{"id":4407,"date":"2019-01-06T12:47:27","date_gmt":"2019-01-06T19:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/?p=4407"},"modified":"2019-01-06T22:38:38","modified_gmt":"2019-01-07T05:38:38","slug":"theodore-roosevelt-christian-100-years-later","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/2019\/01\/06\/theodore-roosevelt-christian-100-years-later\/","title":{"rendered":"Theodore Roosevelt, Christian, 100 Years Later"},"content":{"rendered":"

1-7-19<\/p>\n

The last words Theodore Roosevelt spoke, before going to sleep on January 6, 1919, a century ago, were to his valet: \u201cJames, put out the light.\u201d The next day, Vice President Thomas Marshall said, \u201cDeath had to take Theodore Roosevelt in his sleep. If he had been awake, there would have been a fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

Famous, as suggested there, for boundless energy, but also for boundless enthusiasm, interests, and accomplishments, TR was an author of dozens of books, a legislator, cowboy and rancher, police commissioner, cabinet officer, soldier, governor, vice president, hunter and explorer, conservationist and naturalist. Loving husband and father of six children, he earned the Medal of Honor on the battlefield, and the Nobel Peace Prize.<\/p>\n

Oh, yes, and President of the United States. For all of his success in that position, he might be the only president for whom the presidency is not the greatest item on his resume. The most interesting American. <\/p>\n

An important aspect of TR that curiously has been neglected by history is his fervent Christian faith. In some ways, he might be seen as the most Christian and the most religious, at least the most observant, of all the presidents.<\/p>\n

A list evaluating presidents by this rubric would be subjective at best, and a difficult one to compute and compile. Putting TR\u2019s name at the top might surprise some people, yet that surprise itself might bear witness to the nature of his faith. It was privately held, but it permeated countless speeches, writings, and acts. His favorite Bible verse was Micah 6:8, \u201cWhat doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?\u201d<\/p>\n

Theodore Roosevelt was a member of the Dutch Reformed Church. He participated in missions work around New York City with his father, whether the charity was church-related or \u201cpersonal,\u201d public or private\u2014it was all God\u2019s work. TR taught weekly Sunday school classes during his four years at Harvard. Throughout his life he wrote for Christian publications. During the White House years, Edith, a strong Episcopalian, invariably attended her denomination\u2019s church across Lafayette Park, the \u201cChurch of Presidents.\u201d The president himself usually walked a little farther to worship at a humble German Reformed church, the closest he could find to the faith of his fathers.<\/p>\n

Roosevelt called his 1912 bare-the-soul campaign speech announcing his political principles \u201cA Confession of Faith.\u201d Later he closed perhaps the most important speech of his life, the clarion-call acceptance of the Progressive Party nomination, with the words: \u201cWe stand at Armageddon and we battle for the Lord!\u201d That convention featured evangelical songs and closed with the hymn, \u201cOnward Christian Soldiers.\u201d<\/p>\n

He titled one his books Foes of Our Own Household<\/em> (after Matthew 10:36) and another Fear God and Take Your Own Part<\/em>. He once wrote an article for The Ladies\u2019 Home Journal<\/em>, \u201cNine Reasons Why Men Should Go To Church.\u201d After TR left the White House, he was offered university presidencies and many other prominent jobs. He chose instead to become contributing Contributing Editor of The Outlook<\/em>, a small Christian weekly news magazine\u2014tantamount to an extremely popular ex-president today (if we had one) choosing to edit WORLD<\/em> Magazine. He accepted a salary approximately one-eighth of salaries offered by magazines like Collier\u2019s<\/em> that hoped to snag TR\u2019s services. His first essay for the magazine, telling the public why he chose to associate himself with the journal cited The Outlook\u2019s<\/em> \u201cpaying heed to the dictates of a stern morality,\u201d and its \u201cinflexible adherence to the elementary virtues of entire truth, entire courage, entire honesty.\u201d No fake news permitted in his space,<\/p>\n

Roosevelt was invited to deliver the Earl Lectures at Pacific Theological Seminary in 1911, but declined due to a heavy schedule. Knowing, however, that he would be near Berkeley on a speaking tour, 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\u2014from the heart and without notes\u2014on the Christian\u2019s role in modern society.<\/p>\n

TR was not perfect, but he knew the One who is. Fond of saying that he would \u201cspeak softly and carry a big stick,\u201d 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 a thoroughgoing good man; and he was a good man because he was a humble believer. In a hundred years we have not seen his like again.<\/p>\n

Thoughts of Rick Marschall, Roosevelt scholar, author of 74 books; member, Advisory Board, Theodore Roosevelt Association.<\/em><\/p>\n

+ + +<\/p>\n

Click: Rick Marschall at Truman Library Institute, Kansas City Public Library<\/a><\/p>\n

\n
\nMillions of servicemen in World War I were sent abroad with New Testaments with a spiritual message from Theodore Roosevelt\n<\/div>\n
\n
\nCan a Christian serve in politics?\n<\/div>\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

1-7-19 The last words Theodore Roosevelt spoke, before going to sleep on January 6, 1919, a century ago, were to his valet: \u201cJames, put out the light.\u201d The next day, Vice President Thomas Marshall said, \u201cDeath had to take Theodore Roosevelt in his sleep. If he had been awake, there would have been a fight.\u201d […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[11,9,31],"tags":[198,2890,2889,2891,2887,2892,615,173,2886,2888],"class_list":["post-4407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-christianity","category-government","category-service","tag-becky-spencer","tag-henry-fortunato","tag-kansas-city-library","tag-oyster-bay","tag-rick-marschall","tag-sagamore-hill","tag-teddy-roosevelt","tag-theodore-roosevelt","tag-thomas-riley-marshall","tag-truman-library-institute"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p1bRYz-195","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/25"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4407"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4411,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4407\/revisions\/4411"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4407"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4407"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mondayministry.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4407"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}