Friday, April 14, 2023

It is the 14th of April 2023 Welcome to the Christian History Almanac brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org, I’m Dan van Voorhis.

So often this show deals with preachers, church workers, theologians, and missionaries. And that makes sense given the scope of this, the Christian History Almanac. But it’s good to remember that those “professional Christians” make up maybe 1% of the Christians who have lived lives of sometimes quiet faithfulness.

On today’s show, well- you may have heard of him- but perhaps not his life of faith, which for this business magnate was central. His name was James Cash Penney- yes, ironic for a businessman and the man behind J.C. Penney (kids, before Amazon and the internet, we went to big stores that sold stuff to us).

He was born the 7th of 12 children to James and Mary Penney in Hamilton, Missouri (ee? Uh?) His family attended the primitive Baptist church (that is, they stressed their independence to all but the earliest church and tended to be Calvinists- but there were divisions). His father was the preacher but was excommunicated for being a proponent of the Sunday school Movement (these were often independent, interdenominational schools that taught sacred and secular subjects to children otherwise unable to attend school).

James the Younger would drift in and out of the church as he would eventually work as a store clerk, and eventually move to Colorado on account of his tuberculosis. He opened a butcher shop, but his unwillingness to bribe a local chef with whiskey led to his store's demise. He eventually worked again as a store clerk and impressed his bosses such that they suggested he open his own store in their chain in Kemmerer, Wyoming- called “the Golden Rule” store it reflected his own beliefs- given by his father, that he must think not only of his employees, customers but also competition. This would not be a cut-throat business plan like others, and later business magnates would see him as perhaps soft. The first store would open on this, the 14th of April in 1902

Tragedy hit when his first wife died in 1910 after ten years of marriage. He married again in 1919, and his second wife also died. Bereaved, he asked a minister friend for advice and began to invest his growing wealth in charities. He was a millionaire in the 1920s, but during the Great Depression lost almost everything.

His mental health deteriorated, and he checked himself into the Kellog sanitarium in Battle Creek, Michigan (yes! The Adventist sanitarium where cornflakes were invented!)

Reminiscing on his time there, Penney wrote: "I got weaker day by day. I was broken nervously and physically, filled with despair, unable to see even a ray of hope. I had nothing to live for. I felt I hadn't a friend left in the world, that even my family had turned against me.”

One night after a sedative wore off he sat down to write farewell letters to his family. The next morning he woke up, surprised to be alive. He wandered the grounds and found his way to a chapel where a service was being held- later. He recalled: "Suddenly something happened, I can't explain it. I can only call it a miracle. I felt as if I had been instantly lifted out of the darkness of a dungeon into warm, brilliant sunlight. I felt as if I had been transported from hell to paradise. I felt the power of God as I had never felt it before. From that day to this, my life has been free from worry… The most dramatic and glorious 20 minutes of my life were those I spent in that chapel that morning.”

From there, he would return to his family (now his 3rd wife, with whom he had 2 daughters to join his three sons from his deceased wives). His company would rebound and grow. By 1971 it was the second largest non-food retail store in America, with annual sales of 4 billion- it was only behind Sears.

Penney’s life- a life of sometimes extravagant wealth, would be vulnerable to the pitfalls that come with it- but his hardscrabble upbringing, time in a sanitarium, and belief in Christ put his success into perspective.

He was also a Freemason- that, of course, would take more time to unpack as it has been controversial for some Christians to join- you might consider it’s less “DaVinci Code” and more “Water Buffalo Lodge” from the Flintstones.

But in an age of cutthroat business people, Penney knew his own fragility, of body and soul- a man whose faith led him through the darkest times. James Cash Penney would die in 1971, 69 years after his first store opened on this the 14th of April in 1902.

The last word for today comes from the daily lectionary- from Peterson’s paraphrase- the Message, Corinthians 15:

 Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time—this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved. (I’m assuming, now, that your belief was the real thing and not a passing fancy, that you’re in this for good and holding fast.)

3-9 The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day, again exactly as Scripture says; that he presented himself alive to Peter, then to his closest followers, and later to more than five hundred of his followers all at the same time, most of them still around (although a few have since died); that he then spent time with James and the rest of those he commissioned to represent him; and that he finally presented himself alive to me.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 14th of April 2023, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man who reminds you that the second biggest investor in J.C. Penney is, Shaquille O’Neal! He is also nicknamed the big Aristotle- he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who certainly got family photos, eyeglasses, and the J.C. Penney Stafford shirt back in the day- I’m Dan van Voorhis.

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.