Theodore Roosevelt wrote a book in 1917 titled The Foes of Our Own Household. He championed a type of muscular Christianity, addressing the Holy Name Society, August 16, 1903:
"I am not addressing weaklings, or I should not take the trouble to come here. I am addressing strong, vigorous men, who are engaged in the active hard work of life ... men who ... have strength to set a right example to others ...
You cannot retain your self-respect if you are loose and foul of tongue, that a man who is to lead a clean and honorable life must inevitably suffer if his speech likewise is not clean and honorable ...
A man must be clean of mouth as well as clean of life — must show by his words as well as by his actions his fealty to the Almighty ...
We have good Scriptural authority for the statement that it is not what comes into a man’s mouth but what goes out of it that counts ..."
He added:
"Every man here knows the temptations that beset all of us in this world. At times any man will slip. I do not expect perfection, but I do expect genuine and sincere effort toward being decent and cleanly in thought, in word, and in deed ...
I expect you to be strong. I would not respect you if you were not. I do not want to see Christianity professed only by weaklings; I want to see it a moving spirit among men of strength ..."
Roosevelt continued:
"I should hope to see each man ... become all the fitter to do the rough work of the world ... and if, which may Heaven forfend, war should come, all the fitter to fight ...
I desire to see in this country the decent men strong and the strong men decent ..."
He added:
"There is always a tendency among very young men ... to think that to be wicked is rather smart; to think it shows that they are men ...
Oh, how often you see some young fellow who boasts that he is going to 'see life,' meaning by that that he is going to see that part of life which it is a thousandfold better should remain unseen!
I ask that every man here constitute himself his brother’s keeper by setting an example to that younger brother which will prevent him from getting such a false estimate of life.
Example is the most potent of all things. If any one of you in the presence of younger boys, and ... misbehave yourself, if you use coarse and blasphemous language before them, you can be sure that these younger people will follow your example and not your precept. It is no use to preach to them if you do not act decently yourself ...
The most effective way in which you can preach is by your practice ... The father, the elder brothers, the friends, can do much toward seeing that the boys as they become men become clean and honorable men ..."
Roosevelt concluded:
"I have told you that I wanted you not only to be decent, but to be strong. These boys will not admire virtue of a merely anemic type. They believe in courage, in manliness. They admire those who have the quality of being brave, the quality of facing life as life should be faced, the quality that must stand at the root of good citizenship in peace or in war.
If you are to be effective as good Christians you must possess strength and courage, or your example will count for little with the young ...
I want to see every man able to hold his own with the strong, and also ashamed to oppress the weak ... I want to see him too strong of spirit to submit to wrong ...
I want to see each man able to hold his own in the rough work of actual life outside, and also, when he is at home, a good man, unselfish in dealing with wife, or mother, or children.
Remember that the preaching does not count if it is not backed up by practice. There is no good in your preaching to your boys to be brave, if you run away."
Dear Mr. Federer,
This is an absolutely outstanding article on Theodore Roosevelt.
Thank you! Blessings🙏
Hi,
Is this American Minute blog, “Theodore Roosevelt: Law & Order in New York, Taking on Monopolies, promoting Blacks, defending Jews, freeing Cuba, U.S. a World Power, WWI & calling for end of Massacre of Syrians & Armenians – American Minute with Bill Federe”, included in a book?
I was thinking about printing out the blog or pdf version, but the formatting is a bit off. If not, I was considering reformatting it myself in html. :)
thanks,
Bettina
thanks,
Bettina