Robert Whitaker was a Baptist minister and political activist born in 1863 in Padiham, Lancashire, England. He died in Los Gatos, CA in 1944. In 1869 he moved with his family to the United States. After attending
Andover Newton Theological School he went on to hold several
pastorate
A pastor (abbreviated as "Pr" or "Ptr" , or "Ps" ) is the leader of a Christian congregation who also gives advice and counsel to people from the community or congregation. In Lutheranism, Catholicism, Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy and ...
s in the western United States including Oakland, CA, Los Gatos, CA., and Seattle, WA.
Whitaker was heavily involved in
Socialist
Socialism is a left-wing economic philosophy and movement encompassing a range of economic systems characterized by the dominance of social ownership of the means of production as opposed to private ownership. As a term, it describes the ...
and
Labor organizations in California. He was acquainted with other activists such as
Eugene Debs
Eugene may refer to:
People and fictional characters
* Eugene (given name), including a list of people and fictional characters with the given name
* Eugene (actress) (born 1981), Kim Yoo-jin, South Korean actress and former member of the sin ...
,
Upton Sinclair
Upton Beall Sinclair Jr. (September 20, 1878 – November 25, 1968) was an American writer, muckraker, political activist and the 1934 Democratic Party nominee for governor of California who wrote nearly 100 books and other works in sever ...
,
Jack London
John Griffith Chaney (January 12, 1876 – November 22, 1916), better known as Jack London, was an American novelist, journalist and activist. A pioneer of commercial fiction and American magazines, he was one of the first American authors to ...
, and
Fanny Bixby Spencer
Fanny Weston Bixby Spencer (November 6, 1879 - April 30, 1930), also referred to as Fanny Bixby was an American philanthropist and antiwar writer. She joined the fledgling Long Beach police force in January 1908, making her one of the country's e ...
and spent considerable energy agitating for Socialist causes. To this end, he lectured frequently around California and founded several presses such as The Progressive Publishing Company, U.F.I. Press, and Whitaker and Ray, Co. He was also a progressive reformer of the church. By 1912, he along with members of the Los Gatos Baptist Church, decided to cancel all "ritualistic ceremonies" and make
baptism
Baptism (from grc-x-koine, βάπτισμα, váptisma) is a form of ritual purification—a characteristic of many religions throughout time and geography. In Christianity, it is a Christian sacrament of initiation and adoption, almost ...
optional.
Ministry
Whitaker served as a missionary in Mexico from 1887-1888. In 1898, he was appointed Superintendent of State Missions for Northern and Central California and gave sermons in various churches on the west coast. From 1903 through 1908 he was pastor of the
23rd Ave Baptist Church in Oakland, CA. He was also editor of the journal ''Pacific Baptist''. He served as pastor at the Los Gatos Baptist Church in the 1910s. In 1920 he and his family sailed to China to do missionary work.
Activism and socialism
In 1906 Whitaker was accused of Slander for speaking out against Oakland city officials. Whitaker supported various causes, like suffrage and labor. In 1912 Whitaker ran as a Socialist candidate for California's 8th District. In 1917, Whitaker was charged with treason for agitating against the draft and conscription laws.
He was jailed along with Reverend Floyd Hardin and Harold Storey, and spent three months in jail.
Works
Nonfiction
* ''Cupid and the Cloth''
.d.
* ''Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever'', 1885.
* ''Johnston of Stanford'', .1919.
* ''One woman's worth: The story of Lucretia Watson Taylor'',
913
* ''Sharing our Thanksgiving,'' 1918.
* ''Victory or Peace'', 1918.
* ''Why callest thou me good?'' 1913.
* ''The wickedness of doing nothing: an appeal for positive living'', 1913.
* ''The yesterday and today of Socialism''
.d.
Fiction
* ''A California girl: an idyl of married life''
.d.
* ''The chamber of silence'', 1903.
* ''Made to order'', 1902.
* ''A mix-up of souls'', 1907.
* ''Smith's Valley; Wanted an original deed; Two of a kind'', 1900.
* ''A strong-minded woman'', 1907.
Lectures and sermon outlines
* Lectures on Biblical
Christology
In Christianity, Christology (from the Greek grc, Χριστός, Khristós, label=none and grc, -λογία, -logia, label=none), translated literally from Greek as "the study of Christ", is a branch of theology that concerns Jesus. Differ ...
, 1901.
* Sermon outline - The city that would not
909-1910
* Sermon outline - How big is your God?
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The new birth
909-1910
* Sermon outline - And let him that heareth say come
909-1910
* Sermon outline - What does conversion mean to a modern man?
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Jesus and other masters
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Mohammed the prophet of Islam
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Confucius the Christ of China
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Jesus and Marcus Aurelius
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Jesus and Emerson
909-1910
* Sermon outline - What did Jesus mean by 'love your enemies'
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The contentiousness of the gospel
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The yea and the amen
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Vision and affirmation
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The inconveniences of omniscience
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The passing of old authority
909-1910
* Sermon outline - A working faith in man
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Some immediate ministries of this church
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Church troubles. Their causes and their cure
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The scorn of Jesus
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Common sense and foreign missions
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The humor of Jesus
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Can a man be saved who does not believe in Jesus Christ?
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Were there not ten cleansed? But where are the nine
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Ecclesiastes, the Hebrew Rubaiyat
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Modern aspects of evangelism
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The good and evil labor unions
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The resurrection
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Are there few that be saved
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Follow me
909-1910
* Sermon outline - What is true education
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The birth of Jesus
909-1910
* Sermon outline - What does patriotism mean to the average American
909-1910
* Sermon outline - A candid plea for prohibition
909-1910
* Sermon outlines for sermons preached during my first year at Los Gatos, California
909-1910
* Sermon outline - A church called Catholic
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The primary Protestant churches: Lutheran and Presbyterian
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The independent churches: Baptist, Congregational, and Quaker
909-1910
* Sermon outline - A study of Methodism
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The liberal churches: Universalist and Unitarian
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Affirmation the best negative
909-1910
* Sermon outline - What is the church good for
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Why I am a Baptist
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Mormonism
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Adventism, and the second coming of Christ
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Spiritualism: are the dead alive?
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Christian Science
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Objections stated
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Socialism
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The church outside the churches
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The church that is to be
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The parable of the mustard seed
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The parable of the tares
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The parable of the leaven
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The parable of the hidden
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The parable of the draw net
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The prosperity of real religion depends upon the prosperity of the Christian type of character
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The moral and spiritual development of the child
909-1910
* Sermon outline - A prisoner's Thanksgiving
909-1910
* Sermon outline - Can a Christian refuse to forgive?
909-1910
* Sermon outline - John Brown as a prophet of righteousness
909-1910
* Sermon outline - The disadvantages of wholesale murder: war and peace
909-1910
Poetry/verse
* Who weeps today, 1917.
* Prison verse, written during my days in jail in Los Angeles, 1919.
* Love's Credo, 1917.
* My country is the world; a selection of verse celebrating the higher patriotism, 1905.
* James Whitcomb Riley, 1916.
* A brother man, 1917.
* Whatever is, 1918.
* My country, 1905.
* God garners no green grain, 1902.
* Guilty, 1920.
* Two heros: The burden, 1917.
* My country and other verse 1905.
References
External links
Guide to the Papers of Robert Whitaker - California State Library - Sutro LibraryGuide to the Robert Whitaker Collection at the Graduate Theological Union.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Whitaker, Robert
19th-century Baptist ministers from the United States
American socialists
1863 births
1944 deaths
British emigrants to the United States