Seattle Socialist

Two Sundays ago in Seattle's solid old Pilgrim Congregational Church, Rev. Frederic William Shorter mounted his pulpit, looked squarely at his congregation of 400, said briskly: "Yes, I preach revolution. Next Sunday, if I am still pastor, I will preach on 'The Insanity of Jesus.' It always has been insanity to preach the brotherhood of man."

Last Sunday Preacher Shorter no longer was pastor of Pilgrim Church. The congregation which called him there eight years ago, chiefly at the behest of President Alfred Helmer Lundin of Seattle's Chamber of Commerce, had voted him out. Chief reason was that "Fred" Shorter, 39, Australian-born graduate of Missouri State University and Yale Divinity School, had. like many another thoughtful U. S. minister, turned Socialist. He believed that "Christianity and Capitalism as they now exist are not compatible"; that Christianity itself is "historic Communism." a peaceful force to transform the social order. Pastor Shorter promoted a "Consumers' Cooperative" in his church, joined the Socialist Party last year, gathered about him earnest young radicals who maintained the congregation's size as the older conservatives dropped away.

Last week conservatives found an issue on which to battle their pastor to a finish. In Pilgrim Church's study room, given four years ago by Founder-Board Chairman Elbridge Amos Stuart of Carnation Co. (milk products), there had appeared seven murals done by a young people's art class under the supervision of Ross Gill. Subjects of the murals:

1) St. Swastika, a Jew nailed to a hooked cross, with Hitler and troops driving out other Jews; 2) a Negro mother being rewarded for her fecundity by a planter, while a lynching takes place in the background; 3) a Christian missionary converting Chinese coolies for Capitalist exploitation; 4) a starving family on the steps of their shanty with battleships, dirigibles, armaments in the background; 5) a college cheerleader, typifying "subverted individualism"; 6) capitalists gambling with death-headed munitions makers; 7) a triple scene entitled Blessing the Fields (an Orthodox Russian priest giving blessing under the old regime), Fields That Are Blest (a modern Russian farm), Fields That Are Too Blest (a U. S. farmer plowing under crops).

Stoutly defended by Socialist Shorter, these murals brought 298 members of Pilgrim Church together one night last week. The pastor's supporters noted many a one who had not entered the church in years. When a vote was taken it was 177 to oust, 121 to retain.

Said Socialist Shorter: "It's a white elephant off my hands." (The church was $12,000 in debt, the pastor's salary $1,500 in arrears.) He promptly announced a new Non-Denominational Church of the People, a "rigorous, radical, revolutionary church" with no symbolism, no magical elements, no hymning the "Blood of the Lamb." All classes and all races might come to learn of the social teachings of Jesus. For the first day of the new church, last Sunday, Socialist Shorter obtained the Seattle Repertory Players' theatre in the morning, the University of Seattle Y.M. C. A. at noon, the "Skidroad," (Seattle's Bowery) in the afternoon.

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