Baptists

Women and John D. Rockefeller Jr. caused contention at the annual meeting of the Baptist Bible Union of North America in Calvary Baptist Church, Manhattan, last week.

A Fundamentalist from the Kentucky Bible belt, one Dr. J. W. Gillon, quoted the Scriptures to prove that women should be ousted from the pulpits: Let your women keep silence in the churches, for it is not permitted unto them to speak. ... (I CORINTHIANS 14:34) ... Suffer not a woman to teach, nor to usurp authority over the man. ... (I TIMOTHY 2:12.)

One who believes that every word of the Bible must be taken literally is Rev. John Roach Straton, loud-speaking Manhattan Fundamentalist. He leaped to his feet, shouted: "You have a great deal to learn. One of the greatest preachers I ever heard is a 14-year-old girl Uldine Utley, TIME, Feb. 28]. In fact, I think she is the greatest preacher in the country at this time. . . . We haven't yet opened our eyes to the writings of the New Testament in regard to women preaching."

The feminist problem was dropped when Rev. T. T. Shields of Toronto, Canada, President of the Bible Union, launched into an attack on John D. Rockefeller Jr. He charged Mr. Rockefeller and his pastor, Rev. Harry Emerson Fosdick of the Park Avenue Baptist Church, with trying to transform the Northern Baptist Convention into "the Religious Department of the Standard Oil Co." All of which was promptly denied by Mr. Rockefeller through Ivy L. Lee.