Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1924-02-07

the Christian faith The basis for Christian
faith may be debatable, but whether it
should be in Christian church is not de-
batable question. 1t is quite possible that
this particular theological sensationalist may
be- as he seems to think, an improvement oE
the founders Of his professed faith, but the
readers of newspapers who witness his per-
sistent posing for the spotlight are filled with
disgust rather than with reverence for this
headlner of religious vaudeville.
contempt for the past with all its admo-
ntions, traditions and inspirations, is char
acteristic of cheap brand of new thought
that is being ostentatiously offered on the
market in religion and politics in these days.
It the rich inheritance Of centuries Of human
experience is to be rejected in SCIENCE in art,
in religion or in statecraft, wise people will
want some assurance that the pilots who are
throwing chart and compass overheard have
the ability to improVlse safe navigation
There is a widespread inclination to believe
that the vogue of such prophets and sooth
sayers is a sign of intellectual and mental
decadence, rather than Of genuine progress.
"The popular effect of this caterwauling
about creeds is clear enough. 1t tends to
bring all religious faith into dsrespect. The
need of the world is more faith, more loyalty
and more fidelity to fundamentals, not more
skepticism more unbelief and more petty
dissension created by self-seeking mounte-
banks wearing the livery of the Lord to serve
the devil in"
itor of the Pittsburg Gazette-Times who in
late issue of that ably-conducted paper, says:
"No church can, without disqualification,
retain in it's ministry men who deny that
which the church deems indispensable doc
trine The church can not, of course, order
the mind of any man and make him believe
that which he can not believe. And no hon.
est man will teach what he is convinced Is
not true 1t were better, then, that the reli-
gious teachers who find themselves out of
oiN fhnin
way in peace leaving it to the established
churches to pursue their important and high
ly valuable labors in accordance with unal-
terable convictions.
''Fundamentalsts can not recall modern
lists to the beliefs of their fathers, while mod
ernists can not hope to convert more than a
relatively small number of present funda-
mentalists to their newer conceptions of
truth In the end the modernists will have
to set up fold 1t would be better that
they go out quietly was done by the VEN
cradle rector of st. Bartholomew in New
York, who Invested himself of the symbols of
priesthood during Sabbath services and quit
the church with whose authoritative tenets
he is no longer in agreement
With these sound views the Nation also
agrees, speaking thus:
"In the Baptist Church the lack of rigid
creed and the liberty of the individual con-
science make the lot Of the liberal somewhat
easier. But in credal churches, like the Epis-
copal and the Presbyterian, they fight at a
certain disadvantage When the Episcopal
bishops say that the doctrine of the virgin
birth is an integral part of the accepted
creeds, and should be accepted by the clergy,
the statement seems plausible to the layman
in the pew and the man in the street 1t is
not easy to answer such an argument as the
Philadelphia Convention of Presbyterian
Fundamentalists set forth:
" we believe that men should ! be as free
to teach as the winds are to- blow. But we
also believe that the Presbyterian Church is
a church whose creed in the most explicit and
unmistakable language commits its ministers
to certain definite views of Christ and the
Scriptures No men should be ordained to
the ministry of the Presbyterian Church who
can not cheerfully accept the doctrinal teach
ings; and to countenance in Presbyterian pull
pits a teaching which violates the creed of
the church is as contrary to right as 1t is
contrary to common sense
cit is not enough to say, in reply, that
liberals are good men and fine preachers. 1t
is not enough to talk of tolerance. All that
may have a psychological effect on the
churches; but, logically, it is necessary to
prove that creeds do not mean what they say
or are more elastic than they SEEM
The New York Evening Journal. discuss
ing the general subject, puts forth these two
pointed paragraphs:
''If the Three Musketeers of free thought
Votaire Paine and Ingersoll, could return,
they would be interested to read that the
Modern Churchman'S Union embraces 500
Episcopal clergymen of America who do not
believe in the divine birth physical resur-
rection of Christ. Also that this union has
enlisted to defend a Texas minister who is
charged with heresy.
zone of the endless emba rrassments of the
foreign missionary is that the native, sought
to be converted is unable to keep up with
the constant innovations in the proffered
faith
If one will take the time to compare the
utterance of these "modernists" (so-called)
with tom Paine's Age of Reason" he will
find most striking resemblance in both the
ideas and language Of the old infdel and
these modern skepttcs. Indeed both proba-
bly, derive their notions from the same
source. Paine probably got much of his stuff
got it directly. Our modernists got theirs
from such men Wellhausen and Kuenen,
who in turn got it from Astruc. These skep-
tics in the pulpit are peddling second and
third-hand wares.
If the American churches should yield to
their demands, what would become of our
foreign missions? Can diluted editions of
Tom Paine's age Of Reason" be used as
missionary textbooks to instruct and evan
gelize the people of Japan, China, Korea and
India?
The American churches will do nothing OF
the kind. Let the modernists get together
and go off to themselves with their doubts
and double dealings. The cause of foreign
missions will suffer little by their departure.
They can still talk Of sociology and salvation
by soup and soap. The conversion Of pagan
poses and their power. They are Jealous
chiefly for social sores which are more irri-
tated than healed by their quackery.