Attached is an article filed during the closing days of the Greco-Turkish War (1919 - 1922) which takes into account that seven years after the 1915 Armenian slaughter in Asia Minor, the victorious governments of the West had never dolled out any punitive measures whatever, and the murder of Christians was continuing under cover of the Greek military withdrawal from that region. "...the Christian population is flying, like herds of frightened sheep, and the fate of those who lag behind is death." Seeing that much of the momentum to prohibit the national sale, distribution and consumption of wine and spirits originated with a hardy chunk of the observant Christian community, the Reverend John Cole McKim decided to weigh in on the topic. McKim tended to believe that: "Christ, being divine and consequently infallible, could not have erred. Since it is well known that Christ used wine Himself and gave it to others..." He further opined: "But to vote what one regards as a natural right shall be declared forever illegal, is cowardly, un-American, and un-Christian."
Out of the Mouths of Babes: Girl Evangelists in the Flapper Era
Chances are pretty slim that Jesus of Nazareth was a button-nose blondy - so pink of cheek, with eyes of blue - yet, time and again, this was the manner in which he was rendered by the Christians of the Gilded Age. When the African-American magazine The Crises began to run illustrated advertisements depicting Christ as anything but a white fellow you better believe there were some letters addressed to their editors on the issue. The attached article was their response to these outraged readers. The author reported that in the year 1912 one could easily find a plethora of "useless" and needless faiths and denominations: "These religions come to naught in the end."
This is a book review written during the American Civil War, of a British work titled, Does the Bible Sanction American Slavery by a well known anti-imperialist of the time named Goldwin Smith (1823-1910). "The Southern people tell us, that, under their training, the African has become a Christian. When they receive their runaway negroes, who are sent back to them in obedience to the law, as fellow-Christians, "not as servants, but as brothers beloved", the mission of St. Paul and his Master to both will be accomplished". Presbyterian preacher Billy Sunday (William Ashley Sunday, 1862 - 1935) was, without a doubt, one of the leading figures advocating for the adoption of Prohibition in 1919. When it became clear to many that Prohibition was causing far more problems than it solved, he continued to strongly support the legislation, and after its repeal in 1933, the Preacher called for its reinstatement. |
