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Father Charles Edward Coughlin (October 25, 1891 – October 27, 1979) was a Canadian-born Roman Catholic priest from Royal Oak, Michigan's Shrine of the Little Flower Catholic Church, and one of the first evangelists to preach to a widespread listening audience over the medium of radio during the Great Depression. Later in his career, he became increasingly anti-Semitic and radical in his views.
Early broadcasts and political activism
Born in Hamilton, Ontario, to Irish parents, Coughlin was ordained in Toronto in 1916 and taught at Assumption College in Windsor, Ontario, before moving to Detroit in 1923. He began his radio broadcasts in 1926, broadcasting weekly sermons on a regular program. He was an early supporter of the reforms of Franklin D. Roosevelt, and the author of the phrase "Roosevelt or ruin," which was famous during the early days of the FDR administration. However, Coughlin's focus changed over the course of the 1930s as he preached more and more and about the negative influence of "international bankers" and Wall Street upon the welfare of the United States and about the need for monetary reform. Coughlin asserted that the Depression was a cash famine, and he proposed unorthodox monetary policies and the elimination of the Federal Reserve as the solution. Thus, Coughlin placed himself in a third position, in contrast to the Republicans, who believed in a return to laissez-faire economics, and the New Dealers, who advocated moderate government economic intervention and a Keynesian economic approach. He endorsed Franklin D. Roosevelt during the 1932 Presidential election. However, by 1935, Coughlin had begun to bitterly oppose Roosevelt's policies and accused him of "leaning toward international socialism or sovietism". Coughlin founded the National Union for Social Justice, an organization with a strong following among proponents of nativism and opponents of the Federal Reserve, especially in the Midwest. One of Father Coughlin's campaign slogans was: "Less care for internationalism and more concern for national prosperity" which went well with the isolationist movement in the United States. Coughlin's organization also appealed to Irish Catholics living in the cities. In 1936, Coughlin helped found a short-lived political party, the Union Party, which nominated William Lemke for President. Coughlin promised to retire if Lemke did not get 9 million votes, and when he received only 900,000 Coughlin stopped broadcasting briefly, before resuming in 1937.
Growing anti-Semitism
After 1936, however, Coughlin increasingly expressed sympathy for the fascist policies of Hitler and Mussolini as an antidote to Bolshevism, though this was before World War II began. His radio broadcasts also became overtly anti-Semitic. He also began publication of a newspaper, Social Justice, during this period, in which he printed anti-Semitic accusations such as The Protocols of the Elders of Zion. On Nov. 20, 1938, two weeks after Kristallnacht, when Jews across Germany were attacked and killed, and Jewish businesses and homes burned, Coughlin blamed the Jewish victims, saying that "Jewish persecution only followed after Christians first were persecuted."
After this speech, and as his programs became more anti-Semitic, some radio stations, including those in New York and Chicago, began refusing to air his speeches without pre-approved scripts. This made Coughlin a hero in Nazi Germany, where papers ran headlines like "America is Not Allowed to Hear the Truth." On December 18, 1938 two thousand of Coughlin's followers marched in New York protesting potential asylum law changes that would allow more Jews to enter the country, chanting, "Send Jews back where they came from in leaky boats!" and "Wait until Hitler comes over here!" These protests continued for several months. Donald Warren, using information from the FBI and German government archives, has also argued that Coughlin received indirect funding from Nazi Germany during this period.
Additionally, after 1936, Coughlin began supporting an organization called the Christian Front, which claimed him as an inspiration. In January, 1940, the Christian Front was shut down when the FBI discovered the group was arming itself and preparing to attack "a dozen Congressman" along with Jewish targets and the Federal Reserve and eventually establish, in J. Edgar Hoover's words, "a dictatorship, similar to the Hitler dictatorship in Germany." Coughlin publicly stated after the plot was discovered that he still did not "disassociate himself from the movement," and though he was never linked directly to the plot, his reputation suffered. (New York Times, Jan 22, 1940)
Later career
According to the Marcus book the priest's opposition to the repeal of a neutrality-oriented arms-embargo law triggered successful lobbying efforts to force him off the air. In October 1939, one month after the invasion of Poland, the Code Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters (NAB) adopted new rules which placed "rigid limitations on the sale of radio time to spokesman of controversial public issues." Manuscripts were required to be submitted in advance. Radio stations were threatened with the loss of their licenses if they failed to comply. This ruling was clearly aimed at Coughlin due to his leadership in opposition to the growing American involvement in the Second World War. As a result, the September 23, 1939 issue of Social Justice stated that he had been forced from the air "...by those who control circumstances beyond my reach" (pps 173-177).
Coughlin later returned to broadcasting, however, though the popularity of his broadcasts fell rapidly as his radicalism grew, and, in 1942, church authorities ordered Coughlin to stop his radio broadcasts and return to his duties as a parish priest. He remained the pastor of the Shrine of the Little Flower until retiring in 1966. Late in his career and life he refused numerous interview opportunities.
At its peak in the early 1930s, his radio show was phenomenally popular: historians state that his office received 80,000 letters per week from listeners and his listening audience was estimated to be as much as one-third of the nation. Coughlin is often credited as one of the major demagogues of the 20th century for being able to influence politics through a wide audience, without actually holding a political office himself.
Sources
- Mary Christine Athans. A New Perspective on Father Charles E. Coughlin. Church History, Vol. 56, No. 2. (Jun., 1987), pp. 224-235.
- Mary Christine Athans,The Coughlin-Fahey Connection: Father Charles E. Coughlin, Father Denis Fahey, C.S. Sp., and Religious Anti-Semitism in the United States, 1938-1954. New York: Peter Lang Publishing, 1991.
- Sheldon Marcus, Father Coughlin: The Tumultuous Life Of The Priest Of The Little Flower, Boston, 1972
- Sherrill, Robert. 1982. "American Demagogues." The New York Times , 11 July, 13.
- Donald Warren. Radio Priest: Charles Coughlin The Father of Hate Radio. New York: The Free Press, 1996
Other references
- Pirodsky, Richard (2003). The Demigod. PublishAmerica. ISBN 1591293863. This book is a fictionalized account of Coughlin's career.
External links
- Father Coughlin information at Religious Movements at UVA.
- Brief information on Coughlin, including an audio excerpt
- Find-A-Grave profile for Charles Coughlin
- List of Coughlin's radio addresses available in mp3 format
- Video of Father Coughlin attacking Roosevelt