Editing Henry A. Wallace (section)

==Mysticism and Roerich controversy==
[[File:N Roerich.jpg|thumb|upright=1|Wallace associated with controversial émigré Russian [[Theosophy (Blavatskian)|Theosophist]] Nicholas Roerich]]

Wallace was raised a [[Calvinism|Calvinist]] but showed an interest in other religious teachings during his life.<ref name= "senatevpbio">{{cite web |last1= Hatfield |first1=Mark O. | work = Vice Presidents of the United States | title = Henry Agard Wallace (1941–45) |url= https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/henry_wallace.pdf |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20221009/https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/history/resources/pdf/henry_wallace.pdf |archive-date=October 9, 2022 |url-status=live |publisher=U.S. Government Printing Office |access-date=January 11, 2019}}</ref> He was deeply interested in religion from a young age, reading works by authors like [[Ralph Waldo Emerson]], [[Ralph Waldo Trine]], and [[William James]], whose ''[[The Varieties of Religious Experience]]'' had a particularly strong impact on Wallace.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 31–32</ref> After his grandfather's death in 1916, he left the [[Presbyterian Church (USA)|Presbyterian Church]] and became increasingly interested in [[mysticism]]. He later said, "I know I am often called a mystic, and in the years following my leaving the United Presbyterian Church I was probably a practical mystic…  I'd say I was a mystic in the sense that [[George Washington Carver]] was – who believed God was in everything and therefore, if you went to God, you could find the answers". Wallace began regularly attending meetings of the [[Pantheism|pantheistic]] [[Theosophical Society]], and, in 1925, he helped organize the Des Moines parish of the [[Liberal Catholic Church]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 77–79</ref> Wallace left the Liberal Catholic Church in 1930 and joined the [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]], but he continued to be interested in various mystic groups and individuals.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), p. 96</ref>

Among those with whom Wallace corresponded were author [[George William Russell]],<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), p. 39</ref> astrologer L. Edward Johndro, and Edward Roos, who took on the persona of a [[Native Americans in the United States|Native American]] [[medicine man]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 96–97</ref> In the early 1930s, Wallace began corresponding with [[Nicholas Roerich]], a prominent Russian émigré, artist, peace activist, and Theosophist.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 130–32</ref> With Wallace's support, Roerich was appointed to lead a federal expedition to the [[Gobi Desert]] to collect drought-resistant grasses.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 135–37.</ref> Roerich's expedition ended in a public fiasco, and Roerich fled to [[India]] after the [[Internal Revenue Service]] launched a tax investigation.<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 143–44</ref>

The letters that Wallace wrote to Roerich from 1933 to 1934 were eventually acquired by Republican newspaper publisher [[Paul Block]].<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 231–33.</ref>  The Republicans threatened to reveal to the public what they characterized as Wallace's bizarre religious beliefs before the November 1940 elections but were deterred when the Democrats countered by threatening to release information about Republican candidate Wendell Willkie's rumored extramarital affair with the writer [[Irita Van Doren]].<ref>{{cite web|url= http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Henry_Wallace.html|archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20060215120817/http://www.adherents.com/people/pw/Henry_Wallace.html|url-status= usurped|archive-date= February 15, 2006|title=The religion of Henry A. Wallace, U.S. Vice-President | work = Adherents}}</ref> The contents of the letters did become public seven years later, in the winter of 1947, when right-wing columnist [[Westbrook Pegler]] published what were purported to be extracts from them as evidence that Wallace was a "messianic fumbler", and "off-center mentally". During the 1948 campaign Pegler and other hostile reporters, including [[H. L. Mencken]], aggressively confronted Wallace on the subject at a public meeting in Philadelphia in July. Wallace declined to comment, accusing the reporters of being Pegler's stooges.<ref>[[Westbrook Pegler]] (July 27, 1948). [https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=950&dat=19480727&id=vg1QAAAAIBAJ&sjid=jFUDAAAAIBAJ&pg=1451,4147751 "In Which Our Hero Beards 'Guru' Wallace In His Own Den"]. As Pegler Sees It (column). ''The Evening Independent'' (St. Peteresburg, FL).</ref> Many press outlets were critical of Wallace's association with Roerich; one newspaper mockingly wrote that if Wallace became president "we shall get in tune with the Infinite, vibrate in the correct plane, outstare the Evil Eye, reform the witches, overcome all malicious spells and ascend the high road to health and happiness".<ref>Culver & Hyde (2000), pp. 483–84</ref>

Henry Wallace reportedly dabbled in [[Zoroastrianism]] and [[Buddhism]].<ref>{{Cite book|title=The Vitamin Complex|last=Price|first= Catherine|date=March 16, 2015|publisher= Oneworld |isbn=978-1-78074-347-9}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal |last= Carruthers |first= Susan L.|date=2013|title= Review of The Untold History of the United States |journal= The Journal of American History |volume= 100|issue= 3 |pages= 924–29 |issn= 0021-8723|jstor=44308919|doi= 10.1093/jahist/jat536}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url= https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20121109/entlife/711099997/ |title= Oliver Stone delves into America's 'Untold History' |last=Cutler|first=Jacqueline |date= November 9, 2012|website=Daily Herald |language= en-US|access-date= December 29, 2019}}</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|last=Jewett |first= Andrew|date=2013|title=The Social Sciences, Philosophy, and the Cultural Turn in the 1930s USDA|journal=Journal of the History of the Behavioral Sciences |volume= 49|issue=4|pages=396–427 |doi= 10.1002/jhbs.21629 |pmid=23982926 |issn= 1520-6696}}</ref>