Irony

The Christian Century printed the following comment last week: "Several denominations are about to begin their general conventions. The fact if hard to believe, so peaceful is the general atmosphere. Presbyterians will soon be in session in San Francisco, Baptists in Chicago, and hardly an American newspaper will bring home its war correspondents from China to cover the event. It may be that, when the brethren catch sight of each other, the now prevailing calm will disappear. Here and there, particularly in the columns of the intransigent fundamentalist papers, sporadic attempts are still under way to stir up the animals. But even these attempts lack the war-whoop of the scalp-taker."

And, by an ironical coincidence last week, the World's Christian Fundamentalist Association, group of communicants of all evangelical denominations, was holding its ninth annual assembly. This was at Atlanta, where the community succeeded so well in muffling Fundamentalist expostulations that Dr. William B. Riley of Minneapolis, President of the association, felt himself obliged to denounce the "efforts of certain religious bodies in Atlanta to detract from the public interest in this Assembly." The Atlanta Constitution headlines substituted the word "Literalists" for "Fundamentalists." Flying Fundamentalists. An organization called the Flying Fundamentalists exists in Kansas. The World's Association resolved to enlarge this group and commission it "to mold sentiment against the evolutionary hypothesis, and get voters educated to the place where they will express themselves through the ballot as the Fundamentalists wish." Said Rev. Gerald B. Winrod of Wichita, Kan.: "We realize that it will take a long time--perhaps years--before we can accomplish our desired ends. But as was the case with Prohibition, we can win out in the long run, and it is a program to that end that we are outlining. The South is the most fertile field for anti-evolution legislation at this time."