Formation Of The Fundamentalist Fellowship -- By: Anonymous

Journal: Central Bible Quarterly
Volume: CENQ 07:3 (Fall 1964)
Article: Formation Of The Fundamentalist Fellowship
Author: Anonymous


Formation Of The Fundamentalist Fellowship

The Interchurch World Movement

The end of World War I became the occasion for a number of idealistic programs. Prohibition came, and so did the Interchurch World Movement. Late in 1918 the Southern Presbyterian Foreign Mission Board issued a call for a conference to meet December 17, 1918, with a view to confronting the great social and missionary needs that existed after the war. The conference met, and met again in February of 1919 with a much larger participation. At the second meeting the Interchurch World Movement was formally launched. Many groups and denominations took part, but the “Baptist” in 1920 remarked that of the people actually attending functions of the Interchurch World Movement, a great number seemed to be Baptists. One of the leading backers was John D. Rockefeller, Jr. The announced objective was the raising of $1,320,214,551 in three years, and the intention was to finish the educational and missionary task of the church.

The first big pledge campaign took place on Sunday, April 25, 1920, when canvassers went out at two-o’clock in the afternoon to raise pledges of three hundred thirty-six million dollars. At this time the office and promotional expenses were running a million dollars a month. On May 17 it was announced that the campaign had raised one hundred seventy-six million dollars, about half the goal, and that the office expenses had been cut from one million dollars a month to one hundred fifty thousand dollars. In the sixteen months that the Interchurch World Movement had been in operation it had cost eight million dollars. Of the forty million dollars that the unchurched were expected

to pledge, only three million had come in. The movement, burdened with debts from having reached too far, limped along for five years and then went into receivership.

The Interchurch World Movement in 1919 issued a report on the steel strike that alienated many wealthy givers, but that report is credited with helping greatly to abolish the twelve-hour day in the steel industry.

The Northern Baptists had participated in the Interchurch World Movement, using the promotional name of New World Movement, and it was this venture that triggered the whole fundamentalist controversy in the convention.

The 1919 convention was held in Denver, with Francis W. Ayer, an advertising agent, as president that year. The convention preacher was Harry Emerson Fosdick. Virtually the chief order of business was the report of the Laymen’s Committee on Survey, appointed the previous year at Atlantic City. The members of the committee were F. W. Padelford, Chairman, James C. Colgate, Mrs. L. A. Crandall, Mrs. C. D. E...

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