Father Charles Coughlin: An American Lesson in Hatred
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Father Charles Edward Coughlin was a Canadian born Catholic priest who became famous in the 1930's, first as a supporter of Franklin Roosevelt, then as an outspoken critic of Roosevelt's policies, such as the New Deal, which he claimed was a Communist conspiracy created by Jewish banking interests to dominate the world and ruin America as people knew it. AS he turned rather abruptly from supporting Roosevelt to chastizing him Coughlin also began to turn to supporting of various ideas of the Nazi regime under Adolf Hitler, and also claiming that Benito Mussolini had discovered a way to do away with both Capitalism, which he saw as a Jewish plot to enslave ordinary people, and also Communism, which he claimed would keep people from getting into Heaven.
Father Coughlin had a large and growing audience as his radio talks were broadcast from coast to coast, and even many non-Catholics reported that they followed him with interest and believed much of what he said. Indeed, Coughlin was a popular speaker who often was celebrated at various conventions and political gatherings.
But it was his antisemetic speaches and radio talks which set him drastically apart from many of the politicians of the day. He tuned into an often underlying discontent many people had about Jewish people and started to say things which, tpo his listeners, made sense and seemed to be true. However, those who criticized him or tried to show he simply lied and made up stories to make his numbers of supporters grow larger, were often shouted down or called "Communists" or "Jew-lovers"; the former of which could land one in jail while the latter of which at that time was seen as a harsh insult.
Even as Nazi SS squadrons were rounding up Jews, Slavs, Homosexuals and Gypsies, Father Coughlin often accepted this practice as necessary in order ro stamp out the evils of both International Communism and Internations Jewish-led Capitalism. He rationalized that since Communism had taken root in Slavic nations, and since men such as Karl Marx, Joseph Engels, Leon Trotsky and Vladimir Lenin were Jews, and since Jews and Slavs promoted Communism, therefore expunging both peoples would go far to solve a number of problems real Christians were battling, such as godless Communism removing religious rights of people. He carried forward a popular idea among Christians that the Jews were guilty for killing Christ and had no special place ad that they deserved no actual human rights. therefore, death camps in NAZI occupied lands were only doing just work in eliminating less-than-human beings from the Earth.
In the Name of God...
What father Coughlin did was despicable enough, but to me his having preached hatred and the dehumanizing of people in the Name of God was even worse. And for a man who claimed to be a man of God, from where did this wellspring of religious and racial hatred come? was he taught this in seminary? Did someone actually have a curriculum that taught one to hate Jews and others?
I do not have an answer to that question. However, I do know that many people simply accept the preachings and teachings of their religious leaders, never questioning whether or not this is right or wrong. A few men did stand up and try to silence Coughlin's hatred, but it took stern warnings from the Vatican to get him to stop this religious tirade of hatred.
Just the same, in the meantime, his bitter words about Roosevelt, his having called him a Communist, and a Capitalist, which to Coughlin meant that he was working with the alleged Jewish world banking cabal, (which never really existed then or now), meant that he was saying that Roosevelt was not American. He was saying that Roosevelt was a traitor, a liar, and that he abetted Communists and Capitalists in his government. When Coughlin went on to define Capitalists and some evil entity, and to proclaim that Communists were the agents of Satan, people believed him and acted in their ignorance of the truth.
German-American Bund - Das Bundes League
What can we learn?
We can learn that when name-calling and arguments are vehement, but wrong, a lot of harm can be done. Father Coughin inflamed much hatred against Roosevelt by telling outright lies, and by muddying the waters of truth. He may have had some basic information correct, but then he went further and added a lot of speculation that made his original assertions seem mild in comparison. Did Roosevelt have any Communists within earshot? Perhaps. Such things were usually not vetted back then. But did he knowingly seek out Communists with which to fill his inner circle? Hardly. Any such allegations are not proven, and probably never could be.
But remember that Communists were in various organizations, were in the Armed Forces, and were also possibly even the neighbor next door. Being a Communist in those times did not mean belonging to some secretive organization plotting to violently overthrow the government or our way of life. So for Father Coughlin to make the leap from the possibility that a few Communists were close to Roosevelt in some fashion to his claim that Roosevelt was seeking to make this nation into a Communist front, are simply ridiculous, and any thinking person back then with the courage to speak out would have had an easy time debunking that claim.
Some did, such as Joseph Kennedy, who worked hard to get Coughlin to see reality and stop this nonsense.
And as for Coughlins assertions that capitalists were all in a secret Jewish cabal to take over the world, well, that myth was busted decades ago. It was the same myth Hitler and other National Socialists used to unify their people and take over the governments. If anything, Coughlin's calls to end capitalists was seen by many as an pro-fascist stance, which after 12-7-1941 quickly lost favor in the United States. Das Bundes League, an American fascists group which favored a NAZI regime here, often used Coughlin's words to inspire and recruit new members. Coughlin knew of this but did nothing to disown himself from such groups, leaving many to question if he was secretly a fascist.
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Yes. Wm, and what is really scarry is the number of people who joined groups such as the German American Bund, AKA Das Bundes League. There were even summer camps set for to indoctinate "Aryan" youth to accept these fanatical ideas. And even some private schools succumbed to these ideas, thus the children were taken out of the public school system in order to be brainwashed with NAZI ideas.
Before Pearl harbor there was a lot of sympathy in the U.S., or at least complaicence, about fascism, which was seen as an ally against Communism, and by proxy, Unions, which were called fronts for Communist secret organizations.
But it was the Bund which scares me the most, since they were "patriotic" and "white-supremecy" oriented. (Both were viewed as the same back then.) And, they had powerful friends. They were also armed, having created a secret army of followers ready to come to the call for armed conflict in case the "Communist-backed Roosevelt government" (their words) tried to impose Communist ideas in America.
This laid the foundation for McCarthy and his clarion call to remove all those Communists (that Roosevelt was accused of hiring) from the government. Of course, McCarthy often used pages from local phone books when proclaiming that he had lists of known Communists in the government. My friend Bill attended one Wisconsin rally for McCarthy when Bill was in high school and he fetched the list from the podium afterwards. Bill was there with the local high school band as part of the 'ceremony' but he and most of the band members had taped "Joe must go!" to their music stands.
A short time later McCarthy was in the hospital for his drinking problems and he died after that, a sorry, sad figure in American politics.
But it was Father Coughlin who whipped up the most fear of Communists in the government, Inteernational Jewery, as he called it, and while the former charge which may have been slightly true, it was never to the extent he claimed. No one went out to selectively seek out Communists to fill the government ranks. There was no conspiracy. If a few Communists were brought in, it was not by plan. Since Russia had become our ally in WW II, there were actually some warm feelings toward Russia, a marked change from the decade before.
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
Excellent stuff, Jeff, thanks for writing this. It is incredible to me that religious people can become so bigoted - but then again maybe it isn't so incredible?
Anyway, thanks for sharing this disturbing slice of history.
Love and peace
Tony
Unfortunately some religious leaders can be very bigoted, and that goes for most religions that try to prosthelytize. Islam, Christianity and other religions that seek converts can be very condescending toward "non-believers".
But there have also been wonderful moments of great tolerence, such as in Spain when the Islamic religion was supreme there, Christians and Jews were treated with great respect. We here in the U.S. where Christianity is the majority religion also show a great deal of acceptance.
There are times, however, when acceptance goes by the wayside and fear of "others" takes root. The 1930's were such a time, especially in Europe. NAZI Germany was not the only place with anti-semitic outbursts. Poland also had a semi-fascist government around that time that was actually much like the government next door in Germany. So did Romania and other Eastern European nations. Even France and England were not immune to this.
But we believe ourselves to be above all that, and we forget the lessons of history which tell us time and again that when we let our guard down, when we start uncritically believing in demogoguery, we sink to a level where we believe lies and misstated facts, believe that some secret group is trying to take over the nation, or that certain people in government are somehow not quite American enough for our tastes.
Our own history has taught us that the United States has never really been in danger of an internal take over by Communists. It has, however, flirted with Fascism on several occasions, including this welling up of the powerful voices that were praising Fascism and preaching anti-Capitalism and anti Semitism in the 1930's. There were actually people, and Hitler was among them, who believed that Roosevelt was really Jewish, and had a Jewish-inpsired Communist plan to take over the U.S.
Why did they believe this? Because they were told by people like Father Coughlin, who seemed to be a respectable leader, who's word was taken at face value, and who was sincere about his beliefs.
For people who look backwards to the "good old days", there is something to remember in that those good old days were not always so good after all. Blacks were still lynched, Hispanics born in the U.S., with family heritages going back long before the U.S. became a nation, were deported as undesireable aliens, because of people like Joe McCarthy, Chinese scientists in the 1950's were deported because of the Communist take over of China, (and some of them were forced to help create the Chinese nuclear bomb project), racism was open and proudly displayed by some influential people and common people alike, (KKK members in Indiana boasted that Calvin Coolidge was a secret KKK member, something he never really denied), segregation was tolerated and accepted as "normal", people died of diseases we have since conquered, women were generally kept out of inportant, higher-paying jobs, and life in general was not all peaches and cream.
I remember my paternal grandmother telling me that if I ever touched a Black person the black would rub off and take days to scrub away. I was also told never to accept a water glass in a restaurant that had Black employees because the Black people routinely spit into the glasses. This was the level of ignorance and racial bigotry I remember from my childhood.
So much for the good old days.
Chef Jeff
Interesting article. I don't remember this character from my Amer. Hx, but then history is not my forte. Seems contradictory to label Roosevelt a Communist & a Capitalist, which brings to mind the conservatives & Teabaggers who label Obama a Communist, a Naxi, a witch doctor, and any other negative image they can conjure.
All in the name of God. This is scary stuff. Very interesting read. I did not know about this man.
Your readers might like to hear this 1937 radio broadcast of Father Charles Coughlin's:
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5111/
His was a physically strong, powerful voice, incendiary, actually. Of course, I never heard it at the time; however, I can see how some views I was raised with were colored by this man's rhetoric, when radio was the king of kommunications.
He was a gifted orator and most persuasive, but he used his position of authority for the wrong side of the issues. There were many who feared Roosevelt was indeed a Communist and later Joe McCarthy had one of his infamous lists of "known Communists from the Roosevelt Administration" that he waved at rallies. Of course, it was no really alist of known commies but some other bunch of paper.
Still, there are people willing to believe the worst about others, and that is sad for a Democracy. The other day I was reviewing President G.W. Bush's record and he was quite generous with foreign aid to under-developed nations, a fact we seldom hear much about. His latest acceptance of a role in the Haiti relief will be marked down onthe good side of hisd post-presidential record, and I hope he continues to do such good things now that he is out of office.
Cheers!
Chef Jeff
I scribble, I see the connection myself. I was watching a documentary on Dr. King yesterday and was reminded of the use of the term Communist to bad-talk anyone involved in the civil rights movement. The news pictures could have been right out of current history.
There is a portion of the electorate in this nation, and in others as well, that has little positive to say to make things better, other than seeking to return to the past, which they view as better than now. Yet when they do talk they say some of the most surprising things!
Yes, Capitalists and Communists were all lumped together as being malicious Jews to these ignorant folks in the 1930's, and the Ku Klux Klan was just an group of good old boys showing how patriotic they were. Some people really believed that!
And now, even though they will deny it, there are forces behind groups such as tea-baggers and the like who want to get us securely on this narrow path to fascism. We are so afraid of the Communists & terrorists that we ignore the other anti-Democratic forces within our own borders.
And yes, fishtiger58, they will do it in the Name of God because they know that some people will be attracted by that kind of talk, even if the message is very far from the word and intent of scripture. the people behind this pay lip service to God but really want power and money. And we foolishly give it to them, and smile as we are being robbed.
Just as some people on the Hub Pages have started attacking Obama over Haiti and the Detroit attempted bombing, they'll call him names and demonize him, all in the name of their religion.
Sad, but true.
Chef Jeff
Wow! He a 180 degrees on Roosevelt. It is too bad. Sometimes, once one made up his mind, his mind was made up! You cannot change him!
Dao Hoa, sometimes people make up their minds based more upon what they fear than what is the reality of a situation. We have seen that many times and unfortunately probably will see that again.
Thanks for the comment!
Chef Jeff
Chef,
Coughlin was a disgusting human being. He was actually a Hitler "wannabee." Thank G-D American's wised up. If they hadn't there may never have been a "Manny's."
I remember my grandfather and my parents talking about Father Caughlin and his hate speech. Which I found strange, at the time, that a man of God would be so hateful and spread such misinformation. But they were troubled times, and in such times, people often fall for nuts. They are attracted to the anger, even when it's whipped up and distorted.
This proves that lies with a core of truth are the most dangerous weapon of all. Of course Coughlin rants and rages against the bankers getting rich off the backs of the poor, and of course it is a disgrace, but with that message of social injustice he brings along a whole heap of venomous garbage such as fascism.
This brings us to the Wall Street Bailout, which, although it happened a few years ago already, is still a ticking time bomb. We just haven't run into the right 'Coughlin' of this age to make us all angry about it.
Hugh:
Or have we; what are folks like Beck, Limbaugh and Dobbs?
William R. Wilson 2 years ago
Very interesting Jeff! I've heard of Coughlin but didn't know anything about him. It's very interesting that he was promoting the idea of a cabal of international Jewish bankers. The same sort of rumors are being spread around today, without the Jewish part.