Unfairness

The Summer has been comparatively calm. Now the war on heretics begins again.

FUNDAMENTALIST 1. The Bible is the Word of God. 2. Jesus Christ is THE Son of God in a sense in which NO other is. 3. The birth of Jesus was SUPERNATURAL. 4. The death of Jesus was EXPIATORY. 5. Man is the product of SPECIAL CREATION. 6. Man is a SINNER, fallen from original righteousness, and apart from God's redeeming grace, hopelessly lost. 7. Man is justified by FAITH in the atoning blood of Christ. Result, supernatural regeneration from ABOVE.

MODERNIST 1. The Bible CONTAINS the Word of God. 2. Jesus Christ is A Son of God in the sense that ALL men are. 3. The birth of Jesus was NATURAL. 4. The death of Jesus was EXEMPLARY. 5. Man is the product of EVOLUTION. 6. Man is the unfortunate VICTIM of environment but through self culture can make good. 7. Man is justified by WORKS in following Christ's example. Result, Natural development from WITHIN.

The above (illustrated) is being sent out to thousands of church folk by a propagandist agency known as the Church News Association. It purports to be the first fair statement of the difference between Conservative Protestants and Progressive Protestants, or between Fundamentalists and Liberals. It was distributed under the auspices of certain Fundamentalists, including the Moody Bible Institute (Chicago), the Wylie School of Bible Training (Manhattan), and various individual Baptists, Presbyterians, Episcopalians, Disciples.

Perhaps it is impossible for a Fundamentalist to state fairly the Liberal position. Probably, if he could state it, he would not so militantly oppose it. In stating the Modernist position above, the Fundamentalists completely ignore the main point in all the Modernist attitude. For example, the Modernist does not say that the birth of Jesus was NATURAL.* He says he does not know that it was supernatural. "But," says he, "whether Jesus was or was not the natural son of Joseph, matters less than that Jesus' followers should seek and do the will of God as Jesus did." Thus, the Modernist believes himself more fundamental than the Fundamentalist.

Another illustration of unfairness is in the seventh clause. In arrogating to themselves a monopoly of FAITH, the Fundamentalists scarcely make adequate compensation when they allow to Modernists the virtue of (supposedly good) WORKS.

But the absurdity of any such alignment of differences is that the Fundamentalists are not even fair to themselves. The strength of the Fundamentalist appeal, like the appeal of the Roman Catholic Church, is in assertion and not in argument. The Fundamentalist triumphs by simply stating his simple faith. That is enough. But when the Fundamentalist begins to argue, he denies his faith, for his faith is either self-evident or it is not evident at all. No man was ever argued into being a Fundamentalist.

And yet, curiously (and unfortunately for his spiritual health), the Fundamentalist is the first to rush into argument. He is the aggressor because he feels, with considerable justification, that the Modernist should get out of the old church; but he can only be ousted by being haled before an ecclesiastical court.

Certain of the Fundamentalists, armed with the Gospel armor, have already entrenched themselves behind the left-hand column printed above. Between the left and righthand, they say there is no middle ground, no compromise.

The Modernist does not seek compromise; he seeks tolerance.

*Modernists do not ordinarily express themselves in the oracular or in the oratorical manner of capital letters.