Benton Rhoades
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James Benton Rhoades (1920 - 2003)

James Benton (Benton) Rhoades
Born in Astoria, Illinois, United Statesmap
[sibling(s) unknown]
Husband of — married [date unknown] [location unknown]
Husband of — married 3 Jan 1988 in Riverside Church, Manhattan, New York City, New York, United Statesmap
Descendants descendants
Father of [private daughter (1940s - unknown)]
Died at age 82 in Claremont, California, United Statesmap
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Profile last modified | Created 24 Jan 2021
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Biography

J. Benton Rhoades, son of Paul J. and Orpha Benton Rhoades, the 9th generation from Heinrich Roth (original immigrant to USA) was born on a farm near Astoria, Illinois, March 31, 1920. "My schooling was in one-room schools and traveling daily by horseback. I graduated from the Astoria High School, 1935." B.A. degree in sociology at Manchester College in Indiana, 1942. Masters of Divinity from Bethany Theological Seminary, 1945, Chicago, Illinois. Graduating from seminary, Benton and Ruby went to Ecuador to open a rural mission in a Quechua Indian community. "During the next ten years we saw th community gain literacy, medical care, agricultural improvement, cooperatives and a church which is now a part of the United Ecumenical Church of Ecuador." Leaving Ecuador, 1955, they moved to Elgin, Illinois where Benton was on the national staff of the Church of the Brethren for two years before becoming executive director of Agricultural Missions, of the National Council of Churches, New York City. His work for 29 years took him to churches, both Roman Catholic and Protestant in some 50 countries as a counselor to rural missionaries and peasant movements working with an ecumenical staff in New York, USA and Geneva, Switzerland. Benton, after Ruby's 1985 death, moved to New York City permanently (instead of part-time). He met and married Doris Caldwell, a retired missionary of the Presbyterian Church in Hong Kong and China. In May 1992 they moved to Pilgrim Place, a retirement community for church workers of many denominations in Claremont, California. The following is an excerpt from an article by Benton, published in the Brethren Messenger July 1984: "Only the poor are hungry and it is getting worse. The majority of God's children are mired down in a long war against hunger even in the U.S.A. It is misleading to say we are at peace while hunger lasts. Hunger is no accident, we create it. The fastest growing group of farmers consists of banks, insurance companies and corporations who force feed the land with fertilizer that masks that the land is poorer each year. In tropical "Third World" countries land is grabbed to produce cash--coffee, cotton, cane, cattle, etc., land which the poor need for beans, rice and basic foods if they are to survive. Unjust structures build hunger and do not make for plenty or for peace." [1]

Sources

  1. Follow the Peter Rhoades Trail: 1686-1997. by Nelda Rhoades Eikenberry. 1997 Personal recollection of events witnessed by Brett Shull as remembered 24 Jan 2021.




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