32 THE LIVING CHURCH • May 4, 2014

FrancesPerkinsThe Saint Behind the New Deal

By Charles Hoffacker

Adam Cohen, who teaches atYale Law School, recentlysang the praises of Frances

Perkins: “If American history text-books accurately reflected the past,Frances Perkins would be recog-nized as one of the nation’s greatestheroes — as iconic as BenjaminFranklin or Thomas Paine.”

Perkins is often remembered asthe first woman to be a United Statescabinet secretary. She remains thelongest-serving Secretary of Labor(1933-45). More significantly, how-ever, she helped establish severalpublic policies beneficial to hun-dreds of millions of people. The titleof Kirstin Downey’s 2009 biographysums up her major contributions toour national life: The Woman Behindthe New Deal: The Life and Legacyof Frances Perkins—Social Secu-rity, Unemployment Insurance,and the Minimum Wage. In theseways and others she endeavored, inFranklin Delano Roosevelt’s phrase,“to make a country in which no oneis left out.”

As part of a major expansion of itscalendar of saints, the EpiscopalChurch now celebrates the feast ofFrances Perkins, Public Servant andProphetic Witness, on May 13. A bi-

ographical note about Perkins ap-pears with the proper for this feast inHoly Women, Holy Men: Celebrat-ing the Saints (Church Publishing,2010). This brief note mentions thatPerkins depended on “her faith, herlife of prayer, and the guidance ofher church for the support sheneeded to assist the United Statesand its leadership to face the enor-mous problems” then challengingthe country. While Secretary of La-bor, Perkins made a monthly retreatat an Episcopal convent.

How did Perkins understand theconnection between Christianity andpublic life? What theology, spiritual-ity, and political and economic viewslay behind her assertion that “I cameto Washington to work for God,FDR, and the millions of forgotten,plain, common working men”?

In addition to the Downey biogra-phy, there is another substantialstudy of her life: George Martin’sMadame Secretary: Frances Perkins,published in 1976. Both are ad-mirable works, but neither examinesher religious foundation at any length.Michelle L. Kew’s paper, “FrancesPerkins: Private Faith, Public Pol-icy,” available through the FrancesPerkins Center (PDF at is.gd/Ozk5IW),provides a basic survey of its sub-ject. Donn Mitchell’s insightful essay,“Frances Perkins and the SpiritualFoundation of the New Deal,” ap-pears in A Promise to All Genera-tions: Stories and Essays about So-cial Security and Frances Perkins(2011). He sees Perkins as “steeped inthe socialist thought of British Anglo-Catholicism. This viewpoint com -bined Anglicanism’s traditionally af-

An early portrait of Frances Perkins. Photo courtesy of the Frances Perkins Center

COMMON LIFE

May 4, 2014 • THE LIVING CHURCH 33

firmative view of the state as the in-strument through which the commu-nity expresses its shared values withan emphasis on the compassionate el-ements of Catholic tradition.”

Mitchell made available to methree unpublished lectures thatPerkins gave in 1948 at St. ThomasChurch Fifth Avenue, New York. Inthese wide-ranging St. Bede Lec-tures, under the collective title “TheChristian in the World,” Perkins ad-dresses at greatest length connec-tions between economics and poli-tics on one hand and theology andspirituality on the other.

Perkins points to how economicchange contributed to the start

of Christian social action of a partic-ular sort in the early 20th century.Wealth in the United States had ac-cumulated to a point beyond whatwas required for family legacies andinvestment capital. Some peoplewho had suddenly accumulated suchwealth started to consider theirmoral obligation to others and to ad-dress community needs on a greaterscale than the country had seen be-fore.

At the same time, protest againstunjust conditions took the form oflaw. Measures were passed againstactual forms of exploitation in suchareas as housing and labor. Varioustypes of social insurance were estab-lished to protect individuals againstsevere adversities. These develop-ments resulted not only from anawakened public conscience butfrom an extension of knowledgeabout how society can be organized.

The earliest of these efforts wereseen to have an explicit religious ori-gin, but soon they became charac-teristic of society as a whole. ForPerkins, however, the theological ba-sis remained obvious. Because ofGod’s love for humanity, humanityhas infinite worth.

Citing Thomas Aquinas, Perkinsasserts the right to own property butalso the obligation to use propertyin ways that promote the common

good, ways included in the move-ment of humanity toward God. Un-less people contribute to the build-ing of a just social order, they do notfulfill their true nature as human be-ings; they miss out on their ownprogress toward God to which theyare entitled.

As an example, Perkins recountshow the Diamond Match Companygave up its patent to non-phosphorusmatches early in the 20th century.Manufacturing phosphorus matchesexacted a horrible toll from factoryworkers. Diamond developed a non-phosphorus match, then gave up itspatent so that other firms would nolonger make the dangerous phos-phorus matches. Perkins says thatshe was present when the patentwas relinquished and that the moti-vation for doing so was a Christianconcern for the social order.

Perkins even claims that “Chris-tians must regard entrance into poli-tics and political activity as a majorbasic Christian duty, and they mustenter it as Christians.” She states herbelief, now enshrined in the collectfor her feast day, “that the special vo-cation of the laity is to conduct thesecular affairs of society that all maybe maintained in health and de-cency.”

Before becoming a federal official,Frances Perkins had engaged in set-tlement house work, safety inspec-tions, and other local activities on be -half of the community. She had servedin the administrations of New Yorkgovernors Al Smith and Franklin De-lano Roosevelt. In the St. Bede Lec-tures, she advocates that those whowish to promote the common goodbegin at the local level as well. Au-thority grows from engaging a smallproject close to home. Christians canexercise their moral judgment thereand thus develop a true authoritythat enables them to address prob-lems at the state, national, or inter-national levels later on.

For Perkins, politics and econom-ics are part of moral theology. Poli-tics addresses the ordering of society

and economics the way people maketheir living. She repeatedly assertsthat God’s laws must take prece-dence over human law, that whatmatters is not strict adherence to hu-man interpretations of civil law butthe moral welfare and moral im-provement of actual people.

Similarly, Perkins refuses to takeeconomic theory and predictions asarticles of faith. While she made ex-tensive use of actuarial science asSecretary of Labor, she asserts in theSt. Bede Lectures that economics isnot a science or even an establishedfield of knowledge: “There are wholeareas where nobody has writtendown any figures.”

Would she say the same today?Perhaps not, but she would probablyavoid embracing any particular eco-nomic ideology. Perkins did not fa-vor as such a collective, cooperative,or capitalistic system of operatingthe economy. Her test for any suchsystem was not whether it repre-sents a particular ideology butwhether it provides people with thegoods they need and contributes tothe development of people “to know,love, and serve God.”

Perkins advocated several basicattitudes important for all of life,

and especially participation in publiclife. She said that people, while stillyoung, need to be “reconciled tothemselves.” One has to accept one’sparticular nature, characteristics,problems, and temptations. If peo-ple do this, they can forget aboutthemselves and engage in activity di-rected to the whole of society andthose things that assist us all on ourway to God. While she made no per-sonal reference here, she appears tohave been speaking out of her ownexperience.

As a public official for many years,Perkins sometimes found herself en-gaged in political conflict. She rec-ognized that Christians could reachdifferent conclusions about practi-cal politics and vote for different par-

For Perkins, politics and economics are part of moral theology.

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34 THE LIVING CHURCH • May 4, 2014

ties. Each of us comes to differentconclusions, she claimed, because wehave different life experiences, dif-ferent spiritual experiences. Some-one who had witnessed poverty upclose at an early age, as she had, waslikely to take a different approach toit as a political matter than someonewho had not.

Bitter partisanship often resultsfrom the failure to analyze an issueand to do so in a cooperative mannerinformed by Christian faith. Analy-sis of this sort does not guaranteethat everyone will embrace the samesolutions, but it helps to destroy cyn-icism and elevate the tone of politi-cal discourse.

Still another basic attitude advo-cated by Perkins was thankfulness.She did not endorse “you only getwhat you pay for” as true in any as-pect of life. To someone who advo-cated that understanding she re-sponded: “I get so much more than Iever pay for, not only out of the gov-ernment, not only from the govern-ment in its general protection of mylife and interests, but out of the peo-ple I do business with, the peoplefrom whom I buy, or who serve me inone way or another. Always, it seems

to me, I am getting a little extra.”The St. Bede Lectures include a

concrete proposal by Perkins thatChristians associate together inguilds according to their occupa-tions in order to practice and im-prove their Christian life withinthose occupations. Whether peopletalk effectively, responsibly, andmorally in other ways, they tend todo so about their jobs and they do sowith their coworkers. When people“talk shop,” they usually throw them-selves into it and develop a moraland social response. These occupa-tional guilds would develop ethicalcodes for themselves. Is anyone inour time promoting such a grass-roots approach to ethics? Is this anarea in which Christians can stillminister in the world according totheir particular occupations?

If laypeople are to discharge theirfunction in society, then they musthave a developed spiritual life andan authentic education, insistedPerkins. But we do not developenough people who can be trusted,and from that flows all manner ofmiseries. We need a teaching churchand a teaching clergy, but muchmore as well. The arts are an impor-tant channel for the knowledge of

God. We must practice an awarenessof God’s presence. We must seek har-mony with God’s will.

Perkins spoke of the need to be-come like children in a way conso-nant with what Jesus says about this:“We have to take ourselves as a youngand inexperienced person, young cer-tainly in the spiritual laws and in thespiritual nature of our relationship toGod. We don’t know; we are inexpe-rienced; we have to find out.”

In line with classical Christian spir-ituality, Perkins understood the

purpose of humanity as union withGod. And she brought out a socialaspect of this union that too oftenremains unacknowledged. Becausethe Christian knows God and enjoyssome degree of union with the di-vine, the Christian chooses “thosepatterns of behavior which make forthe welfare and ennoblement and en-hancement and advance” of otherpeople “toward a knowledge of Godand union with God.”

Not everyone needs to have a mys-tical experience of union with the di-vine, according to Perkins. But ifthere is to be a revival of true com-munity, then union with God must

Frances Perkins The Saint Behind the New Deal

(Continued from previous page)

Photo © Bettmann/CORBIS

Frances Perkins testifying before Congress in 1942.

Photo courtesy of the Social Security Administration

Frances Perkins offers a subtle smile as President Roosevelt signs the Social Security Act of 1935.

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be widely recognized and appreci-ated as the purpose of human life,and sought, however imperfectly, bymany people. Whatever else societyneeds, it requires “a corps of individ-uals who have, themselves, experi-enced, and who will work and strug-gle and even fight to provide forthemselves, and for those who aredependent upon them spiritually,that relationship of union with God.”

For Perkins, an important channeltoward divine union is offering regu-lar acts of love to God. Following St.Augustine, she urged the frequentrecitation of this prayer: “My God, Ilove thee above all others, and forthy sake I love my neighbors as my-self.” Thus the Summary of the Lawbecomes prayer and aspiration.

Another such channel is examina-tion of conscience. Because sin is sep-aration from the divine, true and hon-est self-examination is essential.Examination of conscience is morelikely to be effective if it occurs againsta standard pattern such as the TenCommandments or the seven deadlysins: pride, covetousness, lust, envy,gluttony, anger, and sloth. Perkins ad-mitted that in her personal practiceshe often did not get much beyondpride, the first deadly sin and a domi-nant feature in our human confusion.

For Perkins, examination of con-science was not a private matter. Theseven deadly sins provide a frame-work for assessing our political life aswell as our personal dealings. As weexamine ourselves, we must also ex-amine our society, in particular its po-litical and economic dimensions. Sim-ple rules of behavior must serve as astandard. The latest political ques-tions, whatever they are, cannot beexempt. Any examination of con-science, whether personal or social,needs to include a sense of reparation.

The faith of Frances Perkins wasmanifestly rooted in the Incarnationof God in Christ. Through the Incar-nation, God reaches out into all partsof the earth. For Perkins, this had in-tense local and practical implica-tions. God reaches out, she said, “intothe sins and difficulties and disordersand chaos of New York City andBoston and the life of the Perkins

family, and to me.” What can we do inresponse? Serving “the secular andworldly life” of our neighbors, weserve the incarnate life of God, andthat secular and worldly life becomesitself consecrated to God.

Perkins reflected on words fromthe eucharistic prayer she heard sofrequently, “that here we presentourselves, our souls and bodies, tobe a living sacrifice.” This languageindicates that at the Eucharist thepeople of God present their tempta-tions and problems, together withthe problems and temptations of allpeople everywhere. All this we offerup to God in one great social act. Weoffer up all that we are and all thatwe do, our labor in its diverse formsand that of people in all places. To-gether this comprises the sacrificewe make to the glory of God in unionwith Christ crucified and risen.

One function of saints is to makeus uncomfortable, to challenge us,and at the same time to give us hope.Recent saints, those still within theliving memory of our contempo-raries, do this in a special sense.While saints from centuries past wholived in exotic places sometimesseem distant to us, it is harder to dis-miss a 20th-century saint whowalked the streets of New York andWashington and loved the wilds ofMaine. In the face of our nation’scontemporary economic and politi-cal shortcomings and our sometimesdim faith and languid prayer, blessedFrances Perkins appears, both to un-settle and to encouarage.

Saints belong to the past and pres-ent, and also to the future. Adam Co-hen is right: Frances Perkins is one ofthe greatest heroes of American his-tory. However, perhaps her greatestcontribution to nation and church isstill to come. At a time when count-less Americans are dispirited by ourbroken system, the example andteaching of this saint may prove to bean unexpected gift for the renewal ofcommon life.

The Rev. Charles Hoffacker is anEpiscopal priest and a board mem-ber of the Frances Perkins Center(francesperkinscenter.org).