Feb 20, 2011
The Most Christian of American Presidents?
2-21-11
Presidents’ Day. A holiday one of whose aspects I abhor: its mush-brained attempt at “inclusiveness.” Beyond a thank-you for the time certain presidents served, and sacrifices they probably made – already covered by various grade schools named for them, and the pensions they received – simply doing one’s job should not be justification for a federal holiday.
To honor all is a way of honoring none. For historical saps like James Buchanan, sharing a national holiday with Abraham Lincoln is to knock the latter off a pedestal. Historical mistakes like John Tyler and Millard Fillmore should not be mentioned in the same hemisphere as George Washington. Some few presidents did great things in great ways.
The impetus for President’s Day was provided by unions and retailers, who desired another long weekend on the standard calendar. The result? Our civic saints live in the popular image, now, as Abe Lincoln impersonators hawking used cars on TV commercials; and George Washington (his talking portrait on animated dollar bills), not the Father of His Country, but the Father of the President’s Day Weekend of Unbelievable Bargains and Sales.
Americans used to reject, but now embrace, the Marxian mindset of mediocrity – every thing, and every one, must be leveled. It once was the French who, in the name of equality, sought to abolish First-Class seats on their trains. “Why is it that the Socialists never abolish the second-class?” a French friend of mine once moaned. Now in America we pull down some of humankind’s greatest figures, like Washington and Lincoln, in order to – what? not hurt the feelings of Franklin Piece and Chester Alan Arthur?There’s a lesson for our school children: grow up to be elected president, have a pulse, and you, too, will have post offices close a day in your honor.
Obviously I am eager to honor Washington and Lincoln, whose birthdays, this month, officially have been homogenized, as have their reputations. I do honor them, frequently, in my writing, and in discussions, and conversations with children, and in my reading and my studies. So should we all do with people and causes that we revere, more so when the culture obscures them from our vision.
In my case I hold Theodore Roosevelt in particular regard. I am finishing a biography of him (for Regnery, to be published this October), and one thing I have come to appreciate about TR is something that largely has been neglected by history books. That is, the aspect of his fervent Christian faith. In some ways, he might be seen as the most Christian and the most religious of all presidents.
This is (admittedly) a subjective list, and a difficult one to compute and compile. TR’s name at the top might surprise some people, yet that surprise might itself bear witness to the nature of his faith: privately held, but permeating countless speeches, writings, and acts. His favorite verse was Micah 6:8 – “What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?”
He was of the Dutch Reformed Church. He participated in missions work with his father, a noted philanthropist. He taught weekly Sunday School classes during his four years at Harvard. He wrote for Christian publications.
He called his bare-the-soul speech announcing his principles when running in 1912, “A Confession of Faith.” Later he closed perhaps the most important speech of his life, the clarion-call acceptance of the Progressive Party nomination that year, “We stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!” That convention featured evangelical hymns and closed with “Onward Christian Soldiers.”
He titled one his books Foes of Our Own Household (after Matthew 10:36) and another, Fear God and Take Your Own Part. He once wrote an article for The Ladies’ Home Journal, “Nine Reasons Why Men Should Go To Church.” After TR left the White House, he was offered university presidencies and many other prominent jobs. He chose instead to become Contributing Editor of The Outlook, a small Christian weekly magazine – tantamount to an extremely popular ex-president today (if we had one) choosing to edit WORLD Magazine, or RealClearPolitics.com, or ASSIST News Service, instead of higher-profile positions.
He was invited to deliver the Earl Lectures at Pacific Theological Seminary in 1911, but declined due to a heavy schedule. Knowing he would be near Berkeley on a speaking tour, however, he offered to deliver the lectures if he might be permitted to speak extemporaneously, not having time to prepare written texts of the five lectures, as was the custom. It was agreed, and TR spoke for 90 minutes each evening – from the heart and without notes – on the Christian’s role in modern society.
… and so on. TR was not perfect, but he knew the One who is. Fond of saying that he would “speak softly and carry a big stick,” it truly can be said, also, that Theodore Roosevelt hid the Word in his heart, and acted boldly. He was a great American because he was thoroughgoing good man; and he was a good man because he was a humble believer.
Remember Theodore Roosevelt on President’s Day. Remember him on his own birthday, Oct 27. Remember him every day – we are not seeing his kind any more.
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Two vids celebrating Theodore Roosevelt: a clip from the movie The Wind and the Lion: “The world will never love the US; it might respect us; it might come to fear us; but it will never love us.” —
Click: The Affinity of America and the Grizzly Bear — Brian Keith as TR
When the video is finished, click Back-arrow (not Close) to see the second: Photos of TR accompany the Black Irish Band in a contemporary song about this great American —
Click: The Ballad of Theodore Roosevelt
Hi, Rick..
Enjoyed your Teddy Roosevelt piece today in ASSIST. BTW, what do you think of Glenn Beck excoriating Teddy for his “progressivism?” Somehow I have a hunch TR would not approve of Obama’s shenanigans (or George Soros), but Beck seems to want to lump TR in with today’s so-called “progressives.”
Blessings,
Joel Griffith
I am extremely grateful for your note.
Beck is OK on some things, holding valuable classes for the masses in many areas. However, the day he looked into the camera and said. “Teddy Roosevelt — bad man! Baaaaaad man!” I mutinied.
Because some of TR’s prescriptions were called progressive — and were, for the time, when a few such remedies were necessary — has no bearing on where the lunatic fringe ran with them afterwards. (That was TR’s term, “lunatic fringe.”)
I hate modern progressivism too, but it’s like Beck would blackball churches holding progressive dinners on the ground, or the game of progressive poker, or people who insure their cars with Progressive Insurance. He goes overboard and doesn’t know what he’s talking about, here. It would be like condemning Lincoln because Communists in 1930s called their class trip to the Spanish Civil War “the Lincoln Brigade.”
Theodore Roosevelt was more the patriot, 24-carat, than most people of his time (whatever their labels) and most Americans since, including those of today. TR would knock Beck’s analysis down in a moment’s fusillade.
TR was undoubtedly a great president and, while it is interesting to learn about his Christian propensity, I am reluctant to disparage others of his office. I wish that we could continue to celebrate Washington’s birthday, but suspect that there would be a full calendar of federal holidays should President’s day not fulfill the purpose.
My larger points are that having “Presidents Day” for one-and-all already tends to disparage the ones who deserve special commemoration. An automatic federal holiday — for instance, you wish we could continue Washington’s Birthday — is not, either, a cause of automatic consecration. Besides, they would be unwieldy; in addition to worthy presidents, I wish our culture would occasional celebrate the likes of Bejamin Franklin, Thomas Edison, et al.
So we are left with selective holidays… images on stamps and coins… or avoiding to make Cultural Smoothies, every notable figure mixed with others, until the distinctions of their achievments and inspiration are lost. We already have bluured the lines between heroes and celebrities.
Special “days” can descend into jokes or irrelevance. Rather, I desire that we honor the outstanding men and women of our nation, perhaps by holidays, if possible, but more by reading and study and teaching and reflection. Those acts in themselves are tributes.
Thank you Rick for your thoughtful essay. I agree with you that some Presidents are more worthy of “Presidents Day” honors. I’m more inclined to promote one like C Coolidge – though he was decidedly not flashy nor terribly noteworthy in his manner.
In any case, reading your words about TR and associating him with the song “Onward Christian Soldiers” left a very bad taste in my mouth. It was he who more than anyone, ensured W Wilson’s election. Disaster of all disasters! He (mis)used Christianity as a cover and excuse for involving the US in WWI – extending the war and costing many additional lives. (see “The War for Righteousness” by R Gamble.)
You combine the notions of “The most Christian President” and “Presidents worthy of a special day of remembrance”. I’m not confident that there is any connection whatsoever. Think Jimmy Carter – he teaches Sunday School and has the highest unfavorable ratings I can think of.
“historical saps like James Buchanan, sharing a national holiday with Abraham Lincoln is to knock the latter off a pedestal”–President Buchanan did not think it was constitutional to prosecute a war that cost over half a million lives to prevent states from exercising their 10th amendment rights. If that’s a sap, then perhaps this post belongs in a website dedicated to the ministry of Ares or Odin…..
TR was definitely an impressive man of character and faith. For some people Jimmy Carter is very high on the list of most Christian.
TR was very progressive for his time. He came back and ran for president against Taft, who was TR’s vice president, because TR was disappointed that Taft wasn’t ‘progressive enough.’ The progressivism of that time was ‘to do things in a better way’ through bigger government, local, state, and federal. One of the fruits of the progressives of that era was the Federal Reserve Act. During that era (1890s to Depression) the US was very imperialistic. Imperialism seems separate from progressivism. Using imperialism to promote the Monroe Doctrine is a contradiction in itself. The sinking of the “Maine” was most likely not an act of war or aggression. The sinking was used to promote war. There was a lot of dubiousness in the events of those times, and reasons for them. Any idea of spreading democracy or Christianity does not justify war. I state my opinion: imperialism is evil; war is evil; the Federal Reserve Act & Federal Reserve are evil, and progressivism in practice has been, and is evil. Even though TR was Christian, he was right in the lead of it all.
Thank you. Some responses from me: Personally, I suppose Jimmy Carter has a charitable heart, but I have thought that many of his actions adversely affected people of faith and traditional Christian values. I resist and denounce modern Progressivism, even as I revere TR, who was (thank you for using the small “p”) a progressive of his day. There were many evils of crony capitalism that he witnessed as a ranching entrepreneur; corruption in the courts he was aware of from his social circle as a prominent and wealthy New Yorker; and, frankly, horrific conditions of, for instance, child labor that could no be checked without “government as referee” (as he saw things) or literal class warfare (as he foresaw). That Wilson and FDR, LBJ, and Obama ran with his modest reforms, and hideously perverted them… cannot be laid at his feet. Woodrow Wilson was a Progressive, too; and a polar opposite of TR, a bitter opponent. It was HIS progressivism that fostered the statist monster we confront today.
There are a couple other points: Taft was TR’s Secretary of War, not vice president. The rupture was not exactly over who was more “progressive” (Taft, for instance, “busted” more trusts in four years than Roosevelt did in seven. Rather it was the reversal of specific Roosevelt policies, broken promises concerning TR’s initiatives. For instance, Taft rolled back many of TR’s conservation allotments, and a big scandal (forgotten today) is how the Taft administration gifted millions of acres of Alaskan lands to the Guggenheim interests.
Also you should know that the Federal Reserve System came in under Wilson, not Taft OR Roosevelt; and the “father of Jekyll Island” — the secret conference that hatched the Fed — was Sen Nelson Aldrich of Rhode Island, whom Theodore Roosevelt despised, resisted, and considered an enemy all his career.
For the record, I probably agree with your ideas on wars. I admire TR for how he conducted himself once he was in uniform and had military objectives as a colonel of troops. I believe he was wrong on World War I — his analysis of its causes, and his advocacy of American intervention. And if people think that the Pure Food Act was wrong… surely that could be considered as a civic mistake/bad precedent/wrong policy; but hardly a spiritual sin. That’s the way I see it. It is very hard to play “what if” about policies more than a century old. Really, to claim that regulations about children working in factories six days a week were evil, as some people claim today, must equate with sanctification of monopolists and labor thugs and food adulterators and white-slavers. If THEY had not been evil, the whole debate about progressivism and Progressivism would be needless.
So I don’t think he was mankind’s savior, or even, literally, America’s. We already have Jesus. But did Roosevelt know the Lord (the subject of my essay)? I still say yes, in his many and unique ways.
Oh, how we yearn for a leader like TR. A man who spoke from his heart, read his Bible and lived his life to serve God. I shudder to think of the Day of the Lord when we see our “leaders” give an account of their leadership..”non-sexual” acts in the Oval office, saying they are Christian, then pushing abortion as “health-care” benefits…Thanks, Rick, for encouraging me to pray for our leaders!
Very thoughtful and in-depth examinations of what was and what was not. All in all so much here is excellent. I believe ‘ progressive’ in itself means to make progress with change for the good. I’m for what is truly better and fair for all. Some how by trick or deceit words become used for something quite different than the original. Federal is anti-federal (opposed to the rights of the states and the people), patriot or patriotic now means NWO/OWG and not real nationalists, to be a ‘nationalist’ is now internationalist. I am conservative but I am not a Conservative. I am liberal but not a Liberal. I am born an American (thankfully) and born again a Christian. I cannot agree with the government in so many things in the past and most importantly in the present. But I can pray for the leaders and officials as I am told to do, and speak out against evil. John the Babtist lost his head for doing right. He is the outstanding model for countryman and Christian.
Thank you! EXCELLENT observations, and distinctions.