Guest post by Gary
A
remarkable piece of Bible Student history, much forgotten about in later times,
involved the visit of three members to the White House on late Friday
afternoon, 11th January 1918, to receive audience with no lesser person than
the 28th President of the United States himself, Woodrow Wilson.
The
decision to visit followed multiple attempts made over many months by Joseph
Rutherford to bend the ear of various authorities so as to gain leniency for a
number of Bible Students who had claimed exemption when they registered for the
draft, but had then been treated harshly by both their draft boards and the
various army war camps they had been sent to throughout the United States. Up
until this time the Bible Students were just one of several religious groups
who had been viewed with suspicion due to their unwillingness to fight. But
though some religious opponents had already attempted to muddy the waters, The
Finished Mystery had not become the focus of criticism by the authorities
as would shortly be the case.
Having
tried every other reasonable attempt at diplomacy, and in the hope that this
impasse could yet be broken, at the annual meeting of the IBSA held in
Pittsburgh on 5 January 1918, a resolution was adopted defining the position of
the Bible Students concerning combatant service in the war, asking that its
members be given the privileges of Section 4 of the Selective Services Act.
Perhaps in this we can see the start of the resolutions that were sent to
various world leaders and became a feature of later conventions.
The
resolution started with a conciliatory tone stating early that “we believe our
position as a religious organization ... is not fully understood by various
officers and representatives of the United States Government” and explained
that it was the hope that it this might change. The first point of the
resolution even called President Wilson “a great man who is using his power and
influence conscientiously and according to his best judgement in the interests
of the peoples of the world and particularly of the United States.”
Had the
resolution simply pleaded for those Bible Students incarcerated in army camps
throughout the United States to have been shown reasonable consideration, as
had largely been the case with the traditional peace churches, such as the
Mennonites, Brethren and Quakers, the resolution might have been favourably
received or, alternatively, easily dismissed. But in keeping with the tradition
of the Old Testament prophets, opportunity was also taken to pass comment on
the questionable alliance between the governments and prominent religious
authorities of the day. Notably the fifth point stated:
With charity to all and malice
toward none, we feel it our duty humbly to call attention to the fact that the
nations are now passing through the great crisis foretold by the prophets of
the Lord, and that God is now expressing his displeasure toward the
relationship existing between ecclesiastical and civil kingdoms of the earth,
particularly as set forth in the following cited Scriptures, to wit:
Revelation, chapters 17 and 18; Ezekiel, chapter 34.
Rutherford
delegated the responsibility to share the resolution to three capable and adept
Bible Students: Dr Atwood Smith of Louisville, Kentucky, who acted as Chairman,
Ernest Sexton, of Los Angeles, California, and Edward Brenneisen, of New York
City. The resolution was to be taken in person to President Wilson,
and then to Secretary of War, Newton Baker, with access gained by appointment made
via Joseph P. Tumulty, the President’s Secretary.
Woodrow
Wilson was a highly educated man and by religion a Presbyterian with a strong
sense of purpose and vision. He knew his Bible inside out, being one
of only a few men who could have held his own in a discussion on scripture with
the three Bible Students, had the conversation gone that way. But in
interpretation he was poles apart from his earnest but persistent audience.
Wilson had studied Social Gospel under Richard T. Ely at Johns Hopkins in the
1880s, and he represented the sensibility of the mainstream Protestant churches
in his approach to reform. Having a powerful sense of right and
wrong, like so many Americans of the time, Wilson considered the development
and survival of his country as little less than miraculous. If America did
have a manifest destiny to follow, who better to chart its course and lead the
world than the President himself? Post millennial thought was
central to Wilson’s crusade to make the world "safe for democracy"
through the entry of the United States into the Great War. As
premillennialists, Bible Students would not share Wilson’s vision of the Social
Gospel, American nationalism and superiority, and, as Zoe Knox has noted,
“appeared as opponents not only of the conflict but, ... of the optimism and
belief that characterized America in times of both war and peace.” Yet even
they recognised its rise in status as Biblically predicted and rejoiced since, as
Pastor Russell had stated, they considered that “quite the majority of the New
Creation live under the highest forms of civil government to be found in the
world to-day, and appreciate this as a divine favor and blessing.”
Before we
understand what took place that day we should first be aware of an event that
had occurred some years earlier involving President Wilson, a large petition
rather than a resolution, and a visit of a different minority group who sought
Wilson’s assistance.
Though
seen as an enlightening place to welcome immigrants with the offer of liberty
at the time, America was, of course, still very much a racially divided
society. During his earlier years Wilson had seemingly offered to bridge
differences between white and black Americans to gain popularity. But, in fact,
like many Presidents before and after, his preferences remained strongly white.
In one November afternoon during 1914 Wilson was visited by William Monroe
Trotter, a black civil rights leader and Boston newspaper editor, who had
previously received and been satisfied by vague assurances from Wilson of his
wishes to help, but by now Trotter was no longer impressed by words
only. To force a showdown, Trotter defiantly pushed his cause to the
point of no return by publicly challenging the President’s policy of
segregation. A heated exchange ensued when, shocked by Trotter’s
persistent manner, the President reacted angrily by ordering him and his
supporters out of the Oval Office. The resultant bad press earned Wilson
no favours.
Afterwards,
in defending his actions Wilson acknowledged his error was, unfortunately,
not that of racism, but that of public relations:
What I ought to have done
would have been to (have) listened, restrained my resentment, and, when they
had finished, to have said to them that, of course, their petition (would)
receive consideration. They would then have withdrawn quietly and no more would
have been heard about the matter.
Cynical
though it may seem, this diplomatic posture appears to have largely adopted by
President Wilson when he received the IBSA delegation in early 1918.
A
positive encounter?
An upbeat
letter sent to Sister Abbott, hopeful of a positive outcome, appeared in the St.
Paul Enterprise, an unofficial Bible Student newspaper, and also The
Farmington Times, Missouri, explaining in some detail the nature of the
conversation and written by Sexton, one of the three Bible Students delegates
to visit.
According
to Sexton the three men were welcomed into the White House and cordially
treated. The President listened attentively and expressed comments of concern
regarding the conscientious objectors involved, implying that it hadn’t been
the intention of the Selective Service Act to persecute genuine men holding
religious scruples. The President implied his intention to deal with
the matter to alleviate their suffering. Encouraged by the time allowed and the
President’s apparent concern the men did more than simply leave the long
petition for him to read thereafter, they read it to him word by word.
Sexton
waxed lyrical in his description of the President:
My personal impression of Mr.
Wilson is, first of all, that he is a perfect gentleman and receives one with
true courtesy. His manner is quiet - in no way flurried or excited,
and he would hardly impress one as having practically the weight of the world
on his shoulders; in fact, he would rather give the impression that he had
nothing else to do but receive us and thus kill a little time. Another thing
very noticeable about this man of prominence is that he is far better looking
than any picture would indicate. He has a very pleasant personality, and
he is by no means the cold-blooded machine that many believe him to be.
The
letter recorded that Wilson listened patiently while the resolution was read to
him, seemingly noted every point made and, at the conclusion, asked if the IBSA
conscientious objectors involved would be prepared to engage in work if a
reconstructive nature, such as Red Cross work, or anything that was not
decidedly of a war or war preparatory nature. In reply the committee explained
that in every case this was an individual matter for each man to decide. Also,
that though some might be prepared to do such they feared that in order to do
so they would be expected to don the army uniform and take the oath of a
soldier, which they would not do. The committee explained that these
young men were not cowards, but were prepared to suffer any indignity, even
death itself, rather than to discard their religious scruples. At this point
the President seemed too show much feeling, responding quickly that “we have no
desire to heap indignities upon these men.”
Sexton
commented that the President “intimated that the courts which had passed
sentences upon the brethren had exceeded their authority, rather through
ignorance than malice. He promised to give the matter his personal attention,
taking a copy of the resolution and putting it with some other papers that were
evidently marked due quick action.”
Gratified
by the response the committee went over to the War Department since the
President had arranged an interview with Secretary of War, Newton Baker. Baker
also listened to the reading of the resolution and asked pertinent questions
while reassuring the men that he and the President were of one mind concerning
genuine conscientious objectors, but had difficulty in showing too much
leniency in case many others might seek to evade military service who were not.
The
report from Sexton concluded positively:
We have every reason to
believe our visit is bearing fruit, and later developments will doubtless
demonstrate this to be true.
A more cautious approach, reading Revelation
chapters 17 and 18 to the Secretary of War, a casual jest by President Wilson
and the point of the chapters tragically missed
A more
cautious approach was adopted by The Watch Tower of the time which
reflected that “what effect this resolution may have we cannot of course know.”
Rutherford had perhaps read a little too much into a previous casual
governmental response which had seemed to imply recognition of the IBSA, and so
no longer wanted to raise undue hopes based on vague governmental inferences.
A side
light to the meeting has been provided in recent times by Mennonite historian
Duane Stoltzfus. In considering the Wilson papers, he records that
Baker heard representations from a variety of religious objectors including
“Mennonites, Brethren, Amish, and Hutterites, he heard from Seventh Day
Adventists; Russellites, later known as Jehovah’s Witnesses; Molokans, members
of a small Russian Christian pacifist sect living in the Southwest; and others.
At one point Baker joked with the President, the son of a Presbyterian
minister, about a religious group that felt compelled to read to him the
seventeenth and eighteenth chapters of Revelation while making its case.
Wilson, a Bible reader with his own sense of humor, replied that when he met with
the group, there was no reading from Revelation - they figured that the
president knew the passage by heart, he intimated, unlike his wayward secretary
of war.”
Stoltzfus
did not locate which religious group was the one in question. But we may hazard
a reasonable guess by noting that point 5 of the IBSA resolution included
reference to precisely the two chapters of Revelation that Baker
mentioned. Ironically, the amusing jest made by President Wilson may
have caused the two men in authority to take too lightly the seriousness of the
chapters concerned.
In
fairness to President Wilson, to a limited degree it may be said he did respond
favourably to the visit of the three IBSA men, and indeed to other religious
groups who attempted to bend his ear at this time. In March the President
belatedly gave a much-needed definition explaining what the term ‘non-combatant’
involved. Since the Selective Service Act had been enacted some 10 months
earlier this had remained undefined and caused considerable and unnecessary
confusion amongst conscientious objectors and the military authorities alike.
It was to the President’s credit that this was now resolved, yet to his debit
that he had dallied so long and, in so doing, caused untold suffering to so
many. It was not just the COs rotting in army camps who had unnecessarily
suffered. Army officers throughout the US attempting to train men
for their military offensive found the existence of COs at best an unneeded
inconvenience, and at worst a dissenting and disquieting influence in Camp that
they would have preferred to be without. It strapped their resources and pushed
their patience to an extreme.
In the
cold light of day
At the
time, the visit of the IBSA committee appeared to be well received and offered
hope for a positive outcome. In the cold light of day, however, the attempt
achieved little success and was later seen as an abject failure. Indeed, The Golden Age later commented:
A committee bearing this
resolution called upon President Wilson and personally read and presented it to
him. Our troubles began shortly thereafter.
Sexton
also likely viewed his earlier upbeat letter with embarrassment. By early
July 1918 he was arrested in Portland, Oregon, as just one of twenty-six Bible
Students charged with circulating copies of The Kingdom News as a
protest against the Government’s suppression of The Finished Mystery.
Consequently, he was alleged to be in violation of the Espionage Act by
authorities who now took exception to the Bible Student message.
Sources:
The
New Creation, Studies in the Scriptures,
volume 6, 1904, 594
The
Watch Tower, 1 July 1917, [Reprints 6110]
The
Watch Tower, 15 January 1918, [Reprints
6203]
The
St. Paul Enterprise, 12 February 1918, 4
The
Farmington Times, Missouri, 22 February
1918, 3
The
Los Angeles Herald, 3 July 1918, 8
The
Oregon Daily Journal, 3 July 1918, 3
The
Express Tribune, Los Angeles,
6 October 1918
The
Golden Age, 9 June 1920, 590
Secondary
Sources:
Pacifists
in Chains - the Persecution of Hutterites during the Great War, Duane Stoltzfus, John Hopkins University Press,
Baltimore, 2013, 69-70
Black
Radical: The Life and Times of William Monroe Trotter, Kerri Greenidge, Liveright 2019
“A Greater Danger than a
Division of the German Army”, Zoe Knox, Peace & Change, vol. 44, No.2,
April 2019, 234
Postscript
from Jerome:
For those who like to know these things, Edward
Brenneisen stayed with the Watchtower Society and died as one of Jehovah’s Witness
in 1956.
Ernest Sexton left fellowship with the IBSA in the late
1920s and died in 1932.
Samuel Atwood Smith died in 1930. His religious history after the death of CTR is not known.
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