John Roach Straton
Encyclopedia
Pastor
The word pastor usually refers to an ordained leader of a Christian congregation. When used as an ecclesiastical styling or title, this role may be abbreviated to "Pr." or often "Ps"....
. Straton was born into a Baptist pastor's home, the son of Rev. Henry Dundas Douglas Straton and the former Julia Rebecca Carter of Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
, but did not become a Christian
Christian
A Christian is a person who adheres to Christianity, an Abrahamic, monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus of Nazareth as recorded in the Canonical gospels and the letters of the New Testament...
until he was a teenager and heard the revival preaching of James Hawthorne.
Biography
Straton was ordained in 1900 and spent most of his adult life as pastor of several churches in four major cities: ChicagoChicago
Chicago is the largest city in the US state of Illinois. With nearly 2.7 million residents, it is the most populous city in the Midwestern United States and the third most populous in the US, after New York City and Los Angeles...
(1905–1908), Baltimore
Baltimore
Baltimore is the largest independent city in the United States and the largest city and cultural center of the US state of Maryland. The city is located in central Maryland along the tidal portion of the Patapsco River, an arm of the Chesapeake Bay. Baltimore is sometimes referred to as Baltimore...
(1908–1913), Norfolk
Norfolk, Virginia
Norfolk is an independent city in the Commonwealth of Virginia in the United States. With a population of 242,803 as of the 2010 Census, it is Virginia's second-largest city behind neighboring Virginia Beach....
(1914-1917), and most notably of the Calvary Baptist Church in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
1918–1929, which was the first church in the country to make regular use of radio
Radio
Radio is the transmission of signals through free space by modulation of electromagnetic waves with frequencies below those of visible light. Electromagnetic radiation travels by means of oscillating electromagnetic fields that pass through the air and the vacuum of space...
to broadcast their services.
Along with William Bell Riley
William Bell Riley
William Bell Riley was known as "The Grand Old Man of Fundamentalism." After being educated at normal school in Valparaiso, Indiana, Riley received his teacher's certificate. After teaching in county schools, he attended college in Hanover, Indiana, where he received an A.B. degree in 1885...
of Minnesota
Minnesota
Minnesota is a U.S. state located in the Midwestern United States. The twelfth largest state of the U.S., it is the twenty-first most populous, with 5.3 million residents. Minnesota was carved out of the eastern half of the Minnesota Territory and admitted to the Union as the thirty-second state...
, Dr. Straton was one of the foremost leaders of the anti-evolution campaign of the 1920s. For years Straton carried on a feud with the American Museum of Natural History
American Museum of Natural History
The American Museum of Natural History , located on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City, United States, is one of the largest and most celebrated museums in the world...
in New York City because of its Hall of the Age of Man, which displayed the remains of fossil men. Straton charged the museum with "mis-spending the taxpayers' money, and poisoning the minds of school children by false and bestial theories of evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
."
From December 1923 to May 1924, Dr. Straton engaged in a series of debates with the Modernist minister Charles Francis Potter
Charles Francis Potter
Dr Charles Francis Potter was an American Unitarian minister, theologian and author.In 1923 and 1924, he became nationally known through a series of debates with Dr. John Roach Straton, a fundamentalist Christian. The subjects, which Dr...
of the West Side Unitarian Church. Friendly enemies, Straton and Potter debated the following subjects: (1) "Resolved, that the Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
is the infallible word of God"; (2) "Resolved, that the world and man came by creation of a living God and not by evolution"; (3) "Resolved, that the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ is an essential Christian doctrine"; (4) "Resolved, that Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of God"; and (5) "Resolved, that Jesus Christ will return in bodily presence to this earth and establish the reign of universal peace and righteousness." Latter Straton published a book, The Famous New York Fundamentalist-Modernist Debates, which contained only his own speeches and omitted those of Potter.
During the Scopes Trial
Scopes Trial
The Scopes Trial—formally known as The State of Tennessee v. John Thomas Scopes and informally known as the Scopes Monkey Trial—was a landmark American legal case in 1925 in which high school science teacher, John Scopes, was accused of violating Tennessee's Butler Act which made it unlawful to...
when the judge was considering letting scientists testify for the defense, William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan
William Jennings Bryan was an American politician in the late-19th and early-20th centuries. He was a dominant force in the liberal wing of the Democratic Party, standing three times as its candidate for President of the United States...
wired Straton to come to Dayton, Tennessee
Dayton, Tennessee
Dayton is a city in Rhea County, Tennessee, United States. The population was 6,180 at the 2000 census. The Dayton, TN, Urban Cluster, which includes developed areas adjacent to the city and extends south to Graysville, Tennessee, had 9,050 people in 2000...
to be a rebuttal witness. However, the judge ruled against the defense and Straton never went to Tennessee. After the trial and Bryan's death, Straton challenged defense attorneys Clarence Darrow
Clarence Darrow
Clarence Seward Darrow was an American lawyer and leading member of the American Civil Liberties Union, best known for defending teenage thrill killers Leopold and Loeb in their trial for murdering 14-year-old Robert "Bobby" Franks and defending John T...
and Dudley Field Malone
Dudley Field Malone
Dudley Field Malone was an attorney, politician, liberal activist and actor.-Biography:The son of Tammany Democratic official William C...
to debate, but was rebuffed.
During the 1928 presidential campaign, Straton, along with Riley and J. Frank Norris
J. Frank Norris
John Franklyn Norris was a flamboyant Baptist preacher, one of the most controversial figures in the history of fundamentalism.-Biography:...
, rallied support against Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
, the Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
candidate of the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
. In keeping with his strong opposition to the liquor traffic, Straton was one of the first to label Smith "the candidate of rum, Romanism and rebellion". However, Straton's health was broken by his intense schedule during the campaign, and in April 1929 he suffered a slight paralytic stroke
Stroke
A stroke, previously known medically as a cerebrovascular accident , is the rapidly developing loss of brain function due to disturbance in the blood supply to the brain. This can be due to ischemia caused by blockage , or a hemorrhage...
, which led to a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork in the fall and finally a fatal heart attack
Myocardial infarction
Myocardial infarction or acute myocardial infarction , commonly known as a heart attack, results from the interruption of blood supply to a part of the heart, causing heart cells to die...
.
Straton married Georgia Hillyer of Atlanta on November 2, 1903 and they had four sons: Rev. Hillyer Hawthorne Straton, John Charles Straton, Rev. Warren Badenock Straton, and George Douglas Straton.