Eleanor Roosevelt is known for her
public activism and passion for human rights, championing the poor and
oppressed. In Eleanor, A Spiritual
Biography, the author traces how she came by her religious faith and how it
prompted her actions.
She was a lifelong member of the
Episcopal Church and her understanding reflected the thinking of many who
attend mainline churches. She believed in preparing for eternity by building a
just world for all God’s children. This she did through her travel, columns,
articles, interviews, and lectures, focusing attention on injustice and
inhumane conditions.
A young Eleanor and Franklin Roosevelt with James and Anna. |
Her outspokenness made her a target
of hatred and criticism. She believed it did little good to believe something
unless she told her friends and associates her beliefs. She was more concerned
with how one lived one’s faith than with the particularities of one’s beliefs.
Her personal mantra was “The way your personal religion makes you live your
life is the only thing that matters.”
What religion one belonged to
didn’t matter as long as one practiced that religion. One of her
great-grandsons became a Reconstructionist rabbi, and the author believes that
would have pleased her. During World War II, she harbored prejudice against
Jews, writing to a friend in Germany, “I realized quite well that there may be
a need for curtailing the ascendency of the Jewish people.” Many close friends
were Jewish.
After FDR's death, Eleanor served as a UN ambassador. |
Jesus’ commands to care for “the
least of these” spurred her activism. Yet she did not believe in hell or the
virgin birth. She believed the story of Adam and Eve to be allegorical. On the
basis of science, it couldn’t be true. For her, there was only one fundamental
law: love one another. Everything else, including the Ten Commandments, was all
interpretation.
There is no denying the good she
did in a time of social upheaval. Her personal feelings may have been
contradictory, but she pressed on because she took to heart and practiced the
command to love one another.
Interesting article. Did it say anything about the struggles they must have faced when her husband contracted polio in the 1920s?
ReplyDeleteNot that I recall. There was more about his womanizing and how that devastated her.
ReplyDeleteAs it should. I'm glad that she related that side of him at least. He wasn't so wonderful as many people thought at the time.
ReplyDeleteFascinating post with much food for thought, Terri. I've got several books on Eleanor, but have not heard of this one. I'll have to pick it up.
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