The 1950s: Religion: People in the News

THE 1950s: RELIGION: PEOPLE IN THE NEWS

In February 1950 Dr. Bernard Beskamp was installed as chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives. His predecessor, Dr. James Shera Montgomery, served in the post for almost thirty years.

On 10 September 1958 Rev. Dr. Eugene Carson Blake, stated clerk of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A, issued a statement saying that desegregation in the South should be enforced "with troops and tanks if necessary."

On 3 March 1950 Rev. Dr. Osmond H. Brown was appointed honorary canon of the Protestant Episcopal church. He was the first black to hold that position.

In January 1953 President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower selected National Presbyterian Church in Washington, D.C., as his presidential place of worship. National Presbyterian was pastored by Dr. Edward L. R. Elson.

In January 1950 Donald D. Foster, a San Francisco businessman and state of California tax official, resigned his positions and made preparations to enter the Benedictine monastery of Saint Johns Abbey in Collegeville, Minnesota.

On 9 December 1958 Clara French, Methodist missionary secretary for China and Southeast Asia, was elected as the first female chairman of the National Council of Churches Foreign Missions Division.

Dr. Arthur D. Gray was elected chairman of the executive committee of the Congregational Christian Churches on 26 June 1950. He was the first black to hold that position.

Rev. Theodore Hesburg was named president of Notre Dame University on 28 June 1952.

On 30 November 1952 Rev. Martin Luther Hux of Temple Baptist Church in Rocky Mount, North Carolina, burned a page of the Revised Standard Version (RSV) of the Bible, saying the RSV was the "master stroke of Satan."

On 31 December 1952 Prophet Jones, founder and minister of the Universal Triumph, the Dominion of God Church in Detroit, Michigan, celebrated in a special service the election as president of Dwight Eisenhower, whose victory he had predicted.

Rev. Maurice McCrakin of Saint Barnabus Presbyterian and Episcopal Church in Cincinnati, Ohio, was sentenced to six months in prison on 12 December 1958 for refusing to answer an Internal Revenue Service summons. He had been refusing to pay income taxes because of the amount that went for military expenditures.

On 24 January 1953 Rev. Carl Mclntire, president of the International Council of Christian Churches, said the Revised Standard Version of the Bible was "full of contradictions" and challenged the National Council of Churches to release figures revealing how much the council was making in royalties.

Bishop James Francis Mclntyre was named a cardinal of the Roman Catholic church in December 1952.

A deaf minister, Dr. Edwin Nies, was ordained as pastor of Saint Mark's Church-in-the-Bouwerie in sign language on 8 January 1950.

Mrs. Sheldon Robbins was appointed cantor of Temple Avodah, Reform Jewish Synagogue of Oceanside, New York, on 2 August 1955. She is believed to be the first woman ever appointed cantor.

Bishop Fulton J. Sheen was presented the Emmy Award for Most Outstanding Personality on 5 February 1953.

Myron C. Taylor resigned his post as President Harry S Truman's personal representative to the Vatican on 18 January 1950.

One hundred thousand people watched on 15 August 1950 as Mary Anna van Hoof prayed to the Virgin Mary. She claimed that the Virgin Mary appeared to her seven times and told her "to pray and pray hard" for peace. The Roman Catholic church refused to sanction the visions.