Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1923-12-29
New Outbreak Forecast for
Present Week After Pas
tors Heed Bishops Plea
Not to Mar Christmas by
WrangIe
BY ROWLAND WOOD
Heased Wire Service TO The JOurnal.)
Copyright, 1929


NEW YORK, Dec. 27.-The Christ
mas truce in the Protestant Eplsco-
pal church is ended. The Wrangle
over the nativity of the Christ child
suspended at Bishop Manning's re-
quest in order that chickering's over
the literal Interpretation of the story
of Bethlehem might not mar the
celebration of Christ's birthday, is
expected to break out again this
weekend with renewed intensity.
Bishop Manning himself may touch
off the next explosion. 1t was re-
ported today that he was preparing
an answer to the Rev. DR.. Leighton
Parks, OF st. Bartholomew whose
defense of the modernistic disbelief
in the Bible story Of the virgin birth
of Christ has stirred religious New
York to it's foundations. Careful
study, it is said, has convinced Bish-
Oh Manning that DR.. Parks did not
render himself liable to heresy trial
by his utterances. DR.. Parks, it was
pointed out, while he defended the
right of clergymen to their own
opinions on the subject, himself did
not specifically disavOw BELIEF in the
virgin birth.
That the bishop would act dras-
tically against any clergyman OF his
diocese who dared make formal de
NAL of the truth of the story which
most of the modernists are question
ing, was the assertion of his friends.
The bishop set forth the funda-
mentalist position clearly enough in
his Christmas sermon at the cathe-
dral Of st. John the Divine.
"Our hearts today follow the hum
BILE shepherds to the stable at Beth
lehem, where in the manager the
bessed virgin mother had laid her
holy child" he said in the course
OF his sermon.
That was the nearest Bishop Man
ming came to referring to the con-
troversy which has threatened dis
ruption of the Episcopal church here
and throughout the country.
e. DIR. Guthrie Backs Him
Meanwhile a measure of support
came to him from an unexpected
uuarter-frcm Dr. William Norman
Guthrie, rector ,of st. Marks in the
Bouwerie, a modern. of the modern
lists. DR.. Guthrie, who, recently in
CURED Bishop Manning's displeas-
ure by permitting "bare-leggeaa
dances in the parish house, deplored
the entire controversy.
I'm all the world of literature, so
far as I know" he said, there
never was a story told with such eX-
quisite reserve and poetic dainti-
ness, such divine idyllic genius as
the gospel of The nativity. Who can
bear to think Of such a story being
taken as laboratory material by the
illogical entOmOiogistS?"
Referring to the story as a
myth" he continued: Because the
story is called a myth does not mean
it is not true. 1t means, on the con-
trary, it is so true it does not need
to be historical. It's so true that it's
factuality becomes of no Importance.
The soul of men has had experience
which gives it faith in the stories.
These stories are truer than the ac-
tual experience Of history. If it
really happened, why then so much
the better"
Neutral Christmas
The rest of the Episcopalian
churches, whether led by funda-
m ntalists or modernists, observed
the strict Christmas neutrality that
Bishop Manning had urged. Strange
ly enough, however, the Episcopal
ian church, where the present war"
originated was about the only place
that the subject was not discussed.
Catholic clergymen and those of
Protestant denominations other than
the Episcopalian touched on the
controversy. And it was widely dis
cussed by laymen at home and
abroad.
The consensus of opinion among
the limited number of laymen whose
views the writer happened to hear
aired was summed up by a woman
as she rod across the Hudson
Christmas night on the fore deck of
a ferry boat:
Neither side can prove it is right
It's something you believe or YOU
don't, so why all this argument?"