Firing Sparks by Aimee Smolczyk

Aimee Smolczyk is a junior at William Jewell College. She is quite dedicated because she has three majors and manages to focus on her extensive studies even though she is in a wheelchair and has numerous health problems. Aimee studies English (with a focus in writing), psychology, and French. She hopes to put her painful past, as an abused child, to good use and become a social worker in the abuse and neglect unit at the juvenile justice center of Clay County while working with free-lance writing. Miss Smolczyk would like to thank her adoptive mother.

Firing Sparks Wondrous Career for Non-Christian Religious Professor

The 1922 dismissal of Dr. Arthur Wakefield Slaten from William Jewell College created quite an uproar in Liberty, Missouri. He was an outstanding Jewell alumnus and beloved Religion and Biblical Interpretation professor.

Born in Mound Valley, Kansas, Dr. Slaten’s biological mother, Jerusha Durham Slaten, died just eighteen days after his birth. Consequently, the Wakefield’s of Labette County, Kansas, took him in despite falling into financial trouble shortly after the adoption. Although they did not legally adopt Arthur, they became his foster family and raised him well. Mr. Marcellus F. Wakefield chose to send Arthur to William Jewell, not because of its religious affiliation (he was non Baptist), but because of the small, private atmosphere. Slaten enrolled in Jewell at the age of nineteen. He changed his name from Slaten Wakefield to Wakefield Slaten after his foster parents died, upon his graduation from Jewell, probably to maintain family privacy and to cause them less distress while they were still alive.

While attending Jewell, Slaten was an extremely active student. He served as primary Editor-In-Chief for the campus newspaper, The William Jewell Student, in 1908. He received numerous campus awards: the Ely House Spelling Medal, the Junior Reading Medal, the Senior Reading and Essay Medals (in conjunction with the Senior Philomathic Literary Society), Debate-elect (1907-8), and Second Place for the Inter-Society Oratorical (public speaking) medal. Aside from the newspaper and campus awards, Slaten also participated in campus clubs such as the Kansas City Club, whose purpose was “promulgating [broadcasting] in Kansas City and vicinity, the high standards of scholarship and manhood for which William Jewell has long stood.” During this time Jewell was an all male college. Slaten was one of twenty-six members in 1907, but was most likely a member in other years, and the same goes for the Senior Philomathic Literary Society, in which he was one of twelve members in 1907. He won both the Society’s Reading Medal and Essay Medal that year. In addition, Slaten was also a pastor during this time in the small area of Raytown.

Upon graduating from Jewell, Slaten spent a year studying at Baylor University where he met Mary Fitzhugh, the woman who would become his wife. He displayed such theological promise that he was sent abroad to study in Scotland, Germany, and Greece. He then returned to the states, bought a home in Chicago, earned his doctorate, and taught at the YMCA College in Chicago five years.

Afterwards he left Chicago for Missouri to seek a position at his Alma Mater, William Jewell. The Jewell Steering Committee (made up of three faculty members) hired Dr. Slaten to teach in the Department of the Bible, at a time when the sitting President, Dr. John Priest Greene, was away for health reasons. Shortly after he began teaching, disturbing reports arose accusing Dr. Slaten of not believing in Christ; thus, he was dismissed as a “radical.” Being a professor in a Southern Baptist affiliated college, located in the Bible belt of the Midwest, his views proved most disturbing. To this day William Jewell, although it is a nationally-ranked liberal arts college, retains its Baptist roots and Christian atmosphere. Dr. Slaten taught for less than one semester before his dismissal. The accusation of not believing in Christ may lead one to assume he was an atheist; however, this was only an assumption. According to The Tattler, the William Jewell yearbook, he served as a pastor in Raytown during his undergraduate years. Moreover, he was a Unitarian minister in Chicago and New York City after leaving William Jewell.

Other blasphemous and “offensive” views supposedly held by Dr. Slaten included not recognizing Christ’s teachings as sacred and infallible, non-belief in the precarious death and resurrection of Jesus Christ, and not subscribing to His meditation and intercession, or the act of Christ intervening between a party and God (the Father). Many questioned whether one who held such “controversial” views should even be hired at a Southern Baptist college. However, this was a moot point because he had already been hired by the Steering committee. The main question that faced the 1922 board of Trustees at William Jewell who had to determine Slaten’s fate, was should he be allowed to stay and teach.

Even though no evidence could be found by the board of Trustees, who held a secret session dealing with this affair on December 14, 1922, that he taught any of these beliefs in his classes, he was still fired. Dr. Slaten insisted that the Steering Committee knew of his controversial views when they hired him and no rebuttal was offered, which suggests they did know. Furthermore, they found no evidence that he shared these beliefs and knew he was entitled to his own opinion; therefore, it seems his firing was rather unfounded.

After his dismissal, Dr. Slaten sought a theological post as a Unitarian minister. He was not an atheist, but he once caused a small uproar by flirting with atheistic views in a 1925 Unitarian sermon. In fact, he actually referred to atheists as a religious group “like any other” who have the right to assemble. Some reported he was a Baptist Reverend before being ousted from William Jewell College; others pointed out that there was disagreeing material leading one to believe he never identified with the Baptist faith. The college made certain that Dr. Slaten’s replacement, Charles Francis Potter, was a confirmed Baptist Reverend.

Before Dr. Slaten’s dismissal, his “controversial” views were expressed in the book What Jesus Taught (1922) and afterward these views were further clarified in an article pertaining to “Christian Myth.” Thus, his dismissal led to a phenomenal literary and religious career. In a December 31, 1922 article for the New York Times, Dr. Slaten deals with the Bible and how it is not literal. He cites such events as the ten plagues of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea, and food raining down from heaven as non-literal occurrences, saying they should be taken “with a pinch of salt.” Later, in a 1925 article, Dr. Slaten pointed to the demise of Christianity and said it should be replaced by “Humanism-the Next Step in Religion”--defining this movement as “a predominance of the social interest over theological.” It is evident that Dr. Slaten’s dismissal from William Jewell sparked an amazing career.

Furthermore, Dr. Slaten’s dismissal was such a scandalous affair that it attracted attention nationwide, appearing in multiple newspapers as well as in religious journals and publications. The question of “intellectual freedom” was widely raised by these papers and other publications. Although intellectual/academic freedom is very much a modern day concern, it has been a frequently debated issue for over a century. Can extensive studies lead one to reject belief in Jesus Christ and His divinity? Should these principles be upheld? If one is in a position to share these ideas, should they be shared? The New York Times supported the belief that Dr. Slaten was obligated to acknowledge his views and to teach what his studies led him to think. He did openly acknowledge his beliefs; however, it is unclear whether he taught them. Nevertheless, the William Jewell Board of Trustees unanimously decided to dismiss Dr. Slaten, but his salary did not cease until the term reached its end on January 1, 1923.

After being dismissed from Jewell and completing a career in the ministry, he and his wife, Mary Fitzhugh Slaten, a fellow-student he met at Baylor University, moved with their two children to Honolulu. There he worked as an editorial writer, literary editor, and columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. In 1942 the family moved to Santa Monica, California where Dr. Slaten died of acute coronary thrombosis on July 29th or 30th, 1944 (there is some discrepancy as to the exact day). He left behind two sons, Edward Fitzhugh Slaten (1905-72) and Champe Douglas Slaten (1909-70), and a legacy of authorship. Dr. Slaten’s works include: Qualitative Nouns in the Pauline Epistles and Their Translation (1916), What Jesus Taught (1922), Words of Aspirations (1927), and many other literary and religious articles. He was called, by the William Jewell board of trustees that dismissed him, a “most Christian-like” man. Dr. Arthur Wakefield Slaten certainly seemed to live a Christian life, before and after the dismissal, but it was his controversial worldview that sparked his wondrous career.

Works Cited

“Dr. Greene Acknowledges Slaten Aid Receipts” William Jewell College Bulletin. 15 Feb.
1923: Series 20

“Dr. Slaten Accepts Unitarian Call.” The Hartford Courant 13 July 1925:10

“Dr. Slaten Chosen by N. Y. Church.” The Hartford Courant. 1 July 1925: 15

“Dr. Slaten Predicts a New Reformation.” New York Times. 8 Jan. 1923: 17 (Reprinted
from Chicago Daily Tribune 7 Jan.)

“Finds ‘Humanism’ the New Religion.” New York Times. 4 Nov. 1925: 25.

Hester, Hubert Inman. Jewell is her Name: a History of William Jewell College Liberty,
Missouri: William Jewell College. 1967. 88-95.

“The Faculty Statement about Slaten Affair” William Jewell College Bulletin. 15 Feb.
1923: Series 20

The Tattler. Liberty, MO: William Jewell College, 1907. 53.

The Tattler. Liberty, MO: William Jewell College, 1907. 201. (Reprinted from The William
Jewell Student. V13 No 6 March 1907: 201.)

The Tattler. Liberty, MO: William Jewell College, 1907. 332. (Reprinted from The William
Jewell Student. V13 No 8 May 1907.)

The Tattler. Liberty, MO: William Jewell College, 1908. 409. (Reprinted from The William
Jewell Student. V14 No 9 June 1908: 409.)

P., A. “Dismissed Professor to New York Pulpit.” The Washington Post. 14 July 1925: 5.

Rev. Norton, W.R. “Baptist Fight on Liberalism is Denounced.” Chicago Daily Tribune. 8
Jan. 1923: 14

Slaten, A. Wakefield. “Biblical Myths Rejected.” New York Times. 31 Dec. 1922: 53.