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Two Views of Preston Bradley

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Dr. Preston Bradley
By Patrick Murfin

No mid-Twentieth Century Unitarian minister reached more hearts and minds, save perhaps A. Powell Davies, than did Preston Bradley.  Among our contemporaries only Forrest Church—albeit in a more scholarly way—comes even close.  Yet outside of Chicago, Bradley has been largely forgotten when he is not scorned. 

Years ago when the list was being compiled for eventual inclusion in the Dictionary of Unitarian Universalist Biography I noted his name was omitted.  Some of our leading scholars—concentrating  mostly on either New England centered Unitarianism or on Universalism—only dimly recognized the name. 

Some that are aware of him hardly hold him in high regard.  They reflect a deep disdain felt by many of his contemporaries, particularly in the East.  Bradley was regarded a something of a huckster, charlatan and egotist—sort of a Unitarian Elmer Gantry.  And I suppose it's true as far as it goes.  A man of supreme self-confidence with a showman's flair, Bradley took everything he learned at Moody Bible Institute, threw away the conservative dogma and applied the techniques to liberal religion.  Some regard his Peoples Church as the first true mega church—drawing from a wide geographic area, centered on a charismatic preacher, rich in programming, and availing itself of every modern tool of mass communication available to it.  Nothing could have been more shocking to the learned, rational, and subdued ministers back east who presided over cozy white churches on the village green. 

Of course, like Theodore Parker before him, Bradley’s church shriveled with his passing.  This is regarded as evidence enough of his failure to build Unitarianism as an institution.  Fair enough.

Another complaint about Bradley was much more business oriented.  He was accused of "counting anyone who ever sent a nickel to his radio ministry" as a full member of the Peoples Church.  It is true that even when he packed the commodious auditorium every Sunday, thousands of "members" never set foot in the building.  When attendance dropped of considerably in his latter years as the Uptown neighborhood became the North Side's poorest community and Bradley skills deteriorated somewhat, membership figures reported to the AUA and latter the UUA never reflected that.  As a result Bradley was able to go to May Meetings, as the Unitarian annual meetings were know before consolidation with the Universalists in 1961, and later UUA General Assemblies with an enormous block of votes that others felt he did not deserve.

But Bradley was not only a popular preacher—he was sometimes called "the Protestant Pope of Chicago"—he was by far the most influential minister in the Midwest of any denomination.  In a heavily Catholic city, where neighborhoods were routinely identified by the name of the local parish, Bradley often rivaled even the sitting Cardinal for influence.

He used that popularity to promote a uniformly progressive social agenda even when the opinions he advanced were unpopular.  His first great crusade was launched in cooperation with Dr. Ben Reitman, Emma Goldman's sometime lover and lecture agent.  Together they defied obscenity laws that banned basic hygienic education to prevent the spread of venereal disease.  You can imagine how popular that was.  But after ten years of effort, incidents of syphilis and gonorrhea in the city plummeted by half.

That was just the beginning.  He allied himself with labor.  He was an outspoken and "premature anti-fascist" in the City that Col. Robert R. McCormick’s CHICAGO TRIBUNE made the virtual capital of isolationism.  He battled anti-Semitism and racism.  Some say his strong support of local civil rights efforts; especially open housing, contributed greatly to the fall off of attendance at Peoples Church.  Yet Bradley would not be dissuaded from speaking out on the air ways, in his regular CHICAGO SUN-TIMES newspaper column and even facing down hostile audiences in ethnic neighborhoods.  There was no where he was afraid to go.  He lived to be an early and strong critic of the Vietnam War.  On the whole it was a record that fans of the "speak truth to power" strain of Unitarianism should be proud.  And one that those who believe Unitarian Universalists should be less “political” might lament.

Then there was the positive thinking side of his ministry.  This was derided as shallow theology by some.  It shared elements made popular by Norman Vincent Peale and Dale Carnegie.  But he made it uniquely his own.  It was a predecessor to the "self help" revolution that took off in the '70's and shows no signs of abating.  The Chicago insurance millionaire and philanthropist W. Clement Stone—he of the black shoe polish hair and silly pencil moustache—adopted  it as his own in seminars offered to business and community leaders.  He became a benefactor to Bradley and Bradley helped steer his generosity in unexpected ways--to the West Side Black street gang the Vice Lords, for instance, who Stone and Bradley hoped to turn to community service and legitimate business.  It is kindest to note that this experiment did not turn out as planned.  The Vice Lords took the money and set up a very successful and sophisticated drug operation based on the cash and Stone's business philosophy.

Bradley was a complex and contradictory figure at once old fashioned—he may have been the last preacher regularly to don a frock coat—and far sighted; supremely egotistical with yet the most generous and genuine identification with the day to day struggles of ordinary folks. Rogue or hero, think what you may of him, but he should no longer be a forgotten figure in Unitarian history.

Patrick Murfin identifies himself as an amateur historian, a poet and member of the UU Historical Society.

I Knew Preston Bradley
By John Keohane

I knew Preston Bradley, not well, but I knew him

In fact he was a luncheon guest of Meadville Theological School at Meadville House, in the Spring of 1962, an I was the contact, and the instigator.

He was impossible to reach by phoning Peoples Church, so I went to services at the church. The services were sparsely attended. There were not more than 60 People there, though from his still booming voice on the radio, one would have thought the place would have been packed. After the services I introduced myself, and suggested him as a guest to lunch at Meadville House.

I was single at the time, and I think all the single students, except for one or two women, lived at Meadville House, 5659 S. Woodlawn Avenue, just across 57th street and just north of the academic building of Meadville. In those days, we talked about the Unitarian four corners. Most of us still thought of ourselves as Unitarians, even though merger with the Universalists into the UUA had been consummated in 1961. Lunch and dinner at Meadville House were served "family style", cooked by Sadie, a 50ish black woman who I remember as a very good cook. For breakfast, students had a student kitchen in the basement. By the time I returned from internship in 1963, Sadie had been "let go" by Malcolm Sutherland, and sometime later Malcolm sold Meadville House to provide cash that Meadville then seemed to need.

Anyway, Preston Bradley came in style, in a limousine with driver, with a big broad-rimmed hat (no one else was wearing hats then, President Kennedy had set the trend of no hats). We had invited all students to join us, so we had many of the married students there too. After all, Dr. Bradley, "Preston" as we called him to each other, never participated in any denominational events, but his radio program, and his legend were both strong. He was a curiosity to all.

More than that, he was absolutely entrancing. He told story after story. The whole event started about noon, and lasted till 3pm. The story I remember is of how he got started on the Chautaqua circuit, as a sub for William Jennings Bryan.

I have good memories of Preston. He wasn't very influential with the Unitarians or Universalists, but he was a marvelous luncheon guest for us.

John Keohane of Austin, Texas is a tutor in mathematics