A Christian and a Democrat A Religious Biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt
John F. Woolverton with James D. Bratt
William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Grand Rapids, Michigan
Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co. 4035 Park East Court SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 www.eerdmans.com © 2019 Arthur Woolverton All rights reserved Published 2019 Printed in the United States of America 25 24 23 22 21 20 19 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 ISBN 978-0-8028-7685-0
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Names: Woolverton, John Frederick, 1926– author. Title: A Christian and a Democrat : a religious biography of Franklin D. Roosevelt / John F. Woolverton with James D. Bratt. Description: Grand Rapids : Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2019. | Series: Library of religious biography | Includes bibliographical references and index. Identifiers: LCCN 2019005487 | ISBN 9780802876850 (hardcover : alk. paper) Subjects: LCSH: Roosevelt, Franklin D. (Franklin Delano), 1882-1945—Religion. | Presidents—Religious life—United States. Classification: LCC E807 .W695 2019 | DDC 973.917092—dc23 LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2019005487
An earlier version of material in chapter 8 was published as “ ‘Who Is Kierkegaard?’: Franklin Roosevelt, Howard Johnson, and Søren Kierkegaard,” Anglican and Episcopal History 80, no. 1 (March 2011): 1–32.
Contents
Foreword by James Comey
vii
Preface by James D. Bratt
xi
Author’s Preface and Acknowledgments
xv
Introduction: “The Strongest and Most Mysterious Force”
1
Part I: Formation 1. Son, Vestryman, and Church Politician
9
2. Endicott Peabody, Spiritual Father
33
3. Groton and Harvard—Race, Religion, and Leadership
56
Part II: Faith 4. Hope—Polio and the Great Depression 5. Charity—The Cooperative Commonwealth
79 106
6. Faith—“Yes, a Very Simple Christian” 129 7. Prophet, Priest, and President—FDR in World War II
v
153
Contents Part III: Interpretation 8. “Who Is Kierkegaard?�
189
9. Last Rites
211
Afterword: Politics and Religion in Lincoln, Hoover, and Roosevelt
219
Index
283
vi
Foreword
John Woolverton changed my life. During college, I signed up to take a course called “Significant Books in Western Religion,” which had long been taught by a legendary and engaging professor in William and Mary’s religion department. I was disappointed to arrive at the first day of class and learn that the professor was on sabbatical, and his substitute was a slightly stuffy-sounding, bow tie–wearing Episcopal cleric from a northern Virginia seminary. The substitute with the bow tie was John Woolverton. In that class we began a lifelong friendship. I arrived at the College of William and Mary in Virginia with a fairly dark view of the world, after being held at gunpoint in my home my senior year of high school by a serial rapist and robber. Woolverton understood. Using the framing offered by Reinhold Niebuhr, Woolverton acknowledged that the world is dark and fallen—and challenged me to make it better. That is the only way to find meaning—and justice—in the face of sin and injustice. With his encouragement, I focused my senior thesis on comparing and contrasting Niebuhr with an emerging force in American politics, the Reverend Jerry Falwell, founder of the Moral Majority, an organization urging evangelical Christians to become active politically. (Falwell’s son followed in his footsteps; as of this writing, he is one of Donald Trump’s strongest supporters.) Both Niebuhr and Falwell urged believers to participate actively in the life of their nation, but with very different approaches to our ability to discern God’s will. Niebuhr urged caution and humility in claiming divine mandate for policy positions, teaching that pride infects all endeavor. Falwell, not so much. It makes perfect sense that John Woolverton would become an admirer of Franklin D. Roosevelt and the way faith shaped FDR’s life and leadership. Like FDR, Woolverton was raised in a world of Episcovii
Foreword palian privilege and duty. Although a generation apart, they attended the same college and elite boarding school, and were deeply influenced by the same headmaster, Endicott Peabody, to remember their obligation to serve those less fortunate. Woolverton came of age and served during World War II while watching Roosevelt try to live that obligation in a country in crisis and a world at war. Although Woolverton chose to serve the rest of his life wearing a clerical collar, he remained a student of the intersection of private faith and public duty, the place where FDR lived and died. It also makes perfect sense that he would end this wonderful book comparing FDR and Abraham Lincoln, the two American presidents who dealt with existential, soul-searing challenges. They led the nation with a combination of confidence in their role and prophetic humility in their own limitations. Both were imperfect people who, with a keen sense of their own limitations, did great things for their country. Were he still alive, John Woolverton would be deeply disturbed by the division in American society and the dark undercurrent of reaction and resentment that carried our current president into office, which to this day animates him and so many of his supporters. But he would not be entirely surprised by those developments. As a student of history and human nature, Woolverton understood our weakness and the endless cycles we are prone to. As FDR did, Woolverton knew “the eternal trick of the demagogue who espouses ‘doctrines that set group against group, faith against faith, race against race, class against class, fanning the fires of hatred in men.’ ” As he writes here, that demagoguery is toxic for the church, the state, and the world. But it is not new. And in that familiarity lies a certain comfort. We have been here before. We know what to do. Were he still preaching, John Woolverton would likely say what he said to me so many years ago: Yes, things are a mess, but that only increases the urgency to step into the public square. We have an obligation to condemn the racism, misogyny, and lying at the center of our national life today. The sin deserves our active hatred—but our fellow Americans do not. We must approach them with Christian love and true humility as we try to heal our divisions. He would surely quote Lincoln, as he does in his book:
viii
Foreword With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right as God gives us to see the right, let us strive to finish the work we are in, to bind up the nation’s wounds. . . .
John Woolverton inspired countless students to pursue lives of purpose and value in a troubled world. I am delighted that this book, with its compelling exegesis of the work and faith of Franklin Roosevelt, will enable him to continue to inspire. —James Comey Former Director, Federal Bureau of Investigation
ix