Sheldon CM
Sheldon, Charles Monroe
ACHIEVEMENT(S): American evangelical preacher and inspirational writer
NICKNAME/ALIAS: None
DATE AND PLACE OF BIRTH: February 26, 1857, Wellsville, NY
DATE/PLACE OF DEATH/AGE AT DEATH: February 24, 1946, Topeka, KA. Aged 88
DISCIPLINE: Congregational minister and social reformer
FIELD: Congregationalist Church
LANGUAGE: English
PARENTS: Rev. Stewart Sheldon; Sarah Ward
SIBLINGS: Unknown
SPOUSE: Mary Abby Merriam
CHILDREN: one child
EDUCATION: Phillips Academy, Andover, Massachusetts; Brown University,
Providence, Rhode Island; Andover Theological Seminary
MAJOR WORK: "In His Steps"
LIFE AND TIMES:
In 1886 Sheldon was ordained in the Congregational ministry and served as minister in Waterbury, Vermont, until 1888, when he was called to the Central Congregational Church in Topeka, Kansas. By now, in his early 30’s, he was a powerful and inventive preacher known for his interest in the relationship between evangelical Christianity and the social problems of his time.
In 1890, Topeka was an important railroad shipping center that attracted huge numbers of blue-collar African-Americans and other immigrants whose lives bore no relationship to those of Sheldon’s white, middle-class congregation.
Sheldon was keenly aware of this difference and in 1891 he announced he would live for a time among black industrial and railroad laborers and the unemployed. He originally planned to spend a week in Topeka's black ghetto, known as "Tennesseetown", but spent three weeks studying the effects of race prejudice, poverty and crime.
Sheldon set up the "Christian Endeavor Society", which organized a Christian social settlement where he and the young members of his congregation assisted and worshipped with the black residents of Tennesseetown.
Sheldon wrote stories about his life among Topeka's blue-collar residents and read them to his Sunday evening congregation, then published them serially in "Advance", Chicago’s Congregational periodical. His stories "Richard Bruce" (1892) and "The Crucifixion of Philip Strong" (1894) appeared as books, but sold poorly.
In 1897, he published "In His Steps", which was a runaway success. Though generally deemed of little literary merit, the book tells of a Midwestern railroad town that is transformed when Rev. Henry Maxwell challenges his middle-class congregation to always ask themselves the question: "What would Jesus do?"
The plot explores class conflict, corporate ethics, labor relations, political corruption, and social reform. But the heart of the novel turns on the efforts of its earnest, middle-class characters to relate to the lives of working-class people. "In His Steps" was first serialized in "Advance" and then published in paperback. Copyright problems allowed copies of the book to be published without permission or recompense.
Only one publisher paid Sheldon more than token royalties, but for 60 years, it was the largest-selling book in the United States after the Bible. Sales to date are estimated at more than 8 million copies. The book was made into a movie in 1936.
Sheldon was a tireless pastor, lecturer and reformer. He adhered to the precepts of churchman and social reformer Rauschenbusch*, the main spokesman for the Social Gospel movement. Rauschenbusch believed that the Gospel offered not only personal salvation, but its precepts should be used to solve social inequalities.
He foresaw a new order that would rest on the Christian principles of equal rights and democratic distribution of economic power. Sheldon defended the civil rights of women, African Americans, Jews, and other minorities, and, as a religious reformer, advocated prohibition, Protestant ecumenism, and world peace. In 1900, Sheldon toured the British Isles campaigning for prohibition.
On his return to Topeka, Sheldon led a widely-publicized journalistic experiment. He undertook to edit the "Topeka Daily Capital" for a week. Under his direction, the newspaper concentrated on the moral side of the news and excluded material Sheldon thought unnecessary or objectionable.
The result was a newspaper that contained no sensational reports of crime or scandal, no accounts of prize fights, few stock market reports, and no advertisements for, among other things, alcohol, tobacco, land and stock investments, women"s undergarments, and patent medicines.
Because of the oddity of it all, the newspaper's circulation soared from 12,000 to 350,000 during the experiment, but after the week, the paper returned to its more traditional editorial control, and the circulation went back to normal.
As a writer, Sheldon published more than 50 books, hundreds of articles in religious and secular periodicals, and many poems, hymns and plays. However, he never repeated the success of "In His Steps", despite publishing "Jesus Is Here!" as a sequel in 1913, and "In His Steps Today" (1921), a report on the church's progress since 1896.
In 1914-15, at the end of a three-year leave of absence from the Topeka pulpit, he joined a "Flying Squadron" of prohibitionists, who spoke in 247 American cities in 245 days. In 1917-18 he again toured Britain lecturing in favor of prohibition, and in 1919, he saw the movement's efforts come to fruition at home in the Prohibition Act.
Between 1920 and 1946, Sheldon worked for the "Christian Herald", a Protestant non-denominational monthly. He was editor-in-chief from 1920 to 1925, and a contributing editor from 1926 to 1946.
In 1925, he published his autobiography, "Charles M. Sheldon: His Life Story". After the repeal of Prohibition by the Franklin D. Roosevelt* government in 1933, Sheldon, now 76, did not actively resume the prohibitionist campaign, but did maintain his interest in pacifism and Protestant ecumenism into his 80’s.
ASSESSMENT: Sheldon's life, ministry, and published work, though perhaps unsophisticated, played a distinguished part in the development of evangelical Protestant social Christianity.
EXTRA CONNECTIONS: None
ONELINER: CM Sheldon, American evangelist
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
EB
Dictionary of American National Biography
Miller, Timothy M., Following in His Steps: A Biography of Charles M. Sheldon, 1987