ERRORS IN THE INFIELD

"There is no possible chance for a real Baptist to pussyfoot, or make a detour around the deity of Jesus Christ" said Reverend James W. Brougher, D.D. of California at the opening meeting this week of the Northern Baptist Convention at Washington. And thus again appears in public print one of those examples of poor taste so often a part of modern ecclesiasticism.

The world is no less religious than it ever was. The difference, if any, is one of terms. The scientist can in his way be as religious as the Baptist Fundamentalist with a flair for fancy. Yet the scientist has enough respect for his profession to contain himself and keep within the bounds of propriety.

To talk of the leader of one's faith, even the meanest, in connection with "pussyfoot" and "detour" is to lower the esteem for that leader, held by the most fervent, provided the most fervent has retained his sense of the eternal fitness of things. This convention is about to make a compromise so that those who favor complete immersion and those who do not can continue in the same church without words of little wisdom and much bitterness. In the role of advocate for moderation and compromise Dr. Brougher has, in his category at least, a decent part to play. But when he uses such words he is reducing the action to that of farce.

There is still in the mind of man some desire for the liturgical and thus the beautiful. And in his religion almost everyone likes to find such an expression of the beautiful. He may not agree completely with Keats. He does not need to. But neither need he care to associate his sacred and deified conceptions with the cheapness revealed by the California clergyman. Taste may not be essential in the forum or on the market place. It is certainly essential in the pulpit of a modern church or on the rostrum of a modern church convention.