Defections from the Fundamentalist Fellowship
I. Defections from the Fundamentalist Fellowship
A. The Fundamentalist Fellowship also suffered from major defections in 1925, when J. C. Massee, M. P. Boynton, and J. Whitcomb Brougher resigned. Massee had served as the Fellowship’s first chairman.
B. Responding to these casualties, W. B. Riley retorted, "This is not a battle. It is a war from which there is no discharge."
C. J. C. Massee abdicated his leadership in the Fundamentalist Fellowship to Frank M. Goodchild (1860-1928) of Central Baptist Church in New York City.
D. Goodehild, however, still believed that the Fundamentalists could rescue the convention. A striking illustration revealing Goodehild’s amiable spirit is his 1925 review of Fosdick’s new book The Modern Use of the Bible:
1. "It is very difficult for one who knows and loves Dr. Harry Fosdick to review a book by him.... His personality is so engaging... his passionate love for Jesus Christ is so conspicuous that one is apt to think there can be nothing wrong with his teaching." Goodehild then analyzed the book, accurately pointing out its modernism.
2. Militants read that review, however, and chafed at Goodehild’s reference to Fosdick’s "passionate love for Jesus Christ."
E. With such attitudes prevailing, it was no surprise to a growing number of Fundamentalists when they found their movement struggling for mere existence.
F. The year 1925 was a grim one for American Fundamentalism, but the series of events that soon unfolded would land near knockout blows to the Fundamentalist Fellowship, as well as to the Baptist Bible Union.