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Carl McIntire

Carl Curtis McIntire, Jr. (May 17, 1906 – March 19, 2002), known as Carl McIntire,[1] was a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church, founder and long-time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches, and a popular religious radio broadcaster, who proudly identified himself as a fundamentalist.[2]

Carl McIntire
Carl McIntire in his office, January 1957
Born(1906-05-17)May 17, 1906
DiedMarch 19, 2002(2002-03-19) (aged 95)
Resting placeHarleigh Cemetery, Camden, New Jersey
NationalityAmerican
Alma materPark College (BA)
Westminster Theological Seminary
Occupation(s)clergyman and radio preacher

Youth and education

Born in Ypsilanti, Michigan, Carl McIntire was the oldest of four children born to Charles Curtis McIntire, a Presbyterian minister and M.A. graduate of Princeton University, and Hettie Hotchkin McIntire. McIntire's father pastored in Salt Lake City, but by 1912 he had suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized. He and his wife were divorced, and she raised the children alone in Durant, Oklahoma,[3] where she served as Dean of Women at Southeastern State Teachers College (now Southeastern Oklahoma State University).[4] Carl McIntire completed high school in Durant and attended Southeastern State, where he became an award-winning intercollegiate debater and president of the student body during his final year. For his senior year, he transferred to Park College, Parkville, Missouri, where he received his B.A. degree before entering Princeton Theological Seminary, New Jersey, in 1928 to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry.[5] Meanwhile, he worked as a janitor and sold maps to farmers door-to-door in Caddo County, Oklahoma.[6]

During the late 1920s, Princeton Seminary was embroiled in the Fundamentalist-Modernist Controversy that had disquieted the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America as well as other Protestant denominations. McIntire became a strong supporter of J. Gresham Machen, a conservative professor of New Testament. With Machen, McIntire opposed a reorganization of the seminary in 1929 that appeared to strengthen liberal elements in the church. He followed his mentor and three other professors from Princeton to the newly founded Westminster Theological Seminary, where he completed his Th.B. degree in 1931.[7]

In May 1931, he married Fairy Eunice Davis of Paris, Texas, whom he had met when they were both students at Southeastern,[8] and who became a high school English teacher while he completed seminary. They had three children.[9] After the death of Fairy Davis McIntire in 1992, McIntire married Alice Goff, a church office administrator with whom he had worked for many years.[10]

Founding of the Bible Presbyterian Church

In 1931, McIntire was ordained into the ministry of the Presbyterian Church USA, serving for two years at Chelsea Presbyterian Church, Atlantic City, New Jersey. In 1933, he was called to the Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, New Jersey, near Philadelphia, the largest church in the West Jersey Presbytery. McIntire remained a resident of Collingswood for the rest of his life.[11] The Women's Missionary Society of the Collingswood church called his attention to what they perceived as a modernist perspective in the missions study book, which had been promoted by the denomination's Board of Foreign Missions.[12] McIntire joined the conservative side in the ongoing Fundamentalist-Modernist debate, and in 1934, at Machen's invitation, he became a founding member of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions, an agency organized as an alternative to the denominational mission board that supported theologically liberal missionaries. Deeming the new board a challenge to its authority, the General Assembly demanded that the clergymen resign. After they refused, Machen, McIntire, and seven other clergymen were tried by an ecclesiastical court in 1935–36.[13] The board members lost, and they renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church, as did the Collingswood Presbyterian Church, only a tiny minority of whose members refused to support their young pastor.[14]

In 1936 McIntire joined Machen and others to found the Presbyterian Church of America, later renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. The new church attracted supporters from other Reformed traditions, complicating the church's effort to define itself. A debate soon emerged in the young denomination over eschatology, Presbyterian traditions, the use of alcohol and tobacco, and the place of political activity in the church. McIntire and others left in 1937 to form the Bible Presbyterian Church, which emphasized Fundamentalist distinctives in contrast to continental Reformed positions, supporting political involvement, the Scofield Reference Bible, a premillennialist view of eschatology, and abstinence from the use of tobacco and alcohol.[15]

In April 1938, after the Collingswood church lost a civil suit over control of its church property, the congregation walked out en masse from their impressive Gothic building and followed McIntire to a huge tent erected several blocks east on the main street at Haddon Avenue and Cuthbert Boulevard.[16] In May 1938, the congregation moved into a wooden "Tabernacle," and in November 1957, into a neo-colonial church building with a tall, Wren steeple. The church seated more than a thousand. A Sunday School was constructed on the location of the previous tent, and the revamped Tabernacle became an activity center.[17]

Expanding ministry

Christian Beacon

 
Logo of the Christian Beacon.

In February 1936, during the series of ecclesiastical trials, McIntire launched a weekly newspaper, The Christian Beacon to give greater voice to his message. The Collingswood church had already printed many of his sermons, and its church services had been broadcast over the radio in the Philadelphia region. Over the next four decades, McIntire published twelve books, and hundreds of pamphlets, booklets, sermons, speeches, and documentary portfolios.[18] As Joel Carpenter has written, McIntire was "a gifted publicist," and his Christian Beacon was a "widely read organ of separatist opinion in which McIntire practiced his talent for sensational and aggressive religious journalism."[19]

Twentieth-Century Reformation Hour

In March 1955, McIntire initiated a daily thirty-minute radio program, The Twentieth Century Reformation Hour, which featured McIntire's commentary on religious and political affairs.[20] The radio program generally began with a homily from the Bible, followed by a monologue by McIntire on a wide range of subjects, including apostasy in mainline churches, liberalism in government, opposition to coexistence with communism, and cultural issues of the moment, including gambling, sex education, socialized medicine, and fluoridation of drinking water. An associate pastor of the Collingswood church, Charles Richter, known to listeners as "Amen Charlie," regularly "amened" his support of McIntire's statements.[21] During the 1960s, the program may have been heard on as many as 600 radio stations—although McIntire's inaccuracy with numbers became legendary.[22] In 1965, McIntire effectively purchased radio station, WXUR, Media, Pennsylvania, although it was formally owned by Faith Theological Seminary.[23]

Bible conference centers

McIntire's outreach included an interest in promoting summer Bible conferences, a common method of evangelization and Bible teaching among American Protestants during the early twentieth century.[24] In 1941, McIntire took a leading role in acquiring and operating Harvey Cedars Bible Conference on the Jersey shore at Harvey Cedars, New Jersey (1941–56).[25] After the Bible Presbyterian denomination underwent its first split in the latter year, McIntire's organization purchased the historic Admiral Hotel in Cape May, New Jersey in 1962, and founded the Christian Admiral Bible Conference and Freedom Center. McIntire added a number of distressed properties to his holdings, becoming an unwitting preservationist as he prevented outmoded structures—the most notable being the nineteenth-century Windsor and Congress Hall hotels—from being destroyed to make room for motels.[26] The conference itself contributed to the revival of Cape May as a summer resort. In 1971, McIntire also developed a Bible conference in Cape Canaveral, Florida.[27]

Church councils

 
Christian Admiral hotel, home to many Bible conferences, as well as ACCC and ICCC congresses.

During the 1940s, McIntire's influence expanded throughout the United States and overseas. In 1941, he helped create the American Council of Christian Churches (ACCC) as a conservative alternative to the liberal Federal (later, National) Council of Churches (NCC). In 1948, he likewise helped to found the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC) to challenge the World Council of Churches (WCC). McIntire was elected first President of the ICCC and was reelected at each World Congress until he died. He and his wife, Fairy, traveled around the world scores of times both to encourage evangelical Christians abroad and to demonstrate his opposition to the World Council of Churches. (During McIntire's long presidency, the headquarters of the ICCC were located in Amsterdam, and J. C. Maris served as General Secretary.)[28]

During the late 1960s, McIntire's relationship with the ACCC leadership became strained, and he secretly transferred an ACCC relief agency (along with $62,000) to the ICCC, which remained firmly under his control. McIntire "was perennially late to ACCC meetings, and then he would demand that any decisions made in advance of his arrival be undone." When ACCC leaders refused to accommodate him, he attacked them in the Christian Beacon, claiming that there was a "Baptist plot against him." After being outmaneuvered, McIntire attempted a parliamentary takeover in October 1970, which eventually led to a court order against him in 1971, and a final severing of his relationship with the ACCC.[29]

Educational institutions

McIntire promoted several educational ministries. The Sunday School and the Summer Bible School of the Collingswood church were large and active. (The Summer Bible School of the Collingswood church—McIntire disliked the term "Vacation Bible School"—ran for four weeks rather than the typical one week of most churches during the period.) McIntire also gained control of the National Bible Institute in New York City and transformed the school into a liberal arts college, Shelton College, which moved to the "Skylands" estate in Ringwood, New Jersey, in 1953. In 1964, the college moved to Cape May, later to Cape Canaveral, Florida, and then back to Cape May before closing in the 1980s after the New Jersey Supreme Court in New Jersey Board of Higher Education v. Shelton College prohibited Shelton from granting academic degrees without a state license.[30] Faith Theological Seminary, organized in 1937 as an independent school associated with the Bible Presbyterian denomination, later occupied Lynnewood Hall, the Gilded Age estate of P.A.B. Widener in Elkins Park, Pennsylvania.[31] McIntire and west coast supporters of the Bible Presbyterian Church founded Highland College in Pasadena, California, a small Christian liberal arts college, and remained associated with the college until 1956.

Christian emphases

 
McIntire's Outside the Gate, where he lays out his separatist doctrine.

McIntire considered himself to be first of all a pastor and preacher. His sermons were frequently exegetical, and he often proceeded systematically through particular books of the Bible. He urged his congregation to read the Bible through every year.[32] For McIntire the term Fundamentalist included attachment to the fundamentals of the historic Christian religion as defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith, the doctrinal standard of the Presbyterian Church and by the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed. He was a Calvinist who believed that John Calvin's Institutes of the Christian Religion, the Westminster Confession, and the Shorter and Larger Westminster catechisms were the finest articulations of the Christian faith.[33]

McIntire emphasized the doctrine of separation, which he based on 2 Corinthians 6:17: "Wherefore come out from among them, and be ye separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the unclean thing; and I will receive you." To McIntire, separation emphasized the purity of the church in opposition to apostasy, the falling away from the historic Christian faith in which he believed theological liberals to be engaged.[34] Like other fundamentalists of the period, McIntire also separated from evangelical groups, such as the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE), which he believed had compromised with the liberalism of the National Council of Churches. He early rejected the Neo-evangelicalism of Billy Graham even before Graham's New York City Evangelistic Crusade of 1957, because Graham's organization had accepted the support of those McIntire regarded as liberals.[35]

In the public eye

Although his Oklahoma family had voted Democratic, McIntire eventually became a conservative Republican. Before and during World War II, McIntire opposed Nazi totalitarianism and anti-semitism, and afterwards he became a champion of anti-Communism and especially one who attacked Communist control of religion in the Soviet Union. McIntire argued that although America had once honored God and freedom, it was in danger of losing its heritage.[36] On his radio program, McIntire often repeated the slogan, "Freedom is everybody's business, your business, my business, the church's business, and a man who will not use his freedom to defend his freedom, does not deserve his freedom."[37]

McIntire attracted considerable public attention through his public demonstrations, early gaining a feel for gestures that attracted popular notice. For instance, in 1947, he unsuccessfully opposed a revised New Jersey state constitution in a radio address entitled, "The Governor's Kittens," while he (more-or-less) held a cat and kittens before the microphone.[38] McIntire attended virtually every important meeting of the World Council of Churches wherever its meetings were held and usually mounted demonstrations with placards outside the meeting hall, calling attention to what he regarded as the WCC's religious apostasy or its collaboration with Russian clergy who he believed were KGB operatives.[39]

Beginning in 1967, McIntire engaged in a running battle with the Federal Communications Commission over the then-applicable "Fairness Doctrine," by which radio stations had to provide varied political views to retain their licenses.[40] WXUR was "incompetently run and flagrantly disrespectful of FCC requirements," but there was also "no doubt that the station was targeted because many members of the local Philadelphia community found speech expressed on WXUR offensive and therefore wanted it censored."[41] When the FCC refused to renew the WXUR license (rejecting the recommendation of its own examiner)[42] and the station was forced off the air in 1973, McIntire demonstrated his theatrical flair by holding a "funeral" for the station (complete with coffin) while dressed as John Witherspoon, a Presbyterian pastor and signer of the Declaration of Independence.[43]

After a supporter purchased for McIntire a World War II vintage wooden-hulled Navy minesweeper named Oceanic (which McIntire renamed Columbus), he tried to broadcast outside the three-mile limit near Cape May, calling the floating station "Radio Free America."[44] The station began broadcasting at 12:22 PM Eastern Time on September 19, 1973,[45] but was only on the air for ten hours—the ship began to smoke from the heat of the antenna feeder line, and the signal interfered with that of radio station WHLW in Lakewood, New Jersey which broadcast on a neighboring frequency of 1170 kHz. Nevertheless, the notion of a Christian pirate radio station off the United States caught the attention of the media.[46] "I became a very famous man out of that," McIntire later recalled, "People stood along the coast to see me. It was a crazy thing to do, but it was dramatic."[47]

McIntire also gained the public eye in the early 1970s when he organized a half dozen pro-Vietnam War "Victory Marches" in Washington, D.C. The march of October 3, 1970 was supposed to have featured South Vietnamese vice-president Nguyen Cao Ky, but the Nixon administration ensured that Ky would not be present.[48] McIntire attributed the prosecution and conviction of Lt. William Calley on 22 charges related to war crimes at My Lai to "a no-win policy" of the U.S. government in Vietnam.[49]

More than once McIntire's sense of the dramatic passed over into the risible, as for instance, when he urged in 1971 that a full-scale version of the Temple of Jerusalem be constructed in Florida[50] or two decades later when he suggested that Noah's ark be rebuilt and perhaps refloated off his conference center in Cape May. "It would be a tourist attraction," said McIntire of the latter, "and it would forever down these liberals."[51] In 1975 he proposed the building of a Vietnam War amusement park called New Vietnam.[52][53] In 1970, when gay activists proposed "Stonewall Nation", the takeover of sparsely populated Alpine County, California, McIntire announced that he would counteract the plan by having his followers move to the area in trailers.[54] Neither the activists nor McIntire did anything of the sort.

Later life

McIntire could combine gravitas with a populist appeal to what he called "the grass roots."[55] A gifted preacher when he chose to be, he seemed to prefer dabbling in politics to Bible exposition.[56] A man who inspired listeners and easily raised money for his various ministries, McIntire had few trustworthy associates to manage the day-to-day activities of his ramshackle empire. Nor could he brook sharing power.[57] In the 1960s his long-time friend and fellow fundamentalist, Robert T. Ketcham, pleaded with McIntire to "be more gracious in his dealings with other Christians," but McIntire instead used the Christian Beacon to attack members of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches of which Ketcham was an influential leader.[58] In 1971, all but two of the professors of Faith Seminary, including President Allan A. MacRae, left over McIntire's alleged suppression of academic freedom and "oppressive leadership style."[59] McIntire refused to participate in fundamentalist organizations which he could not dominate, even those led by other separatist fundamentalists of the period such as Bob Jones, Jr., and Ian Paisley.[60] Nevertheless, McIntire often inspired good-natured respect from some of the religious liberals whom he regularly picketed through the years; and his rhetoric, although sometimes bombastic, was rarely personal.[61]

By the early 1970s, McIntire's ministries were debt-ridden and began to collapse one by one.[62] In 1970, he owed the town of Cape May more than a half million dollars in back taxes.[63] The buildings he had accumulated were sold or destroyed. By the time he died, at age 95,[64] without a successor, virtually everything was gone.[65] Even the shadow that remained of the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood finally forced his resignation in 1999, after he had served the congregation for sixty years.[66] In the words of Joel Belz, McIntire was "a classic example of a brilliant and winsome man who chose his battles badly. Unyielding on petty issues, he divided where division was both unnecessary and costly to the very causes he championed. Too often, he seemed to love the fight more than the very valid issues over which the fights raged."[67] McIntire had repeatedly criticized Princeton Theological Seminary, an institution he had left in 1929, as a bastion of theological liberalism.[68] Yet when Princeton honored him almost affectionately as a distinguished alumnus, McIntire responded to its overtures and donated his papers to the Seminary.[69]

Further reading

  • Markku Ruotsila, Fighting Fundamentalist: Carl McIntire and the Politicization of American Fundamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2016).
  • Gladys Titzck Rhoads and Nancy Titzck Anderson, McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom (Xulon Press, 2012) ISBN 978-1-61996-231-6.
  • , includes many primary and secondary sources about McIntire.
  • International Council of Christian Churches website 2014-01-18 at the Wayback Machine.
  • K. C. Quek, ed., The McIntire Memorial: Carl McIntire, 1906-2002 (Seoul, Korea: Truth & Freedom Publishing Company, 2005).
  • Margaret G. Harden, comp., A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies, (privately published, [1966]).
  • The Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood: for the Glory of God (Collingswood BPC, 1957).
  • 40 Years...Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, 1933-1973, written by Ethel Rink (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1973).
  • Carl McIntire's 50-Year Ministry in the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, New Jersey (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1983).
  • ICCC Silver Jubilee, 1948-1973 (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1973).
  • John Fea, "Carl McIntire: From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist," American Presbyterian 72:4 (Winter 1994), 253-68.
  • Heather Hendershot, "God's Angriest Man: Carl McIntire, Cold War Fundamentalism, and Right-Wing Broadcasting," American Quarterly, 59 (June 2007), 373-96.
  • Heather Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air? Cold War Right-Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest (University of Chicago Press, 2011).
  • Douglas Martin, "Carl McIntire, 95, Evangelist and Patriot, Dies," New York Times, March 22, 2002.
  • David O. Beale, In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850 (Greenville, S.C.: Unusual Publications, 1986), 323-30.
  • Shelley Baranowski, "Carl McIntire," in Charles Lippy, ed., Twentieth-Century Shapers of American Religion (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1989), 256-63.
  • J. Wesley Leckrone, "Carl McIntire: Twentieth Century Voice of Christian Anti-Communism", MA Thesis, Temple University, 1995.

Works

  • A Cloud of Witnesses or Heroes of the Faith (Philadelphia: Pinebrook Press, 1938; second edition, Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1965), sermons on Hebrews 11:1-12:2
  • Twentieth Century Reformation (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1944)
  • The Rise of the Tyrant: Controlled Economy vs Private Enterprise (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1945)
  • Author of Liberty (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1946; second edition, 1963)
  • For Such a Time as This: The Book of Esther (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1946) – sermons
  • Modern Tower of Babel (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1949
  • Better Than Seven Sons (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1954) – sermons on the Book of Ruth
  • The Wall of Jerusalem Also Is Broken Down (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1954) – sermons on the Book of Nehemiah
  • Servants of Apostasy (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1955)
  • The Epistle of Apostasy: the Book of Jude (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1958) – sermons
  • The Death of a Church (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1967)
  • Outside the Gate (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1967)

References

  1. ^ McIntire's baptismal name was Charles Curtis McIntire, Jr., but he was called Carl from earliest childhood. Collection Guide, Carl McIntire Papers, Princeton Theological Seminary.
  2. ^ Many sources for this article may be found at CarlMcIntire.org August 11, 2006, at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ^ PCA Historical Center website 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine. McIntire's maternal grandmother and paternal great-grandmother had been Presbyterian missionaries to the Choctaw Nation. Marianna McIntire Clark, "Ancestry and Early Life of Carl McIntire" in The McIntire Memorial (Seoul, Korea: Truth & Freedom Publishing Company, 2005), 34-35.
  4. ^ PCA Historical Center website 2009-08-31 at the Wayback Machine. By 1920, Charles Curtis McIntire had recovered and was serving as the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Vinita, Oklahoma, as a lecturer, and as a prison evangelist. He died in 1929.
  5. ^ Hotchkin Genealogy September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine; there is considerable (though ill-organized) biographical information and 75 pages of photographs in K. C. Quek, ed., The McIntire Memorial: Carl McIntire, 1906-2002(Singapore: ICCC, 2005).
  6. ^ [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 2.
  7. ^ Margaret G. Harden, comp.,A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies (privately published, 1966). McIntire said that Machen's book What Is Faith? influenced him "as much as any book." [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 2.
  8. ^ McIntire called Fairy David McIntire (December 23, 1906 – September 13, 1992), a "person of unusual ability and charm [who] stood beside him through all the trials." [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 2.
  9. ^ Marianna Hotchkin McIntire, a school principal and teacher of English literature, Latin, and Spanish (b. 1932), Sally Celeste McIntire, a homemaker and real estate broker (b. 1936), and Carl Thomas [C. T.] McIntire, a historian at the University of Toronto (b. 1939). (Hotchkin Genealogy September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine)
  10. ^ The McIntire Memorial, 53.
  11. ^ obituary, The New York Times March 22, 2002. "His daughter Marianna Clark said he had lived in the same house in Collingswood, N.J., since 1939."
  12. ^ [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 3.
  13. ^ Ethel Rink, 40 Years...Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, 1933-1973 (Collingswood, N.J.: Christian Beacon Press, 1973),8-10.
  14. ^ Margaret G. Harden, comp.,A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies(privately published, [1966]); see also A brief history of the Independent Board from the IBPFM website December 14, 2005, at the Wayback Machine
  15. ^ [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 3; D. G. Hart, Defending the Faith: J. Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 1994), 163, 165, 166.
  16. ^ Following the withdrawal, the denomination then deposed McIntire, allowing his enemies to brand him a "defrocked Presbyterian minister." [Carl McIntire], "Who Is Carl McIntire?" booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour [1968], 3.
  17. ^ The Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood: for the Glory of God (Collingswood BPC, 1957); Ethel Rink, 40 Years...Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, 1933-1973 (Collingswood, N.J.: Christian Beacon Press, 1973),24-26. See also Margaret G. Harden, comp., A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies, (privately published, [1966]). The Sunday School building was also used for Faith Christian School.
  18. ^ Ethel Rink served as the editor of virtually all his major publications, and Ruth Trato assisted with the documentary supplements. After the death of Rink, McIntire's published prose noticeably deteriorated.
  19. ^ Joel A. Carpenter, Revive Us Again: The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1997), 205.
  20. ^ Ethel Rink, 40 Years, 24.
  21. ^ "Amen Charlie was Carl McIntire's radio sidekick when I frequently tuned in to the program during the 1960s and '70s. Charlie was a man of very few words. His main role was to provide a brief change of pace in the midst of his boss's monologues. McIntire would go on for a few minutes on favorite topic, and then he would pause and ask, 'Isn't that right, Charlie?' And Amen Charlie would reply, 'Amen. You're right, Dr. McIntire!'" Richard J. Mouw, "You're Right, Dr. McIntire," Christianity Today, May 17, 2002.
  22. ^ D.A. Waite, Carl McIntire's $200,000 Tax Debt in Cape May, Etc., (Collingswood, N.J.: The Bible for Today, 1974). Waite was a disaffected former employee who counted 414 stations in April 1965. By the early 1970s, Waite said that McIntire was broadcasting on "well under 100 stations." (8).
  23. ^ Ethel Rink, 40 Years, 39.
  24. ^ David O. Beale, In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850 (Greenville, S.C.: Bob Jones University Press, 1986), 91-95.
  25. ^ [Ethel Rink], 40 Years...Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood, 1933-1973 (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1973), 18; Harvey Cedars Bible Conference
  26. ^ Washington Times, June 1, 2007; Gladys Titzck Rhoads and Nancy Titzck Anderson, McIntire: Defender of Faith and Freedom (Xulon Press, 2011), 308.
  27. ^ McIntire's non-profit corporation, Christian Beacon Press, Inc., owned the newspaper, the publishing house, the radio ministry, the Bible conferences, and other properties connected with the ministry, and McIntire's income was derived solely from his church salary. In 1939, McIntire and his wife purchased their own home facing Knight's Park in Collingswood, where McIntire lived until his death in 2002.
  28. ^ See The McIntire Memorial: Carl McIntire, 1906-2002, edited by K. C. Quek ([Singapore]: ICCC, 2005); see also Silver Jubilee 1948-1973: Celebrating the Silver Anniversary of the International Council of Christian Churches (ICCC, 1973). The ICCC published books collecting the sermons and addresses delivered on the themes of the plenary congresses. Titles indicated the emphases of each congress, including The Christ of the Scriptures (ICCC, 1958), and Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday, and Today, and For Ever (ICCC, 1962). The ICCC office has since moved to Singapore.
  29. ^ Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air?, 115-18; Rhoads and Anderson, 397-403.
  30. ^ See Russell Kirk, "Shelton College and State Licensing of Religious Schools: An Educator's View of the Interface Between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses," Law & Contemporary Problems, 44:2 (Spring 1981), 169-184. "Skylands" became the New Jersey Botanical Gardens in 1984 New Jersey Botanical Gardens website.
  31. ^ On Lynnewood Hall see Preservation Alliance News May 19, 2007, at the Wayback Machine. The seminary later moved to much more plebeian quarters in Baltimore, Maryland.Faith Theological Seminary website.
  32. ^ Frank Mood, "'A Man Sent from God,'" in K. C. Quek, ed., The McIntire Memorial: Carl McIntire, 1906-2002(Singapore: ICCC, 2005), 112-115.
  33. ^ The Constitution of the Bible Presbyterian Church, (Independent Board of Home Missions, various editions), which McIntire helped to prepare.
  34. ^ See especially McIntire, Twentieth Century Reformation (Collingswood: Christian Beacon Press, 1944)
  35. ^ Harden, 102.
  36. ^ Are World Events Today Fulfilling Bible Prophesy?" Christian Beacon (7 January 1937); "Pastors Oppose Oath to Hitler," Christian Beacon (23 June 1938): 1.
  37. ^ Morris McDonald, ed., Freedom is My Business (Independent Board for Presbyterian Home Missions, 1983), a book of quotations selected from McIntire's writings (1938-1983).
  38. ^ Ethel Rink, 40 Years, 20-21.
  39. ^ His activities in connection with the WCC are extensively detailed in the Christian Beacon, and in a series of documentary supplements that collected a large amount of materials relevant to the theme of the WCC and the Russian clergy.
  40. ^ Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air, 144. Hendershot suggests that McIntire was "obviously spoiling for a fight with the FCC over the Fairness Doctrine, a fight he expected to win because he was certain that the doctrine was unconstitutional.
  41. ^ Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air, 161.
  42. ^ Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air, 156.
  43. ^ On McIntire's conflict with the FCC, see Heather Hendershot, "God's Angriest Man: Carl McIntire, Cold War Fundamentalism, and Right-Wing Broadcasting," American Quarterly, 59 (June 2007), 373-96. During the 1980s fundamentalists and evangelicals became firmly ensconced in cable and satellite distribution technologies, which were beyond the purview of the Fairness Doctrine. The Reagan FCC urged Congress to eliminate the Doctrine altogether, and when the Democratic Congress retaliated by trying to elevate it into law, President Reagan vetoed the bill. Later threats to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in 1993 failed after Rush Limbaugh called the attempt the "Hush Rush Law." Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air, 167-69.
  44. ^ Don Jensen, "Radio Free America: A 'Red, Right and Blue' Political Pirate," Monitoring Magazine (October 1988) reprinted @ CarlMcIntire.org December 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine
  45. ^ The station broadcast at 1160 kHz, using a 10,000 watt transmitter, 8.5 miles (13.6 km) off the New Jersey coast. "FTA Battles for Airwaves", Overthrow (March 1984), 18.
  46. ^ Larry Townsend, "Reverend Carl McIntire: A Pirate of God," @ CarlMcIntire.org December 30, 2008, at the Wayback Machine.
  47. ^ Randall Balmer, "Fundamentalist with Flair," Christianity Today (May 21, 2002).
  48. ^ Contemporary biographical news sketch; more details may be found in John Fea, "Carl McIntire: From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist," American Presbyterian 72:4 (Winter 1994), 264. "McIntire then convinced Mrs. Ky to stand in for her husband, but her airplane en route to the US was conveniently called back to Paris with 'engine trouble.'" Hendershot,What's Fair on the Air, 110.
  49. ^ Naughton, James M. (April 6, 1971). "92 in Capital Held in Antiwar Rally". The New York Times. Retrieved October 6, 2020.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: url-status (link)
  50. ^ Baton Rouge Morning Advocate, (October 2, 1971).
  51. ^ Christian Beacon (February 18–25, 1993), 7.
  52. ^ Institute, Bathroom Readers' (2012-09-01). The Best of the Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader. Simon and Schuster. ISBN 978-1-60710-683-8.
  53. ^ "What Happened To New Vietnam?". Underunderstood. Retrieved 2023-01-26.
  54. ^ Los Angeles Times, October 28, 1970, 9A; Donn Teal, The Gay Militants: How Gay Liberation Began in America, 1969-1971 (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1971), 296.
  55. ^ "Despite widespread criticism of McIntire for inaccuracy, exaggeration, and what sometimes seems to be deliberate distortion, his followers fanatically support him. When ministers in Warren, Ohio, during the winter of 1962-63 tried to secure a cancellation of his broadcasts because the program was creating ill will in the community, his loyal listeners turned out in sub-zero weather to a protest meeting. The audience, counted at 2,350, jammed Warren's Packard Music Hall. Hundreds came in chartered buses from communities across the state and from adjoining Pennsylvania. The stage was bedecked with fifty-nine flags (courtesy of the Sons of the American Revolution), and the program included hymns and patriotic songs and Scripture readings. McIntire himself was welcomed by Mayor Robert Dunstan, who told the people that the preacher, like Noah of old, was 'a man raised up by God in a time of travail.' The hall echoed with 'Amens!' and when he appealed for money for his radio broadcasts, McIntire collected over $4,000 in checks and pledges in addition to some very substantial cash offerings." Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein, Danger on the Right (New York: Random House, 1964), excerpt from CarlMcIntire.org October 8, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
  56. ^ In reminiscing about previous Bible Conferences at Bob Jones University, the chancellor, Bob Jones III, recalled a sermon by Carl McIntire was one of two he specifically remembered, "He preached a message on the crucifixion from Psalm 22, and you felt like you were at the foot of the cross. I always wondered why he didn't do more of that kind of preaching and less of the communism stuff." Abigail Murphy, "Dr. Bob Comments on Bible Conference," Accord [Office of Communications, BJU], 4. 8 (March 26, 2009), 4.
  57. ^ George Marsden, Reforming Fundamentalism: Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 1987), 49: "McIntire...was constitutionally unable to play any other role than chief." McIntire never groomed a successor (his son early became a college professor in Toronto) and seemed to have a knack for choosing men of questionable ethics to manage the branches of his organization. In April 1965, McIntire threatened to resign his pulpit unless the session of his church continued in office as elder the manager of the Christian Admiral Hotel who had been accused of moral improprieties. D. A. Waite, "Carl McIntire's $200,000 Tax Debt in Cape May, Etc.," (Collingswood, N.J.: The Bible for Today, 1974), 22.
  58. ^ J. Murray Murdoch, Portrait of Obedience: The Biography of Robert T. Ketcham (Schaumburg, Illinois: Regular Baptist Press, 1979), 286-87.
  59. ^ John Fea, "Carl McIntire: From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist," American Presbyterian 72:4 (Winter 1994), 265.
  60. ^ Bob Jones, Jr., Cornbread and Caviar (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press), 191-93. Jones was exasperated at McIntire's attitude especially since Jones had had BJU confer an honorary degree on McIntire.
  61. ^ "His protests at the assemblies of the World Council of Churches were so common that at the 1991 meeting in Canberra, Australia, church leaders whom he had reviled for decades came out to his solitary picket and greeted him like an old friend: 'Hey, Carl, how ya doing?'" Randall Balmer, "Fundamentalist with Flair," Christianity Today (May 21, 2002).
  62. ^ Los Angeles Times, December 1, 1974).
  63. ^ John Fea, "Carl McIntire: From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist," American Presbyterian 72:4 (Winter 1994), 264.
  64. ^ McIntire was buried in Harleigh Cemetery, Camden, New Jersey.
  65. ^ Joel Belz, "This Fight's Over: Lessons from a Fiery Fundamentalist," World, (April 6, 2002), 5: "[N]early everyone who worked with Carl McIntire ended up disillusioned....His own family members increasingly distanced themselves from their father and grandfather."
  66. ^ The former principal of now his defunct church school, told Randall Balmer, "Speaking from God's Word, there wasn't anyone who could touch him, but...he wasn't touching the needs within the church." Randall Balmer, "Fundamentalist with Flair," Christianity Today (May 21, 2002).
  67. ^ Belz, 5.
  68. ^ Randall Balmer, "Fundamentalist with Flair," Christianity Today (May 21, 2002): "Princeton Theological Seminary is gone," he said ruefully. It's ecumenical."
  69. ^ Princeton described the Carl McIntire Papers as "the largest single donation of papers that have come to the Seminary since its founding in 1812." Carl McIntire Papers September 27, 2007, at the Wayback Machine
Conciliar offices
Preceded by
New Office
President of the International Council of Christian Churches
1948 – 2002
Succeeded by
Choi Kwang Jae
Academic offices
Preceded by President of Shelton College
1965–1972
Succeeded by
Hyland W. Shepherd
Preceded by President of Faith Theological Seminary
1972–2002
Succeeded by
Norman J. Manohar


carl, mcintire, carl, curtis, mcintire, 1906, march, 2002, known, founder, minister, bible, presbyterian, church, founder, long, time, president, international, council, christian, churches, american, council, christian, churches, popular, religious, radio, br. Carl Curtis McIntire Jr May 17 1906 March 19 2002 known as Carl McIntire 1 was a founder and minister in the Bible Presbyterian Church founder and long time president of the International Council of Christian Churches and the American Council of Christian Churches and a popular religious radio broadcaster who proudly identified himself as a fundamentalist 2 Carl McIntireCarl McIntire in his office January 1957Born 1906 05 17 May 17 1906Ypsilanti Michigan U S DiedMarch 19 2002 2002 03 19 aged 95 Collingswood New JerseyResting placeHarleigh Cemetery Camden New JerseyNationalityAmericanAlma materPark College BA Westminster Theological SeminaryOccupation s clergyman and radio preacher Contents 1 Youth and education 2 Founding of the Bible Presbyterian Church 3 Expanding ministry 3 1 Christian Beacon 3 2 Twentieth Century Reformation Hour 3 3 Bible conference centers 3 4 Church councils 3 5 Educational institutions 4 Christian emphases 5 In the public eye 6 Later life 7 Further reading 8 Works 9 ReferencesYouth and education EditBorn in Ypsilanti Michigan Carl McIntire was the oldest of four children born to Charles Curtis McIntire a Presbyterian minister and M A graduate of Princeton University and Hettie Hotchkin McIntire McIntire s father pastored in Salt Lake City but by 1912 he had suffered a mental breakdown and was hospitalized He and his wife were divorced and she raised the children alone in Durant Oklahoma 3 where she served as Dean of Women at Southeastern State Teachers College now Southeastern Oklahoma State University 4 Carl McIntire completed high school in Durant and attended Southeastern State where he became an award winning intercollegiate debater and president of the student body during his final year For his senior year he transferred to Park College Parkville Missouri where he received his B A degree before entering Princeton Theological Seminary New Jersey in 1928 to prepare for the Presbyterian ministry 5 Meanwhile he worked as a janitor and sold maps to farmers door to door in Caddo County Oklahoma 6 During the late 1920s Princeton Seminary was embroiled in the Fundamentalist Modernist Controversy that had disquieted the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America as well as other Protestant denominations McIntire became a strong supporter of J Gresham Machen a conservative professor of New Testament With Machen McIntire opposed a reorganization of the seminary in 1929 that appeared to strengthen liberal elements in the church He followed his mentor and three other professors from Princeton to the newly founded Westminster Theological Seminary where he completed his Th B degree in 1931 7 In May 1931 he married Fairy Eunice Davis of Paris Texas whom he had met when they were both students at Southeastern 8 and who became a high school English teacher while he completed seminary They had three children 9 After the death of Fairy Davis McIntire in 1992 McIntire married Alice Goff a church office administrator with whom he had worked for many years 10 Founding of the Bible Presbyterian Church EditIn 1931 McIntire was ordained into the ministry of the Presbyterian Church USA serving for two years at Chelsea Presbyterian Church Atlantic City New Jersey In 1933 he was called to the Presbyterian Church of Collingswood New Jersey near Philadelphia the largest church in the West Jersey Presbytery McIntire remained a resident of Collingswood for the rest of his life 11 The Women s Missionary Society of the Collingswood church called his attention to what they perceived as a modernist perspective in the missions study book which had been promoted by the denomination s Board of Foreign Missions 12 McIntire joined the conservative side in the ongoing Fundamentalist Modernist debate and in 1934 at Machen s invitation he became a founding member of the Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions an agency organized as an alternative to the denominational mission board that supported theologically liberal missionaries Deeming the new board a challenge to its authority the General Assembly demanded that the clergymen resign After they refused Machen McIntire and seven other clergymen were tried by an ecclesiastical court in 1935 36 13 The board members lost and they renounced the jurisdiction of the Presbyterian Church as did the Collingswood Presbyterian Church only a tiny minority of whose members refused to support their young pastor 14 In 1936 McIntire joined Machen and others to found the Presbyterian Church of America later renamed the Orthodox Presbyterian Church The new church attracted supporters from other Reformed traditions complicating the church s effort to define itself A debate soon emerged in the young denomination over eschatology Presbyterian traditions the use of alcohol and tobacco and the place of political activity in the church McIntire and others left in 1937 to form the Bible Presbyterian Church which emphasized Fundamentalist distinctives in contrast to continental Reformed positions supporting political involvement the Scofield Reference Bible a premillennialist view of eschatology and abstinence from the use of tobacco and alcohol 15 In April 1938 after the Collingswood church lost a civil suit over control of its church property the congregation walked out en masse from their impressive Gothic building and followed McIntire to a huge tent erected several blocks east on the main street at Haddon Avenue and Cuthbert Boulevard 16 In May 1938 the congregation moved into a wooden Tabernacle and in November 1957 into a neo colonial church building with a tall Wren steeple The church seated more than a thousand A Sunday School was constructed on the location of the previous tent and the revamped Tabernacle became an activity center 17 Expanding ministry EditChristian Beacon Edit Logo of the Christian Beacon In February 1936 during the series of ecclesiastical trials McIntire launched a weekly newspaper The Christian Beacon to give greater voice to his message The Collingswood church had already printed many of his sermons and its church services had been broadcast over the radio in the Philadelphia region Over the next four decades McIntire published twelve books and hundreds of pamphlets booklets sermons speeches and documentary portfolios 18 As Joel Carpenter has written McIntire was a gifted publicist and his Christian Beacon was a widely read organ of separatist opinion in which McIntire practiced his talent for sensational and aggressive religious journalism 19 Twentieth Century Reformation Hour Edit In March 1955 McIntire initiated a daily thirty minute radio program The Twentieth Century Reformation Hour which featured McIntire s commentary on religious and political affairs 20 The radio program generally began with a homily from the Bible followed by a monologue by McIntire on a wide range of subjects including apostasy in mainline churches liberalism in government opposition to coexistence with communism and cultural issues of the moment including gambling sex education socialized medicine and fluoridation of drinking water An associate pastor of the Collingswood church Charles Richter known to listeners as Amen Charlie regularly amened his support of McIntire s statements 21 During the 1960s the program may have been heard on as many as 600 radio stations although McIntire s inaccuracy with numbers became legendary 22 In 1965 McIntire effectively purchased radio station WXUR Media Pennsylvania although it was formally owned by Faith Theological Seminary 23 Bible conference centers Edit McIntire s outreach included an interest in promoting summer Bible conferences a common method of evangelization and Bible teaching among American Protestants during the early twentieth century 24 In 1941 McIntire took a leading role in acquiring and operating Harvey Cedars Bible Conference on the Jersey shore at Harvey Cedars New Jersey 1941 56 25 After the Bible Presbyterian denomination underwent its first split in the latter year McIntire s organization purchased the historic Admiral Hotel in Cape May New Jersey in 1962 and founded the Christian Admiral Bible Conference and Freedom Center McIntire added a number of distressed properties to his holdings becoming an unwitting preservationist as he prevented outmoded structures the most notable being the nineteenth century Windsor and Congress Hall hotels from being destroyed to make room for motels 26 The conference itself contributed to the revival of Cape May as a summer resort In 1971 McIntire also developed a Bible conference in Cape Canaveral Florida 27 Church councils Edit Christian Admiral hotel home to many Bible conferences as well as ACCC and ICCC congresses During the 1940s McIntire s influence expanded throughout the United States and overseas In 1941 he helped create the American Council of Christian Churches ACCC as a conservative alternative to the liberal Federal later National Council of Churches NCC In 1948 he likewise helped to found the International Council of Christian Churches ICCC to challenge the World Council of Churches WCC McIntire was elected first President of the ICCC and was reelected at each World Congress until he died He and his wife Fairy traveled around the world scores of times both to encourage evangelical Christians abroad and to demonstrate his opposition to the World Council of Churches During McIntire s long presidency the headquarters of the ICCC were located in Amsterdam and J C Maris served as General Secretary 28 During the late 1960s McIntire s relationship with the ACCC leadership became strained and he secretly transferred an ACCC relief agency along with 62 000 to the ICCC which remained firmly under his control McIntire was perennially late to ACCC meetings and then he would demand that any decisions made in advance of his arrival be undone When ACCC leaders refused to accommodate him he attacked them in the Christian Beacon claiming that there was a Baptist plot against him After being outmaneuvered McIntire attempted a parliamentary takeover in October 1970 which eventually led to a court order against him in 1971 and a final severing of his relationship with the ACCC 29 Educational institutions Edit McIntire promoted several educational ministries The Sunday School and the Summer Bible School of the Collingswood church were large and active The Summer Bible School of the Collingswood church McIntire disliked the term Vacation Bible School ran for four weeks rather than the typical one week of most churches during the period McIntire also gained control of the National Bible Institute in New York City and transformed the school into a liberal arts college Shelton College which moved to the Skylands estate in Ringwood New Jersey in 1953 In 1964 the college moved to Cape May later to Cape Canaveral Florida and then back to Cape May before closing in the 1980s after the New Jersey Supreme Court in New Jersey Board of Higher Education v Shelton College prohibited Shelton from granting academic degrees without a state license 30 Faith Theological Seminary organized in 1937 as an independent school associated with the Bible Presbyterian denomination later occupied Lynnewood Hall the Gilded Age estate of P A B Widener in Elkins Park Pennsylvania 31 McIntire and west coast supporters of the Bible Presbyterian Church founded Highland College in Pasadena California a small Christian liberal arts college and remained associated with the college until 1956 Christian emphases Edit McIntire s Outside the Gate where he lays out his separatist doctrine McIntire considered himself to be first of all a pastor and preacher His sermons were frequently exegetical and he often proceeded systematically through particular books of the Bible He urged his congregation to read the Bible through every year 32 For McIntire the term Fundamentalist included attachment to the fundamentals of the historic Christian religion as defined by the Westminster Confession of Faith the doctrinal standard of the Presbyterian Church and by the Apostles Creed and Nicene Creed He was a Calvinist who believed that John Calvin s Institutes of the Christian Religion the Westminster Confession and the Shorter and Larger Westminster catechisms were the finest articulations of the Christian faith 33 McIntire emphasized the doctrine of separation which he based on 2 Corinthians 6 17 Wherefore come out from among them and be ye separate saith the Lord and touch not the unclean thing and I will receive you To McIntire separation emphasized the purity of the church in opposition to apostasy the falling away from the historic Christian faith in which he believed theological liberals to be engaged 34 Like other fundamentalists of the period McIntire also separated from evangelical groups such as the National Association of Evangelicals NAE which he believed had compromised with the liberalism of the National Council of Churches He early rejected the Neo evangelicalism of Billy Graham even before Graham s New York City Evangelistic Crusade of 1957 because Graham s organization had accepted the support of those McIntire regarded as liberals 35 In the public eye EditAlthough his Oklahoma family had voted Democratic McIntire eventually became a conservative Republican Before and during World War II McIntire opposed Nazi totalitarianism and anti semitism and afterwards he became a champion of anti Communism and especially one who attacked Communist control of religion in the Soviet Union McIntire argued that although America had once honored God and freedom it was in danger of losing its heritage 36 On his radio program McIntire often repeated the slogan Freedom is everybody s business your business my business the church s business and a man who will not use his freedom to defend his freedom does not deserve his freedom 37 McIntire attracted considerable public attention through his public demonstrations early gaining a feel for gestures that attracted popular notice For instance in 1947 he unsuccessfully opposed a revised New Jersey state constitution in a radio address entitled The Governor s Kittens while he more or less held a cat and kittens before the microphone 38 McIntire attended virtually every important meeting of the World Council of Churches wherever its meetings were held and usually mounted demonstrations with placards outside the meeting hall calling attention to what he regarded as the WCC s religious apostasy or its collaboration with Russian clergy who he believed were KGB operatives 39 Beginning in 1967 McIntire engaged in a running battle with the Federal Communications Commission over the then applicable Fairness Doctrine by which radio stations had to provide varied political views to retain their licenses 40 WXUR was incompetently run and flagrantly disrespectful of FCC requirements but there was also no doubt that the station was targeted because many members of the local Philadelphia community found speech expressed on WXUR offensive and therefore wanted it censored 41 When the FCC refused to renew the WXUR license rejecting the recommendation of its own examiner 42 and the station was forced off the air in 1973 McIntire demonstrated his theatrical flair by holding a funeral for the station complete with coffin while dressed as John Witherspoon a Presbyterian pastor and signer of the Declaration of Independence 43 After a supporter purchased for McIntire a World War II vintage wooden hulled Navy minesweeper named Oceanic which McIntire renamed Columbus he tried to broadcast outside the three mile limit near Cape May calling the floating station Radio Free America 44 The station began broadcasting at 12 22 PM Eastern Time on September 19 1973 45 but was only on the air for ten hours the ship began to smoke from the heat of the antenna feeder line and the signal interfered with that of radio station WHLW in Lakewood New Jersey which broadcast on a neighboring frequency of 1170 kHz Nevertheless the notion of a Christian pirate radio station off the United States caught the attention of the media 46 I became a very famous man out of that McIntire later recalled People stood along the coast to see me It was a crazy thing to do but it was dramatic 47 McIntire also gained the public eye in the early 1970s when he organized a half dozen pro Vietnam War Victory Marches in Washington D C The march of October 3 1970 was supposed to have featured South Vietnamese vice president Nguyen Cao Ky but the Nixon administration ensured that Ky would not be present 48 McIntire attributed the prosecution and conviction of Lt William Calley on 22 charges related to war crimes at My Lai to a no win policy of the U S government in Vietnam 49 More than once McIntire s sense of the dramatic passed over into the risible as for instance when he urged in 1971 that a full scale version of the Temple of Jerusalem be constructed in Florida 50 or two decades later when he suggested that Noah s ark be rebuilt and perhaps refloated off his conference center in Cape May It would be a tourist attraction said McIntire of the latter and it would forever down these liberals 51 In 1975 he proposed the building of a Vietnam War amusement park called New Vietnam 52 53 In 1970 when gay activists proposed Stonewall Nation the takeover of sparsely populated Alpine County California McIntire announced that he would counteract the plan by having his followers move to the area in trailers 54 Neither the activists nor McIntire did anything of the sort Later life EditMcIntire could combine gravitas with a populist appeal to what he called the grass roots 55 A gifted preacher when he chose to be he seemed to prefer dabbling in politics to Bible exposition 56 A man who inspired listeners and easily raised money for his various ministries McIntire had few trustworthy associates to manage the day to day activities of his ramshackle empire Nor could he brook sharing power 57 In the 1960s his long time friend and fellow fundamentalist Robert T Ketcham pleaded with McIntire to be more gracious in his dealings with other Christians but McIntire instead used the Christian Beacon to attack members of the General Association of Regular Baptist Churches of which Ketcham was an influential leader 58 In 1971 all but two of the professors of Faith Seminary including President Allan A MacRae left over McIntire s alleged suppression of academic freedom and oppressive leadership style 59 McIntire refused to participate in fundamentalist organizations which he could not dominate even those led by other separatist fundamentalists of the period such as Bob Jones Jr and Ian Paisley 60 Nevertheless McIntire often inspired good natured respect from some of the religious liberals whom he regularly picketed through the years and his rhetoric although sometimes bombastic was rarely personal 61 By the early 1970s McIntire s ministries were debt ridden and began to collapse one by one 62 In 1970 he owed the town of Cape May more than a half million dollars in back taxes 63 The buildings he had accumulated were sold or destroyed By the time he died at age 95 64 without a successor virtually everything was gone 65 Even the shadow that remained of the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood finally forced his resignation in 1999 after he had served the congregation for sixty years 66 In the words of Joel Belz McIntire was a classic example of a brilliant and winsome man who chose his battles badly Unyielding on petty issues he divided where division was both unnecessary and costly to the very causes he championed Too often he seemed to love the fight more than the very valid issues over which the fights raged 67 McIntire had repeatedly criticized Princeton Theological Seminary an institution he had left in 1929 as a bastion of theological liberalism 68 Yet when Princeton honored him almost affectionately as a distinguished alumnus McIntire responded to its overtures and donated his papers to the Seminary 69 Further reading EditMarkku Ruotsila Fighting Fundamentalist Carl McIntire and the Politicization of American Fundamentalism New York Oxford University Press 2016 Gladys Titzck Rhoads and Nancy Titzck Anderson McIntire Defender of Faith and Freedom Xulon Press 2012 ISBN 978 1 61996 231 6 CarlMcIntire org includes many primary and secondary sources about McIntire International Council of Christian Churches website Archived 2014 01 18 at the Wayback Machine K C Quek ed The McIntire Memorial Carl McIntire 1906 2002 Seoul Korea Truth amp Freedom Publishing Company 2005 Margaret G Harden comp A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies privately published 1966 The Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood for the Glory of God Collingswood BPC 1957 40 Years Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood 1933 1973 written by Ethel Rink Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1973 Carl McIntire s 50 Year Ministry in the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood New Jersey Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1983 ICCC Silver Jubilee 1948 1973 Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1973 John Fea Carl McIntire From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist American Presbyterian 72 4 Winter 1994 253 68 Heather Hendershot God s Angriest Man Carl McIntire Cold War Fundamentalism and Right Wing Broadcasting American Quarterly 59 June 2007 373 96 Heather Hendershot What s Fair on the Air Cold War Right Wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest University of Chicago Press 2011 Douglas Martin Carl McIntire 95 Evangelist and Patriot Dies New York Times March 22 2002 David O Beale In Pursuit of Purity American Fundamentalism Since 1850 Greenville S C Unusual Publications 1986 323 30 Shelley Baranowski Carl McIntire in Charles Lippy ed Twentieth Century Shapers of American Religion Westport Conn Greenwood Press 1989 256 63 J Wesley Leckrone Carl McIntire Twentieth Century Voice of Christian Anti Communism MA Thesis Temple University 1995 Works EditA Cloud of Witnesses or Heroes of the Faith Philadelphia Pinebrook Press 1938 second edition Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1965 sermons on Hebrews 11 1 12 2 Twentieth Century Reformation Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1944 The Rise of the Tyrant Controlled Economy vs Private Enterprise Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1945 Author of Liberty Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1946 second edition 1963 For Such a Time as This The Book of Esther Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1946 sermons Modern Tower of Babel Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1949 Better Than Seven Sons Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1954 sermons on the Book of Ruth The Wall of Jerusalem Also Is Broken Down Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1954 sermons on the Book of Nehemiah Servants of Apostasy Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1955 The Epistle of Apostasy the Book of Jude Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1958 sermons The Death of a Church Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1967 Outside the Gate Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1967 References Edit McIntire s baptismal name was Charles Curtis McIntire Jr but he was called Carl from earliest childhood Collection Guide Carl McIntire Papers Princeton Theological Seminary Many sources for this article may be found at CarlMcIntire org Archived August 11 2006 at the Wayback Machine PCA Historical Center website Archived 2009 08 31 at the Wayback Machine McIntire s maternal grandmother and paternal great grandmother had been Presbyterian missionaries to the Choctaw Nation Marianna McIntire Clark Ancestry and Early Life of Carl McIntire in The McIntire Memorial Seoul Korea Truth amp Freedom Publishing Company 2005 34 35 PCA Historical Center website Archived 2009 08 31 at the Wayback Machine By 1920 Charles Curtis McIntire had recovered and was serving as the pastor of the Presbyterian church of Vinita Oklahoma as a lecturer and as a prison evangelist He died in 1929 Hotchkin Genealogy Archived September 27 2007 at the Wayback Machine there is considerable though ill organized biographical information and 75 pages of photographs in K C Quek ed The McIntire Memorial Carl McIntire 1906 2002 Singapore ICCC 2005 Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 2 Margaret G Harden comp A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies privately published 1966 McIntire said that Machen s book What Is Faith influenced him as much as any book Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 2 McIntire called Fairy David McIntire December 23 1906 September 13 1992 a person of unusual ability and charm who stood beside him through all the trials Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 2 Marianna Hotchkin McIntire a school principal and teacher of English literature Latin and Spanish b 1932 Sally Celeste McIntire a homemaker and real estate broker b 1936 and Carl Thomas C T McIntire a historian at the University of Toronto b 1939 Hotchkin Genealogy Archived September 27 2007 at the Wayback Machine The McIntire Memorial 53 obituary The New York Times March 22 2002 His daughter Marianna Clark said he had lived in the same house in Collingswood N J since 1939 Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 3 Ethel Rink 40 Years Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood 1933 1973 Collingswood N J Christian Beacon Press 1973 8 10 Margaret G Harden comp A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies privately published 1966 see also A brief history of the Independent Board from the IBPFM website Archived December 14 2005 at the Wayback Machine Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 3 D G Hart Defending the Faith J Gresham Machen and the Crisis of Conservative Protestantism in Modern America Baltimore Johns Hopkins University Press 1994 163 165 166 Following the withdrawal the denomination then deposed McIntire allowing his enemies to brand him a defrocked Presbyterian minister Carl McIntire Who Is Carl McIntire booklet published by the 20th Century Reformation Hour 1968 3 The Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood for the Glory of God Collingswood BPC 1957 Ethel Rink 40 Years Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood 1933 1973 Collingswood N J Christian Beacon Press 1973 24 26 See also Margaret G Harden comp A Brief History of the Bible Presbyterian Church and Its Agencies privately published 1966 The Sunday School building was also used for Faith Christian School Ethel Rink served as the editor of virtually all his major publications and Ruth Trato assisted with the documentary supplements After the death of Rink McIntire s published prose noticeably deteriorated Joel A Carpenter Revive Us Again The Reawakening of American Fundamentalism New York Oxford University Press 1997 205 Ethel Rink 40 Years 24 Amen Charlie was Carl McIntire s radio sidekick when I frequently tuned in to the program during the 1960s and 70s Charlie was a man of very few words His main role was to provide a brief change of pace in the midst of his boss s monologues McIntire would go on for a few minutes on favorite topic and then he would pause and ask Isn t that right Charlie And Amen Charlie would reply Amen You re right Dr McIntire Richard J Mouw You re Right Dr McIntire Christianity Today May 17 2002 D A Waite Carl McIntire s 200 000 Tax Debt in Cape May Etc Collingswood N J The Bible for Today 1974 Waite was a disaffected former employee who counted 414 stations in April 1965 By the early 1970s Waite said that McIntire was broadcasting on well under 100 stations 8 Ethel Rink 40 Years 39 David O Beale In Pursuit of Purity American Fundamentalism Since 1850 Greenville S C Bob Jones University Press 1986 91 95 Ethel Rink 40 Years Carl McIntire and the Bible Presbyterian Church of Collingswood 1933 1973 Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1973 18 Harvey Cedars Bible Conference Washington Times June 1 2007 Gladys Titzck Rhoads and Nancy Titzck Anderson McIntire Defender of Faith and Freedom Xulon Press 2011 308 McIntire s non profit corporation Christian Beacon Press Inc owned the newspaper the publishing house the radio ministry the Bible conferences and other properties connected with the ministry and McIntire s income was derived solely from his church salary In 1939 McIntire and his wife purchased their own home facing Knight s Park in Collingswood where McIntire lived until his death in 2002 See The McIntire Memorial Carl McIntire 1906 2002 edited by K C Quek Singapore ICCC 2005 see also Silver Jubilee 1948 1973 Celebrating the Silver Anniversary of the International Council of Christian Churches ICCC 1973 The ICCC published books collecting the sermons and addresses delivered on the themes of the plenary congresses Titles indicated the emphases of each congress including The Christ of the Scriptures ICCC 1958 and Jesus Christ the Same Yesterday and Today and For Ever ICCC 1962 The ICCC office has since moved to Singapore Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 115 18 Rhoads and Anderson 397 403 See Russell Kirk Shelton College and State Licensing of Religious Schools An Educator s View of the Interface Between the Establishment and Free Exercise Clauses Law amp Contemporary Problems 44 2 Spring 1981 169 184 Skylands became the New Jersey Botanical Gardens in 1984 New Jersey Botanical Gardens website On Lynnewood Hall see Preservation Alliance News Archived May 19 2007 at the Wayback Machine The seminary later moved to much more plebeian quarters in Baltimore Maryland Faith Theological Seminary website Frank Mood A Man Sent from God in K C Quek ed The McIntire Memorial Carl McIntire 1906 2002 Singapore ICCC 2005 112 115 The Constitution of the Bible Presbyterian Church Independent Board of Home Missions various editions which McIntire helped to prepare See especially McIntire Twentieth Century Reformation Collingswood Christian Beacon Press 1944 Harden 102 Are World Events Today Fulfilling Bible Prophesy Christian Beacon 7 January 1937 Pastors Oppose Oath to Hitler Christian Beacon 23 June 1938 1 Morris McDonald ed Freedom is My Business Independent Board for Presbyterian Home Missions 1983 a book of quotations selected from McIntire s writings 1938 1983 Ethel Rink 40 Years 20 21 His activities in connection with the WCC are extensively detailed in the Christian Beacon and in a series of documentary supplements that collected a large amount of materials relevant to the theme of the WCC and the Russian clergy Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 144 Hendershot suggests that McIntire was obviously spoiling for a fight with the FCC over the Fairness Doctrine a fight he expected to win because he was certain that the doctrine was unconstitutional Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 161 Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 156 On McIntire s conflict with the FCC see Heather Hendershot God s Angriest Man Carl McIntire Cold War Fundamentalism and Right Wing Broadcasting American Quarterly 59 June 2007 373 96 During the 1980s fundamentalists and evangelicals became firmly ensconced in cable and satellite distribution technologies which were beyond the purview of the Fairness Doctrine The Reagan FCC urged Congress to eliminate the Doctrine altogether and when the Democratic Congress retaliated by trying to elevate it into law President Reagan vetoed the bill Later threats to reinstate the Fairness Doctrine in 1993 failed after Rush Limbaugh called the attempt the Hush Rush Law Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 167 69 Don Jensen Radio Free America A Red Right and Blue Political Pirate Monitoring Magazine October 1988 reprinted CarlMcIntire org Archived December 30 2008 at the Wayback Machine The station broadcast at 1160 kHz using a 10 000 watt transmitter 8 5 miles 13 6 km off the New Jersey coast FTA Battles for Airwaves Overthrow March 1984 18 Larry Townsend Reverend Carl McIntire A Pirate of God CarlMcIntire org Archived December 30 2008 at the Wayback Machine Randall Balmer Fundamentalist with Flair Christianity Today May 21 2002 Contemporary biographical news sketch more details may be found in John Fea Carl McIntire From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist American Presbyterian 72 4 Winter 1994 264 McIntire then convinced Mrs Ky to stand in for her husband but her airplane en route to the US was conveniently called back to Paris with engine trouble Hendershot What s Fair on the Air 110 Naughton James M April 6 1971 92 in Capital Held in Antiwar Rally The New York Times Retrieved October 6 2020 a href Template Cite news html title Template Cite news cite news a CS1 maint url status link Baton Rouge Morning Advocate October 2 1971 Christian Beacon February 18 25 1993 7 Institute Bathroom Readers 2012 09 01 The Best of the Best of Uncle John s Bathroom Reader Simon and Schuster ISBN 978 1 60710 683 8 What Happened To New Vietnam Underunderstood Retrieved 2023 01 26 Los Angeles Times October 28 1970 9A Donn Teal The Gay Militants How Gay Liberation Began in America 1969 1971 New York St Martin s Press 1971 296 Despite widespread criticism of McIntire for inaccuracy exaggeration and what sometimes seems to be deliberate distortion his followers fanatically support him When ministers in Warren Ohio during the winter of 1962 63 tried to secure a cancellation of his broadcasts because the program was creating ill will in the community his loyal listeners turned out in sub zero weather to a protest meeting The audience counted at 2 350 jammed Warren s Packard Music Hall Hundreds came in chartered buses from communities across the state and from adjoining Pennsylvania The stage was bedecked with fifty nine flags courtesy of the Sons of the American Revolution and the program included hymns and patriotic songs and Scripture readings McIntire himself was welcomed by Mayor Robert Dunstan who told the people that the preacher like Noah of old was a man raised up by God in a time of travail The hall echoed with Amens and when he appealed for money for his radio broadcasts McIntire collected over 4 000 in checks and pledges in addition to some very substantial cash offerings Arnold Forster and Benjamin R Epstein Danger on the Right New York Random House 1964 excerpt from CarlMcIntire org Archived October 8 2007 at the Wayback Machine In reminiscing about previous Bible Conferences at Bob Jones University the chancellor Bob Jones III recalled a sermon by Carl McIntire was one of two he specifically remembered He preached a message on the crucifixion from Psalm 22 and you felt like you were at the foot of the cross I always wondered why he didn t do more of that kind of preaching and less of the communism stuff Abigail Murphy Dr Bob Comments on Bible Conference Accord Office of Communications BJU 4 8 March 26 2009 4 George Marsden Reforming Fundamentalism Fuller Seminary and the New Evangelicalism Grand Rapids Eerdmans 1987 49 McIntire was constitutionally unable to play any other role than chief McIntire never groomed a successor his son early became a college professor in Toronto and seemed to have a knack for choosing men of questionable ethics to manage the branches of his organization In April 1965 McIntire threatened to resign his pulpit unless the session of his church continued in office as elder the manager of the Christian Admiral Hotel who had been accused of moral improprieties D A Waite Carl McIntire s 200 000 Tax Debt in Cape May Etc Collingswood N J The Bible for Today 1974 22 J Murray Murdoch Portrait of Obedience The Biography of Robert T Ketcham Schaumburg Illinois Regular Baptist Press 1979 286 87 John Fea Carl McIntire From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist American Presbyterian 72 4 Winter 1994 265 Bob Jones Jr Cornbread and Caviar Greenville SC Bob Jones University Press 191 93 Jones was exasperated at McIntire s attitude especially since Jones had had BJU confer an honorary degree on McIntire His protests at the assemblies of the World Council of Churches were so common that at the 1991 meeting in Canberra Australia church leaders whom he had reviled for decades came out to his solitary picket and greeted him like an old friend Hey Carl how ya doing Randall Balmer Fundamentalist with Flair Christianity Today May 21 2002 Los Angeles Times December 1 1974 John Fea Carl McIntire From Fundamentalist Presbyterian to Presbyterian Fundamentalist American Presbyterian 72 4 Winter 1994 264 McIntire was buried in Harleigh Cemetery Camden New Jersey Joel Belz This Fight s Over Lessons from a Fiery Fundamentalist World April 6 2002 5 N early everyone who worked with Carl McIntire ended up disillusioned His own family members increasingly distanced themselves from their father and grandfather The former principal of now his defunct church school told Randall Balmer Speaking from God s Word there wasn t anyone who could touch him but he wasn t touching the needs within the church Randall Balmer Fundamentalist with Flair Christianity Today May 21 2002 Belz 5 Randall Balmer Fundamentalist with Flair Christianity Today May 21 2002 Princeton Theological Seminary is gone he said ruefully It s ecumenical Princeton described the Carl McIntire Papers as the largest single donation of papers that have come to the Seminary since its founding in 1812 Carl McIntire Papers Archived September 27 2007 at the Wayback Machine Conciliar officesPreceded byNew Office President of the International Council of Christian Churches1948 2002 Succeeded byChoi Kwang JaeAcademic officesPreceded byArthur E Steele President of Shelton College1965 1972 Succeeded byHyland W ShepherdPreceded byAllan MacRae President of Faith Theological Seminary1972 2002 Succeeded byNorman J Manohar Retrieved from https en wikipedia org w index php title Carl McIntire amp oldid 1136325214, wikipedia, wiki, book, books, library,

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