Pastor Tried for Heresy; Presbyterian or Unitarian?

1911

BLAMED EVE FOR GARDEN EPISODE

Pastor Grant, Who Denied Serpent Theory, on Trial for Heresy

Atlantic City, N. J., May 23. — That Moses suffered from the "blues" when writing certain Biblical poems; that Ananias and Sapphira expired from apoplexy or heart failure; that Eve suffered from evil in her own heart and was not tempted by a serpent; that there is no devil; that Christ met death in a perfectly natural course of events at the hands of a mob of frantic Jews and the crucifixion was not planned by Christ; that there is no mediator between God and men and that Jonah never existed, were statements included in the writings of the Rev. William Grant of North Cumberland, Pa., according to the testimony of members of his congregation, read from the records of his trial in his own presbytery at his heresy trial before the judicial commission of the Presbyterian general assembly here.

—The Syracuse Herald, Syracuse, New York, May 23, 1911, page 2.


PASTOR SCORED BY PROSECUTION

More Unitarian Than Presbyterian, It Is Charged

HERESY CASE NEAR DECISION

One Man in Congregation Declared by the Defense to Be Responsible For Rev. Grant's Troubles at Northumberland, Pa. — Clergyman Asserts He Has No Desire to Be Called Presbyterian if Preaching is Wrong

Atlantic City, N. J., May 24 — Dissension caused by one man in the Northumberland (Pa.) Presbyterian church was responsible for the charges of heresy against Rev. William Grant, according to evidence adduced at the trial before the judicial commission.

This man is C. G. Van Allen, senior elder and superintendent of the Sunday school, who was branded as "the man who has driven five or six pastors from the church by his method of making things unpleasant by twisting passages from their sermons to give them an entirely different light from that intended."

"Had I known the church of Northumberland was a 'one man' church I would not have become its pastor," said Rev. Mr. Grant. "I have no desire to mask as a Presbyterian or any other church if my conduct and preaching is not what it should be."

In his summing up for the prosecution Judge P. M. Hinckley stirred up the judicial commission. Among other things Judge Hinckley said:

Must Believe Him a Unitarian

"This man made the statement that God had many sons but Jesus was the most conspicuous, and there fore 'The Son." When he declared that Jesus and the Bethany sisters played games and danced with Christ and Lazarus he was speaking as a worldly man and not a scholar. He took Christ out of the communion service. You can't read some of his sermons without believing him to be a Unitarian.

"The act of a Presbyterian minister calling upon a Unitarian preacher to speak at a Christmas celebration is like calling upon Jeff Davis to eulogize Abe Lincoln. He declares god would not sacrifice His son any more than an earthly father would. The cry of a woman of his congregation for the 'return of her God' is like the cry of Mary Magdalene at the tomb of Christ.

"This man has said, 'I have no more denied the divinity of Christ than I have denied the divinity of myself or you.' It is a crime for a man of the Gospel to seek to disturb the faith. He was not satisfied with driving people from his church with preaching of his doctrine, but pursued them to their homes with talk of like vein."

Attorney Reading of Williamsport, in addressing the commission on behalf of the defendant, gave a strong plea as he declared there was no ground for legal action and that the first trial, which resulted in acquittal, gave every opportunity to bring up evidence of any tangible character.

—Indiana Evening Gazette, Indiana, Pennsylvania, May 24, 1911, page 4.