John Roach Straton
Dr. John Roach Straton (surname rhymes with "Dayton"; born April 6, 1875 in Evansville, Indiana; died October 29, 1929 in Clifton Springs, New York) was a noted pastor. Straton was born into a Baptist pastor's home, the son of Rev. Henry Dundas Douglas Straton and the former Julia Rebecca Carter of Virginia, but did not become a Christian until he was a teenager and heard the revival preaching of James Hawthorne.
Biography
Straton was ordained in 1900 and spent most of his adult life as pastor of several churches in four major cities: Chicago (1905–1908), Baltimore (1908–1913), Norfolk (1914-1917), and most notably of the Calvary Baptist Church in New York City 1918–1929, which was the first church in the country to make regular use of radio to broadcast their services.
Along with William Bell Riley of Minnesota, Dr. Straton was one of the foremost leaders of the anti-evolution campaign of the 1920s. For years Straton carried on a feud with the American Museum of Natural History in New York City because of its Hall of the Age of Man, which displayed the remains of fossil men. Straton charged the museum with "mis-spending the taxpayers' money, and poisoning the minds of school children by false and bestial theories of evolution."
From December 1923 to May 1924, Dr. Straton engaged in a series of debates with the Modernist minister Charles Francis Potter of the West Side Unitarian Church. Friendly enemies, Straton and Potter debated the following subjects: (1) "Resolved, that the Bible is the infallible word of God"; (2) "Resolved, that the world and man came by creation of a living God and not by evolution"; (3) "Resolved, that the miraculous virgin birth of Jesus Christ is an essential Christian doctrine"; (4) "Resolved, that Jesus Christ is the Divine Son of God"; and (5) "Resolved, that Jesus Christ will return in bodily presence to this earth and establish the reign of universal peace and righteousness." Latter Straton published a book, The Famous New York Fundamentalist-Modernist Debates, which contained only his own speeches and omitted those of Potter.
On June 28, 1924, he offered the opening invocation on the fifth day of the 1924 Democratic National Convention.[1]
During the Scopes Trial when the judge was considering letting scientists testify for the defense, William Jennings Bryan wired Straton to come to Dayton, Tennessee to be a rebuttal witness. However, the judge ruled against the defense and Straton never went to Tennessee. After the trial and Bryan's death, Straton challenged defense attorneys Clarence Darrow and Dudley Field Malone to debate, but was rebuffed.
During the 1928 presidential campaign, Straton, along with Riley and J. Frank Norris, rallied support against Al Smith, the Catholic candidate of the Democratic Party. In keeping with his strong opposition to the liquor traffic, Straton was one of the first to label Smith "the candidate of rum, Romanism and rebellion". However, Straton's health was broken by his intense schedule during the campaign, and in April 1929 he suffered a slight paralytic stroke, which led to a nervous breakdown brought on by overwork in the fall and finally a fatal heart attack.
Straton married Georgia Hillyer of Atlanta on November 2, 1903 and they had four sons: Rev. Hillyer Hawthorne Straton, John Charles Straton, Rev. Warren Badenock Straton, and George Douglas Straton.
References
- ↑ Official Report of the Proceedings of the Democratic National Convention, published by the Democratic National Committee (1924), pp. 221-222