John Haynes Holmes

John Haynes Holmes (November 29, 1879 – April 3, 1964) was an American Unitarian minister, pacifist, and co-founder of the NAACP and the ACLU. He is noted for his anti-war activism.

Early life

Holmes was born in Philadelphia on November 29, 1879, a descendant of John Holmes of Colchester, Essex, a Messenger of the General Court of Plymouth Colony and the executioner of Thomas Granger. Newland H. Holmes, President of the Massachusetts Senate, was his cousin.

He attended public schools of Malden, a suburb of Boston, and studied at Harvard, graduating in 1902, then attended Harvard Divinity School, from which he graduated in 1904 and was immediately called to his first church in Dorchester, Massachusetts as a protestant clergyman.

Career

In 1907 Holmes was called to the Church of the Messiah ( Unitarian) in New York City and served as its Senior Minister until 1918, when he left the American Unitarian Association (AUA) because of the AUA's policy requiring Unitarian ministers to pledge their support for the United States participation in World War I. Among those in his congregation there was not universal support for his stand against the USA participation in World War I, but his church did support his principled stand on the subject. Consequently, his church became non-denominational and renamed itself the "Community Church of New York". Members of the church, however, insisted that the church retain its AUA membership. Holmes was named Senior Minister of the new church, and served until his retirement in 1949, when he became Minister Emeritus. He rejoined the AUA in 1960, just before the Unitarian and Universalist churches merged; newly accepted again into AUA fellowship, he was then featured in the last AUA yearbook published before the merger.

On May 25, 1919, Holmes was one of the speakers at a rally held in Madison Square Gardens, which demanded the end of US government support for the White forces against the Red forces in Russia.

Holmes engaged in interfaith efforts, working closely with Rabbi Stephen Samuel Wise of New York. The book ''Rabbi and Minister'' details this friendship and their working relationship on social, religious and political causes. Holmes was also among the leading American Christian supporters of Zionism in the 1930s. He was a leading member of the Pro-Palestine Federation, which called on the British government to keep Palestine open to Jewish immigrants fleeing persecution in Europe. At the same time, Holmes favored cultural forms of Zionism that stopped short of calling for Jewish statehood. He also publicized the work of Gandhi, from his pulpit, and describes his meetings and interactions with the Mahatma in his book ''My Gandhi''. Later, He was a recipient of the Gandhi Peace Award.

Although primarily a minister, Holmes helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Coloured People (NAACP) in 1909, and the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in 1920, serving as its chairman from 1940 to 1950, after the resignation of Harry F. Ward. He was succeeded as ACLU Chairman by Ernest Angell.

His varied pursuits included authoring numerous books, hymns, and a play, ''If This Be Treason'', which had a brief run on Broadway. The play crystalized his opposition to war, personifying the peaceful impulses of the majority of people on both sides of a conflict, (in the case of the play, between the USA and Japan). He was also a popular lecturer and debater. For example, Holmes argued in favor of Prohibition in a public debate with Clarence Darrow.

Opposition from Dr. Seuss

There was an outcry after a cartoon by Theodor Geisel (better known as Dr. Seuss

HOME


Content is Copyleft
Website design, code, and AI is Copyrighted (c) 2014-2017 by Stephen Payne


Consider donating to Wikimedia



As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases