HISTORICAL PAPERS 2008 Canadian Society of Church History
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HISTORICAL PAPERS 2008 Canadian Society of Church History Annual Conference University of British Columbia 1-3 June 2008 Edited by Brian obbett, Bruce L. uenther and Robynne Rogers Healey 'Copyright 2008 by the authors and the Canadian Society of Church History Printed in Canada ALL RI H,S RESER-E. Canadian Cataloguing in Pu lication Data Main entry under title0 Historical Papers June 213 213884- Annual. A selection of papers delivered at the Society5s annual meeting. Place of publication varies. Continues0 Proceedings of the Canadian Society of Church History, ISSN 0872-1089. ISSN 0878-1893 ISBN 0-3939777-0-9 213334 1. Church History;Congresses. 2. Canada;Church history;Congresses. l. Canadian Society of Church history. BR870.C322 fol. 277.1 C30-030313-0 TABLE OF CONTENTS Papers Air Wars0 Radio Regulation, Sectarianism, and Religious Broadcasting in Canada, 1322-1338 MARK . MC OWAN 8 A Puppy-.og ,ale0 ,he United Church of Canada and the Youth Counter-Culture, 1398-1373 BRUCE .OU-ILLE 27 @Righteousness EAalteth a NationB0 Providence, Empire, and the Corging of the Early Canadian Presbyterian Identity .ENNIS MCKIM 77 Crom the UDraine to the Caucasus to the Canadian Prairies0 Life as Wandering in the Spiritual Autobiography of CeoDtist .unaenDo SER EY PE,RO- 97 Eelma and Beulah Argue0 Sisters in the Canadian Pentecostal Movement, 1320-1330 LIN.A M. AMBROSE 81 Canadian Pentecostalism0 A Multicultural Perspective MICHAEL WILKINSON 103 ,homas Merton, Prophet of the New Monasticism PAUL R. .EKAR 121 Balthasar Hubmaier and the Authority of the Church Cathers AN.REW P. KLA ER 133 CSCH President&s Address @Crom the Edge of OblivionB0 Reflections on Evangelical Protestant .enominational Historiography in Canada BRUCE L. UEN,HER 183 4 Contents Addendum Two articles that were accidently shortened during the editing process of Historical Papers 2007 are being republished here in their entirety. We sincerely apologize to the authors for any inconvenience. @We Wish to Inform YouB0 Canadian Religious Reporting of the Rwandan enocide KA,E BOWLER 178 ,he Place of Church History in the Rise of Evangelicalism .ARREN W. SCHMI., 137 Please Note ,he following papers were presented to the Canadian Society of Church History in 2008, but were not made available for publication0 Julia Rady-Shaw, @Church Cront0 ,he Case of Bloor Street United Church5s War Effort, 1333-1378BG ordon Heath, @When Criends and Neighbors Become Enemies0 Canadian Baptists and the War of 1812BG Wolfgang Breul, @Martin Luther5s .evelopment as a Reformer in Light of His own Statement from 18180 New Light on an Old HuestionBG .ouglas H. ShantI, @Pietist Autobiography and the Rise of Secular IndividualismBG Sarah Bruer, @Unselfish .evotion0 .eaconess Eaidee Stoddard and the Social ospelBG Kristin Burnett, @AcDnowledging the JUnacDnowledged Huarantine50 Religion, Caith, and Nursing at the Blood Hospital, 1833-1330sBG RenKe Lafferty, @,he JSpirits5 of Religion0 Evangelicals and Medical Care for ,oronto5s .ipsomaniacs, 1890-1830BG James Robertson, @J,.,. Shields and the .es Moines Affair50 ,he Attempted Establishment and SubseLuent Collapse of a Cundamentalist University in .es Moines, 1327-1323BG Ian HesDeth, @,he -ictorian Bible0 Ecce Homo and the Manufacturing of a Literary SensationBG ,odd Webb, @JPopery is Evidently Nodding to its Call50 Methodism and Anti-Catholicism in British North America, 1837-1890.B Papers from a Moint session with the Canadian Historical Association not made available for publication include0 Marguerite -an .ie, @Practising Medicine and Spiritualism in the 1890s0 ,he Encounters Between .rs. Moses Colby and Susan Kilborn as Problem and Possibility in the Writing of Religious HistoryBG Pamela E. Klassen, @,he Holistic ,rinity0 Body, Mind, and Spirit among ,wentieth-Century ProtestantsBG and Ruth Compton Brouwer, @When Missions Became .evelop- ment0 ,he Churches and CUSO in the 1390s ; LinDages and ,ensions.B Air Wars: Radio Regulation, Sectarianism and Religious Broadcasting in Canada, 1922-1938 MARK G. MCGOWAN St. Michael‘s College, University of Toronto n the 1920s, radio was the rage in Canada. Whether it was a homemade receiving set made out of batteries and wire or a deluxe tube and battery set purchased from the local hardware store, each year tens of thousands of Canadians paid their dollar license fee and added their names to the growing list of ,listeners-in.. When they tuned in, Canadians heard the familiar sounds of their own world and the exotic sounds from places that they may have only /nown on a map0 the screaming rifts of 1a22, live from a club in Chicago, the thud of leather on s/in from a pri2e fight in New 3or/, soothing chamber music from a ballroom in Montreal, horse racing from Toronto, or the farm report from a 100 watt station in Sas/atoon. Not to be left behind in the rush to own the new technology, Canadian religious groups 4uic/ly alighted to the fact that the wireless provided a new pulpit for the propagation of the Word and a new theatre for the masses to participate vicariously in divine services, from the comfort of their homes. 5ust as print had transformed the face of Christianity four hundred years before, so might the radio usher in a new era of evangeli 2ation. n his recent boo/ on morality, culture, and broadcasting, Robert 6ortner has argued that while the Canadian churches regarded radio as ,a means to continue a significant cultural presence in smaller towns and cities,.1 that in the final analysis, ,the role of the church as a champion of moral positions in the development of Canadian radio was largely irrelevant.. 7e adds that, ,there was no grand expectation of the medium. Historical Papers 2008: Canadian Society of Church History 6 Religious Broadcasting in Canada, 1922-1938 and ,no philosophers in Canada concerned enough to articulate a set of moral values it might fulfill..2 7e concludes that the church ,was merely another interest group, little different from labour unions, women‘s organi2ations, or farmer‘s co-operatives..8 6ortner‘s assumption underly- ing his analysis is that, in Canada, churches lac/ed effectiveness in asserting their power over the new medium because there were no constitutional guarantees of freedom of speech or the freedom of the press, and the central government remained cold to a religious presence on the publicly owned radio networ/.4 Without such guarantees embedded in the political and legal culture, churches appeared to be in a more tenuous position in securing airtime in Canada, notably on the C:C. 6ortner‘s case, though tempting at first glance, perhaps underesti- mates the manner in which Canada‘s churches negotiated their share of the ,air. in the early days of privately-owned radio and the advent of public radio. While there is little doubt that denominational relations in Canadian history could be characteri2ed, at times, by tension, rhetorical 1ousting, open discrimination, and even violence, the churches also affected significant compromises with one another and the state on such issues as denominational schools, the military chaplaincy, pageantry and proces- sions in the public s4uare, social services, and the regulation of public morality. n the early days of radio, the churches had every opportunity to continue the patterns of past tensions, but in the end affected compromises that would ma/e an important contribution to the presence and peaceful coexistence of religious contributors in Canada‘s public broadcast system. :orn out of the controversy spar/ed by the Reverend Morris ;eidman and 6ather Charles Lanphier in Toronto, in the 1980s, the C:C would pour tremendous energy into its religious department, create regulations specific to religion on the air, and establish a national advisory body, that would effectively assist the Corporation regulate religious programming, while ta/ing the initiative to create new religious programs to be broadcast free of commercials, for the benefit of all Canadians. Such privilege offered to religious groups by the ,public broadcaster. provides a significant challenge to the notion that churches were simply 1ust one of many interest groups, appealing to the C:C for a voice on the national airwaves. :efore launching into an analysis of the relationship between radio and the churches in Canada, it is important to establish the uni4ueness of Canadian broadcasting in the English-spea/ing world. 6rom the earliest days of radio Canada struggled between two models of broadcasting. n :ritain, the government, through the agencies of the Post Office and the Mark G. McGowan 7 :ritish :roadcasting Corporation, too/ control over radio, its regulation, its financing, and its programming. n contrast, in the United States, radio evolved li/e any other commodity in a free mar/et place; those with means and /now how purchased the available technology and began broadcasting after receiving a license from the federal government. Except for the infre4uent interference of the federal regulator, the 6CC, American AM radio became a popular and highly competitive example of survival of the fittest on the airwaves. n time, two large privately owned networ/s @ N:C and C:S @ emerged and dominated broadcasting in the USA. Canadians developed a hybrid between the American and :ritish practices. :etween 1922 and 1982, Canada experienced a free mar/et in radio, with licensing and regulation under the authority of the 6ederal Aepartment of Marine and 6isheries. Only two significant networ/s emerged, one owned by CN Railways and the other by the CPR, which provided programming exclusive to passengers while passing through cities where their affiliates operated. n the 1980s, the federal government created the Canadian Radio :roadcasting Commission, which assumed the CN networ/ stations, and provided publicly owned commercial-free broadcasting along side the private stations. The CR:C acted as both a provider of programming and as the regulator of all radio, both public and private.