Lessons from a turn-of-the-twentieth-century “theocrat”
Every department of human life—the families, the schools, amusements, arts, business, politics, industry, national politics, international relations—will be governed by the Christian law and controlled by Christian influences. When we are bidden to seek first the kingdom of God, we are bidden to set our hearts on this great commission; to keep this always before us as the object of our endeavors; to be satisfied with nothing less than this. The complete Christianization of all life is what we pray and work for, when we work and pray for the coming of the kingdom of Heaven.
Who uttered these words?
Before you move your eyes down this page in search of an answer, I encourage you to take a guess. Allow me to offer some possibilities. Perhaps this call for the “Christianization of all life” comes from a Seven Mountain Dominionist such as charismatic prophet Lance Wallnau or pseudo-historian David Barton? Or maybe a member of the Christian Right—someone such as Robert Jeffress or Franklin Graham—uttered these words. What about a 2024 GOP presidential candidate such as Trump, DeSantis, Pence, or Scott? Missouri Senator Josh Hawley? Turning Point USA pundit Charlie Kirk? Radio host and author Eric Metaxas?
While statements about the Christian takeover of schools, entertainment, art, business, politics, and foreign affairs sound like the rantings of today’s so-called Christian nationalists, these words actually come from Washington Gladden’s 1894 address “The Church and the Kingdom.”
Washington Gladden was one of the early leaders of the Social Gospel movement in the United States. As the progressive pastor of the First Congregational Church of Columbus, Ohio, Gladden preached a biblical gospel that combined personal salvation through Christ and social justice for the poor and oppressed. He developed a national reputation as an advocate for working people in their ongoing battles with capitalists. He took on the monopolies, fought for shorter work weeks and higher wages, mediated labor strikes, and called upon corporations to share their profits with their workers. He championed the public ownership of railroads, gas and electric companies, mines, water suppliers, and telephone services. As the president of the American Missionary Association he refused a $100,000 gift to the organization from oil magnate John D. Rockefeller because, as he put it, the money was “tainted.”
As the formerly enslaved and their children entered American society as free people, Gladden condemned racism and lynching. (Read his 1903 lecture “Murder as an Epidemic.”) As new Catholic immigrants entered the country by the hundreds of thousands, Gladden fought against anti-Catholic nativism.
This was Washington Gladden’s Christian nation.
Twenty years after “The Church and the Kingdom” Gladden echoed his call for a Christian civilization in the pages of The American Home Missionary: “If we want the nations of the earth to understand Christianity, we have got to have a Christianized nation to show them.” In a hagiographic biographical sketch published in the July 1912 issue of Collier’s Weekly, the novelist and political writer Peter Clark MacFarlane quipped, “To Washington Gladden, the United States of America is a theocracy.”
Today, the Christian Right calls us to embrace the Judeo-Christian principles that supposedly founded the United States. Let us for the sake of argument say that they are correct—that America was founded as a Christian nation based on Judeo-Christian principles and these principles need to be restored in, to use Gladden’s phrase, “every department of human life.”
If Judeo-Christian ideals are indeed the foundation of American society, then why aren’t more American evangelicals fighting for striking workers and a higher minimum wage? Isn’t this an issue of human dignity? Don’t evangelicals believe that all human beings—even workers— are created in the image of God?
Where is the evangelical backlash against corporate greed? What happened to Jesus’ words about the rich man and the eye of the needle? Isn’t such a condemnation of materialism part of the Judeo-Christian tradition?
What about the Creator’s command to care for the earth? Why aren’t Christian nationalists in Congress trying to pour billions into our collective battle with climate change? Those who take the Judeo-Christian tradition seriously should oppose the Green New Deal because it does not do enough to save the planet to which God entrusted us.
If one is committed to bringing Judeo-Christian principles to government, why oppose social programs to feed children or efforts to provide healthcare to every American? There is more in scripture about children, the poor, and the sick than there is about abortion, religious liberty, guns, and homosexuality.
And why try to whitewash American history standards in an attempt to downplay the horrors of slavery? Doesn’t the Judeo-Christian tradition believe in systemic sin and collective repentance? What happened to 2 Chronicles 7:14: “If my people, who are called by name, will humble themselves and pray and seek my face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and I will forgive their sin and will heal their land”?
Let’s make America Christian again—Gladden style.
John Fea is Executive Editor of Current
Image: Washington Gladden. Library of Congress Prints and Photographs Division
John, I appreciate your sense that what Christianity looks like in social policy includes policies that are on a radically different end of the spectrum from the policy focus of the Christian right–captured as it has been by a narrow partisan agenda.
But isn’t there another lesson to be learned from Gladden and, especially, the movement that that he helped to found? That lesson is that when we make the gospel entirely social, we eventually lose the gospel.
Evangelicals today need the realization that the political agenda of the Social Gospel movement was biblical–even if not the whole counsel of God. But both the (far) Christian left and right need desperately to realize that if we think and act as if the kingdom of Jesus is of this world we will distort–or lose–the gospel. That doesn’t mean the gospel doesn’t have political implications–but those implications don’t follow the worldly boundaries and ideologies that ever seek to domesticate the Kingdom and hide the gospel. Our political participation must be as resident aliens. Let’s not have anybody’s “Christian America.” The term itself is corrupting…though, again, I appreciate your point.
Excellent. This needs to be on the Opinion page of the NY Times.
Storm: Thanks for the comment. A few thoughts:
1. I wrote this piece to show how this claim of making America more “Judeo-Christian” cuts in a lot of ways. It’s probably best not to use it on either side of the aisle. My title was deliberately provocative.
2. I agree with your point about the Gospel. I need to read a bit more, but as I understand Gladden, he DID preach an individual gospel that he did not always equate directly with social concerns. (He was a Protestant after all).
3. I do think we can participate in American democracy as resident aliens, but can still commend government when it fulfills its purpose to promote the common good of all its citizens–especially policies that uplift the poor and oppressed. I also agree with Madison in Federalist 51: “If men were angels government would not be necessary.” But men are not angels and this has been proven over and over again in American history. Local communities and churches have failed to support justice and thus government has had to step-in. (Racial segregation in the South comes directly to mind). I also think that tackling climate change–saving the planet–is a government issue. I don’t trust the corpororate world to do anything about it.