Mordecai Ham

{{Infobox person

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| birth_name = Mordecai Fowler Ham Jr.

| birth_date = {{birth date|1877|4|2}}

| birth_place = Allen County, Kentucky, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1961|11|1|1877|4|2}}

| death_place = Louisville, Kentucky, U.S.

| resting_place =

| occupation = Evangelist

| spouse = {{plainlist|

{{marriage|Bessie Simmons|1900|1905|reason=died}}
{{marriage|Annie Laurie Smith|1907}}

}}

| children = 3

| alma_mater = Ogden College

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Mordecai Fowler Ham Jr. (April 2, 1877 – November 1, 1961), was an American Independent Baptist evangelist, a Christian fundamentalist and temperance movement leader. He entered the ministry in 1901 and in 1936 began his long radio evangelistic career. He evangelized until shortly before his death in 1961. Ham was the son of Tobias and Ollie (nee McElroy). He was born on a farm in Allen County, Kentucky near Scottsville, Kentucky. The primary target of his sermons was the drinking of alcohol, which he disdained.{{cite web|url=http://old.post-gazette.com/columnists/20020309roddy0309p5.asp|title=The two faces of Billy Graham|website=old.post-gazette.com|access-date=2013-12-06|archive-date=2013-12-10|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131210210412/http://old.post-gazette.com/columnists/20020309roddy0309p5.asp|url-status=dead}}

Mordecai Ham was an ally of the Baptist preacher J. Frank Norris, who was expelled from the Southern Baptist Convention.{{Cite book |last=Himes |first=Andrew |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aojcMNKpQMoC&dq=Mordecai+Ham+Independent+Baptist&pg=PA170 |title=The Sword of the Lord: The Roots of Fundamentalism in an American Family |date=2011 |publisher=Chiara Press |isbn=978-1-4538-4375-8 |pages=170 |language=en}}

Association with Billy Graham

The well-known American evangelist Billy Graham describes his conversion as happening when attending a meeting of Mordecai Ham, especially noting his usage of Romans 5:8 in the King James version. {{Cite web |last=Library |first=Billy Graham |date=2023-08-16 |title=From the Archive: Billy Graham's Decision for Christ |url=https://billygrahamlibrary.org/blog-from-the-archive-billy-grahams-decision-for-christ/ |access-date=2025-01-18 |website=The Billy Graham Library |language=en-US}}

Racism and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories

Ham had a reputation for racism and anti-Semitic conspiracy theories.{{Cite book |last=Balmer |first=Randall Herbert |url=https://archive.org/details/encyclopediaofev0000balm/ |title=Encyclopedia of evangelicalism |date=2004 |publisher=Waco, TX : Baylor University Press |isbn=978-1-932792-04-1 |pages=319–320 |oclc=47208449}} He believed and preached on various topics based on classical anti-Semitic canards such as believing Jews had special access to political power and influence and that they represent a subversive social force.Dinnerstein, L. [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28631951Antisemitism in America.] New York : Oxford University Press. 1994. The targets for his preaching were often "nebulous rings of Jewish, Catholic or Black conspirators plotting to destroy white Protestant America."Hill, S. Lippy, C. and Wilson, C. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10727233 Encyclopedia of Religion in the South.] Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005, P.365. In 1926 W.O. Saunders, a newspaper editor in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, confronted Ham for defaming a prominent Jew during an evangelistic campaign. Ham had accused the President of Sears, Roebuck & Company in Chicago, Julius Rosenwald, of operating inter-racial prostitution rings in Chicago that exploited white women. Saunders wrote an account of the accusations Ham had made and how Saunders had proved them false called "The Book of Ham."{{Cite web |url=http://highered411.com/Albemarle/BookOfHam.pdf |title=Archived copy |access-date=2014-12-21 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141227192554/http://highered411.com/Albemarle/BookOfHam.pdf |archive-date=2014-12-27 |url-status=dead }} The Book was widely distributed, describing instances of Ham's negative views towards Jews. Ham believed in the ideas of British Israelism, that the white Anglo-Saxon races had been chosen by God. Ham outlined this in a piece of writing called "the Need of the Anglo-Israel Truth" that is featured on some websites of the Identity Movement.Ham, M. [http://truthinhistory.org.htmlThe Need of the Anglo – Israel Truth.]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Unpublished paper.{{cite web|url=http://thetencommandmentsministry.us/ministry/blog/famous-believers/mordecai-ham|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20161104094529/http://thetencommandmentsministry.us/ministry/blog/famous-believers/mordecai-ham|title=The Ministry of Mordecai Ham on The Ten Commandments Ministry website|publisher=|archive-date=2016-11-04}}

However, in his booklet "The Jew" he stated unequally, "though the sins of the Jew have been many and great, yet vengeance belongeth to the Lord, and He will not let you escape if you have hated, or do hate the Jew. Are you a Christian? No Christian will hate the Jew. Through him came the Christ and your Bible. The best, the greatest and the only perfect man who ever lived on earth was a Jew by race."{{Cite web |last=Ham |first=Mordecai |title=The Jew |url=https://digital.library.sbts.edu/bitstream/handle/10392/5413/Ham-The_Jew-ocr.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y }}

Works

The Second Coming of Christ and Revelation
Believing a Lie
Light on the Dance
The Jews
The Need of the Anglo – Israel Truth
The Sabbath Question

Ham received an honorary degree from Bob Jones University in Greenville, South Carolina.

References

{{webarchive |url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060902023816/http://www.wheaton.edu/bgc/archives/GUIDES/118.htm |date=September 2, 2006 |title=Billy Graham Center }}
Balmer, R.H. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/47208449 The encyclopedia of evangelicalism]. Louisville, Kentucky: Westminster John Knox Press, 2002.
Dinnerstein, L. [http://www.worldcat.org/oclc/28631951Antisemitism in America.] New York : Oxford University Press. 1994.
Ham, M. [http://truthinhistory.org.htmlThe Need of the Anglo – Israel Truth.]{{Dead link|date=April 2020 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }} Unpublished paper.
Hill, S. Lippy, C. and Wilson, C. [https://www.worldcat.org/oclc/10727233 Encyclopedia of Religion in the South.] Georgia: Mercer University Press, 2005.
Saunders, W.O. [https://web.archive.org/web/20141227192554/http://highered411.com/Albemarle/BookOfHam.pdf The Book of HamSelf] Published Booklett.1928.

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20070209180107/http://www.truthinhistory.org/ham.htm The Need for the Anglo-Israel Truth featured on Truth in History.Org]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20161104094529/http://thetencommandmentsministry.us/ministry/blog/famous-believers/mordecai-ham/ The Ministry of Mordecai Ham on The Ten Commandments Ministry website]
[https://archive.today/20050323092812/http://chi.gospelcom.net/DAILYF/2003/04/daily-04-02-2003.shtml Biography from Christian History Institute]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061118180928/http://www.swordofthelord.com/biographies/HamMordecai.htm Biography from Swordofthelord.com]
[http://www.believersweb.org/view.cfm?ID=128 Biography by Ruckman]
{{usurped|1=[https://archive.today/20130125231027/http://www.higherpraise.com/preachers/ham.htm Biography from HigherPraise.com]}}
[http://sermons.christiansunite.com/Mordecai_Ham.shtml Sermons by Mordecai Ham]
[https://web.archive.org/web/20060220062521/http://bookshop.biblebelievers.com/product_p/green049.htm Biography by Edward E. Ham]
[https://nyx.uky.edu/fa/findingaid/?id=xt702v2c8c6j Guide to the Mordecai Fowler Ham papers], housed in the University of Kentucky Libraries Special Collections Research Center