Eleanor: A Spiritual Biography: The Faith of the 20th Century's Most Influential Woman

by Harold Ivan Smith

Overview

More than fifty years after her death, Eleanor Roosevelt is remembered as a formidable first lady and tireless social activist. Often overlooked, however, is her deep and inclusive spirituality. Her personal faith was shaped by reading the New Testament in her youth, giving her a Jesus-centered spirituality that fueled her commitment to civil rights, women's rights, and the rights of all "little people" marginalized in American society.

She took seriously Jesus' words and despite her life of privilege, she made the needs of those on the margins her priority. Eleanor: A Spiritual Biography provides insight into one of America's most famous women, particularly the spiritual influences that made her so active in social justice issues.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780664261641
Publisher:	Westminster John Knox Press
Publication date:	03/02/2017
Pages:	252
Sales rank:	393,431
Product dimensions:	5.90(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.80(d)

About the Author

Harold Ivan Smith is a bereavement specialist on the teaching faculties of Saint Luke's Hospital, Kansas City, Missouri, and the Carondolet Medical Institute, Eau Claire, Wyoming.

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Eleanor A Spiritual Biography

The Faith of the 20th Century's Most Influential Woman

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By Harold Ivan Smith

Westminster John Knox Press

Copyright © 2017 Harold Ivan Smith
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-664-26164-1

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CHAPTER 1

What Religion Meant to Her

I think anyone who really thinks about the life of Christ must of necessity be influenced by it. It has always seemed to me that if we ever succeeded in living up to the standards which He set for us we would eliminate much of the conflict in the world. We would certainly get along better in our communities.

— Eleanor Roosevelt

Eleanor was an Episcopalian, from its aristocratic wing. She grew up in a nation she understood to be "a Christian country" (MD, February 16, 1951) and "predominately a Protestant country." Hindus, Buddhists, and Muslims lived in countries overseas, but rarely in Minneapolis, Long Beach, Sioux City, or Birmingham; immigration laws enacted in the 1920s restricted the entry of individuals from countries where those religions were dominant. Eleanor was baptized as a baby in 1884, confirmed as an adolescent in 1903, married as a young woman in 1905, and buried as an elderly woman in 1962, all in rituals that followed the liturgical rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer. The liturgy and prayers read at her funeral were almost identical to rituals for a hundred other Episcopalians memorialized that day and to the rituals for her mother, brother, father, grandmother, and husband in preceding decades. That was the way such things were done by Roosevelts — by the book, that is, by the Book of Common Prayer.

In Mrs. Roosevelt's day, attention to the soul, at least in American Protestant circles, was commonly framed by words such as religion, religiosity, piety, dogma, faith, or denomination. In December 1932, just three months before she moved into the White House, her article "What Religion Means to Me" appeared in the Forum, a national periodical. Some had to stop and reread part of the second paragraph: "To me religion has nothing to do with any specific creed or dogma." Eleanor explained:

It means that belief and that faith in the heart of a man which makes him try to live his life according to the highest standard which he is able to visualize. To those of us who were brought up as Christians that standard is the life of Christ.

Spirituality, to Eleanor, was "that feeling of having something outside of one's self and greater than one's self to depend on." She continued, "There never has been a time when that feeling is more needed than it is today. People in trouble need just what little children need — a sense of security, a sense of something greater than their own powers to turn to and depend on."

Her son Elliott Roosevelt dedicated his book Mother R. "To F.D.R., a man of conviction, and A.E.R., a woman of faith." Eleanor never hesitated to talk about Christian religion in conversations, in speeches, in articles, or in her column. Her spirituality percolated in a deep, inner, sacred space. She acknowledged having questions about faith and doctrine. Joseph Lash, her friend and biographer, recalled, "Christ's story was a drama that re-enacted itself repeatedly in her thoughts and feelings." Certainly, others saw her as a feminist, a savvy politician, or, in her later years, a stateswoman. To Lash, "she was a woman with a deep sense of spiritual mission. Like Saint Theresa, she not only 'had a powerful intellect of the practical order' but was a woman of extravagant tenderness and piety."

For readers who protest that religious interests are private matters — especially for the nation's First Lady or former First Lady — Eleanor countered, "It does very little good to believe something unless you tell your friends and associates your belief" (MD, May 7, 1945).

Eleanor's beliefs on civil rights, for example, were shaped on the anvil of her faith. It did little good to believe segregation was wrong unless one protested it, particularly in settings where one might encounter objection. One could not look the other way or make nice. She did not consider holding one's tongue a gift of the Spirit. But it was critical to express one's thoughts with sensitivity and clarity. She once confided to Joseph Lash, "It's all very well to have a great many nice ideas but if you can't say them so that any child of five can understand them, you might just as well not have them."

PRACTICES OVER BELIEFS

Serving at the United Nations and the United Nations Association later in her life provided opportunities for interaction and discussion with adherents of all the world's major religions, as well as with individuals who professed to be atheist or agnostic. In those personal encounters, often over a cup of tea, Eleanor learned that religious labels are imprecise and fluid in response to life experiences. I think she would have understood and applauded spiritual migrations that take place across theological polarities today. Joshua Boettiger, her great-grandson, for example, is a Reconstructionist rabbi. That would please her!

Denominational politics and sermonic potshots from ecclesiastical leaders about the numerous divorces and remarriages of her children strained her denominational loyalty. From time to time, church officials sought something from Eleanor: a check, an endorsement for a pet project, a "favorable word," or "intercession with certain government agencies." One bishop irritated Eleanor because his visits focused on gossip rather than issues of faith.

In her essay "What Religion Means to Me," Eleanor demonstrated remarkable religious tolerance, which would eventually prove critical at the United Nations: "To those of us who happen to have been born and brought up under other skies or in other creeds the object to be attained goes by some other name." (The phrase "of us" offers insight into the breadth of her faith.) Eleanor rejected us-versus-them thinking on any topic. Granddaughter Nina Roosevelt Gibson told me that Eleanor always wanted to get beyond "me" or "you" to "you and me." Eleanor believed that all humans are God's beloved children.

It did not matter to Eleanor what religion one belonged to. It did matter how one practiced that religion! And how that religion impacted and nurtured one's worldview, particularly toward people who are marginalized, powerless, or poor. Thus, the institutionalized racism rampant in southern Protestantism befuddled her, particularly when she pondered these words in the book of Galatians: "There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. And if ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise" (Gal. 3:28–29).

Unlike Franklin Roosevelt, she would not overlook racism. Racism demeaned and wounded the integrity of the racist and the recipient. Consequently, she spent little time in FDR's cottage in Warm Springs, Georgia, because racism was woven tightly into the fabric of daily social interaction there.

Eleanor, much to the chagrin of more fundamentalist Christians, found broad nuances in Jesus' words, "For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life" (John 3:16). Whosoever meant inclusion in a generously spacious relationship with God. Eleanor thought John 3:16 could not be read without John 3:17, "For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved" and be more fully human. So, if God did not condemn, why should humans? Joseph Lash noted that later in life, "In general, she seemed to think that all churches as institutions too often seemed to be in conflict with genuine religious feeling, faith, and spirit. Like Tolstoy she felt there was little in common between the organized church and Christ's teachings, except the name."

COUNTERING HER CHRISTIAN CRITICS

I have struggled writing about Eleanor's spirituality because my research and reflection have been filtered through the lens of my own spirituality, as well as my doctoral studies in spiritual formation. Ironically, I grew up in a faith that had little use for Mrs. Roosevelt's "do-gooder" social beliefs. The term "liberal Christian Democrat" would have been considered oxymoronic. While I have, over the years, migrated to a more generous understanding of grace, occasionally I am ambushed by traces of theological residue from my southern Holiness upbringing.

Similarly, many Christian fundamentalists in Eleanor's own day did not believe that she and Franklin were true Christians, that is, "Bible-believing, God-fearing" Christians. Some readers of this book, I suspect, will want evidence that proves Eleanor was a "born again" Christian, in the sense of the usage Jimmy Carter injected into the 1976 presidential campaign, or that she would have agreed with former president George W. Bush's identification of Christ as "the greatest philosopher: He changed my life." Eleanor was a baptized Christian and a confirmed Christian. Some readers may push: "Yes, but was she saved?" Or "had she accepted Jesus as her personal lord and savior?" Or "had she prayed the sinner's prayer?" Few in Eleanor's liturgical tradition would have used that phraseology, as presidential candidate George H. W. Bush, a fellow Episcopalian, discovered in 1988 as he attempted to win the votes of the religious right.

Eleanor was keenly aware of fundamentalist Christians who spent endless time and energy deciding who was and who was not "saved" or arguing about doctrinal cul-de-sacs. Many Christians even today seem unconvinced of the depth and authenticity of Eleanor Roosevelt's faith, not knowing that the strength so many admire in her was born of the alchemy of deep emotional wounds and a deep reservoir of enriched spirituality.

Peter Benson and Carolyn Eklin conducted a study of eleven thousand individuals to identify eight core characteristics of a mature Christian spirituality. These markers are used by many in the fields of Christian education and church life to gauge the spiritual health of congregations, and they make an equally useful tool for examining elements in Eleanor's spirituality, lest we think her understanding of religion as "having something outside of one's self and greater than one's self to depend on" and having "nothing to do with any specific creed or dogma" puts her outside the scope of traditional Christianity in any way.

Benson and Eklin suggest that an individual practicing "healthy" Christian spirituality

— trusts in God's saving grace and believes firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus;

— experiences a sense of personal well-being, security, and peace;

— integrates faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one's religious life;

— seeks personal growth through study, reflection, prayer, and discussion with others;

— seeks to be part of a community of believers in which people give witness to their faith and support and nourish one another;

— holds life-affirming values;

— advocates for social and global change;

— serves humanity, consistently and passionately, through acts of love and justice.

These elements were the piers upon which Eleanor's spirituality rested.

Trusts in God's saving grace and believes firmly in the humanity and divinity of Jesus. Admittedly, Eleanor was much more concerned with how one lived one's faith than with the particularities of one's beliefs, but her reverence for Jesus Christ was undeniable. Surfing the Eleanor Roosevelt Papers Project Web site of George Washington University, one finds nine hundred mentions of Jesus Christ. Eleanor mentioned Jesus, by my calculations, in 12 percent of her "My Day" columns. She wrote about and talked about Jesus more than she wrote about some of the major political players of her day. Certainly, she talked about Jesus more and more boldly than did all the other First Ladies combined.

As a faithful Episcopalian, she would have affirmed the historic creeds of the church in hundreds of worship services over her nearly eight decades of life. From the Book of Common Prayer (1892), Eleanor would have recited the Apostles' Creed, with its particular beliefs about Jesus:

I believe ... in Jesus Christ, his only Son, our Lord: Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, Born of the Virgin Mary: Suffered under Pontius Pilate, Was crucified, died, and buried; He descended into hell; The third day he rose again from the dead: He ascended into heaven, And sitteth on the right hand of God the Father Almighty: From thence he shall come judge the quick and the dead.

Eleanor, from years of repetition, could quote both the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds without looking at the prayer book, but she had some reservation on some phrases, for example, "born of the Virgin Mary." Accepting the virgin birth, in Eleanor's view, was not essential to believing and practicing what Jesus taught and lived. She was content to consider the details of Jesus' divinity and salvific work a "mystery."

Reflecting on the similarities and differences of Christianity and Hinduism on a trip to India, she wrote, "Many of us in the West who are Christians believe that, through a mystery we cannot understand, Christ was the Son of God sent to the world to sacrifice His life to save us."

Had someone asked Eleanor if she were saved, she might have flipped the question, "From what?" Indeed, I think that she might have tightened the question, "Saved to what?" Eleanor understood salvation not as having been "washed in the blood" or "saved from sin," but rather having been freed through God's magnificent grace to be fully human and empowered to live out Jesus' teachings, especially those in the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5–7.

Eleanor did not find Jesus' teaching static but ongoing. "The story of the New Testament," she wrote on Christmas Day, 1950, "is the story of His life and teachings. Christ taught from his early youth. He is still teaching each and everyone of us today" (MD, December 25, 1950).

Experiences a sense of personal well-being, security, and peace. "Nobody can make you feel inferior without your cooperation" is among the most widely quoted Eleanorisms. It took decades, however, for Eleanor to become comfortable in her own skin. (Some question if she ever did.) Psychologists agree that attachment to caregivers — particularly parents — shapes one's attachment to God. John Bowlby theorizes that attachment anxiety results from uncertainty, irregularity, and unpredictability in the family of origin; Eleanor experienced all three to a horrifying degree! Because of her mother's persistent verbal abuse and her father's extended absences and irresponsibility (abandonment), it took time for Eleanor to embrace a trustable God who would not abandon her. Lisa Miller argues, "Parenting choices in the first two decades radically affect ... children's spiritual development in ways that last their entire lives."

It was not ultimately her family or her church that helped her discover this sense of well-being and security, but the influence of Marie Souvestre, the atheist, lesbian headmistress at Allenswood. Eleanor recalled years later, "For three years, I basked in her generous presence, and I think those three years did much to form my character and give me the confidence to go through some of the trials that awaited me when I returned to the United States."

Eleanor found that receiving Holy Communion also offered a sense of peace and well-being. William Turner Levy, a confidante to Eleanor, recalled sitting with her one Sunday morning at St. James' Church: "I could not but sense her complete separation from all earthly ties, caught up in a loving absorption" of the service. Only once, he confessed, had he ever witnessed anyone as "caught up in rapture" of the Eucharist, and that had been T. S. Eliot.

Integrates faith and life, seeing work, family, social relationships, and political choices as part of one's religious life. Eleanor knew individuals whose faith was a Sunday morning experience, who compartmentalized their faith. Her husband fit that category. Episcopal formation and tradition shaped Eleanor and Franklin, but while Eleanor talked about faith, Franklin regarded religion as a private matter. Pressed by a reporter to elaborate on his faith, FDR used nine words: "I am a Christian and a Democrat, that's all." As the mother of five young children, Eleanor fumed over Franklin's nominal faith practices: What kind of example was he setting for their children? Sundays for him — before polio — were for golfing and socializing with friends. She patiently endured the children's protests that they had to attend church and their father did not! Moreover, when her children listened in church, questions arose. On leaving church one Sunday, one Roosevelt child among the most widely quoted Eleanorisms. It took decades, however, for Eleanor to become comfortable in her own skin. (Some question if she ever did.) Psychologists agree that attachment to caregivers — particularly parents — shapes one's attachment to God. John Bowlby theorizes that attachment anxiety results from uncertainty, irregularity, and unpredictability in the family of origin; Eleanor experienced all three to a horrifying degree! Because of her mother's persistent verbal abuse and her father's extended absences and irresponsibility (abandonment), it took time for Eleanor to embrace a trustable God who would not abandon her. Lisa Miller argues, "Parenting choices in the first two decades radically affect ... children's spiritual development in ways that last their entire lives."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Eleanor A Spiritual Biography by Harold Ivan Smith. Copyright © 2017 Harold Ivan Smith. Excerpted by permission of Westminster John Knox Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
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Table of Contents

Contents

Acknowledgments, ix,
Author's Note, xi,
Introduction, 1,
1. What Religion Meant to Her, 7,
2. A Childhood from Hell: Eleanor's Early Years, 21,
3. Nourishing a Parched Soul: Eleanor in Adolescence, 43,
4. A Woman of Faith: Eleanor's Theology, 57,
5. Challenged and Betrayed: Eleanor and Franklin before the White House, 65,
6. Helping the Little People: Eleanor in the White House, 89,
7. Refugees and Regrets: Eleanor and the Jews, 111,
8. Children of God: Eleanor and Civil Rights, 139,
9. One Nation under God: Eleanor and Religious Diversity, 165,
10. Her Final Years, 179,
Conclusion: Eleanor's Legacy, 199,
Notes, 205,
Bibliography, 227,