Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-01-18
RABBI HITS AT CRAPSEY.
Attacks Deposed Rector's Views on
Old Testament.
From the New York Tribune

From the New York Tribune.
Rabbi f. n. Brown of Temple BETHEL,
Brooklyn, who had been friendly to the
views of the deposed Episcopalian rector
DR.. Algernon s. Crapsey. on the birth Of
Christ, denounced DR.. Crapsey yesterday
in the course of a sermon to the congrega-
ton of Temple Gates of Hope, which meets
in Alhambra Hall. 9TH avenue and 126th
street, Rabbi Brown based his denunciatory
remarks on DR.. Crapsey's first address in
public after the trial, in which he declared
that Adam never existed and that the Bible
story of creation was a myth. Rabbi
Brown declared that DR.. Crapsey was in
spired by a feeling of personal revenge and
was seeking to destroy the two fundamen-
tai principles of Christianity.
After reviewing the famous trial which
he declared should be called "a boxing ex-
hibition, which in reality was a prizefight
to a finish" and adding that 1t had no
personal interest for Judaism because it
was fought on Christian field, the New
Testament, Rabbi Brown said he would
take up the gauntlet in defense of the Old
Testament, whose truth DR.. Crapsey had
questioned. He said in part
In his desperation DR.. Crapsey, so FAR re-
spected by everybody as fair fighter.
from his own point of view although he
suppianted the theological Queensberry
rules for code of his own, having re-
courts verdicts, and having taken his
thirty days count. suddenly jumps over the
ropes, abandoning the ground staked out
for fighting his bishop and runs amuck
among the disinterested innocent bystand
ers, outside of the New Testament, hitting
right and left at the Old Testament, at
Judaism in its first chapters OF Genesis.
calling the Garden of Eden a fabrication,
Adam myth, etc.
The great misfortune of the Bible in our
day is the overzeal of its friends. They do
not allow 1t to be criticised, according to
modern criticism. maintaining that every
statement In Genesis is to be taken LITERAL
ly in our days by men who know that
modern science does not coincide with ac-
counts given by Moses in Genesis. And
here 1 may startle my Jewi sh and Christian
brethren. the clergy, II l say that Moses
did not expect literal acceptance OF the
first chapters of Genesis as to creation the
fall of man. etc, and that he did not write
those chapters for future generations Of in
telligent men and women. And, too, he old
not base the religion of Judaism upon the
first chapters In Genesis l say that Moses
used those statements as temporary prop
for the upbuilding of character in our slave
ancestors when freed from Egyptian bond
age.
And these are the chapters that Dr. Crar-
sey is fighting as Don Quixote did the
Z:
rating what he called his theological die
coyery He said that Moses inculcated the
doctrines of early Genesis first in his fo.-
lowers. expecting TO lead them from Egypt
into citizenship in the promised land. Moses
was Informed by the divine authority, he
said. that none of his followers was fit to
go into the free citizenship. Thereupon
Moses changed his doctrines. dropping the
dogmas of early Genesis and taking up an
entirely new form OF teaching.
HE ignored Genesis just like DR.. Crap
sey." said the preacher, and his doctrines
were not unlike those OF DR.. Crapsey. lie
made In Deuteronomy a teaching OF relig-
lon of reason. pure and simple, beyond the
criticism of DIR. Crapsey." -f