Our Preacher President

Recently, I was in Washington DC assisting some of my out-of-state friends with their visit of our nation’s capital. As we were riding the tour bus, the driver said, “On the left is the monument to President Garfield.” “The James A. Garfield Monument stands on the grounds of the United States Capitol in Garfield Circle, a traffic circle at First Street and Maryland Avenue SW in Washington, D.C. It is a memorial to U.S. President James A. Garfield, who was elected in 1880 and assassinated in 1881 after serving only four months of his term” (Wikipedia).

James Garfield was born in Moreland Hills, Ohio on November 19, 1831. When James was only eighteen months old, his father became ill and died. His mother, Eliza, struggled to raise her family in poverty without a husband. Garfield was raised in very poor circumstances.
“Sometime near his 18th birthday he, with his mother, attended a church service to hear the preaching of the one of the men belonging to the new religious reformation that was currently sweeping through the local churches in the Western Reserve. They accepted Christ as Savior and were baptized into His body by William A. Lillie” (Looking Back to See Ahead, Steever, p. 516). James Garfield was a faithful member of the Vermont Avenue Christian Church.

Garfield entered Western Reserve Eclectic Institute shortly after he was baptized in Hiram, Ohio. This institution of higher learning would later be named Hiram College. “He began to preach while a student in Hiram, and soon became one of the outstanding ministers of the brotherhood. From 1857-1861 Garfield was principal of the Western Reserve Institute” (Christians Only, Murch, p. 197).

“In 1859, he was elected to the Senate of Ohio” (Christians Only, Murch, p. 197). “When war broke out, he solicited a regiment from Abraham Lincoln’s army and was appointed to be their Lieutenant Colonel…he quickly advanced to Brigadier…His heroic actions at Chickamauga won him the distinction of Major General. He won the seat for Senate in Ohio in 1862 without campaigning” (Looking Back to See Ahead, Steever, p. 516).
From 1863-1880 Garfield served as the U.S House Representative for Ohio’s 19th district.

“In 1880 he was elected to the United States Senate from Ohio; and in the same year was nominated and elected to the Presidency of the United States, being the only minister of the gospel ever to occupy this high office” (Christians Only, Murch, p. 197). [Emphasis mine]

“Because of the many inquiries about the religious views of the Disciples he wrote that classic statement, ‘What We Stand For.’

1.  We call ourselves Christians or Disciples.

2.  We believe in God the Father.

3.  We believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God, and our Saviour. We regard the
     divinity of Christ as the fundamental truth of the Christian system.

4.  We believe in the Holy Spirit, both as to His agency in conversion and as a dweller in the
     heart of the Christian.

5.  We accept the Old and New Testaments as the inspired Word of God.

6.  We believe in the future punishment of the wicked and future reward of the righteous.

7.  We believe that Deity is a prayer-hearing and prayer-answering God.

8.  We observe the institution of the Lord’s Supper on ever Lord’s Day. To this Table we neither
     invite or debar. We say it is the Lord’s Table, for all the Lord’s children.

9.  We plead for the union of God’s people.

10.  The Bible is our only discipline.

11.  We maintain that all ordinances should be observed as they were in the days of the apostles.”
       (Christians Only, Murch, p. 198).

On July 2, 1881, Charles J. Guiteau, a disappointed and delusional office seeker, shot Garfield at the Baltimore and Potomac Railroad Station in Washington DC. “He lingered painfully until he died, September 19, 1881, at age 49” (Looking Back to See Ahead, Steever, p. 516).

President Garfield was the only preacher in American history to occupy the White House, and he was a member and preacher in the Christian Church. Can you imagine America electing a preacher as president? We’ve come a long way in 150 years.