Monk Parker and Fundamentalism: Part Two

After reading Monroe Parker’s autobiography (Through Sunshine and Shadows: My First 77 Years [Sword of the Lord Publishers, 1987]), I have a couple of random observations to make about fundamentalism. While these are not original or earth-shaking, I find them rather interesting. First, the evangelistic emphasis of fundamentalism in its early years promoted a great amount of inter-denominational, almost parachurch (or perhaps better, inter-church) ministry. Parker often organized evangelistic crusades in the towns where he ministered by connecting with the local Presbyterian, Baptist, and Methodist churches. These churches would then come together and support a tent meeting or evangelistic center where the preaching services would take place. Sometimes these gospel centers would continue to exist even after an evangelistic campaign ended so that they could be used in future campaigns. These centers went by such names as the Billy Sunday Club, Christian Business Men’s Club, or Bob Jones Gospel Center. It seems to me that these early fundamentalists did not think through the implications of this type of interdenominational practice. Certainly there must have been some confusion as to which church new converts should join, and I would imagine some debate existed among the churches when it came to discipling these new converts in light of the rather disparate doctrinal views that exist between the reformed soteriology of Presbyterians and the arminianism of the Methodists. And these three denominations certainly differed in their views on baptism. Another implication the early mass evangelists did not see was how their interdenominational philosophy could lead to the type of ecumenism advocated by Billy Graham. It was only a small step to go from organizing an evangelism crusade in town with other gospel-preaching churches to organizing a campaign that included all the churches in a given town. Though Graham is to be blamed for advocating a type of mass evangelism that invited participation of all churches in town (even the liberal ones), he wasn’t all that far removed from the early fundamentalists, many of whom were willing to forego some of their core doctrinal beliefs in the desire to see souls saved. Thus, while the fundamentalists of the 1950s and 1960s decried the ecumenical approach of Graham (and rightly so), their early evangelistic efforts certainly could be credited with creating a confusing environment ripe for the very thing Graham eventually practiced.

Second, the early fundamentalists not only found it useful to unite around the gospel in regard to evangelistic campaigns (with Presbyterians, Methodists, and Baptists all coming together), but they also were willing to invite guests to speak on their church and school platforms who were associated with each of these denominations. Monroe Parker referred to an interesting event that occurred in 1934 when Bob Jones College invited a famous Methodist evangelist (H. C. Morrison) and a noted New Testament scholar from Southern Baptist Seminary (A. T. Robertson) to speak at a Bible conference held on the campus. Those were certainly very different days from ours, but it is interesting to consider whether or not any fundamentalist institutions would invite members from today’s Southern Baptist Seminary to speak. Given the fact that the SBC has purged all the liberals from each of their six seminaries, the orthodoxy of SBC seminaries like Southern is not questioned by any fundamentalists today. Yet, it is highly unlikely that a famous professor from one of the SBC seminaries would be an invited guest at a fundamentalist school. Perhaps the slide of the SBC into liberalism during the 1940s and the impact of Billy Graham’s ecumenical evangelism beginning in the 1950s has forever changed how fundamentalists look at such things as cooperative efforts with former liberal institutions (like Southern Seminary) and interdenominational evangelism. Or perhaps there are some things about early fundamentalist practices that ought to be rejuvenated today? This is just one of the questions arising in my mind after reading about a great fundamentalist like Monk Parker.

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