J. King Gordon

John King Gordon CM (1900–1989) was a Canadian Christian minister, editor, diplomat, and academic.[7]

The Reverend

J. King Gordon

CM
Born
John King Gordon

(1900-12-06)6 December 1900
Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada
Died24 February 1989(1989-02-24) (aged 88)
Ottawa, Ontario, Canada
Political partyCo-operative Commonwealth Federation
Spouse(s)
Ruth Anderson
​
(m. 1939)​
Children
Parent(s)Ralph Connor
AwardsPearson Medal of Peace (1980)
Ecclesiastical career
ReligionChristianity (Presbyterian)
ChurchUnited Church of Canada
Ordained1927
Academic background
Alma mater
Influences
Academic work
Discipline
Sub-discipline
School or traditionChristian socialism[6]
Institutions

Gordon was born on 6 December 1900 in Winnipeg, Manitoba, the son of the novelist and future Presbyterian Church moderator Charles Gordon (known by the pen name "Ralph Connor")[8] and his wife Helen King.[9] He received a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Manitoba in 1920. A Rhodes scholar, he studied at The Queen's College, Oxford,[10] from 1920 to 1921. Ordained in 1927, he was a United Church of Canada minister in Manitoba.[11] From 1931 to 1935, he was a professor of Christian ethics at the United Theological College in Montreal.[12] He was dismissed from the college in 1934[13] because of his socialist views.[14] In 1935, he became a travelling professor of Christian ethics, working for the church's Board of Evangelism and Social Service.[15] He became the secretary of the Fellowship for a Christian Social Order the same year.[15] He was also involved with the League for Social Reconstruction.[16]

Gordon married Ruth Anderson in 1939.[17] They had two children, the journalist Charles Gordon[18] and the journalist and novelist Alison Gordon.[19][20]

In 1933, Gordon was one of the authors of the Regina Manifesto[14] and was involved in the Co-operative Commonwealth Federation.[7] From 1944 to 1947, he was managing editor of The Nation magazine.[7] From 1947 to 1950, he was the United Nations correspondent for the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC). From 1950 to 1962, he was the human rights and information officer for the United Nations Secretariat.[14] He also served as President of the United Nations Association in Canada[14][21] circa 1975.[13]

From 1962 to 1967, he taught international relations at the University of Alberta.[7] He also taught at the University of Ottawa for six years.[13]

In 1977, he was made a Member of the Order of Canada.[14] He was the 1980 recipient of the Pearson Medal of Peace[14][22] for his work in peacekeeping. He received honorary doctorates from the Brandon University (1974), Carleton University (1977), the University of Winnipeg (1979), St. Francis Xavier University (1981), and the University of Manitoba (1981).[22] He died of a stroke on 24 February 1989 in Ottawa, Ontario.[23]

See also

References

Footnotes
  1. Fleming 2015, p. 67.
  2. Janzen 2013, p. 344.
  3. Fleming 2015, pp. 64, 78; Janzen 1987, p. 351; Janzen 2013, pp. 67, 343; Wright 1991, p. 71.
  4. Fleming 2015, p. 78; Janzen 2013, p. 67; Wright 1991, p. 71.
  5. Horn 1999, p. 117.
  6. Fleming 2015, pp. 124–125.
  7. Holmes 2013.
  8. Holmes 2013; Janzen 1987, pp. 347–348.
  9. Janzen 2013, pp. 10, 115.
  10. Fleming 2015, pp. 32–33.
  11. Fleming 2015, p. 54.
  12. Horn 1999, p. 114.
  13. Goar, Carol (4 March 1989). "We Should Pay Tribute to King Gordon". Windsor Star. Windsor, Ontario. Toronto Star. p. A7.
  14. "J. King Gordon: Scholar CCF Founder". The Globe and Mail. Toronto. Canadian Press. 25 February 1989. p. A15.
  15. Harrison 1975, pp. 90–91.
  16. Fleming 2015, pp. 80, 125; Masters 1969, p. 36.
  17. Fleming 2015, p. 178.
  18. "Charles Gordon: Incisive, Funny, Retired". Canada.com. Ottawa Citizen. 16 June 2005. Archived from the original on 24 September 2015. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  19. Fleming 2015, p. 179.
  20. Ralph, Dan; Robb, Peter (13 February 2015). "Alison Gordon 1943–2015: Journalist, Author, Trailblazer". Ottawa Citizen. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  21. Wood, Bernard (25 February 1989). "King Gordon: Nine Decades of Energetic Activism". Ottawa Citizen. p. A5.
  22. Fleming 2015, p. 269.
  23. Janzen 2013, p. 395.

Bibliography
  • Fleming, Keith R. (2015). "The World Is Our Parish": John King Gordon, 1900–1989; An Intellectual Biography. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-1-4426-1580-9.
  • Harrison, Marilyn Joan (1975). The Social Influence of the United Church of Canada in British Columbia, 1930–1948 (MA thesis). Vancouver: University of British Columbia. doi:10.14288/1.0093460.
  • Holmes, John W. (2013). "John King Gordon". The Canadian Encyclopedia. Toronto: Historica Canada. Retrieved 14 February 2019.
  • Horn, Michiel (1999). Academic Freedom in Canada: A History. Toronto: University of Toronto Press. ISBN 978-0-8020-0726-1.
  • Janzen, Eileen Calder (1987). "King Gordon's Christian Socialism and the Kingdom of God". Studies in Religion. 16 (3): 347–361. doi:10.1177/000842988701600308. ISSN 2042-0587.
  •  ———  (2013). Growing to One World: The Life of J. King Gordon. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-4261-7.
  • Masters, D. C. (1969). "The Rise of Liberalism in Canadian Protestant Churches" (PDF). CCHA Study Sessions. 36: 27–39. ISSN 0318-6156. Retrieved 15 February 2019.
  • Wright, Robert (1991). A World Mission: Canadian Protestantism and the Quest for a New International Order, 1918–1939. McGill-Queen's Studies in the History of Religion. 7. Montreal: McGill-Queen's University Press. ISBN 978-0-7735-0873-6. ISSN 1181-7445.

Further reading
  • Fraser, Brian J. (1989). "From Anathema to Alternative: The Gordons and Socialism". In Wells, Harold; Hutchinson, Roger (eds.). A Long and Faithful March: Towards the Christian Revolution, 1930s/1980s. Toronto: United Publishing House. ISBN 978-0-919000-46-9.
  • Janzen, Eileen R. (1980). The Development of Democratic Socialist Ideas in English Canada Within the Context of an Emerging Canadian Political Consciousness: F. H. Underhill, Frank R. Scott, J. King Gordon (PhD dissertation). Bloomington, Indiana: Indiana University. OCLC 869158091.

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