The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-02
County Takes Hand in LaWtOn
Presbyterian Church Row.
Attorney Declares He VIII Find
Who Abducted the Pastor.
CIVIL COURTS GET THE CASE
The Rev. Irwin, Indicted for
Conduct, Dislikes Presbytery.
He May Deny the Right of Body
tB Put Him From Church.
CBy the Associated Press)


LaWton. Okla. May 2.-The Lawton
Presbyterian church controversy got
outside the confines of the church to-
day
County authorities took a hand. A
court of inquiry was under way di-
rected by County Attorney Fletcher
Riley, who announced he would go to
the bottom of the whole dissension in
an effort to determine the identity of
three men who last Saturday night
abducted the pastor, the Rev Thomas
J. Irwin and threw him in a ditch be-
side a road outside Lawton. half con-
scious and securely tied and gagged.
He SubpOenas 80 Persons.
The county attorney declared he
would inquire into every phase of the
case. Filing of criminal charges. he
said. would depend upon the outcome
OF the investigation. The county at
torney started about this inquiry today
by preparing subpoenas Tor about
thirty persons who had been sus-
pended from Pastor Twins church
They We're ousted by the church
session or executive board, with the
sanction of Mr. Irwin and have been
aligned against the minister in the
movement TO have him expelled from
the Lawton pulpit on formal charges
drawn up by the governing FL Reno
Presbytery
County Attorney Riley said all the
suspended members. or anti-Irwin fac
tionists would be interrogated about
the abduction of the pastor and it was
indicated that each would be asked to
explain his whereabouts on the night
of the alleged smuggling and KIDNAPPING
took place.
Pastor Questioned Again.
Pastor Irwin and three members of
the church session were called in last
night and questioned at length when
the county attorney decided to con-
Nene the inquiry court Their testi-
mony was kept secret and it was not
known whether MIR. Irwin gave any
clue to the identity of his abductorS-
He has publicly stated that he did not
recognize the three men,
Speculation today conferred upon
whether Mr.. Irwin would submit to
trial before a commission appointed
b. blythe FL Reno presbytery on charges
of conduct unbecoming a minister.
The trial is set for May 8
The pastor asserted he was going to
carry his case before the Oklahoma
synod and intimated he planned a
sstfategical moveme Mr.. Twins
mzinstays in the dissension, which has
been SETTLING in the congregation for
months among the members of the
church. resigned yesterday after con-
lemuinE the presbytery for alleged
persecution of the pastor
They announced they were still In
the fight in support of the minister
and that their withdrawal from the
church and the jurisdiction of the
presbytery did not mean they had
folded their tents
With this turn of events. observers
of the fray Interpreted the predicted
strategy as possibly a refusal by the
pastor to admit the power of the state
synod. Recourse to the civil courts,
where the pastor already has obtained
an Injunction to prevent interference
with his church. was also considered
as choice of battle and another lay
in following the course of the eSecu-
tive board in resigning, but still stick
ing by his guns on the Lawton battle
ground.
A marriage bond tied by Pastor Ir-
win at a bathing pool, the duration OF
which was about as scanty as the garb
worn at the ceremony by the bride
and bridegroom; church movie exhl-
billions and remarks made by the pas
tor in his funeral sermon a year ago
over the body of the late Jake L.
Hamon, Republican national commit
teeulan from Oklahoma. are some OF
the seeds from which the dissension
grew