The call of the North. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1923-1924, 1923-10-05
PROTESTANT MINISTER.
WITH A CONVICTION

With A CONVICTION
A minister, for whom the News ed
itor has much respect, and who is
known to quite a number of our peo-
pie, asks US to publish the following:
The Khan and The Church
One of the most undeserved and
groundless criticisms that is being
hurled at the Knights of the Ku Klux
Klan, is the charge that the organiza-
ton is seeking to displace the church.
And regrettable indeed, is the fact
that this accusation comes for the
greater part from the lips and the
pens of Protestants whose eyes are
clouded with the scales of prejudice
and suspicion.
Nothing is farther from the truth
than this charge against the motives
of the Klan, and nothing could be
more illogical of it's attempts, were
displaced. If it is not so founded, it
is a failure and will displace itself.
If the Christian church is built on
the solid rock of Gods eternal truth,
and the mission of the Khan were to
substitute some other organization or
movement to displace the church, God
Himself would destroy the attempts.
If the church has departed from
the path of righteousness and fallen
back into worldliness, then it needs
no outside attacks to make it fail
ure. God has gone out of it and it
has lost it's power.
Serious and tragic as it may be,
the truth must be admitted that the
average church has slipped and is still
slipping. Commercialism and modern
life has usurped the throne of gen.
uine religion, and the church without
the true Christian religion has failed
and as far as the spiritual good of
mankind is concerned it might just as
we'll close it's doors.
There is only one way possible for
the Khan to displace the church and
that is that men can find in the great
Organization the spiritual food that
they ought to find in the church, but
fail to find it there.
If the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan
lifts up the Christ high above the
heads of men and thereby draws men
unto it, then the Klan will displace
the church that fails to exalt the
same Christ.
The true motive of the Khan is to
replace the church-not displace it
and the fact shows that in communi-
ties where the Khan is strong and &C
tive, church attendance has increased
to a wonderful degree.
The Knights of the Ku Klux Khan
does not presume to be a sanity or
ganization. But in spite of the libel
and persecution of it's enemes and
the narrow prejudices and suspicion
of the uniformed Protestants, who
should be its friends, it is hallowed
by all who enter it's portals as a
movement inspired of God, and called
of Him to serve a mighty mission in
the world.
No one who has ever come under
the sacred influence of the teachings
of Kancraft can appreciate what a
renewed spirit of faith in eternal God
enters the heart as they, under the
American flag and the golden cross
pledge their loyalty of heart and
service to God, America and purity of
life.
What a pitiable Protestant, indeed,
is that one who stands opposed to an
organization that is seeking to pre-
serve America for liberty, and that is
fighting the most deadly foe that
America has ever known.
The Khan is opening the eyes of
many Christian to the fact that
there is more to the Christian life
than to "be carried to the skies on
fowery beds of ease"
A member of a prominent church
in Springfield recently volunteered
the following statement: after l
got into the Ku Klux Khan 1 found
out what a worthless hypocrite l had
been. The Klan put me right with
God"
Another Christian, seventy-five
years old, who has led prayer meet
ing and taught Bible classes for sixty
years of his life, and who recently
became a Klansman, remarked in
answer to a question of a friend as
to what he thought of the Khan:
"Well, if there is anything that is as
good as the religion of Jesus Christ,
the Khan is that thing"
The hundreds of ministers of the
various churces that are going into
the Klan is indicative of the error
and fallacy of the charge that the
Khan is trying to substitute an organ
ization for the church. And no
preacher has yet become a Klansman
but that has been fired with new zeal
for the Master and his Work, because
the teachings of the Khan instill into
the hearts of men a courage to stand
for the truth and fearlessly to con-
denim sin and vice.
Then, too, how doubly pitiful the
class of Protestants who stand aloof
from this great organization and in