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Charles Frederic Aked
Born(1864-08-27)August 27, 1864
DiedAugust 12, 1941(1941-08-12) (aged 76)
Los Angeles, California
CitizenshipBritish (1864–1913)
United States (1913–1941)
Years active1885–1941
Spouse
Annie Hithersay (1866–1934)
     (married November 10, 1886)
Childrennone
Parent(s)Charles George Aked
Ann Minion (1826–1888)

Charles Frederic Aked (1864–1941) was an influencial British-born-turned-American progressive Protestant clegeryman whose theology, during his career, began as a Reformed or Strict Baptist, then Congregationalist, then Independent.

Career

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should not expect you to reckon the late Queen Victoria amongst the ide­al­ists, the vi­sion­ar­ies, the in­spired fa­nat­ics of our race. But in the Life of Archbishop Benson, a strange and deep thing is recorded of her.
     'As I get older,' she said, 'I can­not under­stand this world. I can­not com­pre­hend its little­ness. When I look at the fri­vol­i­ties and lit­tle­ness­es [of people], it seems to me as if they were all a little mad.'
– Rev. Charles F. Aked (1907), from a ser­mon, quot­ing some­thing that Queen Victoria, on May 11, 1883, said to Archbishop Benson. Her comment was published in an 1899 biography, The Life of Ed­ward White Ben­son. The Queen was re­flect­ing on the mad rush of the world, and the ease with which so many people of her day ignored the higher re­spon­si­bil­i­ties, and robbed them­selves the rich­er joys of life.[1]

Aked worked for racial equality, women's suffrage, temperance, Christian unity, and world peace. Minister in Liverpool (1890 to 1907), he gained a reputation as an advocate for social justice. He worked for Christian unity in Britain alongside F. B. Meyer (1847–1929) and John Clifford (1836–1923). He went to New York City to serve as pastor of the Fifth Avenue Baptist Church (1907–1911). Aken was an exponent of women's suffrage and was a friend of Ethel Snowden. Beginning around 1894, Aken became outspoken against racial injustices, notably lynching in the United States, and by 1895, became a supporter of and friends with Ida B. Wells. Liberal theologically, he worked for the relief of Syrians (see Great Syrian Revolt and Assyrian genocide) and Armenians (see Armenian Genocide) after World War I and with Walter Rauschenbusch (1861–1918), condemned the arms trade.[2][3]

Aked emerged around 1908 as an avowed foe of what is commonly known as fundamentalism[a] in religion and rejected the miraculous in religion (see Argument from miracles § Criticisms)[a] – he averred that the ethics of Christianity should furnish sufficient inspiration for noble, useful, and happy living.

Main article: Theistic evolution

Towards the end the of Great Depression, Aked took a right-wing political stand against the re-election of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, declaring that a third term (see 1940 United States presidential election) would lead to the end of democracy and establish a dictatorship in America.

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 here was a time when church peo­ple held up their hands in holy hor­ror at the thought of be­liev­ing any of the teach­ings of ev­o­lu­tion. But this ev­o­lu­tion­ary phi­los­o­phy has been a tre­men­dous ben­e­fit to Chris­tians. It is time that we gave up the things that our fa­thers be­lieved.

– Rev. Charles F. Aked (1908)[4]


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 eligion in America caters to emo­tion­al­ism. The Fun­da­men­tal­ists are mak­ing great head­way. They preach all the things they should not preach ... They ap­pear to ac­cept be­liefs which are pos­i­tive­ly me­di­ae­val ... but they have the funds so they do prac­ti­cal­ly what they like.

– Rev. Charles F. Aked (Liverpool, 1935[5])

Education

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Charles Aked was born in Nottingam, England, where he grew up and attended:

John Clifford, a Free Church contemporary of Aked, in 1883 he was given the honorary degree of DD by Bates College, United States, being known thereafter as Dr Clifford. The distinction, from a small American college, afterwards led to sarcastic allusions, but Clifford had not courted it. Moreover, Clifford has been chronicled as a bona fide liturgical scholar from his achievements at the University of London. In England, Henry Ward Beecher (1813–1887) and Charles Haddon Spurgeon (1834–1892) rejected being called "doctor", but accepted the title "reverend". By 1907, three honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees had been conferred upon Aken. But, at the beginning of his pastorship with the Rockefeller Baptist Church, he dispensed not only with the title "D.D.", but also "Reverend."

Career

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  • 1880: Clerk in a coal office
  • 1882: Auctioneer and valuer for the Sheriff of Derbyshire, England, until 1883, when he entered Midland Baptist College, Nottingham
  • 1884: Nottingham Baptist College
  • 1885: Pastor of the Baptist Chapel, Ilkeston
  • 1886–1888: Pastor of the Baptist Chapel at Syston, near Leicester
  • 1888–188?: Pastor, joint churches of St. Helens and Earlestown, branch churches of Myrtle Street, Liverpool.
  • October 1890–1906: Pastor of Pembroke Baptist Church, Liverpool
  • April 1907–1911: Pastor of the John D. Rockefeller Church (Fifth Avenue Baptist) in Manhattan, the forerunner to Riverside Church.
  • 1912: Congregational Church, Atlanta
  • 1911–1916: First Congregational Church, San Francisco
  • July 26, 1916: Aked resigned as Chairman of the American Committee to the Ford Neutral Peace Conference (not to be confused with the original Peace Ship; see Opposition to World War I § Henry Ford) in Stockholm, citing, "the delegation as utterly failed in its object of bringing about peace, and that there is no possibility that the conference, composed of crazy cranks and dreamers, could do anything towards peace."[6]
  • 1917: First Congregational Church of Riverside, California; Aked was guest Pastor from Easter Sunday 1917 through the of 1917. Rev. Horace Porter, who had been Pastor there for 8 years, resigned and gave his last sermon Easter Sunday, April 8, 1917.
  • 1919–1924: First Congregational Church at Admiral Boulevard and Highland Avenue, Kansas City
  • October 1924–1931: Associate-Pastor with Dr. Frank Dyer, of Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church (the building is currently the Wilshire United Methodist Church) on Wilshire Boulevard at South Plymouth Street (4350 Wilshire Boulevard), Los Angeles.
  • 1928–19??: Pastor and founder of All-Souls Church, Los Angeles, which occupied the Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church from mid-1928 through January 1931. All Souls moved into the Ambassador Hotel Theater in 1931, where, in 1924, the Wilshire Congregational Church was housed before their church building had been erected.


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All Souls Church

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 t has been said that for e­vil men to ac­com­plish their pur­pose it is only nec­es­sary that good men should do noth­ing. It is time that we gave up the things that our fa­thers be­lieved.

– Rev. Charles F. Aked's maxim used in a 1916 speech supporting alcohol prohibition[7]

Wilshire Boulevard Congregational Church (currently, the Wilshire United Methodist Church) on Wilshire Boulevard at South Plymouth Street (4350 Wilshire Boulevard), Los Angeles.

In 1922, the architect, Carleton M. Winslow, Sr., produced a $500,000 scheme for this church that was rejected in favor of a plan by Allison and Allison. The Wilshire Congregational congregation underwent a great amount of turmoil in the 1920s, removing its outspoken pastor, Dr. Frank Dyer (1875–1963) around 1929. A Los Angeles Examiner newspaper article of February 22, 1926, scandalously indicated that the reverend was playing jazz in the church.

In an Los Angeles Times article of July 27, 1925, the pastor was accused of being a supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union, considered by many during the Red Scare of the 1920s to have been a communist front organization. Dyer, a frequent radio address in the 1920s, urged for greater inter-denominational tolerance and understanding. He brought in a liberal colleague, Dr. Charles F. Aked, to act as co-pastor in October 1924, but this cooperation ended in mid-1925 when Aked resigned. The Los Angeles Times, July 27, 1925, published a lengthy list of those with grievances against Dyer, and this included the architects, Allison and Allison. The 550-member congregation itself merged with Aked's nearby All Soul's Congregational Church in May 1929, and the new All Soul's Congregational Church used this building for a very short time before putting it up for sale. This costly building became the Wilshire Methodist Church shortly after it was constructed.

Unbuilt. The building had its ceremonial cornerstone-laying, December 22, 1924, and its completion was set before June 1, 1925. The church was to be in the "Italian Gothic" style and would seat 1400, according to a Los Angeles Times article of December 22, 1924. The tower soared 144 feet above the church overlooking Wilshire Boulevard, and could be seen from five miles away.

  • Concrete in Architecture, 1927.
  • "Church Plans New Building", Los Angeles Times, 9, 01/19/1923.
  • "Notables help in stone laying", Los Angeles Times, A2, 12/22/1924.
  • "Wilshire church to open", Los Angeles Times, A2, 05/23/1925.
  • "Church to be dedicated", Los Angeles Times, B7, 05/24/1925.
  • "A Page Conducted by John Steven", Los Angeles Times, K3, 06/14/1925.
  • "Pastor scored by statement", Los Angeles Times, A1, 07/27/1925.
  • "Winslow loses Wilshire Congregational Church Commission to Allison and Allison", Los Angeles Times, 7, 03/18/1923.
  • "Split over Church Site Threatens", Los Angeles Times, 10, 12/14/1923.

South Africa

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Boer women and children in a British concentration camp in South Africa (1900–1902)
Main article: 1901 in South Africa

December 22, 1901, Peace Sunday, Aked, stated: "Great Britain cannot win the battles without resorting to the last despicable cowardice of the most loathsome cur on earth – the act of striking a brave man's heart through his wife's honour and his child's life. The cowardly war has been conducted by methods of barbarism ... the concentration camps have been Murder Camps." He is followed home by a large crowd and they smash the windows of his house.[8]

  • Peace Sunday was observed on the third Sunday of December by all peace societies, including the department of peace and arbitration of the world's W.C.T.U.
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 reat Brit­ain can­not win the bat­tles with­out re­sort­ing to the last des­pi­ca­ble cow­ard­ice of the most loath­some cur on earth – the act of strik­ing a brave man's heart through his wife's hon­or and his child's life. The cow­ard­ly war has been con­duct­ed by meth­ods of bar­bar­ism ... the con­cen­tra­tion camps have been Mur­der Camps.

– Rev. Charles F. Aked, December 22, 1901

U.S. Citizen

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Aked became a U.S. naturalized citizen June 30, 1913, in the Superior Court of California at San Francisco (cite U.S. Passport application, June 21, 1923)

Views

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On February 1, 1914, in San Francisco, Aked stated in a sermon that he did not support the doctrine of the miraculous conception and birth of Christ.[9]

Affiliations

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Selected writings

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  • Aked, Charles Frederic (June 1894). "The Race Problem in America". The Contemporary Review. 65 (342). London: Ibister and Company, Ltd.: 818–827. Retrieved November 16, 2020 – via Google Books.



  • Aked, Charles Frederic (January 1894). Changing Creeds and Social Struggles. James Clark & Co. " ... [for] those who follow the contemporary progress of religious dissent in England ... " {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |lay-date=, |lay-url=, |lay-format=, and |lay-source= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) OCLC 933046263 (all editions).
          Huxley, Jesse (of Oswestry) (1894). A Reply to Rev. C.F. Aked's Changing Creeds and Social Struggles. Keswick House, Paternoster Row, London: Marshall Bros. (publisher). Chatham: W. & J. Mackay & Co. – William Mackay, publisher of the "Chatham Observer" (printer). ISBN 9780790599687. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |lay-date=, |lay-url=, |lay-format=, and |lay-source= (help) OCLC 5806301 (all editions)[b]

Honors

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  • 1916: Inducted as a Member, Annual Journal of the National Institute of Social Sciences[12][13]
  • 1914: Gold medalist, light-weight tackle class, for catching a 43+1⁄2-pound (19.7-kilogram) [California] yellowtail (seriola dorsalis), 16th Annual Summer Sea Angling Tournament, Tuna Club of Avalon[14][15]

Honorary degrees

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Family

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In 1886, Aked married Ann Hithersay (maiden; 1867–1934) of Ilkeston, England. They had no children. Mabel Aked, listed as his daughter,[20] married A. E. Fitzmorris at the Whilshire Crest Presbyterian Church, a church founded in 1928 that tried to survive as a black-white integrated church, but finally dissolved December 31, 1974.

His mother, Ann Aked, in 1881, was a licensed victualler, listed at Poplar Street, Sneiton.[21]

Ida B. Wells and Ferdinand L. Barnett married July 27, 1895. They wanted Aked to perform the ceremony. Reverend David Andrew Graham (1861–1936) of Bethel Church (AME), corner of 13th and Dearborn Streets, Chicago, performed the ceremony instead. Ferdinand’s coeditor at the Conservator, R. P. Bird, and his friend S. J. Evans stood up for him.[22]

1862: Founded by Rev. Ænos McIntosh (1820–1873).
18??: First building, Jackson and Van Buren streets, a site that is currently the Chicago Financial Board of Trade
1875: Third Avenue, between Taylor and 12th Streets
1895–1924: Bethel AME Church (1891–1925) – 30th and Dearborn Streets
2020, located at 4444 S. Michigan Ave.

Death

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Norman Vincent Peale delivered the eulogy at officiated at Aked's funeral.

Bibliography

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Annotations

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  1. ^ W. & J. Mackay was founded in Leith, the seaport of Edinburgh, in 1875. The principles were William Mackay and his brother, John Mackay. In 1878, they also opened in Kent when the Chatham and Rochester Observer was acquired, with printing. From the earliest days, James was the printer while William had various journalistic jobs. The firm incorporated in 1897 as W. & J. Mackay Co. Limited and ran until the 1970s. (Whyman)
Cite error: A list-defined reference named "Aked-prohibition-axiom 1916 Oct" is not used in the content (see the help page).

Notes

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  1. ^ Benson, p. 11, Vol. 1.
  2. ^ Hamersly.
  3. ^ Macmillian. Who's Who, 1910.
  4. ^ Prescott.
  5. ^ Todd, p. 253.
  6. ^ Detroit Free Press.
  7. ^ San Jose Mercury Herald.
  8. ^ Guardian, January 6, 1902.
  9. ^ New York Times, February 5, 1914.
  10. ^ Smith, Richard Eastwood, p. 41.
  11. ^ Price, Richard Norman, p. 19.
  12. ^ Lyceum Magazine, November 1916.
  13. ^ NISC Journal.
  14. ^ San Francisco Examiner, April 15, 1914.
  15. ^ Forest and Stream.
  16. ^ Atlanta Consitution.
  17. ^ Brown Alumni Monthly, May 1908.
  18. ^ Univ. Nevada Alumni.
  19. ^ "USC Commencement", June 8, 1929.
  20. ^ Los Angeles Times, June 19, 1942.
  21. ^ Nottinghamshire Guardian.
  22. ^ Wells–Duster, 1970.

References to linked inline notes

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Books, journals, magazines, and academic papers


  • Whyman, John, PhD (past President of the Kent History Federation) (1974). From Leith to Lordswood: Being a Short History of W. & J. Mackay to Mark Their Centeninary 1875–1975. Chatham: W. & J. Mackay. {{cite book}}: Cite has empty unknown parameters: |lay-url=, |lay-date=, |lay-source=, and |lay-format= (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) OCLC 1114791286 (all editions).

News media

  • Standard, The (January 19, 1907). Dickerson, James Spencer (ed.). "Dr. C.F. Aked" (Baptist newspaper). 54 (21). Chicago: Goodman & Dickerson Co.: 25. Retrieved November 15, 2020 – via Google Books. (formerly The Christian Times. Directors in 1907 included (i) Edward Goodman (1830–1911), (ii) Emma R. Dickerson (née Emma Halsey Richardson; 1841–1908), and (iii) stepson, James Spencer Dickerson (1853–1933). {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)CS1 maint: postscript (link) OCLC 312894866 (all editions).
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Jane Addams Papers Project
Founded 1975 by Mary Lynn Bryan at the University of Illinois at Chicago


Category:1864 births
Category:1941 deaths
Category:People from Nottingham
Category:English tax resisters
Category:Alumni of the University of London
Category:Members of the Fabian Society
Category:19th-century Baptist ministers
Category:English Baptist ministers
Category:American Congregationalist ministers
Category:Religious leaders from New York City
Category:Theistic evolutionists
Category:American temperance activists
Category:American social reformers
Category:British expatriates in the United States
Category:English sermon writers
Category:American people of English descent
Category:Alumni of the University of Nottingham
Category:Naturalized citizens of the United States
Category:19th-century Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Category:Baptist theologians
Category:English Calvinist and Reformed theologians
Category:19th-century Congregationalist ministers
Category:Activists from New York City
Category:American abolitionists
Category:Burials at Green-Wood Cemetery
Category:Christian abolitionists
Category:Hall of Fame for Great Americans inductees
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