Page 72 - The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand Vol.XIII-2021

The International Journal of the Royal Society of Thailand
Volume XIII – 2021

Hope against all hope, the good fight against devilish and deadly powers of
darkness, political engagement as applied Christianity: Thomas Mann’s democratic
rhetoric is surprisingly well-versed in the Bible. And he talks about all of this on his

own accord. An advertisement in the Church section of the “Los Angeles Times” on
Saturday, March 3, 1951, announced the event in the First Unitarian Church for the
following Sunday. The title of the speech, however, was originally much narrower,
conceived as: “The Unfinished Task. The Work of the Unitarian Service Committee.”

In his memoirs, Fritchman notes: “The most impressive pulpit editorial of my
Los Angeles ministry was given in March of 1951, when Thomas Mann spoke to a
filled auditorium of well over eight hundred... It still gives me joy just to recall some
of those words”. The most impressive “pulpit editorial” in the twenty-two years

of his ministry – Fritchman’s emphatic judgment is not only due to, as one would
think, the mere popularity of the speaker; Nobel prize winners Linus Pauling or Lion
Feuchtwanger would be candidates too. Fritchman had a different reason to ascribe
this singular importance to Thomas Mann’s speech. “Dr. Mann’s brief editorial”,
he adds, “helped to define the concept of religion we were attempting to
circulate in those days.” Thus, in the middle of the cold war, Thomas Mann helped
to redefine the understanding of religion among the California Unitarians.

“It was a day of sorrow for Frances and me,” Fritchman remembered,
“when Dr. Mann … returned to Europe … We would miss those visits to

the house in Pacific Palisades.” Thomas Mann’s “lively and militant […]
interest” in Unitarianism survived the struggles of exile and his return
to Europe. Anyway, Mann and Fritchman did not lose contact. As late
as December 1954 Thomas Mann records in his diary, among notes
on world affairs, “Wrote message to Fritchman, Unitarian Church.
Give money.” This last message, written in Kilchberg eight months
before his death, is Thomas Mann’s last word to Fritchman. Again, he

remembered the familial relationship to the Unitarian church and,
quite solemnly, the private letter changes into the “message”:

Leaving this aside, the spirit of your church, Christian humanism, which she
advocates and which you humbly and bravely proclaim, – it is this spirit that attracts
me since I learned about it and which I admire in true sympathy. Today, everyone
speaks about the necessity to defend speech, freedom, and human dignity against

62 Unitarianism as “Applied Christianity” Thomas Mann and the Unitarian Church in the USA