The Fundamentalist’s Pope
by Thomas Ray
John Roach Straton was one of the most flamboyant and controversial preachers of the 20th century. He was born in 1875 into a Baptist pastor’s home. When young Straton was 18 he moved to Atlanta, Georgia, to study law. During this period of Straton’s life he embraced humanism and evolutionary concepts. The result of his new beliefs left him morally and spiritually bankrupt.
Straton experienced a spiritual transformation when he attended a revival service at First Baptist Church. Shortly after his conversion he enrolled in Mercer University. Straton possessed natural oratorical skills, receiving two gold medals for winning the Georgia and the Southern Intercollegiate Oratorical Championships. In 1898, having completed his studies, the university appointed him to teach Elocution and Oratory. In 1900, he enrolled in Southern Seminary in Louisville, KY. After completing his elective studies, he was hired as professor of oratory and Interpretation of Literature at Baylor University.
Straton was too much of an activist, however, to remain in the classroom. In 1905, he began his pastoral ministry serving churches in Chicago, Baltimore, and Norfolk, VA. When Straton began his pastoral ministry he was committed to post-millennialism and the social gospel. He was firmly convinced that the church was destined to usher in the Golden or Millennial Age. But the First World War and the realities of man’s sinfulness convinced him that the only hope for mankind was the transforming power of the gospel.
In 1918, Straton became the pastor of Calvary Baptist Church in New York City. Straton believed that preachers were prophets and it was their responsibility to expose society’s sins. He saw New York City as a leader in the moral and spiritual decay of America. He began immediately to expose what he believed were the consequences of this decay. He attacked the illegal sale of alcohol, prostitution, political corruption, the modern theatre, sexual immorality, and the modernism he believed was destroying the Northern Baptist Convention. However, Straton’s tactics were not without their drawbacks. The press often emphasized the negative and dramatic side of issues and neglected his positive redemptive message. Hostile journalists and cartoonists dipped their pens in acid and satirized Straton as “the Fundamentalist’s Pope,” the “Witch Doctor of Gotham,” and the “Meshuggah (Yiddish for crazy) of Manhattan.” Some disgruntled church members objected to his bold course and charged him with sensationalism.
None of these attacks deterred Straton. He believed the phenomenal growth of the church justified his methods. One of Straton’s most successful and controversial methods was his public debates. His most famous debate was with Dr. Charles Francis Potter, a former Baptist who had become a Unitarian pastor. The interest in the debates was so great that Madison Square Garden had to be rented to accommodate the crowds. The judges declared the debates a draw, but every impartial person acknowledged that Straton was the clear winner.
Straton’s reputation as a debater and lecturer gained him invitations to debate or to lecture at Columbia, Dartmouth, Harvard, and numerous other colleges and universities. In 1928, Al Smith, former governor of New York and a Catholic, was the Democratic nominee for president. Straton strongly opposed Smith, not because of his religious beliefs but because of his association with the corrupt Tammany Hall political machine. Straton travelled throughout the South speaking against Smith and his politics. Smith lost the election and much of the credit was attributed to the efforts of Straton and his friends J. Frank Norris and W. B. Riley. However, his constant speaking and exposure to the elements left him physically and mentally exhausted. He suffered a fatal heart attack and died October 29, 1929. He was only 54 years old.