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The Religious Right's Early Matriarch
By wilkyjr Wed Jul 23, 2008 at 02:36:38 PM EST printable version print story
Sinclair Lewis wrote the novel, IT CAN'T HAPPEN HERE.  The classic was a story based on the life of Elizabeth Dilling.  Ms. Dilling was one of the most colorful, outspoken and symbolic leaders of a movement that left the groundwork for the modern religious right.  When Roy Carlson wrote his award-winning book, UNDER COVER, exposing the secretive effort in the nation to undermind the war effort against Nazi Germany, there was one woman who occupied much of the print.  The woman was Elizabeth Dilling.  Just about every investigation into Nazi connections had a link to Ms. Dilling, who supplied the recruits with her own books or THE PROTOCOLS OF ZION.  THE PROTOCOLS is a play from Russia claiming to be accurate history naming a secret order of Jews who have run the world for the past few centuries.  Ms. Dilling was a big player in the anti-Semitic effort in America and still is heralded as an expert on Jewish religion and power plays by the right.

Even though Ms. Dilling had little formal education, she commanded a large following linking up with people like Catholic Father Coughlin and Lutheran Gerald Winrod.  She attended Chicago University and took courses in music before dropping out.  She was married twice and died in 1967. Twice she was arrested for disorderly conduct.  She was also charged with sedition in l944. 1

Elizabeth's anti-Semitic pronouncements are legendary.  David Duke praises them on his web site.2  She believed that the Jewish faith in America was a direct descendant of the Pharisee's religion in the New Testament.  She wrote a book to expose the secret Jewish code of honor. In her book, she claimed true Jewish religious practices encouraged pedophilia and bestiality.  She also wrote that Jews believed incest was preferred to Christianity; Gentiles were beasts; Jews were told to always make money; and sodomy was allowed for Hebrews.  She also believed that Jews of today are a non-racial sect.  The Anti-Defamation League has up on its site a response to these allegations.  She also advocated that Jews were behind Communism.  Elizabeth traveled abroad and spent some time in Communist Russia.  She was impacted by the persecution inflicted upon the peoples of the region. What really caught her attention was the proposal that Communism was to be taught there and eventually it would spread to America.  She vowed to do whatever it took to stop this spread.  If it meant embracing Hitler that was fine with her.3  Her saga reminds me of a quote by Charles Coughlin.  Coughlin said he only had two options, Communism or Fascism - he chose Fascism.

Ms. Dilling believed that Albert Einstein was a Communist, as well as just about anyone who did not agree with her.  She died believing Henry Ford never truly recanted his anti-Semitism in his heart of hearts and was misquoted as apologizing for such.  She even wrote a book claiming that Franklin Roosevelt was a "Red," which to her was the word she often used for Communists.4  Elizabeth believed that an emerging elite was going to try to make America into a Communist state.  Harry Fosdick, the famous moderate pastor in New York, was among her targets which she feared were behind the plot.  She worked closely with the America First Committee, a group which was seeking to keep the nation out of war in Europe.  She was close friends with Charles Lindberg, as both sought to stem the tide of the nation's commitment to rescue England and Europe from Nazi Germany.  In her opinion, the problem did not come from Germans - the problems all had a root in Jewish groups who were ruining the world.5

Elizabeth published the book OCTOPUS.  She peddled the book as being written by a Rev. Frank Johnson.  She actually wrote the manuscript which was a diagram of how Jewish leaders ran the world economy and caused wars.  She admitted to using the fake author's name to throw the Jews off her trail.  She spoke to students at the University of Chicago years later in her life and told the students it was a Red school.  She then defended Fascism to the audience.  She also believed the YMCA was a secret Communist organization.  In UNDER COVER, she is linked to hard right Nazi groups in the nation.  The violent fringe of the Nazi movement in the nation was also connected to her influence.6

Not only was she arrested for disorderly conduct, but she was investigated by the Dies' Committee on Un-American Activities.7  Her organizations were listed on the Nazi roll of honor in Germany along with Charles Winrod's.  A sign on her office in Chicago read: "Patriotic Research Bureau for the Defense of Christianity and Americanism, Director Elizabeth Dilling."  With Coughlin's influence, she organized the Mothers' Movement.  It was a group of mothers seeking to keep the nation out of the war.  When she led her group to the steps of the Capitol waving an American flag, she was stopped by police.  She called the police who stopped her "Jewish Stooges."8

The interesting connection Ms. Dilling had with the early religious right is noteworthy.  Particularly, her connection with the Premillennialism movement.  Some on talk2action have noted the link between LaHay, Hagee and others to hard right anti-Semitic sentiments.  Of interest is the fact that Moody Bible Institute's President was friends with Elizabeth, and she claimed he believed in the PROTOCOLS.  Moody is one of the foremost schools of thought in the Premillennialist movement in the nation.  Ms. Dilling used the school's radio station to broadcast programs.  She also boasted that the famous Moody-connected Pastor H.A. Ironside allowed her to speak at his church.  Ironside supposedly never let any other woman in the nation share his pulpit except for Elizabeth.  She loved Ironside almost as much as she hated Fosdick.  Ironside is well-known as a writer of Biblical commentaries around the nation.  He was greatly influenced by the Plymouth Brethren, a Premillennialism group.  He received an honorary degree from Bob Jones University and was invited to teach at the famous Dallas Theological Seminary.  He was known as the "Archbishop of Fundamentalism."9  Other authors have established the anti-Semitic connections with the roots of this eschatology, and it is noteworthy the influence Ms. Dilling held with leaders in the movement during the forties and fifties. She was truly a matriarch for the movement, and her legacy, if not her books, continues to inspire a new host of right wing fringe types.  Roy Carlson said that Elizabeth Dilling considered Hitler an angel.10

Endnotes:
1.    www.wikipedia.com/dilling
2.    www.davidduke.com July 2008
3.    www.comeandhear.com July 2008
4.    Ibid.
5.    www.wikipedia.com/dilling
6.    Roy Carlson, UNDER COVER,
World Publishing, N.Y., N.Y., 1943,
pgs. 133, 134, 136, 143, 144, 149,
211, 212, 170, 417.
7.    Ibid., www.comeandhear.com
8.    Ibid., Carlson.
9.    www.wikipedia.com/Ironside
10.    Carlson, p.144.




Display:
It is vital for all of us to learn about the historical background of current events.
I am a huge fan of Sinclair Lewis's novels, but I did not know about this loathsome Elizabeth Dilling until now.

by nogodsnomasters on Thu Jul 24, 2008 at 09:37:30 AM EST

Have you fouind any connection between Dilling and J. Frank Norris?

by JerrySloan on Fri Jul 25, 2008 at 02:46:05 AM EST

Thanks for the comments. Sloan, good to hear from you again.  I will look into J. Frank to see what I might find.  Norris was close to Coughlin and Ford.  It would be hard to believe he did not know Elizabeth or had run into her writings.

by wilkyjr on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:07:13 AM EST

Checking my files I found that Norris was close to Gerald Smith and Winrod. He did part with the bunch over anti-Semitism.  Norris was Pre Millennialist and thus pro Israel.  He did continue to work with Smith even thougth he did not agree with the Jew-hating stuff.  He had him into his church to speak about how Eleanor Roosevelt was closer to Stalin than anyone in the nation. He might not have had much to do with her because she was such an anit-Semite.

by wilkyjr on Sun Jul 27, 2008 at 09:17:58 AM EST

needs serious fact-checking.  IF THIS GOES ON was based on Gerald Winrod -- called Windrip in the book.  (There may have been a Dilling-based character in it, it's been a long time since I read it.)

I have UNDER COVER, and while Dilling is mentioned several times, she doesn't even make the Index.

Rather than 'being investigated by the Dies committee' she was a witness for the later HUAC -- a 'friendly' one.

And the article ignores her more malevolent RED NETWORK -- later RED CHANNELS -- which was a 'Bible' during the McCarthy era for networks to ban performers for supposed 'pro-Communism.'

And, of course, THE PROTOCOLS -- probably the most influential anti-Semituc work of all time -- was not a 'play' but a long pamphlet or book, written in dialogue form.  (It is still being sold widely, both in this country and abroad.)  It was 'from (Tsarist) Russia' and was a rewrite of a pamphlet originally written about Napoleon III with the anti-semitism added by the Russians.

It is a bloody shame that no one checked this out better, because, despite the errors, Dilling WAS a true horror.  (I can't comment about her connection with Smith, but she was connected to Hudson -- at least according to Carlson.)

by Prup aka Jim Benton on Mon Jul 28, 2008 at 07:47:34 PM EST

Elizabeth Dilling was said to have been the model for Lewis's character Adelaide Tarr Gimmitch in "It Can't Happen Here." Her second husband published her anti-Semitic screed allegedly based on the Talmud after Dilling's death in 1966.

If only we had a Sinclair Lewis today.

by khughes1963 on Fri Aug 01, 2008 at 12:30:13 AM EST
[ Parent ]



Diliing is listed almost 40 times on page 537 in UNDER COVER under the heading Sedition Trial Index.  The PROTOCOLS is noted by many authors I read as a play, but all called it fiction.  You missed one, I called Gerald Winrod, Charles.  Thanks for the post.

by wilkyjr on Wed Jul 30, 2008 at 09:45:45 AM EST


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