Minister Defends
The 'Pink' People
Called Methodists
-9
Looks Al Methodists \ud '
At Critics and Votes
For Methodists
—*-— :
A prominent minister, Rev. W.
W. Finlator, pastor of the First
Baptist Church of Elizabeth City,
had an interesting article in the j
Biblical Recorder telling how he ;
looked at the Methodists, then
looked at Methodism’s critics, and
then gave a refunding vote of
confidence in favor of the Metho
dists. The article, reprinted in the
N. C. Christian Advocate, reads:
The Methodists took rough
sledding in the February Reader’s
Digest. Ttanley High, one of the
Digest. Stanley High, one of the
ed an article in this issue entitled
"Methodism’s Pink Fringe” in
which he arraigns the Methodist
Federation for Social Action for ■
its apparent un-Americanism, j
This organization of some 5,800'
Methodist leaders would seem the |
tail wagging America’s largest!
Protestant sect into an unmis-1
takable ism, and Mr. High is right '
in there to expose "It. Of course I
I he does not make his accusation
in so many words, but by the
familiar methods of sly innuendo
and guilt-by-association and lift
ing quotations out of their con
texts he holds up the suspicion
such leaders of American Metho
dism as Bishop Robert N. Brooks,
Rev. Jack McMichael, Dr. Walter
G. Mueldcr and Dr. Jerome Davis.
The article is buttressed with the
gratuitous information that Mr.
^ High is the son of a Methodist
minister.
For those who wish further to
ferret out the dangerous parsons
regarded as poor loyalty risks the
best is yet to be. John T. Flynn
provides this opportunity in his
book, "The Road Ahead," which
is given ample condensation in
the same Digest issue. Many
reader will agree with Reinhold
♦ Niebuhr that Mr. Flynn's previ
ous claims to fame consist pri
marily in books on the Roosevelt
era in which his judgements and
conclusions are colored by his
venom for the wartime President.
Forsaking its traditional makeup
in which a back seat is reserved
for book condensations, the Read-.
er’s Digest launches its February
issue with "The Road Ahead,”
P introducing it with blurbs by
friendly critics (or quotations
from critics made to seem friend- (
ly) and giving at the end prices 1
for reprints up to 1,000. Neat job ^
of salesmanship. In this highly
touted book Mr. Flynn has a
chapter which, graciously, docs a
not appear in the condensation, ^
under the heading "‘The Kingdom j
of God," and which turns out to c
be an out-and-out attack on the {
Federal Council of Churches. In j
his fervor and zeal Mr. Flynn c
seems not to scruple over the •
reliability and source of the in- j
formation he serves up, for we ,
find him attributing a statement ,
to the social creed of the Federal j
Council which -a fact is non-ex- ,
istent: and he borrows from the ]
book "The Rise of the Tyrant" ,
by Carl McIntyre, an unfrocked ,
Presbyterian minister with feel- ,
ings toward the Federal Council i
that may be described as patho- ,
logical. Mr. McIntyre is the leader ,
of a small rival council known as ,
The American Council of Chris
tian Churches. After asserting
that many of the most powerful
men in tyie Federal Council were
using its machinery and directing
its affairs in the interest of the
creeping socialistic revolution in
America, Mr. Flynn undertakes
the grim business of singling out
the ring leaders.
i Methodist are by now used to
| having their famous Bishop G.
i Bromley Oxnam attacked since
he is generally regarded as the
spokesman for American Pro
testantism, but to behold in print
the suggestion of the Bishop a
j Communist or a Communist fel
low traveler is hard to stomach.
Mr. Flynn is careless enough to
name Bishop Oxnam chairman of
the policy committe of the Feder
al Council which is, of course,
wrong since the Bishop not only
does not hold this office but there
is no such office in the Federal
Council. But no matter; Mr.
Flynn is careless, period.
The spiritual children of Dr. E.
Stanley Jones will be shocked to
learn that the Federal Council
has been sending out their 20th
century prophet to preach the
glories of "Red Christianity,” but
they must take it on the authority
of the indefatigable Flynn. Inci
dentally the title of the chapter,
‘The Kingdom of God,' is a phrase
given fresh breath of life and
meaning by Dr. Jones for whom
it means, according to Mr Flynn,
just pure socialism. In this chap
ter Di*. Jerome Davis come in for
hit share of the dressing down,
and Dr. J. Henry Carpenter, but
it is enough to say that the poor
Methodists are hit the hardists.
It is interesting to observe, how
! ever, that Mr. Flynn is strangely
! Methodism and every communion
[ should be greatly disturbed a
bout this large dull gray fringe,
t This is the real threat to the
i church and to America," And
my case.
silent on the courageous social
statements by the Roman Catholic
Church in America and indicts
not a one of her social-minded
hierarchy. This is prehaps under
standable since he himself comes
of a Roman Catholic background,
i as is also the case of the publish
ing firm which put out the book
i One is tempted to dwell a mo
ment upon the Reader's Digest
, itself which in fact is no longer
| the digest of cunt^il literature
! it once was but a journal about
as doctrinaire and slanted as
Time or Fortune, with a definite
editorial policy and a staff of
contributing editors of its own.
It must be painful indeed for
these editors of a journal of rug
ged individualism to remember
that their chief last year sent an
emissary to Congress to protest
that if Uncle Sam's Post Office
I really charged the Digest what
it cost to deliver the magazine,
Protestant clergy -
as Dr. John Bennett
wdth these stirring words I rest
A
the publication would lose a mil
lion dollars a year and soon fold
up. The Digest was paving her
“road ahead" with a neat govern
ment subsidy.
But to the main purpose. I am
a minister in the Southern Bap
tist Convention and certainly
Methodists don’t need Baptists to I
defend them. Yet it so happened
that I was studying the life of
John Wesley and the history of
early Methodism about the time
•his February issue came out.
Not having the political or eco-j
normc axe of the Digest to grind '
nor yet having subscribed to the
Methodist Articles of Faith, I
may be permitted a word (which
I will not say is completely with
out bias). And 1 contend that the ;
very men arraigned and held up
to suspicion by Messrs. High and i
Flynn are in the true apostolic
succession of Methodism and
pari passu, in the best tradition
of Americanism.
John Wesley did not recruit
his followers from the ranks of
the British aristocracy and pri
vileged classes. He went to the
mines, mills and the slumbs
where his simple, direct preach
ing strangely warmed many,
many hearts. It was the common
people who heard him gladly.
From these forgotten masses Wes
ley chose and developed his lay
preachers when the Established
Church would furnish him with
none. And from these lay preach
ers came, later on, leadership for
the British Labor Party, provid
ins this party with a moral sub- \
stratum unfortunately not always '
in evidence in the American la- ;
bor movement. Let Mr. Flynn and
Mr. Hish ponder this. And let !
Methodists in this country who j
have prospered like the green
bay tree look to the rock from
whence they were hewn. Perhaps
this is a good place to quote from
The Discipline of the Methodist
Church:
"The eighteenth century,”
wrote Woodrow Wilson, “cried
out for deliverar.ee, and God pre
pared John Wesley to show the
world the might and blessing of
his salvation.’ And this deliver
ance meant change, not the
change that might be expected
from any mere adjustment of
political machinery, but the
change that comes of moral earn
estness. Such moral earnestness
we find today in the hearts of our
Stanley Joneses and Bishop Ox
nams. If Mr. Flynn is really inter
ested in revolutions, creeping or
[otherwise, let him remember that
; because England underwent her
Wesleyan moral revolution which
was reflected in every area of her
being, social, political, economic,
she was spared the violence of
political revolutions which ravag
er the nations of the continent
who had no Wesley might be do
ing the same thing for America
in our day when vast areas of
■ the world are plunged in violent
[revolution seems never to have
occurred to the Flynns and Highs.
To them anyone who does not
regard the status quo as divinely
ordained has a "pink fringe."
They make no distinction be
tween a commitment to a form
of socialism as an economic way
of life and. on the other hand, a
social concern for the welfare of
others which every true Christian
must have.
We know their game. We won't
be taken in. They are out to dis
credit the prophets in 'the eyes
of the rank and file church mem
bets. They arc- out to silence!
every voice and smash every pen j
that is not exercised in praise and
adoration of the existing order
of things. To them have been
committed the oracles the ortho
doxy and with the oracles the
authority and commission of
heresy hunting. And wherever
they look they see pink.
According to the North Caro
lina Christian Advocate, however,
there is a fringe that should con
cern us. "This fringe is not pmk.
but may. It is made up of people 1
who fail to sense the urgency of
these times, who cannot feel the
quickening heartbeat of an awak
ening humanity, who close their
eyes and ears to the hunger and
tragedy of millions of their
brothers in other lands, who re
fuse justice and mercy in their
relations with their fellow man
Methodism does not need yet to
be alarmed about its pink fringe.
"As I understand the case,” said
the judge, "you and ydui husband
had a drunken altercation and you
were kicked in the ensuing rum
pus."
"Nn, suh. jedge,” replied Man
dy, "Ah was kicked in de stum
mick."
Middle age is the time in life
when a man stops wondering how
he can escape temptation, and be
gins to wonder if he’s missing any.
ft Takes “Knoiv Htuv"
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