"The Kingdom Of Crankdom"
"Instead of making a concession to the American Christian Review and to the Gospel Guardian, we had better push these reactionaries a little farther over into the kingdom of crankdom and persuade them to oppose education wherever received, also to oppose sanity. We can come nearer converting them to this idea than we ever will to the ideas for which our fathers fought through their whole lives."
(G. C. Brewer in Firm Foundation)
Now, don't get excited. That is just Grover Cleveland having another one of his periodic spells. He even breaks into Latin, an unknown tongue so to speak, to tell brother Paisley how shocked "some of us are" that he "would become a milksop in this controversy." A "milksop" is defined as "an effeminate or unmanly man; a mollycoddle." He accuses brother Paisley of throwing "a sop to the Guardian group, as he has always been more or less under the power of those men," and making "a concession to the Gospel Guardian factionists." That is bad, if it can be proved. But I want to say a word in brother Paisley's defense. He is not a mollycoddle. He has always been rather independent in saying what he wanted to, and I have not always liked it. If he has ever been "under" my "power," it has been "less" and not "more," and brother Brewer's current fit in the Firm Foundation indicates that he cannot control him any better than I can. So he falls down on the floor and kicks and screams like—you know what. If I ever take a strong notion to "oppose sanity," I won't waste any more ammunition on him.
He calls up Caesar, Brutus, Munich, the Alamo and all who "died for freedom," in an effort to emphasize his scorn for us. We are not impressed. Some well-chosen text from the scriptures might fetch us. But there is not a quotation from that sacred volume in his whole brainstorm, which he spreads out over a page and a half in the Firm Foundation. What is the "ace-writer" of the Gospel Advocate doing in the Firm Foundation anyway? I think I can "discern the ulterior causes of this," and I'm going to request the editor of the Firm Foundation to let me in to shake him before the readers of that journal, if he continues to attack us in it, and I believe he'll do it. I do not believe I ever asked him for a favor, he did not grant, and he has granted some I did not ask for. Yes, I forgot, he called up Benedict Arnold too! He wanted somebody mean enough to symbolize everybody who does not believe that church contributions should go to the schools. "Sanity," did he say?
He wants a fight, not appeasement. I think he can be accommodated! The trouble is you can't tell what the brother wants by what he says. A few years ago, brother Srygley took him to task in the Gospel Advocate, for trying to spill every drop of his blood before the American Legion, in defense of American liberties against Communism. Being a pacifist, he spilled "nary" a drop. Back in the thirties, he was "throwing out a sop to" premillennialists, and worrying about the brethren "wrangling among themselves over trivialities" because of the premillennial fight. If he denies it, I'll prove it on him. Now, he is a straggling champion of the fight against premillennialism. He jumped on R. H. Boll, while he was hanging on the ropes. "SOMEBODY" else had already knocked him out.
He mentions a long list of names, we should delight to honor, the dead and living ex-presidents of "our" schools. The inference is that they all stand with him. Among the number are C. R. Nichol and R. L. Whiteside. I have no better friends than they, brother Nichol is outspoken against what brother Brewer is trying to defend, and brother Whiteside is an associate editor of the Gospel Guardian. Brother Nichol is booked for a meeting with us here in Lufkin in October of this year. Who would think that brother Brewer could use such "Guardian Angels ?", and include such "Gospel Guardian factionists" in his list of honored heroes ? Surely, he is not engaging in any "sop" throwing!
Our radical and erratic brother, does not miss an opportunity, either in the Gospel Advocate or the Firm Foundation, to express his scorn for us.
"The sad fact is that some defeated and frustrated preachers among us have compromised with the Sommerites. Because of a personal dislike of Somebody, they had rather fellowship the Sommerites and justify their physical attack upon such a saint as T. B. Larimore than to fellowship Somebody whom they do not like."
The saddest fact I can think of right now is the venomous, irresponsible manner in which brother Brewer expresses himself. If there are any "defeated and frustrated preachers," who are or have been connected with The Gospel Guardian, I do not know who they are. We are not moved in this fight by "a personal dislike of Somebody" or anybody else. We certainly do not condone or "justify" a "physical attack upon such a saint as T. B. Larimore" or anybody else. I have never had much truck with "Sommerites" but might fellowship some of them if they would let me. I admit that I do not "dislike" them as much as brother Brewer seems to do. If some "crazed fanatic" among them did perpetrate a "physical attack upon such a saint as T. B. Larimore," it doesn't seem to be quite fair for brother Brewer to blame all "the Sommerites" for it. There are a sizable number of "crazed fanatics" running loose and I don't think all of them can be found among "tbe Sommerites." If they are as bad about going around slapping folks who have "attended a Christian college," as brother Brewer seems to think they are, I wonder how he has escaped. Maybe they could not tell that he had ever been to college. Possibly brother Bales can explain the point in brother Brewer's "logic." It appears to me that the brother is more interested in stirring up prejudice, than he is in trying to prove his proposition by facts and scripture.