The Faulty Father: Charles E. Coughlin

If we've learned anything in this class, it's the power of exposure and commanding a large audience. Those who can connect with a large audience, those who are exposed to the most people, are the ones who hold the greatest power.

this will be relevant in like 5 paragrpahs

Why, you ask? Because when these people talk their words are influencing millions and millions of people. This concept is best illustrated by the rise of Father Charles Coughlin in the 1930's, who successfully transformed America in to an anti-semitic nation.

Charles Edward Coughlin was born in Ontario, Canada in 1891. He attended multiple Catholic schools and received a divinity degree from St. Basil's Seminary in Toronto. After being ordained in 1916 he quickly earned a reputation as an articulate and dynamic speaker.

35-year-old Coughlin was assigned to be pastor (leader) of a new church in Royal Oak, Detroit in 1926. Shortly after, Father Coughlin approached Detroit radio station WJR in order to broadcast a weekly sermon based on the events and issues of the day. It only took a few months to see his huge success: thousands of letters and financial contributions were flowing into Royal Oak, journalists anointed him as the "Radio Priest", and CBS signed him to a national contract.

From 1926-1940 Coughlin's radio brodacast routinely reached 15 million listeners and sometimes attracted 45 million people, which was more than 1/3 of the country's population! Coughlin's weekly magazine Social Justice had a circulation of 1 million people and he reprinted his radio talks as pamphlets that were sent to his followers free of charge. By 1932 he was employing 100 clerks to process 80,000 letters a week and eventually Royal Oak had to build a post office to expressly handle his mail. Coughlin collected $5 million dollars annually through donations from his followers and used that money to build a church that seated 3,500 (I told you that picture would be relevant!).  His words were heard loud and clear, the only problem is that his words were outlandish

The 'issues of the day' that Coughlin preached about were usually related to the Great Depression and his dissatisfaction with the government. He started coining phrases such as "Christ or Chaos" and "Roosevelt or Ruin" in order to further increase his audience and to enhance the righteous fury he put behind his messages. However, as CBS and NBC tried to silence him by taking him off their stations, Coughlin turned against Roosevelt and created his own political party. His 'National Union for Social Justice; had 8 million members just a  year after he created it, and North Dakota Republican William Lemke was chosen to head the Union Party ticket (Coughlin couldn't because he's Canadian). Coughlin   claimed that he would retire if Lemke didn't win at least 9 million votes in the 1936 U.S. Presidential Election, and did so when Lemke barely even got 900,000.

Coughlin's retirement lasted a few months, he was able to create a new network of 47 stations in 1937 and decided to talk about the biggest issue in the world at the the time, anti-semitism. He began claiming that Jews created Communism, and that Jews were the cause of the Great Depression. According to Coughlin, Jews had been plotting to destroy Christian civilization for years and started carrying out their plan by financing the Russian revolution (which he described as a mass slaughter of Christians), creating and spreading Communism, and rigging the U.S. election to make FDR win.


Finally, opposers began to emerge in 1938 and reporters for the Detroit Free Press called Coughlin's program a weekly attack on the Jews and said Coughlin suffered from a "congenital inability to tell the truth". Coughlin shocked the world when he defended the Nazi persecution of Jews, citing that "Naziism is a defense against communism!". This belief forced many stations to apologize for Coughlin's speeches and dropped Coughlin from their schedule. Even Catholic leaders renounced Coughlin's irrational rants. In a statement read nationwide over NBC, Cardinal George Mundelein said "Father Coughlin has the right to express his personal views on current events, but he is not authorized to speak for the Catholic Church nor does he represent the doctrine or sentiments of the Church."

Believe it or not, Coughlin 'upped the ante' in the summer of 1939 when he urged his Christian followers to attack the Jews. He said it was their moral and religious obligation to protect the world from the Jews by meeting force with force. Groups of men proudly calling themselves "Father Coughlin's brownshirts" attacked innocent jews in the street, often with brass knuckles and knives and showing no mercy. In January 1940, FBI agents arrested seventeen members of Coughlin's Christian Front and charged them with conspiring to overthrow the U.S. government. Large quantities of rifles and explovies had been found in their homes and they were believed to have planned the assassination of twelve Congress members. Coughlin defended these men and urged his followers to support them too.

Creepy pic of U.S. Attorney General
 Francis Biddle

September 1940 was the turning point, as no station in the U.S. agreed to air Coughlin's broadcast. Coughlin was forced to channel all of his anti-semitism into his magazine Social Justice, which was barred from being sent through the mail after U.S. Attorney General Francis Biddle charged the magazine with violating the Espionage Act. In May 1942, Detroit Archbishop Edward Mooney (under indirect orders from Biddle) ordered Coughlin to cease all nonreligious activities or be defrocked. Coughlin tucked his tail inbetween his legs and ceased production of Social Justice immediately. He then went on to live a quiet life in Royal Oak where he rarely mentioned his ridiculous tirade of the 30's and 40's and only told Life Magazine that "It was a horrible mistake to enter politics"






This long and detailed story goes back to what I said in the beginning, big voices will create big effects, and it's almost appalling to see how one man's rants were able to convince hundreds of men to viciously assault innocent and random strangers. With great power comes great responsibility, and when Charles E. Coughlin was given the great power of radio he shamelessly exploited it to be heard and to make a change. A change for worse.