Louisiana State University LSU Digital Commons LSU Doctoral Dissertations Graduate School 2008 The second coming of Paisley: militant fundamentalism and Ulster politics in a transatlantic context Richard Lawrence Jordan Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations Part of the History Commons Recommended Citation Jordan, Richard Lawrence, "The es cond coming of Paisley: militant fundamentalism and Ulster politics in a transatlantic context" (2008). LSU Doctoral Dissertations. 876. https://digitalcommons.lsu.edu/gradschool_dissertations/876 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Graduate School at LSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in LSU Doctoral Dissertations by an authorized graduate school editor of LSU Digital Commons. For more information, please [email protected]. THE SECOND COMING OF PAISLEY: MILITANT FUNDAMENTALISM AND ULSTER POLITICS IN A TRANSATLANTIC CONTEXT A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate Facility of the Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in The Department of History by Richard L. Jordan B.A. University of Southern Mississippi, 1998 M.A. University of Southern Mississippi, 2002 December 2008 TABLE OF CONTENTS Page ABBREVIATIONS . iv ABSTRACT. v CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION . 1 The Importance of Militant Fundamentalism to Ian Paisley . 4 The Historiography of “The Troubles” . 12 2. THE TRANSATLANTIC BACKGROUND TO FUNDAMENTALISM . 17 Reformation and Puritanism . 20 The Plantation of Presbyterianism into the American Colonies . 23 The Legacy of The First Ulster Awakening . 26 Colonial Revivalism . 27 Nineteenth-Century Revivalism. 30 Liberalism, Darwinism, and Modernism . 31 Dispensationalist Millennialism. 36 The Fundamentals . 39 3. THE TWENTIETH-CENTURY REFORMATION: THE GOSPEL OF MILITANT FUNDAMENDALISM . 45 The Presbyterian Schism . 46 Princeton, Foreign Missions, and J. Gresham Machen . 50 Schism Within Schism. 54 Separation: The Bible Presbyterian Church . 56 The American Council of Christian Churches. 59 The Cold War. 62 The International Council of Christian Churches . 66 Militant Fundamentalism and Joseph McCarthy . 71 Militant Laymen . 74 Defending America From Communist-Bloc Clerics. 81 The Fellowship of Militant Fundamentalists . 85 4. THE THEOLOGICAL AND POLITICAL BIRTH OF ULSTER PROTESTANTISM . 92 The Reformation in Scotland . 92 The Plantation of Scottish Presbyterianism Into Ulster. 95 Divisions Within Ulster Presbyterianism . .. 103 Economic and Political Competition in Ulster . 104 Henry Cooke and the Revival of ‟59 . 108 ii 5. A FUNDAMENTAL DEFENSE OF ULSTER PROTESTANTISM: THE DEVELOPMENT OF PAISLEYISM . 114 James Kyle Paisley and American Fundamentalists . 120 The Ordination of the Reverend Ian Paisley . 122 The Genesis of Free Presbyterianism in Ulster . .. 126 Paisley‟s Introduction to American Militant Fundamentalism . 132 Maura Lyons and the Fethard-on-sea Boycott . 134 The Campaign Against Ecumenism and Protestant “Apostasy” . 137 Militant Fundamentalism in Ulster . 148 6. THE CRUSADE AGAINST O‟NEILL AND ECUMENISM . 160 The Political Background to Paisleyism: The Northern Ireland Statelet 1922 – 1963 . 162 O‟Neillism . 165 The 1916 Easter Rising . 180 Paisley, Ramsey, and the Whore of Babylon . 186 The General Assembly and “Martyrdom” . 191 7. CIVIL RIGHTS FOR THE GREEN, THE BLACK, AND THE ORANGE . 202 The Early Civil Rights Movement in Northern Ireland. 202 The American Civil Rights Movement . 211 The American Influence on the Northern Ireland Civil Rights Movement. 215 Militant Fundamentalism and the Orange Order. 218 The Crusade Against O‟Neill and Ecumenism Continues . 222 Paisley and British Militants . 227 8. PAISLEY, THE ELIJAH OF ULSTER. 230 The International Fellowship Consolidates. 238 9. CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE IN ULSTER . 250 The Second Jailing . 266 10. THE SECOND COMING: PAISLEY IN THE AGE OF AMILLENNIAL POLITICS . 271 Paisley‟s First Political Foray . 272 The National Union of Protestants . 274 The First Year of “Trouble”. 282 The Second Coming: Paisley and Democratic Unionist Politics. 285 The Second Coming: Paisley and Militant Fundamentalism. 303 The Second Coming: Paisley the Amillennial Politician . 311 WORKS CITED . 318 VITA. 340 iii ABBREVIATIONS ACCC American Council of Christian Churches BCPCC British Council of Protestant Christian Churches CDU Campaign for Democracy in Ulster CSJ Campaign for Social Justice DCAC Derry Citizens‟ Action Committee DUP (UDUP) (Ulster) Democratic Unionist Party FCC Federal Communications Commission HUAC House Un-American Activities Committee IBPFM Independent Board for Presbyterian Foreign Missions ICCC International Council of Christian Churches ICR Irish Christian Relief IEC Irish Evangelical Church IRA Irish Republican Army NCC National Council of Churches NICRA Northern Ireland Civil Rights Association NILP Northern Ireland Labour Party NUP National Union of Protestants PCA Presbyterian Church in America PUP Protestant Unionist Party RUC Royal Ulster Constabulary SDLP Social Democratic and Labour Party UCDC Ulster Constitutional Defence Committee UDA Ulster Defense Association UPA Ulster Protestant Action UPV Ulster Protestant Volunteers UUP Ulster Unionist Party UVF Ulster Volunteer Force VUPP Vanguard Unionist Progressive Party WCC World Council of Churches iv ABSTRACT On August 1, 1946, the Reverend Ian Paisley was ordained as the minister of the Ravenhill Evangelical Mission Church in Belfast, Northern Ireland. From his new pulpit, the young evangelist embarked on a six-decade crusade attacking Irish theological and political issues and espousing militant fundamentalism and premillennial pessimism: Paisley confronted the liberal, modernist, and ecumenical trends within Irish Protestantism, the attempted political rapprochement between protestant Unionists and catholic nationalists in Northern Ireland, and the Northern Irish civil rights movement. Paisley also opposed the Irish Republican Army and any move towards the political reunification of Ireland. In 1971, Paisley and his political allies formed the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) to articulate his political agenda. Paisley and his party were successful, becoming the prominent protestant political organization in Northern Ireland. In May 2007 Paisley became the First Minister of the Northern Ireland statelet. But as Paisley and the DUP grew in popularity, Paisley offered political solutions that compromised his Calvinist and premillennial religiosity. The Reverend Ian Paisley‟s career and transformation, however, did not take place solely within the context of Irish history, religiosity, and politics. During the 1950s and 1960s, Paisley made alliances with militant fundamentalists in North America. The most important was the Reverend Carl McIntire, a minister whose public protests and attacks on fellow Christians Paisley emulated. Paisley‟s aggressive crusade twice landed him in jail, for which McIntire and North Americans portrayed Paisley as a “martyr” for their version of Bible Protestantism. International support not only bolstered Paisley‟s prestige in Northern Ireland, but also his own sense of destiny as a Protestant “prophet.” This dissertation traces Paisley‟s transformation from a premillennial fundamentalist crusader into an amillennial politician. v CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION On October 4, 1969, an enthusiastic crowd watched the Reverend Ian Paisley christen the new Martyrs Memorial Free Presbyterian Church in east Belfast, Northern Ireland. The approximately seven thousand Christians in attendance were either members of the new church, belonged to Northern Ireland‟s twenty-nine Free Presbyterian congregations, or were supporters of the Reverend Paisley who attended other Protestant denominations. The new church, the largest in the British Isles, illustrated the growth that the Free Presbyterian Church of Ulster enjoyed since the denomination began as a single congregation in 1951, as well as the growing religious and political influence Paisley exerted over the province‟s protestant community.1 The appearance of non-Free Presbyterians was important - they represented the support within Ulster Protestantism for the Calvinist and evangelical Christianity Paisley espoused and for the preacher‟s Unionist and Loyalist politics.2 A small number of attendees were not Irish, and their presence was even more significant. Two British Baptists - the Reverends Brian Green from London and Jack Glass of Glasgow, 1 Protestant Telegraph, “7,000 See Church Opened,” 11 October 1969; and Bob Jones, Jr. to John R. Rice, no date, Fundamentalism Files, Bob Jones University. Within his letter, Jones not only reported the opening of the new church, but the threatening attitude of the British Army – Jones accused the Army of preventing many worshippers from attending. But Jones was upbeat: that day 150 men and women gave themselves to God and became “saved”. Throughout this dissertation, descriptive terms such as Protestant, Catholic, and Presbyterian will be capitalized when referring to Christian denominations or clergymen – i.e. the Catholic Church or a Protestant minister – and in lower case when designating cultural groups – i.e. Ulster presbyterians or the catholic community. 2 In Northern Ireland, Loyalists proclaim a conditional loyalty to the British crown (as long as.