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This lithograph shows a cartoon criticizing Beecher%u2019s Flamboyance, and appeared In Puck, March 9, 1881.A PERSONAL VIEW OF REV.HENRY BEECHER'S LEGACY:Beecher Starts AA Trend O fM ixing PoliticsA n d PreachingBY CHARLES TARZIANGiven the irony of celebrating the Centennial of the Statue of liberty in the Age ofReagan, it is fitting, I suppose, to honor, asw ell, the first and foremost practitioner ofreligious Reaganism, Henry Ward Beecher.Let m e qualify: Brooklyn%u2019s Henry WardBeecher, the most famous, popular and influential religious figure of the AmericanNineteenth Century was not only as bigotedand belligerent as Reagan, he was also ourfirst Great Communicator. The centennialof Beecher%u2019s death should certainly not gounmarked in a year where at least one ofhis fundamentalist progeny, Rev. PatRobertson, hopes to succeed Reagan asPresident of these United States. It wouldbe a nifty turn and one to certainly pleasedear old Henry since his own father, LymanBeecher, tried in his tim e, to found the firstrelgious political party in America back inthe 1840s.But, really, there is something quitemomentous about the appropriation of MissLiberty by the far right on the centennialanniversary of both her unveiling and thedeath of their own godfather. Had it notbeen for Henry Ward Beecher, I%u2019m not sosure any of m is would be possible. So, inessence, while the enthusiasts of thepolitical right drape them selves in theundergarments of the Statue, they have,among others, Henry Ward Beecher tothank for such intimacy.The serendipity of history being what itis, we are lucky indeed that Abe Lincolncaught Beecher waxing on in a morebenevolent mode when he cam e toPlymouth Church for ideas. Otherwise, Lincoln%u2019s now legendary speech at the GreatHall in Cooper Union could today be referred to as %u201cWhite makes m ight%u201d speech.Supporters of Beecher will not doubtmaintain that the Brooklyn Heights%u2019reverend%u2019s predilection for whitesupremacist rhetoric m erely reflected thegeneral sentiment of the tim es. If this bethe logic of defense, then those who praiseBeecher can do no less for South Africa%u2019sBotha and his company, since they, likewise,offer Beecher%u2019s rhetoric as the sum ofgeneral sentiment in their constituency.That he m ay have been no more than aspokesman, m akes Beecher an even moreunsavory man in my eyes. But let%u2019s notharp on his bigotry: he had a lot more going for him, too.HIS FACULTY FOR WORDSIBs faculty for words w as, without doubt,Beecher%u2019s greatest talent. And as WilliamMcLoughlin, in his book on Beecher noted:%u201cBeecher quickly developed a marvelousfacility for threading his way amongdiverse views and yet seem ing to be uncompromisingly dedicated to liberty and equality.%u2019%u2019 This uncanny ability for what mightotherwise be labeled doublespeak predatesby a century such contemporary versionsas %u201cconstructive engagement%u201d%u201cPeacem aker%u201d , and %u201cRight to Life%u201d(minorities need not apply).Being the first Great Communicator,Beecher had to endure a lot of the groundbreaking that went with the turf. Damagecontrol, press spokesmen and teleprompterswere a long ways in coming. When Beecherwas confronted with one of his hypocrisieshis response was, %u201cLife is a kind ofzig-zag.%u201dThe man not unlike Presid %u00bbnt Reagangot so twisted up in issues proving morecomplex than he was prepared for, that attim es he made himself look like an idiot savant. Talk about contradictions: One moment he declared slavery a sin, the next hedecided slaves would be better off if theyremained with their owners than face trying to make it in the real world.SOME OF THE CONTRADICTIONSHe declared all men equal and thendecided that men of higher education andstation were better suited for ruling the restof the lot.He was notorious for his sermons on selfrestraint, yet led such an opulent lifestylethat he pronounced that the good lifethose who had it could set a good examplefor those without. Beecher proclaimedhim self the spiritual leader of the commonman, but absolutely abhorred trade unionsand held labor leaders in particular contempt.With so much waffling and flip-flopping(Aw shucks, did I say that?), Beecherseem ed to be a man out to amuse him selfand present the best entertainmentavailable. His genius was to transform whatup until his time was a stiff, eventlessliturgy, in which boredom vied with sleepas the leading pastim es.PLYMOUTH CHURCH ROCKEDWhy don%u2019t we, Beecher asked, in MickeyRooney%u2019s immortal words, put on a show? Ashow indeed. With Beecher at the helm , thePlymouth Church literally rocked longbefore Jimmy Swaggart ever put a finger tothe ivories.Beecher%u2019s combination of good old gospelstyle singing, which Plymouth Churchbecame famous for (they weren%u2019t bad forwhite people) and uncanny stentorianpresentation of the sermon that could onlybe compared to the great actors ofBeecher%u2019s day, catapulted his service intothe domain of highly kinetic theatre.Descriptions, which are legion, of aBeecher sermon, rival journalistic attemptsto nail down the delivery, timbre, rhythmand timing of the great stage stars of theday as Julius Booth, Edwin Forrest andJoe Jefferson Beecher%u2019s theatre, thePlymouth Church, was large enough to accommodate 3,000 %u2014 larger than the theatresof the day. As sure as it was Sunday afternoon it was showtime at the PlymouthChurch.NEW WAY TO TELL STORYGiven his compunction for contradiction,misinformation and general subjectivemanipulation of his material, Beecher proved long before Ronald Reagan that itdoesn%u2019t necessarily have to be the truth aslone as it sounds good. If vou can com e unwith a fresh and exciting way to tell astory, and do it better than anyone else,then, by golly you sure have got somethinggoing.And, ladies and gentlemen, that%u2019s whatbig business religion in this country is allabout. Beecher was the first mega-ministry,the first tele-evangelist; the first individualhandsomely through religion in a big way.In matching his methods and ideas withfuture religious figures, one does not comeup with Thomas Merton or Mother Teresabut Falwell Schuller, Roberts, SwaggartRobertson and Moon.The attack by the reactionary religiousright on the secular state also received itsstart with Beecher. He consistently statedthat Americans were in the forefront ofhuman history and as such would be thefirst to experience the millenium, which, inhis view , was fast approaching.POLITICIZING THE PULPITThis strategy, (hi the one hand, to speakof Americans in supremacist term s, and onBeecher was also an opportunistin the most insidious of ways.More than anything he wanteduniversal acceptance. He fanciedhimself a spiritual leader of all,but was clearly a social elitist.the other, to swear by the soon-to-be-comingend of the world would become grist for theright wing religious mill. Beecher being thefirst to achieve fam e in politicizing thepulpit, is the progenitor of evangelists of today, som e of whom have even seen nuclearwar as a feasible, practical chance to accelerate us toward the miilenium.Beecher was also an opportunist in themost insidious of ways. More than anything,he wanted universal acceptance and, likeall public figures, wanted to be well-liked.He fancied him self as the spiritual leader ofall men. Yet Beecher was quite clearly asocial elitist.He publicly disagreed with Emerson as tothe effect of the cultivation of the individualon the society. Emerson saw universalevolution of man%u2019s consciousness as the toolof a strong democracy. Beecher believedthat only a few could ever attain whatEmerson saw as a m ass movement.HIS CONTEMPORARIES PREVAILEDOne measure of the strength of his doctrines is their relative obscurity after hisdeath, except in the precincts of thepolitical rights ministry. Beecher%u2019s railingagainst Jefferson and the tenets of the Constitution, his institutionalized bigotry, oversimplified nationalism are the whole cloth of the religious right today. And though heoutshone his contemporaries in their day, interm s of popularity, Thoreau, Emerson,M elville, Whitman and Hawthorne remainamong the larger figures in the pantheon ofgreat American letters.Intellectual effectiveness conceded,Beecher%u2019s true legacy is as our first farright, charism atic Evangelical. Even ifBeecher is credited with breaking open thelong-imposed silence at the pulpit concerning politics, it certainly earns him chargesof cynicism . He bullied America with thenotion that failure to believe in his God wassomehow unpatriotic. Beecher went furtherand called for the %u201cChristianization%u201d of allimmigrants.But m ost conspicuous among his politicaldealings was his handling of slavery. Or, Ishould say, his non-handling of it, for itwasn%u2019t until he thought public sentimenthad galvanized in favor of abolition that heuttered a word.AMERICANS TRUSTED MORAL ADVICEBeecher%u2019s early career even casts the%u201cNegro%u201d among the large, conspiratorialnetwork of gambling types and knaves. Ifthis isn%u2019t scandalous enough, his claim thatthe Indians (%u201cSavages,%u201d as he called them)were doomed before the %u201cskill of civilization%u201d, should be the clincher. And if thisstill isn%u2019t enough, then (get this!) Beecherthought knavish behavior was an hereditarytrait. Not bad from a village idiot, but thisis America%u2019s most trusted moral voice ofthe Nineteenth Century?Now, if this be the man Brooklyn hascome to celebrate, please hold the proceedings without me. Yet the Evangelicalsand Fundamentalists of today have changedhim not one iota. And for Beecher%u2019s shrill,authoritarian, anti-intellectual, smallminded fire and brimstone, replete withthreats of damnation, torment on earth andthat two-headed snake of a man, Lucifer %u2014I can tune in on any given Sunday for that.To recognize Beecher is (Hie thing. Herewas a man who exacted incredible influenceover an entire nation. But to celebrateBeecher is something else altogether.Beecher represents the earliest abuses inAmerican religion and is the true grandwizard of conservative social dogma thathas been embraced and recycled by amodem group of the most predatory rightwing religious leaders whose respect for theConstitution and tolerance of all beliefs, isat best, questionable.It is either naive or simply foolish foranyone to take Beecher solely based on hiscelebrity. One cannot plead that hisrelevance in his own tim e makes him animportant historical figure. One need onlycompare his substance with contemporaryso-called moralists, like Falwell, to see himas tim elessly dangerous and that history isof little import to reactionary religious opportunists.August 14,1988, THE PHOENIX, Pag* 9