Who was Father Coughlin?? A Brief History:

Charles Coughlin was born on October 25, 1891, in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada to Irish-Catholic parents. He grew up under strict Catholic rule.  Coughlin graduated from the University of Toronto in 1911. He then attended St. Basil's Seminary in Toronto, there he grew fond of the idea of priesthood as a teen he was then ordained as a Catholic priest in 1916. Father Coughlin taught for seven years at the Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, and made his move to the States in 1923, by way of Detroit, Michigan.

Father Coughlin first broadcast was in 1926, broadcasting weekly sermons over the radio. By the early 1930s the content of his broadcasts had shifted from religion to economics and politics. Most of the nation was focused on matters of economics and politics being that the country was in the aftermath of the Great Depression, so was Father Coughlin. At first, he was a supporter of President Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Father Coughlin had a very well-developed theory that he phrased “social justice," predicated on monetary reforms.  Father Coughlin considered President Roosevelt a reformer like himself.  Roosevelt's approach during his inaugural address totally promised to "drive the money changers from the temple."   Coughlin's was in total agreement since a big part of his own message was monetary reform. Roosevelt's early monetary policy seemed to fulfill this promise and so Coughlin viewed him as the savior of the nation.  Later in the 1930s his focus shifted against President Roosevelt and he then became one of his ruthless critics. His program of "social justice" was a very radical challenge to capitalism and too many of the political institutions of his day. When President Roosevelt failed to follow-on with additional radical reforms, Coughlin turned against him. By 1936, he would support a third-party candidacy called the Union Party. This party did not last very long. It was against President Roosevelt. He had some harsh words for the President he said:

"The great betrayer and liar, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who promised to drive the money changers from the temple, had succeeded [only] in driving the farmers from their homesteads and the citizens from their homes in the cities. . . I ask you to purge the man who claims to be a Democrat, from the Democratic Party, and I mean Franklin Double-Crossing Roosevelt."

Father Coughlin's influence on America Depression-era America was massive. Millions of Americans listened to his weekly radio broadcast. At the height of his popularity, one-third of the nation was tuned into his weekly broadcasts. In the early 1930s, Coughlin was, questionably one of the most influential men in America. Although his core message was one of economic populism, his sermons also included attacks on well-known Jewish figures. These attacks that many people considered evidence of anti-Semitism. His broadcasts became increasingly controversial. In 1940 much to his dismay his superiors in the Catholic Church forced him to stop his broadcasts and return to his work as a parish priest.

My personal thoughts and why I chose the chapter on Father Coughlin

  

I chose Chapter 8, Father Coughlin, in Mightier than the Sword. One of the main reasons I chose this chapter is because I find it baffling as to why person can be so ignorant and close-minded in our world. The thing that really interested me in my research and reading through my blog was that I really didn't find any significant reason to one question….Why?? Why did this man go from a boy being raised in a Catholic home to a priest in the Catholic Church to spewing so much hate and anger? Did something in his upbringing spark this change in personality? Another reason I chose this chapter is because I find it fascinating that one man can have so much power and influence with his words and writings to have people become followers. There is a small part of me that is envious of the man. Don’t get me wrong in no way shape or form am I a bigot. The reason I am envious is because there is a part of me that wishes I could have the power that he had. The only difference I would have would be that I could spread positive and use it to help the people of this world. I hope the information I have gathered for you in this second project is useful. It has really opened up my eyes.

The Different Sides of Father Coughlin

Throughout this second blog project which is focused the way journalism has influenced history I will show the different sides of Father Coughlin.  From the year he was born, 1891 until about 1934 Father Coughlin was viewed as being more a positive than negative.  He was very strong about his Catholic faith. Father Coughlin was ordained to the priesthood in 1916. In my opinion from 1916 until 1923 when he taught at the Assumption College in Windsor Ontario he did a great service and gave to others. He then moved to Royal Oak, Michigan’s National Shrine in the Little Flower. In 1926 he began radio broadcasts on station WJR. This was in response to the cross burnings by the Ku Klux Klan on the grounds of the church, At that time he gave a weekly hour long radio program. In 1931 the CBS radio network dropped free sponsorship after Coughlin refused to accept network demands. CBS wanted his scripts to be reviewed prior to broadcast. At that time he raised enough money to create his own national network. Father Coughlin was then able to reached millions of listeners.

Images of Father Coughlin....."From a Child to Hater"

Father Coughlin as a Child

Image from: http://info.detnews.com/dn/history/coughlin/images/coughboy.gif

Father Coughlin on the Radio

Image From: http://www.ushmm.org/lcmedia/photo/lc/image/90/90540.jpg 

Against the KKK

Father Coughlin was outspoken against much of the mayhem that was going on in his own country, this included the Ku Klux Klan. The KKK planned to punish Father Coughlin for his bold and harsh speeches. They planned on burning a blazing cross on the lawn of his church. In this photo you see Father Coughlin trying to put out the fire on a burning cross.

Photo from: http://www.versagivoice.com/preservation/_derived/museum_news.htm_txt_burning_cross.gif



His Holiness Father Coughlin

This is short video of the before, during and after of Father Coughlin.

Video from: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkfzpF-sOws&playnext=1&list=PLD85EA10534EC8D4C&index=35

Coughlin from Priest to "Radio Priest"

In 1926, Father Coughlin was assigned as to be a pastor of a new church in a suburb of Detroit called Royal Oaks. This community was mostly inhabited with blue-collar workers.  Father Coughlin has an idea to further build his congregation and following and that was to bring his message across via the radio. He made contact with a Detroit radio station WJR and wanted to see if he could broadcast a weekly sermon based on current news and issues. From his first sermon, it seemed to be that he was an overnight success. The letters started to flow into the station with nothing but positive feedback. Along with the letters people started to send in financial contributions. The news media started calling him the "Radio Priest.” Being that he was such a success on the radio he took his radio sermon a bit further, he was on contract with CBS and he was now nationwide.

Everything you need to know about the "Radio Priest"

Click the link below for all the info on the life of the Radio Priest":

http://www.fathercoughlin.org/father-coughlin-radio-priest.html

www.fathercoughlin.com

Here you will find a website dedicated to Father Coughlin. You can also listen to his old radio sermons:  http://www.fathercoughlin.com/#

The Beginning of "Hate Radio"

Father Coughlin’s radio broadcasts were a regular fixture in American politics in the 1930”s. A political radical and, a zealous democrat, he was seen as a bigot who freely vented angry, irrational charges and allegations. His radio broadcasts drew as many as 45 million listeners. Coughlin frequently and vigorously attacked capitalism, communism, socialism, and dictatorship. By the mid-1930s, his talks took on a nasty edge as he combined harsh attacks on Roosevelt as the tool of international Jewish bankers with praise for the fascist leaders Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. The “Radio Priest’s” relentless anti-elitism pushed Roosevelt to sharpen his own critiques of elites, and in that sense Coughlin had a powerful impact on American politics beyond his immediate radio audience. In 1937 he gave a sermon, called “Twenty Years Ago,” reflected much of what made Coughlin popular. In 1935 Father Coughlin created the National Union for Social Justice. This was a political action group that would represent the interests of his listeners in Washington, D.C. By the 1936 presidential election the National Union for Social Justice had over one million paying members. In 1936, Coughlin founded a journal entitled Social Justice, providing another venue to promote his populist ideology. Over the years Coughlin had kept his anti-Semitism to himself while he was on the air. After his split with President Roosevelt and with the rise of National Socialism and Fascism in Europe, however, he attacked Jews explicitly in his broadcasts. Some historians attribute this change to Coughlin taking advantage of rising anti-Semitism around the world in order to keep himself connected.. Based on his speeches, and writings, he appears to have had significant anti-Semitic sentiment throughout his career. For years, Coughlin had publicly derided “international bankers,” a phrase that most of his listeners understood to mean Jewish bankers.

"The Coughlin-ites"

In this cartoon we have "Coughlin-ites" which refer to the followers of Charles Coughlin. Coughlin was an anti-semitic who sympathized with the Nazi"s. The "Coughlin-ites" are crying out against the Britians rather than Germany.

 Photo from: eutychusnerd.blogspot.com

On the cover of Time magazine

Here is an image of Father Coughlin making it to the cover of Time Magazine

Image from:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/16/Elmer_Thomas_and_Charles_Coughlin_on_Time_magazine_1934.jpg

Interested in reading about Father Coughlin??

You can purchase a book about the "Radio Priest" just click the link below: 

http://www.amazon.com/RADIO-PRIEST-Charles-Coughlin-Father/dp/0684824035

The weekly magazine "Social Justice"

Father Coughlin began publication of a weekly magazine called  Social Justice during this period. Coughlin claimed that Marxist atheism in Europe was a Jewish plot against America. The December 5, 1938 issue of Social Justice included an article by Coughlin which resembled a speech made by Joseph Goebbels on September 13, 1935 attacking Jews, and communists, with some sections being copied verbatim by Coughlin from an English translation of the Goebbels speech. At a rally in the Bronx in 1938, he alledgely gave a Nazi salute and said, "When we get through with the Jews in America, they'll think the treatment they received in Germany was nothing." Coughlin did state "Nothing can be gained by linking ourselves with any organization which is engaged in agitating racial animosities or propagating racial hatreds." Some other articles Coughlin lambasted “Jewish” financiers and their control over world politics, culminating with a story recounting his own version of the infamous 20th Century forgery, the so-called Protocols of the Elders of Zion, which purported to be minutes of meetings of Jewish leaders as they plotted to take over the world. As war approached, Coughlin's politics shifted further toward the extreme right. He promoted fascist dictatorship and authoritarian government as the only cure to the ills of democracy and capitalism. He associated with fascist leaders and known antisemitic thinkers in Great Britain and the United States, including.

In a 1938 broadcast, Coughlin helped inspire and publicize the creation of the Christian Front, a militia-like organization that excluded Jews and promised to defend the country from communists and Jews. The Front organized “Buy Christian” rallies throughout the country. In New York City, police arrested several of the militiamen for harassing Jews on the street, many of them seniors, women, and children. In the context of increasingly violent language, the Christian Front made national news in 1940, when the FBI arrested 18 members in Brooklyn, New York, on suspicion of conspiring to overthrow the government. Its members continued to attract headlines during the early 1940s for violent acts against Jews. An isolationist from the beginning of his career, Coughlin had blamed Jews for inciting the strife in Europe. He vigorously opposed any intervention by the United States government. Even after the Japanese navy and air force attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, Coughlin denounced the entry of the United States into World War II, claiming that the Jews had planned the war for their own benefit and had conspired to involve the United States. This last missive proved to be his undoing, however, for the U.S. Government had been tracking Coughlin even before Pearl Harbor. In September 1941 his request for a passport was denied by the State Department with the stated reason: “reported pro-Nazi.” Coughlin's comments after Pearl Harbor and changing public sentiment towards entry into the war gave the government its opportunity. In 1942, agents of the FBI raided Coughlin's church and seized all parish records and personal papers. During the investigation, U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle argued that Coughlin's magazine Social Justice had repeated “in this country the lines of enemy propaganda warfare being waged against this country from abroad.”
While U.S. authorities permitted Coughlin to continue publishing his magazine, it prohibited him from using the U.S. Postal Service to disseminate it. On May 1, 1942, Archbishop Edward Mooney, the new leader of the Catholic Church in Detroit, instructed Coughlin to cease all non-pastoral activities on pain of being defrocked.

"In the End"

The United States entered World War II and the National Association of Broadcaster brought his radio days to an end. The U.S Post Office stopped mailing out his weekly newspaper “Social Justice”.

In my own words "Finally"

On 1st May 1942, Archbishop Francis Mooney ordered Coughlin to bring an end to his political opinions. The Archbishop warned Father Coughlin if he refused he would be defrocked. Charles Edward Coughlin retired from the Shrine of the Little Flower Church in 1966. He continued to writing his hateful propaganda until his death on 27th October, 1979.