Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-m6dg7 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-10T07:01:06.528Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Conservative American Protestantism in the League of Nations Controversy

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Markku Ruotsila
Markku Ruotsila
Affiliation:
Markku Ruotsila is lecturer in American and British history at the University of Tampere, Finland.
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The emerging fundamentalist movement made its first foray into extra-ecclesiastical politics during the League of Nations controversy of 1919–20. Both of the two main wings of fundamentalism—dispensational premillennialists and conservative Calvinists—took part in this controversy because both of them regarded the proposed League as an important, inherently religious issue. Both kinds of fundamentalists opposed the League, and both used the ratification debate to articulate their own types of Christian anti-internationalism. In the process they lent much Christian rhetoric to the political opponents of the League, the “Irreconcilables,” who were interested in exploiting it for their ostensibly purely secular critiques. Despite the fundamentalists' success in preventing League ratification, the controversy made them acutely aware of the political power and appeal of their liberal Protestant rivals. These had exerted themselves on behalf of the League, imparted their own religious complexion to the pro-League argument, and, not least, had managed officially to enlist almost all denominations to their side.

Type
Articles
Information
Church History , Volume 72 , Issue 3 , September 2003 , pp. 593 - 616
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. Of the major studies of fundamentalism, only three give some attention to the League of Nations controversy: Carpenter, Joel A., Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 89–93Google Scholar; Marsden, George M., Fundamentalism and American Culture: The Shaping of Twentieth-Century Evangelicalism, 1870–1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980), esp. 141–68Google Scholar; Weber, Timothy, Living in the Shadow of the Second Coming: American Premillennialism 1875–1925 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1979), 125–27.Google Scholar

2. For the core beliefs of dispensationalism, see Boyer, Paul, When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture (Cambridge, Mass.: Belknap, 1999), esp. 81–112Google Scholar; Marsden, , Fundamentalism and American Culture, 50–71Google Scholar; Sandeen, Ernest, The Roots of Fundamentalism: British and American Millenarianism, 1800–1930 (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), esp. 3–14, 18–50, 60–70, 76–95.Google Scholar

3. Cohn, Norman, The Pursuit of the Millennium: Revolutionary Millennarians and Mystical Anarchists of the Middle Ages (New York: Oxford University Press, 1970), esp. 30–36, 89–98, 119–26.Google Scholar

4. Riley, William B., The Second Coming and the Millennium (Chicago: Star [1897]), 4–6, 9–12 (quotations from 4, 9)Google Scholar; Riley, , The Gospel for War Times (Los Angeles: BIOLA, 1918), 3–11Google Scholar; Riley, , “A Study in Revelation. The Usurper's Short Reign,” School and Church 2 (04 1918): 74–76Google Scholar; Riley's sermon notes, n.d. [ca. September 1919], Riley papers, folder “Sermon Notes A-Co,” Northwestern College, Roseville, Minnesota.

5. Blackstone, William E., “The Times of the Gentiles and the War in the Light of Prophecy, Part II,” The Christian Workers Magazine, 05 1916, 686–87Google Scholar; “A World Center Proposed,” Our Hope, August 1913, 103; “A Better World Proposed,” Our Hope, August 1913, 103; “The United States of Europe,” Our Hope, July 1914, 41–42; “An Interesting Forecast,” Our Hope, October 1914, 239; “Peace Plans and Suggestions,” Our Hope, November 1915, 305; Gaebelein, Arno C., Current Events in the Light of the Bible (New York: Our Hope, 1914), 10–11, 31–35, 47–49, 54Google Scholar; Riley, William B., “The Significant Signs of the Times,” in The Coming and Kingdom of Christ: A Stenographic Report of the Prophetic Bible Conference Held at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, February 24–27, 1914 (Chicago: The Bible Institute Colportage Association, 1914), 100Google Scholar; Torrey, R. A., The Return of the Lord: The Key to Scripture (Los Angeles: BIOLA, 1913), 89–91.Google Scholar

6. Gaebelein, Arno C., The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible (New York: Our Hope, 1919), 3–4.Google Scholar

7. Gaebelein, Arno C., “The Present-Day Apostasy,” in The Coming and Kingdom of Christ, 149–54Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , Current Events in the Light of the Bible, 47–49Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 4–8, 15–30Google Scholar; “Why Won't the World Reform?” Our Hope, September 1919, 171–72Google Scholar; “The Appeal to the Wrong Party,” Our Hope, September 1919, 173–74Google Scholar; “The League of Nations,” Our Hope, January 1921, 393.Google Scholar

8. Gray, James M., “The Age and Its Apostasy,” The Christian Herald, 05 1, 1918, 537Google Scholar; Myers, Cortland, “War on German Theology,” in Light on Prophecy: A Coordinated, Constructive Teaching, Being the Proceedings and Addresses at the Philadelphia Prophetic Conference, May 23–30, 1918 (New York: The Christian Herald, 1918), 176–92Google Scholar; Griffith Thomas, W. H., “German Moral Abnormality,” Biblioteca Sacra (01 1919): 84–104.Google Scholar

9. Marchand, C. Roland, The American Peace Movement and Social Reform, 1898–1918 (Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press, 1972), 351–70Google Scholar; Meyer, Donald B., The Protestant Search for Political Realism, 1929–1941 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1960), 8–25, 40–58, 153–58Google Scholar. For the penetration of liberal Christian ambitions into the secular League effort, see also Ruotsila, Markku, British and American Anticommunism Before the Cold War (London: Frank Cass, 2001), chapters 1–3Google Scholar, and Knock, Thomas J., To End All Wars: Woodrow Wilson and the Quest for a New World Order (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), esp. 50–58, 160–62, 235.Google Scholar

10. Croly, Herbert, “The Obstacles to Peace,” The New Republic, 04 26, 1919, 402–7.Google Scholar

11. Herron, George D., The Menace of Peace (London: George Allen and Unwin, 1917), 12–16, 20–21, 60–61Google Scholar; Herron, George D., “Labor and the New Order,” The Appeal to Reason, 05 19, 1917, 1Google Scholar; Herron, George D., Woodrow Wilson and the World's Peace (New York: Mitchell Kennerly, 1917), 7–17, 32–44, 150–73.Google Scholar

12. Torrey, R. A., “The Blessed Hope,” in Christ and Glory: Addresses Delivered at the New York Prophetic Conference, Carnegie Hall, November 25–28, 1918, ed. Gaebelein, Arno C. (New York: Our Hope, 1918), 22–25Google Scholar; Riley, William B., “The Last Days, The Last War and the Last King,” in Christ and Glory, ed. Gaebelein, , 170Google Scholar; Scofield, C. I., “The Doctrine of the Last Things as Found in the Gospels,” in The Coming and Kingdom of Christ, 117.Google Scholar

13. Riley, , “The Significant Signs of the Times,” in The Coming and Kingdom of Christ, 103–5; also, Riley's sermon notes, June 13, 1915, Riley papers, folder “Sermon Texts Sh-Z.”Google Scholar

14. Riley, , “The Significant Signs of the Times,” in The Coming and Kingdom of Christ, 105Google Scholar; “‘Safe For Democracy,’” The Christian Workers Magazine, July 1917, 853–54Google Scholar; Fereday, W. W., “After the Great War,” Our Hope, 07 1919, 37–38Google Scholar; “The President's Power,” The Christian Workers Magazine, April 1920, 613Google Scholar. See also the discussion in Marsden, , Fundamentalism and American Culture, 125–27.Google Scholar

15. Hankins, Barry, God's Rascal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism (Lexington: The University Press of Kentucky, 1997), 82–83Google Scholar. See also Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 28–29, 37–38Google Scholar; Janssen, Weert, “The Roman Catholic Ideal of a League of Nations,” Lutheran Witness, 05 13, 1919, 150–51Google Scholar; “The Vatican to be Approved as a Member of the League,” Our Hope, February 1920, 479–80.Google Scholar

16. Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 18–19.Google Scholar

17. Thwing, Eugene, The League of Nations as a Moral Issue (n.p.: n.p. [1919]).Google Scholar

18. Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 39–45Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The Return of the Lord: What the New Testament Teaches About the Second Coming of Christ (New York: Our Hope, 1925), 76Google Scholar; Gordon, James L., “Predictions About the Peace Table,” The Christian World Pulpit, 01 15, 1919, 32Google Scholar; Gray, James M., “The Jewish Peril and How to Meet It,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly (07 1921): 470–71Google Scholar; “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion,” Our Hope, November 1920, 297–98Google Scholar; Panton, D. M., “The Latest Preparations of the Antichrist,” Moody Bible Institute Monthly 21 (09 1920): 14–15, 24.Google Scholar

19. For an exploration of the secular radical right's commentary on this issue, see Ruotsila, Markku, “Lord Sydenham of Combe's Jewish World Conspiracy,” Patterns of Prejudice 34 (07 2000): 47–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

20. “Preparedness for War,” The Christian Workers Magazine, February 1916, 430Google Scholar; Gray, , Prophecy and the Lord's Return, 26–27, 110–19Google Scholar; Riley, , “The Significant Signs of the Times,” in Coming and Kingdom of Christ, 99–104.Google Scholar

21. Gaebelein, , “The Capture of Jerusalem and the Great Future of That City,” in Christ and Glory, ed. Gaebelein, , 145–60Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , Current Events in the Light of the Bible, 186–89, 195Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 44Google Scholar; “An Interesting Suggestion,” Our Hope, June 1916, 759.Google Scholar

22. Fereday, W. W., “The Present Crisis,” Our Hope, 12 1914, 361Google Scholar; McWatty Russell, Robert, “The Earthly Destiny of Israel,” The Christian Workers Magazine, 01 1916, 363–66Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of the Bible, 31–38, 45–49Google Scholar; Gray, James M., “Prophecy Changing the Map of Europe,” Christian Herald, 05 29, 1918, 667.Google Scholar

23. “The United States and Prophecy,” Our Hope, February 1915, 489Google Scholar; “Preparedness for War,” The Christian Workers Magazine, February 1916, 430Google Scholar. For an exception, see Gray, James M., “The League of Nations and the Danger of Federation,” The Moody Bible Institute Monthly, (09 1920): 7.Google Scholar

24. “What We May Expect,” Our Hope, November 1913, 266–67Google Scholar; “The United States and Prophecy,” Our Hope, February 1915, 489Google Scholar. See also Gray, , Prophecy and the Lord's Return, 22–23, 35–39Google Scholar; Fereday, , “After the Great War,” 38Google Scholar; Erdman, W. J., “The Prophetic Model of the Present Dispensation,” Our Hope, 02 1920, 470–78.Google Scholar

25. “Preparedness for War,” The Christian Workers Magazine, February 1916, 40Google Scholar; Gray, , “The League of Nations and the Danger of Federation,” 787–88Google Scholar; “The President's Power,” The Christian Workers Magazine, April 1920, 613Google Scholar. See also the discussion in Marsden, , Fundamentalism and American Culture, 153–55.Google Scholar

26. Gaebelein, , “The Pre-Eminence of the Lord Jesus Christ and His Coming Glory,” in Christ and Glory, 19Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of Prophecy, 32, 37–38Google Scholar; “The Threatening Revolution,” Our Hope, October 1919, 312–13Google Scholar; “The Appeal to the Wrong Party,” Our Hope, September 1919, 173–74.Google Scholar

27. Riley, William B., “The Last Day; The Last War and the Last King,” in Christ and Glory, ed. Gaebelein, , 161–76.Google Scholar

28. See Breckinridge Warfield, Benjamin, Biblical Doctrines (New York: Oxford University Press, 1929), 662–63Google Scholar; Wells, David F., ed. Reformed Theology in America: A History of Its Modern Development (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Baker, 1997), 71–73, 121–28, 140–43.Google Scholar

29. McDowell, W. F., “The Church in a World at War,” The Methodist Review 100 (06 1918): 507–23Google Scholar; “Problems and Forces of Christian Reconstruction,” The Methodist Review 102 (January 1919): 134Google Scholar; Dixon, A. C., “The League of Nations,” The King's Business 10 (05 1919): 402–5Google Scholar; Moore, John M., “The League of Nations,” The Watchman-Examiner, 03 20, 1919, 355–56Google Scholar; Carver, W. O., “A League of Nations and a League of Denominations,” The Watchman-Examiner, 06 19, 1919, 963–65Google Scholar; “An Interview with A. C. Dixon,” The Watchman-Examiner, July 31, 1919, 1118.Google Scholar

30. Gimmell, Benjamin M., “The League of Nations,” The Presbyterian, 02 20, 1919, 9–10Google Scholar; DeForrest Burnell, David, “The League of Nations and the Prince of Peace,” The Presbyterian, 04 24, 1919, 8–9, 20.Google Scholar

31. Vos, Geerhardus, “The Eschatology of the Psalter,” The Princeton Theological Review 18 (01 1920): 1–43.Google Scholar

32. Vos, Geerhardus, Grace and Glory: Sermons Preached in the Chapel of the Princeton Theological Seminary (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1994), 15–16, 64–65Google Scholar. See also the much later, systematic treatment of his eschatological views in Vos, Geerhardus, Biblical Theology: Old and New Testaments (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1948Google Scholar; reprint, 1996), esp. 374–402, and the discussion in Olinger, Danny E., “The Writings of Geerhardus Vos,” Kerux 15 (09 2000): 3–30.Google Scholar

33. J. Gresham Machen to Horace J. Bridges, May 17, 1924, J. Gresham Machenpapers, The Montgomery Library, Westminster Theological Seminary, Philadelphia, Penn.

34. Machen, J. Gresham, “The Church in the War,” The Presbyterian, 05 29, 1919, 10–11Google Scholar; Machen, J. Gresham, “Isaiah's Scorn of Idolatry,” in J. Gresham Machen, God Transcendent (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1949; reprint, 1982), 23–27.Google Scholar

35. J. Gresham Machen to Ralph Easley, October 10, 1923, Machen papers; Machen, J. Gresham, “Does Fundamentalism Obstruct Social Progress? The Negative,” Survey Graphic (06 1924)Google Scholar, copy in the Machen papers; Gresham Machen, J., Christianity and Liberalism (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1923; reprint, 1999), 49–50.Google Scholar

36. Machen to Mary Gresham Machen (mother), October 12, 1919, Machen papers.

37. Stonehouse, Ned B., J. Gresham Machen: A Biographical Memoir (Edinburgh: The Banner of Truth Trust, 1987), 356.Google Scholar

38. “A Republic of Nations,” The Presbyterian, January 9, 1919, 3Google Scholar; “An After View,” The Presbyterian, March 6, 1919, 3Google Scholar; “The Versailles Treaty,” The Presbyterian, May 15, 1919, 2.Google Scholar

39. “A Republic of Nations,” The Presbyterian, January 9, 1919, 3Google Scholar; “Christian Internationalism,” The Presbyterian, May 8, 1919, 3Google Scholar; “The Nation's Danger,” The Presbyterian, August 21, 1919, 6Google Scholar; “Kingdom and the Law,” The Presbyterian, August 21, 1919, 3Google Scholar; “A Sinning, Suffering World,” The Presbyterian, November 4, 1920, 3.Google Scholar

40. Foster, John M., The Covenant Treaty—Humanity's Despair (np.: n.p., 1919), 1–8.Google Scholar

41. Wadsworth, Charles Jr., Nebuhadnezzar's Image: A Modern View of an Ancient Autocrat (n.p.: np. [1920]).Google Scholar

42. “Bishop Neely on the League of Nations,” The Christian Workers Magazine 20, September 1919, 13–14Google Scholar; Gaebelein, , The League of Nations in the Light of Prophecy, 7–8, 46–48.Google Scholar

43. Benjamin Neely, Thomas, Present Perils of Methodism (Philadelphia, Penn.: E. A. Yakel, 1920), esp. 89–90, 134–35.Google Scholar

44. Benjamin Neely, Thomas, The League: The Nation's Danger (Philadelphia, Penn.: E. A. Yakel, 1919), 28–29, 69–72, 114–18, 121–25, 136.Google Scholar

45. See Ambrosius, Lloyd E., Woodrow Wilson and the American Diplomatic Tradition: The Treaty Fight in Perspective (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1990)Google Scholar; Stone, Ralph, The Irreconcilables: The Fight against the League of Nations (Lexington: The University of Kentucky Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Frank Fleming, Denna, The United States in the League of Nations Controversy 1918–1920 (New York: C. P. Putnam, 1932).Google Scholar

46. For his religious beliefs and practices, see Sherman's notes, n.d., and Sherman's address, August 4, 1918, Lawrence Y. Sherman papers, boxes 161 and 156, respectively, Illinois State Historical Library, Springfield, Illinois; Charles S. Thomas's unpublished autobiography, typed manuscript, n.d. [ca.1924], Charles S. Thomas papers, box 8, Colorado Historical Society, Denver. For biographical details, see Stone, , Irreconcilables, 104–5Google Scholar; The National Cyclopaedia of American Biography, (New York: James T. White, 1916), 15:101.Google Scholar

47. See boxes 74, 76, 132, 133, and 148 (especially the folder “Vatican”) in the Sherman papers.

48. Sherman, Lawrence Y., “My Political Impressions of the War, Act I—Prologue to the Safety of Democracy,” The Forum (06 1919): 1–10Google Scholar; Sherman, Lawrence Y., “Political Psychology of the War, II—Unfolding of the National Drama,” The Forum (08 1919): 211–12; Sherman's addresses, Junaury 24, May 23, June 20, and October 29, 1919, in the Congressional Record, 65th Cong., 3rd sess., and 66th Cong., 1st sess., Vols. 57 and 58 (Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1919), 1971, 164–71, 1435–38, 7680–83. Hereafter referred to as CR.Google Scholar

49. Sherman's addresses, April 23, 1918, 56CR, 65th Cong., 2nd sess., June 20, 1918, 56CR, 65th Cong., 2nd sess., and February 4, 1919, 57CR, 65th Cong., 3rd sess., 5483–91, 8065, 2262, respectively.

50. Sherman's address, June 20, 1919, 58CR, 66th Cong., 1st sess., 1437; Sherman to George F. Moore, ca. June 30, 1919, Sherman papers, box 148; “Catholics Deny a Catholic Peril,” The Literary Digest, July 19, 1919, 32Google Scholar; Sherman, Lawrence Y., “The Aims of the Republican Congress,” The Forum (12 1918): 738–94.Google Scholar

51. This has been well noted by historians. See Stone, , Irreconcilables, 102–5.Google Scholar

52. D. H. Steffens to Theodore Graebner, July 28, 1919, Theodore Graebner papers, box 101, Concordia Historical Institute, St. Louis, Mo.

53. Reed, James A., The League of Nations, Speech of Senator James A. Reed of Missouri in the United States Senate, September 22, 1919 (Washington, D.C.: USGPO, 1919), 5, 7–9.Google Scholar

54. Steffens to Graebner, July 28, 1919, Graebner papers, box 101; Marquis, Albert N., ed., Who's Who in America, 1918–1919 (Chicago: A. N. Marquis, 1918), 10:962.Google Scholar

55. Notes for an address, n.d. (Ca. May 1919), Philander C. Knox papers, box 22, Library of Congress, Manuscripts Division, Washington, D.C.

56. Fall, Albert B. cited in Fleming, The United States and the League of Nations, 302Google Scholar. For his religious background, see Garraty, John A. and Carrier, Mark C., American National Biography, (New York: Oxford University Press. 1999), 7:686.Google Scholar

57. Borah, William E., “Militarism in a League of Nations?” The Forum (03 1919): 303–4Google Scholar; McKenna, Marian, Borah (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1961), 10–17, 91.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

58. Merrill, Milton D., Reed Smoot: Apostle in Politics (Logan: Utah State University Press, 1990), 241, 252–65.Google Scholar

59. Parkman, Aubrey, “President Hill and the Sectarian Challenge at the University of Rochester,” Rochester History 33 (10 1971): 1–24Google Scholar; David Jayne Hill, “Religion and Science,” handwritten, undated manuscript, David Jayne Hill papers, box 36, University of Rochester, Rochester, N.Y. For general biographical details, see Parkman, Aubrey, David Jayne Hill and the Problem of World Peace (Lewisburg, Penn.: Bucknell University Press, 1975).Google Scholar

60. See Jayne Hill's, DavidAmericanism: What It Is (New York: D. Appleton, 1919), 229–30Google Scholar, and his articles “The Entente of Free Nations,” The North American Review (January 1919): 16–27Google Scholar; “The President's Attack on the Senate,” The North American Review (November 1919): 592–603.Google Scholar

61. Jayne Hill, David, “The President's Challenge to the Senate,” The North American Review (06 1919): 738.Google Scholar

62. Addresses by S. Thomas, Senator Charles, July 29 and August 22, 1919Google Scholar; by A. Reed, Senators James and Myers, Henry L., November 5, 1919Google Scholar; by King, Senator William R., November 18, 1919Google Scholar, 58CR, 66th Cong., 1st sess.; by Myers, Senator, April 28, 1920, 59CR, 66th Cong., 2nd sess., 3318, 4152–58, 7957–61, 8706–17, 6212, respectivelyGoogle Scholar; Thomas's unpublished autobiography, Thomas papers, boxes 8–9; Harvey, George, “The Political Situation: Socialism v. Americanism,” The North American Review (03 1919): 290–96Google Scholar; Myers, Henry L., The United States Senate: What Kind of Body? Reminiscences of a Former Senator from Montana (Philadelphia, Penn.: Dorrance, 1934), 7–29.Google Scholar

63. Rushdoony, Rousas J., The Nature of the American System (Fairfax, Va.: Thoburn, 1978), 113–57.Google Scholar

64. Moats Miller, Robert, American Protestantism and Social Issues, 1919–1939 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1958), 317–23Google Scholar; Nelson, E. Clifford, The Lutherans in North America (Philadelphia, Penn.: Fortress, 1980), 418Google Scholar; Lee Eighmy, John, Churches in Cultural Captivity: A History of the Social Attitudes of Southern Baptists (Knoxville: The University of Tennessee Press, 1987), 98–99.Google Scholar

65. Kuehl, Warren F. and Dunn, Lynne K., Keeping the Covenant: American Internationalists and the League of Nations, 1920–1939 (Kent, Ohio: The Kent State University Press, 1987), 50–51.Google Scholar

66. Especially in the essays collected in Jacobsen, Douglas and Trollinger, William Vance, eds., Re-Forming the Center: American Protestantism, 1900 to the Present (Grand Rapids, Mich.: Eerdmans, 1998).Google Scholar