Actor Jack

      Like George Whitefield of Great Awakening fame, Jack longed to be an actor before anything else.[1] You could blame it on his upbringing in southern California, though none of his brothers or sisters seemed to have the same desire – and he had plenty of siblings; two older brothers, one older sister, two younger brothers, and one younger sister.  (Whitefield, too, had six siblings, though he was the youngest).Jack landed smack in the middle of a family that received much media attention. The attention came from people’s interest in the father, “Fighting Bob” Shuler. “Fighting Bob” pastored the Trinity Methodist Church in downtown Los Angeles.

      Over the years, “Fighting Bob” had attracted many friends, but along with that, many enemies. He was what you would call a “fighting fundamentalist,” someone who thought it worthwhile to fight for his faith and his values.[2]

      After completing high school, Jack attended nearby Whittier College taking pre-law classes. Still interested in acting, he was also a member of the Poet Theater in Los Angeles.  In his freshman year at Whittier he met a senior who would later have a long political career - Richard Nixon.

      He left Whittier and started at Bob Jones College in the 1939-1940 school year as a result of his father’s urging and persuasion. This college had just added acting classes as part of its curriculum. This proved to bring about a radical change in Shuler’s life.

      Jack Shuler told of his conversion at Bob Jones College in his later revival meetings. In a 1956 interview he explained what happened.

      “My dad wanted me to be a preacher, but I didn’t even want to go to church when I was a youth,” he said. “I was converted while doing a vesper play, ‘Barabbas,’ which portrays the robber who was released in place of Christ, who was crucified.

      “Religion had sickened me prior to that, but the gospel came to me so forcefully as I acted the part of Barabbas that I could no longer resist.”[3]

      Jack began his preaching career at Trinity Methodist, often sharing the pulpit with his father and his brother, Bob Jr. Soon he was holding extended revivals in other towns.

      His style was not quite like any other of a number of rising evangelists. Again, like Whitefield, he often acted out biblical characters in his sermons. Audiences increased. Other evangelists took notice. One of those was Billy Graham, who began to try the same technique but without the same success.

      For example, in his sermon, “Prepare to meet thy God” during the 1949 Los Angeles crusade, Graham created a conversation between the prophet, Amos and Amaziah. When Amos wants to talk to the king, Amaziah tells him, “Hillbilly, What do you want?” Amos tells him he wants to see the king. So Amaziah later says, “Oh, so you want to preach, eh? Well, if you want to preach, you go back to the hillbillies and preach. This is the king’s court and we don’t allow any hillbilly preachers up here telling the king what to do.”[4]

      Billy’s wife, Ruth, didn’t care for Billy’s acting and told him so. “As an actor, I’m afraid he is pretty much a ham,” she said. “When he starts that kind of acting sermon, I usually start to squirm.” She advised him to stop it. “Bill,” she said, “Jesus didn’t act out the Gospel. He just preached it. I think that’s all he called you to do!”[5]

      Graham eventually backed off from that approach. But Jack Shuler made it his trademark and proved to be highly successful at it. By 1953 the evangelical community considered him the heir to Billy Sunday. Homer Rodeheaver, one time music director for Sunday, revealed what others thought of Shuler when Rodeheaver spoke enthusiastically about the abilities of evangelist Merv Rosell. Rodeheaver wrote to Rosell in 1953, “While you were preaching, I caught little glimpses of Billy Sunday and if Jack Shuler does not prove to be the one, in case a Billy Sunday picture is made, I feel you could do it.”[6]

 From Spokane Daily Chronicle, September 22, 1956

   Accompanying the above picture published on September 22, 1956 was a Spokane Daily Chronicle article titled Old College Days Recalled by Nixon, Evangelist Shuler. In it, Vice President Richard Nixon "recalled a Whittier homecoming game in which Shuler and his brother, Bob, 'connected with a touchdown pass that broke up the game and won it for Whittier in the last minutes of play. That was one of the longest passes I ever saw, Jack, and you caught it beautifully and outran the backfield to put the game in the bag.'”

   Shuler had a reply for Nixon. Shuler said, “I remember you, too, Dick, as the one who wielded a pretty stiff paddle during my initiation into the Orthagonians (Whittier’s athletic society). I said when you landed that first swat, ‘this guy’s no ordinary man. He’s going places!’”

---

[1] “At an early age, he [George Whitefield] found that he had a passion and talent for acting in the theatre, a passion that he would carry on through the very theatrical re-enactments of Bible stories that he told during his sermons.” http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/George_Whitefield

[2] See Robert P. Shuler III, Fighting Bob Shuler of Los Angeles (Indianapolis, IN: Dog Ear Publishing). For a brief review of his life, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_P._Shuler

[3] Spokane Daily Chronicle, September 10, 1956.

[4] Revival in our Time (Wheaton, IL: Van Kampen Press, 1950), 124-125.

[5] William Martin, A Prophet With Honor (New York: William Morrow and Co., Inc., 1991), 127.

[6] Garth M. Rosell, The Surprising Work of God (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2008), 119, note 52.