The 1922 NBC Meeting (Indianapolis, Indiana)

I.    The 1922 NBC Meeting (Indianapolis, Indiana)

A.    "Agreed to Differ, but Resolved to Love" was the convention’s 1922 theme when it met on June 14-20 in Indianapolis.

1.    The liberal strategy was working!

2.    This year the convention voted to continue The Baptist magazine, whose June 10 issue had just carried Harry Emerson Fosdick’s sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?"

B.    Fundamentalist William Bell Riley of Minneapolis’s First Baptist Church dropped his own "meteorite" on the convention when he moved that the NBC pledge itself to the New Hampshire Confession of Faith (1833).

1.Controversy filled the air of the famous Cadle Tabernacle. a)The liberals, however, defeated the confessional attempt by using a clever parliamentary device, the substitute motion. b)It was Cornelius Woelfkin who introduced a substitute resolution "that the New Testament is the all-sufficient ground of our faith and practice, and we need no other statement." Woelfkin so cleverly defended his proposal that many naive conservatives, such as J. C. Massee, believed that a vote for Riley’s motion would be a vote against the New Testament itself. c)After a heated, three-hour debate, Woelfkin’s proposal won 1264 to 637. With deep feelings of defeat and discouragement, Fun­damentalists returned to their homes to plan a new strategy for themselves. d)The more militant-minded were beginning to express an interest in the formation of a new organization, more powerful and effective than the Fundamentalist Fellowship had been during its two years of existence.