Miller’s Double Life. Act 1.

I know I said I was going to take you along on my first journey through researching the Straight Inc program and the troubled teen industry as a whole, but today, eight years later, I’m stilling finding new printed material on our old friend Miller Newton. So, while my posts may not be in the same order as I originally found them, I think you will stiil find this blog quite interesting, not to mention enlightening.

I just have to share this latest article-find with you.  I came across it yesterday. It’s called TEEN-AGE PASTOR: He’s a College Boy With Three Growing Congregations. It was published in as a supplement in the Corpus Christi Caller Times (Corpus Christi, TX) on June 9, 1957. Written by Ralph Schoenstein whom I suspect was a good friend of Miller’s Dad, “Red” Newton (aka Virgil Miller Newton, Jr.).

Also before I continue, I must tell you about the reputation that this newspaper magazine had when it was in circulation. This is from Wikipedia. The American Weekly was a United States magazine published by the Hearst Corporation from November 1, 1896 until 1966. It served as a Sunday newspaper supplement which published many sensationalist stories, resulting in it having been compared to the National Enquirer. It was initially named The American Magazine but soon changed to The American Weekly. The name was changed to Pictorial Living in 1963 before it was finally canceled in 1966. Due to the low quality of the paper on which it was printed, many issues have been lost despite it boasting a 50,000,000 circulation. As a result, it has become a collectors item. I also found similar commentary on other web sites as well. (ie. Illustrators for the American Weekly.)

Anyway, it appears that Miller Newton got bitten by the “Megalomaniac-Bug” early on. I’m not sure how early, but it had to be at least as young as 17. According to this article, “unless some church has a pastor under 18, Miller Newton, Princeton ’60, is the youngest pastor in the United States.”

This was Act I in a show called, “This Is Your Life, Mr. Reverend Doctor Father Virgil Miller Cassian Newton III!”  Shoenstein described Miller Newton as looking “more like a teen-ager’s idol than a man of God.” This author goes on to describe Newton’s “double life.” He tells how during the week Newton attend Princeton. Then after preparing sermons and handling other church affairs in the afternoons, he studies humanities until past midnight. (hmm, he must have spent more time preaching than studying… cause I surely don’t think the humanities stuff stuck with him.) And “on weekends he moves from Princeton to lead the other half of his remarkable double life. He conducts religious services at three small churches in southern New Jersey…..He marries, buries, baptizes, serves communion, pays sick calls, works with the young people (hmmm, I guess his ‘work’ with ‘young people’ started early on too.) and preaches. He goes on and on about his rigorous schedule then mentions the his father is the fairly famous Virgil “Red” Newton, managing editor of the Tampa Tribune and former president of the AP Managing Editors Association. He calls Newton the “ecclesiastical whiz kid.” (excuse me while I go vomit.) While he may have been all that this man is saying, it’s just so tough to imagine him to be any different then, than he has been for the last 25-30 years.  I mean even the verbiage Newton uses is the same when he was 17 as more recently. The actual quote in the news article is, “I show young people that they can have a good time and still be good Christians.”  Sound familiar? Just change 1 or 2 words and it’s a very familiar mantra.

While to the average person, that phrase seems perfectly sensible, people who have been there know exactly what I mean about how what Miller says and who he is can be polar opposites. Keep in mind that Miller Newton is, was and always has been a very charismatic leader. But his charisma hides a very dark side of his real personality.

ACT II will continue in the next post…..