Robert Whitaker was a Baptist minister and political activist born in 1863 in Padiham, Lancashire, England. He died in Los Gatos, California in June 1944. In 1869 he moved with his family to the United States. After attending Andover Newton Theological School he went on to hold several pastorates in the western United States including in Oakland, California, Los Gatos, California, and Seattle, Washington.
Whitaker was heavily involved in socialist and labor organizations in California. He was acquainted with other activists such as Eugene Debs, Upton Sinclair, Jack London, and Fanny Bixby Spencer and spent considerable energy agitating for socialist causes. To this end, he lectured frequently around California and founded several presses such as The Progressive Publishing Company, U.F.I. Press, and Whitaker and Ray, Co. He was also a progressive reformer of the church. By 1912, he along with members of the Los Gatos Baptist Church, decided to cancel all "ritualistic ceremonies" and make baptism optional.
Contents
Ministry
Whitaker served as a missionary in Mexico from 1887 to 1888. In 1898, he was appointed Superintendent of State Missions for Northern and Central California and gave sermons in various churches on the West Coast. In 1901 he left the pastorate of the Baptist church in Palo Alto, California to engage in independent work in San Francisco. From 1903 through 1908 he was pastor of the 23rd Avenue Baptist Church in Oakland, California. He was also editor of the journal Pacific Baptist. He served as pastor at the Los Gatos Baptist Church in the 1910s. In 1920 he and his family sailed to China to do missionary work.
Activism and socialism
In 1906, Whitaker was accused of slander for charging Oakland City and Alameda County officials with corruption. Whitaker supported various progressive causes, like women's suffrage and the labor movement. In 1912, Whitaker ran as the Socialist candidate for California's 8th Congressional district. In 1917, Whitaker was charged with treason for agitating against the draft and conscription laws. He was jailed along with Reverend Floyd Hardin and Harold Storey, and spent three months in jail.
Personal
In 1901 his first wife, Ellen ("Ellie"), died. In 1907 he married his second wife, Claire Wall. She outlived him.
Works
Nonfiction
Cupid and the Cloth [no date].
Jesus Christ, the same yesterday and today and forever, 1885.
Johnston of Stanford, 1919.
One woman's worth: The story of Lucretia Watson Taylor, [1913].
Sharing our Thanksgiving, 1918.
Victory or Peace, 1918.
Why callest thou me good?, 1913.
The wickedness of doing nothing: an appeal for positive living, 1913.
The yesterday and today of Socialism [no date].
Fiction
A California girl: an idyl of married life [no date].
The chamber of silence, 1903.
Made to order, 1902.
A mix-up of souls, 1907.
Smith's Valley; Wanted an original deed; Two of a kind, 1900.
A strong-minded woman, 1907.
Lectures and sermon outlines
Lectures on Biblical Christology, 1901.
Sermon outline - The city that would not [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - How big is your God? [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - The new birth [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - And let him that heareth say come [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - What does conversion mean to a modern man? [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Jesus and other masters [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Mohammed the prophet of Islam [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Confucius the Christ of China [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Jesus and Marcus Aurelius [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Jesus and Emerson [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - What did Jesus mean by 'love your enemies' [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - The contentiousness of the gospel [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - The yea and the amen [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - Vision and affirmation [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - The inconveniences of omniscience [1909-1910].
Sermon outline - The passing of old authority [1909-1910].
Poetry/verse
Who weeps today, 1917.
Prison verse, written during my days in jail in Los Angeles, 1919.
Love's Credo, 1917.
My country is the world; a selection of verse celebrating the higher patriotism, 1905.
James Whitcomb Riley, 1916.
A brother man, 1917.
Whatever is, 1918.
My country, 1905.
God garners no green grain, 1902.
Guilty, 1920.
Two heroes: The burden, 1917.
My country and other verse 1905.