Foy E. Wallace

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Foy Esco Wallace, Jr. was an influential figure among American Churches of Christ in the early to middle 20th century. Though his writing and speaking, Wallace gathered a considerable following among the autonomous body of churches; his combination of skilled use of logic with withering sarcasm propelled him to the forefront of at least three major schisms within Churches of Christ.

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Contents

[edit] Biography

[edit] Early life

Foy E. Wallace, Jr. was born September 30, 1896 on a farm south of Belcherville, Texas. His father, Foy Edwin Wallace, was a prominent preacher within Churches of Christ in Texas, having been at the forefront of debate with the Disciples of Christ over instrumental music and missionary societies.

He was baptized by his father in 1909 and preached his first sermon in 1912 at Stephenville, Texas. While his initial appointments derived largely from his shared name, within a short time he had made a name for himself as a preaching prodigy. Wallace would carry the nickname of "The Boy Preacher" even into adulthood.

Wallace was married on November 29, 1914 to Virgie Brightwell.

Wallace preached locally in a progression of Texas towns (Lott, Temple, Vernon, Wichita Falls, and Fort Worth), but was best known for preaching in "gospel meetings" (commonly called "revivals" outside Churches of Christ).

Wallace also worked for a brief time with the Central Church of Christ in Los Angeles, California.

Wallace served as editor of the Gospel Advocate in Nashville, Tennessee, from 1930 to 1934. America was in the depths of the Great Depression at the time, and Wallace often found himself short of money and long on debt at the time.

[edit] Premillenialism

In 1910, Robert H. Boll had become the editor of the Gospel Advocate. His premillenial views were soon expressed within its pages, to the dismay of some of the Advocate's writers. After considerable friction, Boll resigned the post in 1915. He moved to Louisville, Kentucky, and established Word and Work, a small journal whose aim was to promote premillenialism within Churches of Christ.

Boll's promotion of premillenialism led to more controversy in the 1920s, culminating in a written debate with H. Leo Boles in 1927. In 1932, the Advocate under Wallace turned its eye back toward the debate with a series of bitingly critical articles on premillenialism.

Wallace himself engaged in a well-known debate over premillenialism with Charles M. Neal in January 1933 at Winchester, Kentucky. This debate (so contentious that the First Christian Church that was to be its site closed its doors to the discussion after the first night) established him as the leader of the anti-premillennial faction within Churches of Christ.

He quit the Advocate to found the Gospel Guardian in 1935 and the Bible Banner in 1938, papers initially dedicated almost exclusively to the defeat of premillennial doctrine. By the early 1940s, every significant paper and college associated with Churches of Christ took the amillenial position. By 1949, when he ceased publishing the latter, his campaign had been so effective that only a handful of premillennial churches remained, and those generally isolated from the mainstream, as they remain.

However, Wallace's tactics and language caused anger in some of these power bases. Harding College president J. N. Armstrong had been alone in refusing to condemn premillenialism in 1934; a partial rejection of the doctrine in 1935 did little to silence his critics, Wallace chief among them. A war of words between the two camps ensued, with Wallace and E. R. Harper accusing Harding of sheltering premillenialists and premillennial sympathizers; Armstrong, for his part, compared Harper to the Nazis and Wallace to a pope.

[edit] Pacifism

As America entered World War II, another controversy gripped Churches of Christ. Pacifism had a long history in this body and, though its influence had waned in part due to the threats and punishments from the US government during World War I, many members still held to the belief. Wallace, though initially sympathetic to the position, as his father was a pacifist, emerged as an implacable foe to conscientious objectors by early 1942, applying an increasingly stinging stream of labels to them.

As part of this effort, he turned the pages of the Banner to refuting the writings of David Lipscomb, a deceased church leader of the previous generation whose support of pacifism and rejection of civil government as an agent of Satan were well known and still influential. Wallace's point of view again triumphed, as most men of Churches of Christ embraced military service; however, the victory again earned him well-connected enemies. Chief among these was B.C. Goodpasture, the latest editor of the Advocate, who was publicly quiet on the "war question" but raised money for pacifist Christians placed in conscientious objector camps.

[edit] Racial relations in Churches of Christ

Pacifism was not the only issue where Wallace took a position opposite David Lipscomb. In 1878, a Texas church had refused membership to an African-American Christian, and Lipscomb attacked such as blasphemous in the Gospel Advocate. Nevertheless, after Lipscomb died, segregated churches became common, and Wallace not only championed, but demanded this segregation. In a publication in the Bible Banner (1941), he argued that whites should not be allowed to listen to black preachers and vice versa.[1] In Wallace's words, such mixed meetings "lowers the church in the eyes of the world."

Some opponents of Wallace questioned the rightness of his admitted concern with worldly opinion of those outside the church. Pacifist supporters of Lipscomb also considered Wallace's position on race and pacifism as representative of moving the Church of Christ to more respectable middle class American positions of his time. To some, even Wallace's later position on institutions also represent accommodation to maintaining the growing wealth within the Church as opposed to the persecutions and loss of wealth felt by those who maintained integrationist and conscientious objector positions.

[edit] The institutional debate

In the 1930s, some men (most prominently G. C. Brewer) began actively promoting church funding of Bible colleges. Several writers, such as Wallace and W. W. Otey, wrote and spoke in opposition. Publicly, Brewer's position received little support; privately, however, prominent men such as Goodpasture, N. B. Hardeman, and Robert M. Alexander agreed with the proposition, though most were noncommital when asked specifically about their position. World War II largely suspended the debate, as the question of pacifism took center stage in "brotherhood papers." However, division had not been prevented, only postponed.

The issue of church support for institutions arose anew quickly after the war. Many of those who had been silent before now saw much to gain by raising the issue. No longer was it a mere hypothetical question, but one where a strict interpretation of congregational independence and separation of the individual and the church would, in their estimation, lead to lost opportunities.

The pro-institutional camp learned from the experience of the 1930s and the tepid support for sending money to colleges from the church treasury. They tried a different tactic, tying church support of colleges with church support of other institutions, namely orphans' homes. As Hardeman wrote in 1947, "I have always believed that a church has the right to contribute to a school or an orphanage if it so desired... The same principle that permits one must also permit the other. They must stand or fall together."

The addition of an emotional element proved successful at persuading many who had been on the fence to the institutional side during the 1950s. However, it also led to rancor; what had previously been a largely civil debate erupted into name-calling. This line of argument was used by some to portray those who objected to churches funding private institutions as "orphan haters", "Pharisees," and the like; for their part, non-institutionals such as Wallace returned (and at times initiated) the rhetorical fire. Well-known preachers with ties to the colleges became increasingly assertive in condemning anyone who disagreed. Accusations of coercion and intimidation swirled around the colleges. Those with outside businesses, particularly on the non-institutional side, often found themselves facing boycotts organized by those opposing their position.

The leading voices of the institutional movement were men such as Brewer, Hardeman, Alexander, and Goodpasture. The non-institutional side of the debate was led by men such as Wallace, Roy Cogdill, and Fanning Yater Tant.

From the beginning, the non-institutional side found itself outmanuevered by the institutionals, who held the reins of power at all the large Bible colleges and the most popular of publications. It was not aided by infighting between the various proponents, climaxing in the 1951 split of the Church of Christ in Lufkin, TX, leading to two congregations, one with Cogdill as preacher, the other with Wallace's brother Cled preaching. Foy Wallace, the most polarizing figure in the debate, thereafter ceased arguing for a non-institutional position; indeed, by the mid-1960s, he associated himself exclusively with institutional churches.

By the end of the 1960s, the isolation of non-institutionals from the mainline churches was concluded. Contact between churches and individuals on both sides of the divide was mostly ended, and those in both branches continued on practicing the beliefs which they had come to see as the only correct ones.

For more on this issue, see The churches of Christ (non-institutional).

[edit] Personal life

In 1952, while Wallace preached a gospel meeting in Cushing, Oklahoma, his wife suffered a major stroke. He cancelled his engagements in order to remain by her side.

[edit] Later years

The firebrand preacher lived out his later years in relative quiet, holding meetings and writing only occasionally. His conversion to institutionalism won him praise from his former enemies at the colleges and papers, but he never again came close to the popularity of his early years. Much of his writing during this time was spent unsuccessfully attempting to reconcile his prior position on institutionalism with his current one; this led to estrangement with some members of his own family, notably son William.

Wallace had developed a blood condition similar to hemophilia and requiring frequent blood transfusions; from these transfusions, he developed hepatitis. His condition necessitated a move to Hereford, Texas, near his son, Wilson. He continued preaching for a time, but after two weeks in the hospital due to his disease, he suffered a stroke and passed away on December 18, 1979.

[edit] Sources

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