Miller, Howard

English

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"What Would Jesus Do?" - Not Even Pasthttps://notevenpast.org/what-would-jesus-do/[5/26/2020 8:35:27 AM]"The past is never dead. It's not even past." William FaulknerNOT EVEN PAST     THE PUBLIC HISTORIANMore from The Public HistorianBOOKSMore BooksDIGITAL HISTORY“What Would Jesus Do?”by Howard Miller“WWJD?” A student of mine told me in the early 1990s that in her school the interrogating initials meant“Who Wants Jack Daniels?” Of course, most Americans today know that they mean “What Would JesusDo?” The question has been ubiquitous in American popular culture for three decades. But few know thatit was first asked in a novel. And even fewer know that the author’s working drafts of that novel can beseen today in the Harry Ransom Humanities Research Center at the University of Texas at Austin.Reverend Charles M. Sheldon first asked “What would Jesus Do?” in an 1896novel entitled In His Steps. Sheldon was an advocate for the Social Gospel, whichsought to situate Jesus in his own culture and insisted that his life and teachingsshould guide the way Christians live their own lives in a very different culture.The novel is set in the fictional mid-western city of Raymond. It begins with thearrival of an out of work stranger, who, after a week of unsuccessfully seekingemployment among church members, interrupts the Sunday service to ask thestartled members what it meant for them to follow Jesus in their daily lives. Andthen he collapsed and died! In the Sunday evening service, the pastor challengedhis congregation to answer the stranger’s question, to pledge that for a year, before making any majordecision, they would first ask, “What Would Jesus Do?”And the Christians of Raymond begin to transform their city. An opera singer vows to sing only at church.A newspaper becomes a Christian daily and loses many customers but is then subsidized by aconvenient rich woman, who also builds a tenement for the poor. A rail superintendent resigns his positionto protest the corruption of the railroad industry and then begins to crusade for economic reform. Acollege professor runs for public office in order to reform government along Christian lines. A merchantstarts profit sharing with his employees. And all finally come to focus on the area of town called theRectangle, a crime-ridden slum dominated by saloons and the unchurched men who control them.All of the changes are gradual and paternalistic. None challenges the status quo of Raymond’s middleclass, Protestant, capitalistic society. There will be no holding of all things in common. Sheldonspecifically rules out any kind of socialist thorough reconstruction of society that would challenge therights of private property. It is enough that those who have take care of those who do not have as muchas they. Sheldon also makes it clear that no one should decide that Jesus wants him or her to give all thathe or she has to the poor. There will be no Saint Francis of Raymond. Like 0TweetMaking History: Houston’s “Spirit of theConfederacy”May 06, 2020America for Americans: A History ofXenophobia in the United States byErika Lee (2019)April 20, 2020Más de 72: Digital Archive ReviewBOOKS FILMS & MEDIA THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN BLOG TEXAS ABOUTSTUDENTSOUR/STORIES15 MINUTE HISTORY Not Even Past 652 New Edit Post Howdy, Gilbert Borrego"What Would Jesus Do?" - Not Even Pasthttps://notevenpast.org/what-would-jesus-do/[5/26/2020 8:35:27 AM]More from Digital HistoryFILMS & MEDIAMore from Films & MediaTEXASMore from TexasAll of the changes also conform to traditional Victorian expectations of gender and sex roles. All the thingsthat the women and men in the novel do to follow Jesus are within those traditional roles. The operasinger, as she performs, appeals to the heart, as women are intended to. And her singing convertspeople. Under her influence, a dissipated rich young man dedicates his life to reforming the idle richyoung men who had been his friends in dissipation.  Only when he has found his mission in life does hebecome resolute, disciplined, and purposeful. And only then does the woman he loves begin to find himattractive enough to marry him.In His Steps was an instant best seller. In the twentieth century it sold more than thirty million volumes.But as that century developed, the novel ceased to be a major element in shaping Protestant culture inAmerica, until, that is, the seventies and eighties. In those decades the novel’s central question, if not thebook itself, became a favorite of the evangelical Christianity that became increasingly powerful inAmerican culture.In the mid eighties “WWJD?” began to appear on the wrists and necks of young Christian girls andwomen. Jesus became a fashion statement! And within a decade the question was everywhere in themarketplace of American consumer culture. By 2000 advertisers had accustomed Americans to adsbased upon Sheldon’s question, as in “What Would Jesus Drive?”And then George W. Bush identified himself and theRepublican Party with Christianity in general and withJesus in particular to an extent without precedent inAmerican politics. The Republican Party became, in thefirst Bush Administration, as close as we have seen to a “Christian party in politics” in American history.Then in the second Bush administration, that identification with Jesus became a problem. First, severalRepublican leaders who were outspoken defenders of traditional family values were involved in scandalsinvolving homosexual activity. As Americans became ever more critical of Republican politicians whoseactions were so at variance with their stated beliefs, they also grew more critical of the President’sactions, especially in the Middle East. Because the President proclaimed that Jesus was the model andguide for his life, critics, and especially cartoonists, could not resist using Sheldon’s question to criticizeMr. Bush. Cartoon after cartoon asked, inevitably, “Who Would Jesus Bomb?”I don’t know what Charles Sheldon would think of George W. Bush and hisparty. I suspect that he would appreciate a president who said that Jesus washis favorite philosopher because “he changed my life;” who said that he tookhis orders from his heavenly father, not his earthly father; and who gave uswhat he called a “faith-based administration.”But we can see the irony in the role that In His Steps played in the downfall ofthe “Christian Party in Politics.” Little did the Topeka pastor know in 1896 thathis arresting question would become in the American marketplace in the earlytwenty-first century an advertising slogan that would help bring down a president and party he wouldprobably have wholeheartedly supported.Sheldon followed in the steps of Henry Ward Beecher, the most popular Protestant minister of the lateVictorian period, and originally wrote his novel, chapter by chapter, as sermons to be delivered on SundayMarch 16, 2020Ayka (Dir: Sergei Dvortsevoy, 2018)October 02, 2019A (Queer) Rebel Wife In TexasMarch 11, 2020"What Would Jesus Do?" - Not Even Pasthttps://notevenpast.org/what-would-jesus-do/[5/26/2020 8:35:27 AM]19th century 20th Century African American History american history Asia Asia & Middle East book review Brazil British Empire China Civil War Cold War Colonialism communism cultural history digital history Early Modern Europe Europe film gender history History of Science immigration India Islam Latin America Latin American History Mexico Not Even Past Public History race religion Russia slavery Texas Texas History Texas History Day Transnational Twentieth Century History United States US History USSR Womens History world history World War IINOT EVEN PAST is produced byThe Department of HistoryTHE UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS AT AUSTIN We are supported by the College of Liberal ArtsAnd our READERSDONATECONTACTAll content © 2010-present NOT EVEN PAST and the authors,unless otherwise notedSign up to receive bi-weekly email updatesevening before being finally published as a novel. Those chapters – and the pen he used! — can be seenat the Humanities Research Center at UT here in Austin.Posted March 30, 2011More 1900s, 2000s, Blog, Discover, Religion, United StatesBOOKS FILMS & MEDIA THE PUBLIC HISTORIAN BLOG TEXAS

“What Would Jesus Do?”

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“What Would Jesus Do?”

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