| Publication information |
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Source: New York Times Source type: newspaper Document type: letter to the editor Document title: “A Clergyman’s Rebuke” Author(s): B., W. City of publication: New York, New York Date of publication: 27 September 1901 Volume number: 51 Issue number: 16138 Pagination: 6 |
| Citation |
| B., W. “A Clergyman’s Rebuke.” New York Times 27 Sept. 1901 v51n16138: p. 6. |
| Transcription |
| full text |
| Keywords |
| McKinley assassination (religious response: criticism); McKinley assassination (public response: criticism); McKinley assassination (religious interpretation: criticism). |
| Named persons |
| W. B.; William McKinley. |
| Document |
A Clergyman’s Rebuke
To the Editor of The New York Times:
I am a clergyman. I have noticed with humiliation
your not infrequent allusions to the attitude and utterances of Christian ministers
in connection with the murder of President McKinley. I am humiliated because
what you say is too true. It seems to me that some of the most extreme and dangerous
public utterances that have been made have come from the pulpit.
Another thing I have noticed. In the endeavor
to account for the Providential character of the event each public speaker reads
into it his own interpretation drawn from his own particular hobby. If he is
an anti-imperialist, it was imperialism that did it. If he is a temperance reformer,
it was rum that did it. If he is an anti-trust man, it was the multiplication
of trusts that did it or it was yellow journalism, etc. If God rules the world
it must have been Providential. God is good and wise. What He does or allows
to be done must in the end prove best; but God is inscrutable and no one can
or ought to try to tell why He acts as He does.
W. B.
New York, Sept. 24, 1901.