Lindsey v. Manning

Two angry little men had a fracas in Manhattan's great Protestant Episcopal Cathedral of St. John the Divine last Sunday. One little man, Bishop William Thomas Manning, damned the other in his sermon. The other little man, onetime Judge Benjamin Barr Lindsey, was tensely listening directly below the Bishop. Said the Bishop in part: "As to his latest book [The Companionate Marriage'], I can only say here, speaking as a Bishop of the Church, that it is in my judgment one of the most filthy, insidious and cleverly written pieces of propaganda ever published in behalf of lewdness, promiscuity, adultery and unrestrained sexual gratification. . . ." Mr. Lindsey waited until the end of the sermon. Then when he thought that Bishop Manning was turning to leave the pulpit but when the Bishop really was turning to utter a prayer,* the judge jumped on a table and started a harangue: "Bishop Manning, you have falsely represented me. . . ." Plain-clothes men and ushers rushed forward, picked Mr. Lindsey up by seat and legs, half carried him out of the cathedral. Worshippers, enraged by his unnecessary interruption of their services, cried denunciations. Several ran after the ejected little judge. One man hit him on the head. Two, three men kicked him. A woman screamed: "You ought to be lynched." Police took him to a police station, booked him for disorderly conduct, but did not jail him. The commotion was an eruption of long-burning fires within Bishop Manning's diocese. Many of his clergy dislike him as a bishop. To the run of New York Episcopalians he seems benign; to intimates he seems charming; to the clergy who disagree with his authority he seems tyrannical. His dissenting clergy heckle him every opportunity they get. Last month when he declaimed on the Catholicism of the Protestant Episcopal church they attacked him (TIME, Nov. 17). And they really caused last Sunday's row. Ever since he was ousted as Judge of Denver's famed Juvenile Court (TIME, Dec. 16, 1929 et ante} Mr. Lindsey has made a fetish of companionate marriage./- He has crusaded for it in magazine articles and lecture halls, acquiring a certain martyrdom which is not without its financial compensation.** Last fortnight he and his friends tried to arrange a debate on the subject with one of Bishop Manning's priests, who declined. But the Church-men's Association, dominated by anti-Manning clergy, invited Mr. Lindsey to speak to them. Bishop Manning twice telephoned to prevent the meeting. He had no right to interfere. The Association is outside his church organization. But he said he was speaking for the Association's president, who was away at the time. Members voted to hear Judge Lindsey, who then loudly told the Bishop he would come to the Cathedral to hear him reply. The Bishop requested a police guard--and replied. Judge Lindsey may yet get the personal debate with Bishop Manning he desires. He subpoenaed the Bishop to appear at his disorderly conduct trial this week.

* The judge, a Methodist Episcopalian, did not know the Protestant Episcopal ritual. /-Last week he said lie was about to become a father, for the first time in his 17 years of orthodox marriage. ** His latest article is appearing in College Humor.

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