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William Ellery Channing

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Religious Figure

The Resume

    (April 7, 1780-October 2, 1842)
    Born in Newport, Rhode Island
    Unitarian theologian
    Pastor of the Federal Street Church in Boston (1803-42)
    Helped establish the divinity school at Harvard (1816)
    Notable sermons include 'Likeness to God,' 'Unitarian Christianity,' 'War' and 'Spiritual Freedom'
    Wrote 'Slavery' (1835), 'Self-Culture' (1838) and 'The Duty of the Free States' (1842)
    Influenced the New England Transcendentalist movement

Why he might be annoying:

    As a student, he permanently weakened his health with an ascetic regime that included sleeping on a bare floor, adopting a rigid diet and studying until three in the morning.
    He married his first cousin.
    Despite becoming the most prominent Unitarian theologian of his era, he avoided public discussion of the growing rift between Unitarians and Congregationalists for a decade.
    He initially argued that while slavery was morally wrong, the slaves were not yet ready for freedom, so the timing of emancipation should be left to the slave owners without outside interference.
    William Lloyd Garrison described 'Slavery' as 'utterly destitute of any redeeming reforming power.'

Why he might not be annoying:

    He never claimed the money of his wife (one of the wealthiest women in the country) as the law of the time allowed and supported a woman's right to own property.
    He said about Calvinist doctrine, 'We are told to love and imitate God, but also that God does things we would consider most cruel in any human parent.'
    After the success of emancipation in the British West Indies, he supported immediate freedom for American slaves.
    Ralph Waldo Emerson called him 'a kind of public Conscience.'
    He said, 'It is always best to think for ourselves on any subject.... Truth received on authority, or acquired without labor, makes but a feeble impression.'

Credit: C. Fishel


Featured in the following Annoying Collections:

Year In Review:

    In 2023, Out of 4 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2022, Out of 1 Votes: 0% Annoying
    In 2021, Out of 9 Votes: 77.78% Annoying
    In 2020, Out of 2 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2019, Out of 2 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2018, Out of 1 Votes: 100% Annoying
    In 2017, Out of 18 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2016, Out of 5 Votes: 60.0% Annoying
    In 2015, Out of 12 Votes: 50.0% Annoying
    In 2014, Out of 15 Votes: 53.33% Annoying
    In 2013, Out of 19 Votes: 52.63% Annoying
    In 2012, Out of 9 Votes: 44.44% Annoying