Carl McIntire Recalled by Seminary, Grandson

CAPE MAY — Over 600 boxes of papers and 4,000 tapes of the Rev. Carl McIntire’s radio programs have been preserved by Princeton Theological Seminary.
Curtis Bashaw, grandson of McIntire and an owner of Congress Hall, spoke about his grandfather to a session of the Mid-Atlantic Regional Archives Conference Sat. April 14 at Congress Hall which was part of McIntire’s Cape May Bible Conference from 1968 to 1995.
McIntire was a fundamentalist Christian broadcaster on his Twentieth Century Reformation Hour long before Jerry Falwell or Pat Robertson began their broadcast ministries. His political views would be welcome today on the Fox News Channel.
Kenneth Woodrow Henke, reference archivist of Princeton Theological Seminary, said McIntire attended Princeton Theological Seminary from 1928-1929 where he was elected class president.
Henke said the seminary was divided on the issue of fundamentalism v. modernism.
McIntire left Princeton in 1929 to attend the newly formed fundamentalist Westminster Seminary in Philadelphia.
He was ordained by the Presbytery of West Jersey and at the age of 27 was called to Collingswood Presbyterian Church.
Henke said McIntire and others founded an independent board for Presbyterian missions fearing the official Presbyterian board was too liberal.
McIntire and others were ordered to resign from board or lose their credentials. They refused to resign and their credentials were taken away, said Henke.
In 1936, McIntire started the Christian Beacon newspaper to publish his views. The paper continued to publish for 60 years.
Henke said McIntire led other pastors and laity out of Presbyterian Church U.S.A. and started a new denomination that became the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. There was disagreement over doctrine in that church and McIntire and 12 others left to form a more fundamentalist organization called Bible Presbyterian Church.
In 1938, McIntire’s followers in the Collingswood Presbyterian Church lost a civil suit over control of the church building. Henke said the majority of the congregation left the church following McIntire several blocks east where a huge tent was erected to continue his ministry.
Permanent buildings followed including Bible Presbyterian Church’s current 1,000-seat facility.
Henke said McIntire was opposed to the National Council of Churches and World Council of Churches seeing them as tainted by socialist, communist influences. He would picket their meetings.
McIntire was also critical of the pope, Roman Catholicism, the Russian Orthodox Church, and Billy Graham because of his cooperation with mainline churches. He was opposed to the election of John F. Kennedy, the civil rights movement, sex education in schools, fluoridation of drinking water, the United Nations and UNICEF, the nuclear test ban treaty with the Soviet Union, attempts to limit the arms race and President Nixon’s attempts to open up relations with communist China, said Henke.
His radio broadcast began in the mid 50’s and at its peak was heard on 600 stations. McIntire purchased WUXR in Media, Pa. and lost his license due to the fairness doctrine. He received complaints from the NAACP, AFL-CIO, and Jewish and Catholic communities for content on the radio station.
Following that McIntire purchased a former World War II minesweeper boat and set up a radio station in international waters off Cape May. A federal injunction delivered by a Coast Guard boat stopped the offshore station, said Henke.
Bashaw has warmer memories of his grandfather. He said McIntire valued the facts of history but also understood the importance of heritage, place and symbols, “the stuff of legend and myth.”
At McIntire’s headquarters in Collingswood, he had church volunteers clipping numerous items from newspapers to document his 20th century reformation, said Bashaw. Many of those clippings are in the Princeton collection.
Bashaw recalled Thanksgiving services at the Collingswood church where McIntire would read from three documents every year: George Washington’s first Thanksgiving Day proclamation, the Mayflower Compact and the current president’s Thanksgiving Day proclamation.
Every July 4th until he lost the property, McIntire delivered a sermon, wearing a white suit on the lawn of Congress Hall. His sermon included reading from the Declaration of Independence, said Bashaw.
He said that in part explained McIntire’s fundamentalism.
“That biblical historical account of the resurrection of Christ was bedrock for him,” said Bashaw.
He said McIntire grew up in Oklahoma “barefoot and poor” in Indian territory. Later the president of Princeton Theological Seminary would ask McIntire if he wanted to risk giving up a promising career in the ministry over the fight between fundamentalism and modernism, said Bashaw.
He said his grandfather was willing to make a sacrifice for his beliefs.
Bashaw said McIntire was a very good debater and discussions would often take place at the family’s Sunday dinners.
“He encouraged us to think for ourselves and to own our beliefs and to have those debates,” said Bashaw.
If McIntire was boxed in by an argument, he would counter with “the Lord told me so,” Bashaw said.
At one time, McIntire held a debate with atheist Madelyn Murray O’Hare and hung his argument on the historical witnesses of the resurrection of Christ.
Bashaw said in 1976, the Queen of England gave America a liberty bell in celebration of the Bicentennial, but they left off Leviticus 25:10 which was on the original Liberty Bell: “Proclaim liberty throughout all the land and to all inhabitants of it.” McIntire made a mock-up of the bell and when the Britannia was sailing up the Delaware River to Philadelphia, he threw the bell in the river.
McIntire did not take advantage of the income his radio ministry received from listeners, said Bashaw. He said McIntire did his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve at the Berlin Mart.
Bashaw said his grandfather loved the old buildings of Cape May. At one time, McIntire owned the Christian Admiral Hotel, Congress Hall and the Windsor Hotel in Cape May.
After purchasing the storm-damaged Admiral Hotel in 1963, McIntire appealed to his radio listeners to come to Cape May for a cleaning party billed as “bring your own bucket,” Bashaw said 600 people showed up and swept the hotel from top to bottom.
“He was an accidental preservationist,” he said.
McIntire visited London, was taken with the double-decker buses and brought three back to Cape May to provide service between Congress Hall and the Christian Admiral, said Bashaw.
In the early 1960s, McIntire offered driving tours of Cape May from the steps of the Christian Admiral which included Cold Spring Presbyterian Church and Lake Lily where he picked beach plums.
“He was really a very tender man always filled with awe and wonder at God’s creation and the precious gift of liberty that we had in our heritage,” said Bashaw.