faith.²⁸

In 1972 the General Conference Committee voted a statement of the Philosophy of Seventh-day Adventist Education that established guidelines for accepting government aid without compromising the character or purpose of Adventist schools. The policy also affirmed that “religious liberty is best achieved and preserved by the separation of church and state.”²⁹ In his departmental report to the 1975 General Conference session in Vienna, Loewen stated that the policy was having a “desirable effect” on denominational institutions and stressed that it needed to be “given to every government agency concerned, alerting government officials to the religious character of Adventist schools.” He thought it important to be as open and clear about the policy as possible in order to inform the decision making of all parties involved in the process of granting and receiving government funds.³⁰

Contribution

Elder Loewen retired from full-time ministry following the 1975 General Conference session. He and Gertrude lived in the Loma Linda, California, area. She died on October 11, 1994, at age 84.³¹ He went to his rest four years later on October 24, 1998, at the age of 91. Both were buried in Cherokee Memorial Park, San Joaquin County, California.³²

During his 45 years of ministry, Marvin E. Loewen provided exemplary leadership that, in widely varied settings, helped navigate the Adventist cause through the upheavals of the middle decades of the 20^th century.

Sources

Christman, Don R. “Church Meets Sunday Law Challenge in San Antonio.” Liberty News, December 1966.

“Extra.” Liberty News, January 1967.

King, L. H. “West Pennsylvania--Elder M. E. Loewen Succeeds Elder L. H. King.” Columbia Union Visitor, October 28, 1943.

Loewen, M. E. “Farewell Message From President M. E. Loewen.” Columbia Union Visitor, March 7, 1957.

Loewen, M. E. “Report of the Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.” ARH, June 15, 1970.

Loewen, M. E. “Serve Your Country as an American Should.” Columbia Union Visitor, December 3, 1942.

“Loewen, Marvin E.” FamilySearch. Accessed January 20, 2025. https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LH3Y-V5P.

Loewen, Marvin E. “A Report From Honan Province.” China Division Reporter, March 1939.

Loewen, Marvin E. “Public Affairs and Religious Liberty.” ARH, July 31, 1975.

Loewen, Marvin E. “To China After 37 Years.” ARH, October 26, 1978.

Loewen, Marvin E. “With Our Boys in the Army Camps.” ARH, April 1, 1943.

“Marvin Elfert Loewen obituary.” ARH, January 28, 1999.

Morgan, Douglas. Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement. Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001.

Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114929. General Conference of Seventh-day Adventists Archives, Silver Spring, MD (GCA).

Notes

1. “Marvin Elbert Loewen,” Biographical Information Blank, January 23, 1962, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114929; “Marvin E. Loewen,” FamilySearch, accessed January 20, 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LH3Y-V5P; “Dietrich Loewen obituary,” Central Union Outlook, October 10, 1911, 8.↩

2. “United States Census, 1910,” FamilySearch, accessed January 20, 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:ML7Y-CHG.↩

3. “United States, Census, 1920,” FamilySearch, accessed January 20, 2025, https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJM3-3S3.↩

4. “Marvin Elbert Loewen” Biographical Information Blank, January 23, 1962, GCA.↩

5. “Gertrude Wangerin Loewen,” Biographical Information Blank, November 5, 1946, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114929, GCA.↩

6. “Marvin E. Loewen,” Biographical Information Blank, April 22, 1935, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114929, GCA.↩

7. “Marvin Elbert Loewen Jr.,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 122596286, January 1, 2014, accessed January 23, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122596286/marvin_elbert_loewen.↩

8. “Baby Loewen,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 122596302, January 1, 2014, accessed January 23, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/122596302/baby_loewen; Marvin E. Loewen, “To China After 37 Years,” ARH, October 26, 1978, 5.↩

9. “Marvin Elbert Loewen,” Biographical Information Blank, November 4, 1946, Secretariat Missionary Files, RG 21, Record 114929, GCA; M.C. Warren, “Central China Union Report,” China Division Reporter, February 1938, 3.↩

10. Marvin E. Loewen, “A Report From Honan Province,” China Division Reporter, March 1939, 3-4.↩

11. Ibid.↩

12. Ying-kit Chan, “A Wartime Stampede: Renewing a Social Contract After The Great Tunnel Disaster of Chongqing,” International Journal of Asian Studies 14, no. 1 (2017): 47–49; accessed January 21, 2025, https://doi.org/10.1017/S1479591416000218.↩

13. “Faculty Entertains Missionaries,” Pacific Union Recorder, December 31, 1941, 2.↩

14. Douglas Morgan, “Between Pacifism and Patriotism,” Journal of Adventist Education 65, No. 5 (Summer 2003): 16-27.↩

15. M.E. Loewen, “Serve Your Country as an American Should,” Columbia Union Visitor, December 3, 1942, 1; Marvin E. Loewen, “With Our Boys in the Army Camps,” ARH, April 1, 1943, 16, 19.↩

16. L.H. King, “West Pennsylvania--Elder M.E. Loewen Succeeds Elder L.H. King,” Columbia Union Visitor, October 28, 1943, 8.↩

17. “Division Items,” Far Eastern Division Outlook, February 1949, 8.↩

18. “Marvin Elbert Loewen,” Biographical Information Blank, November 4, 1946, and “Marvin Elbert Loewen” Biographical Information Blank, January 23, 1962, GCA.↩

19. M.E. Loewen, “Farewell Message From President M.E. Loewen,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 7, 1957, 3.↩

20. D.A. Roth, “C.V. Anderson Retires; D.W. Hunter Appointed,” Columbia Union Visitor, March 14, 1957, 1; “Marvin Elbert Loewen” Biographical Information Blank, January 23, 1962, GCA.↩

21. D.A. Roth, “Entire Union Office Staff Re-elected,” Columbia Union Visitor, April 2, 1957, 1.↩

22. Erwin E. Roenfelt, “The 1959 Autumn Council,” ARH, November 12, 1959, 8.↩

23. Seventh-day Adventist Yearbook for 1963, 12.↩

24. M.E. Loewen, “Report of the Department of Public Affairs and Religious Liberty,” ARH, June 15, 1970, 20; Marvin E. Loewen, “Public Affairs and Religious Liberty,” ARH, July 31, 1975, 25-26.↩

25. Don R. Christman, “Church Meets Sunday Law Challenge in San Antonio,” Liberty News, December 1966, 64; “Extra,” Liberty News, January 1967, 7-12; Douglas Morgan, Adventism and the American Republic: The Public Involvement of a Major Apocalyptic Movement (Knoxville, TN: University of Tennessee Press, 2001), 126-131.↩

26. M.E. Loewen, “The Meaning of Current Attempts to Add a Religious Amendment to the Constitution,” ARH, October 31, 1963, 5.↩

27. Morgan, Adventism and the American Republic, 138.↩

28. Ibid., 141-143.↩

29. Ibid., 142-143.↩

30. Loewen, “Public Affairs and Religious Liberty,” ARH, July 31, 1975, 26.↩

31. “Gertrude Theodora Wangerin Loewen,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 142889974, February 21, 2015, accessed January 23, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142889974/gertrude_theodora_loewen.↩

32. “Marvin Elfert Loewen obituary,” ARH, January 28, 1999, 28; “Rev. Marvin Elbert Loewen Sr.,” Find A Grave, Memorial ID 142889848, February 21, 2015, accessed January 23, 2025, https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/142889848/marvin_elbert_loewen.↩