Heritage Column for March 16, 2006
By Fred Anderson
In September 1935, Franklin D. Roosevelt signed a letter on White House stationery which was sent to a young minister in Toledo, Ohio. By happenstance, the minister probably received the letter on his 37th birthday. The President of the United States was seeking advice from some selected clergymen. Theodore F. Adams, then pastor of the Ashland Ave. Baptist Church in Toledo was the recipient of one of the letters. The minister took seriously the challenge offered by the president and he framed a thoughtful reply. (About five months later, Adams became pastor of the First Baptist Church of Richmond and began one of the most remarkable ministerial careers in Virginia Baptist history.)
“Your high calling brings you into intimate daily contact… with people,” wrote FDR. “Because of the grave responsibilities of my office, I am turning to representative clergymen for counsel and advice, feeling confident that no group can give more accurate or unbiased views.” The president continued: “I am particularly anxious that the new Social Security Legislation just enacted, for which we have worked so long, providing for old age pensions, aid for crippled children and unemployment insurance, shall be carried out in keeping with the high purposes with which this law was enacted.
“It is also vitally important that the Works Program shall be administered to provide employment at useful work, and that our unemployed as well as the nation as a whole may derive the greatest possible benefits. Tell me where you feel our government can better serve our people.”
The United States was in the midst of the greatest economic crisis which it had faced and FDR was trying various methods to bring recovery from the Great Depression. The Baptist minister gave reasoned thought to his reply and read it before his congregation. The newspaper in Toledo printed the story and also editorialized: “…Adams makes a very commendable reply. It is free from the cant and cavil which we fear many of the gentlemen of the cloth fell into in their efforts to be convincing. It deals in facts with candor. It is instructive without being ironical, practical rather than idealistic.”
The Toledo Times continued: “The President asked for advice. Some say it was a political gesture and the clergy was duped. To say that is to be unfair both to the President, and to the thousands of pastors of the United States who answered in good faith. [He] commends the social security program. In this he reflects a widespread approval. The clergy is inherently and traditionally sympathetic with the underprivileged and eager to help in raising the standards of living, in bringing sunshine into the lives of others.”
What did TFA say to FDR? “One word – quite the opposite of security – will express much of the current difficulty. That word is ‘uncertainty'. There is too much uncertainty and too little confidence in business. The working man is troubled about the uncertainty of the tenure of his employment. Perhaps the course is clearly charted in your own mind. It is too vague and uncertain for many. Give us certainty-confidence-in a well ordered program for the balance of your present term and it will help tremendously. Your Fireside Chats helped to do this originally – and they have been missed.”
Adams spoke of the Baptist opposition to the liquor traffic. “You were largely influential in bringing liquor back. Won't you help us now to get more of the safeguards that were promised with it. … There is general dissatisfaction with higher food prices. … Relief allowances and work relief pay scales have been bitterly small and too many have merely existed so long that morale is threatened or broken. No plan of economic rehabilitation is adequate that ignores the larger needs of this group and the distressingly large remnant of utterly ‘unemployables'.”
Writing years before Pearl Harbor, Adams cautioned about America entering into war. “I note with satisfaction an increasing sentiment to support American Neutrality in the event of foreign war. Any contribution you can make toward universal disarmament or the promotion of world peace will be a lasting contribution that will be appreciated and supported by most church people. We want no more war.”
“I like the new note of your administration spokesman-‘Forward with the Constitution'. Changing times do bring new problems that demand new approaches to the problems of government. Our real hope lies ahead-not behind-and we need such a progressive concept of government, but any effort to change our basic form of government or any reflections on the intrinsic value of the Constitution as the guarantee of our liberties will find little general support. We cherish our individual liberty and yet know that none of us can long succeed or prosper at another's expense. We need every help you can give to the long struggle for the achievement and preservation of true liberty and real brotherhood.”
“In closing may I echo a conviction you have often expressed – that many of our basic problems are spiritual. There are material problems to be sure-but one of your greatest contributions you can make to our people will be in a constant reiteration of the importance of the spiritual. Faith-security-confidence- brotherhood-are spiritual terms. Without them the future is dark. With them there is hope. May I assure you of our prayers that God may sustain and bless you as the Chief Executive of this land we love. Sincerely yours, Theodore F. Adams.”
Fred Anderson may be contacted at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173. He also is director of the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies.