Harrisburg telegraph. [volume] (Harrisburg, Pa.) 1879-1948, 1915-05-07
bombshell has been thrown into

n bombshell has been thrown into
~ the Presbyterian Church in the
United States of America by the
sudden ousting of the secretary of the
Board of Home Missions. Joseph Ern-
est McAfee, who has been personally
notified by the president of the board,
the Rev. DR.. Wilton Merle Smith, that
the board will not re-elect him to a
secretaryship.
The dropping of a secretary, more
or less, is in itself small matter: but
this particular case is recognized by
all sides as the crisis in a conflict of
two powerful forces which are con-
tending for control of the Presbyter-
ian denomination. On one side is ex-
treme conservatism-reac is
the name it's opponents give (which
processes to be Jealous for orthodoxy
and evangelism; and on the other is
the progressive element in the church,
which favors social service, rural
church conservation. and cooperation
with other denominations.
An Assembly Fight in Prospect
The outcome will be a struggle in
the General Assembly. which meets
this month in Rochester. that may
possibly be more serious than the
great COHleSlS over revision OF the
creed or union with the Cumberland
Church. For two years past the af-
fairs of the Home Board have kept
the denomination In a turmoil. 1t
was thought that a compromise had
been effected, by the dropping of
Charles Stelzle and his department
from the board
The mutterings throughout the
church over the loss of Stelzle, who
Mt
of the social service idea into all the
leading denominations, and the ap-
prochement of the church and the
worllingman, had not died down be-
fore this second radical action was
taken.
For McAfee has been the foremost
personality in effecting a working CO.
operation of the various home mission
bodies of North America. He has
spoken audaciously-for q board sec
retary-about the waste of mission
money in foisting competing churches
upon small communities. Nor has he
minced words in pointing out the
wickedness of promoting denomina-
tional rivalry at the expense of Chris
tian efficiency and cooperation. Like
wise, he has advocated the approach
of the church toward the great social
problems of the time, including the in
dustrial.
Thus he, like Stelzle, has incurred
the antagonism of that element In the
church which attacks what it says are
tendencies toward Socialism," and
which insists that the church must
adhere strictly to preaching the sim
pie gospel" All innovations for
reaching the masses, such as the La
Dor Temple, in New York City, are
resented by this wing of Presbyterian
ism.
Subsidizing the Church Press
The ugliest phase of the matter is
the allegation, openly made by the So
cial service men, that it is not zeal for
evangelism or orthodoxy that ami
mates the leaders who have at last
"got" McAfee and Stelzle, but devo-
ton to the old ideals of big busi-
ness
They point out that the two most
relentless foes of social service in the
Presbyterian Church, DIR. Wilton
Merle-Smith, pastor of the fashion
able Central Church, New York City.
and DIR. Maitland Alexander, the pres
ent moderator of the General Assem-
bly, and pastor of the First Church,
Pittsburgh are both wealthy men
''millionaires, they say-and allied
with corporate interests which are op-
posed to having the church identified