Today his church still stands in the shadow of the ruins of Detroit and Flint
By Mark Anderson, American Free Press deputy editor; www.AmericanFreePress.net, and host of RBN’s When Worlds Collide, Saturdays, 7 to 9 p.m. Central; www.RepublicBroadcasting.org; email truthhound2@yahoo.com
Note: Monetary reform author Ellen Brown appears on Anderson’s show Sat., Dec. 19, at least for the first hour; she authored Web of Debt.
Notably, the closing year of 2009 marks the 30th anniversary of the passing of Father Charles E. Coughlin, the gutsy, populist priest who truly tried to be Christ-like and drive the modern money changers out of the temple. In one of his many powerful speeches, the Royal Oak, Michigan catholic crusader hammered Congress to take its constitutional money duties seriously and not let the Fed run the show.
One could say Father Coughlin “fathered” the public movement to End the Fed. Consider his words in 1936 to a large, live audience in Illinois.
“There is written in the Constitution of the United States that Congress has the right to coin, issue and regulate the value of money; that’s good Americanism ….Every politician today, in the Democratic or Republican ranks, who sits upon one of the thrones of the mighty, doesn’t believe in that part of the Constitution. They don’t want to believe in that part of the Constitution. They believe that the Federal Reserve Bank has the right to coin and regulate the value of money. They’re not even Americans, these so-called Democrats and Republicans,” Coughlin thundered with volcanic passion.
“As I come before you today,” he added, “I want to leave you with this thought; that at each Congressional District … we will endorse a candidate who can rise above his party and puts patriotism first. He may be a Democrat or a Republican or whatnot. But we’re through with the sham battle of politicians and now we’re on our own. Therefore under your Congressional District presidents, form your battalions, take up the shield of your defense, unsheathe the sword of your truth and carry on … so that the Communists on the one hand cannot scourge us, and the modern Capitalists on the other cannot plague us …”
In just a few years, Father Coughlin’s radio program would reach millions and generate huge volumes of fan mail. The FDR regime was so disturbed that it ushered in some of the modern broadcast regulations, including licensure, that still complicate the airwaves today and helped force Coughlin off the air amid the Great Depression. With a modern depression seemingly at hand, Coughlin’s words echo across the decades.
Commercial radio was only six years old when Coughlin first took to the airwaves in 1926 to spread the Gospel and indirectly raise funds for expanding the Little Flower church — a project which succeeded –according to the church’s website. Soon, he would rail against the villainy of private central bankers who prey on sovereign nations. Today, Royal Oak, near Detroit, is but steps away from the crumbling ruins of the once-great “Motor City” that has been overrun by the financial and monetary policies ultimately wrought by central bankers. Flint, Michigan, too, is virtually disappearing.
Editor’s Note: Father Coughlin’s “Little Flower” Church in Royal Oak, Mich., which he expanded, still stands. AFP Deputy Editor Mark Anderson will shoot video footage there in 2010, to go with stories about Coughlin’s valiant effort to free America from economic conquest by central bankers. On Anderson’s When Worlds Collide weekly radio show on this network, see the archives at www.RepublicBroadcasting.org, where there are audio clips of Coughlin’s speeches, starting with Anderson’s Dec. 12 broadcast.
