The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics

4. A Fundamental Defense of Ulster Protestantism

93 4 A Fundamental Defense of Ulster Protestantism The first three chapters outlined the influences that were vital to the formation of Paisleyism: the emergence of American fundamentalism , the political and economic maturation of the Northern Ireland statelet , and the coalescence of evangelism and revivalism into the Protestant identity of Ulster. This chapter explores the intersection of these three developments. In history, timing and the sequence of events are important . The Reverend Ian Paisley’s Christian and political viewpoints would have evolved in a different manner if American Protestant fundamentalism had not been introduced into Ireland and if it had not come during the 1920s, the contentious decade that gave birth to Northern Ireland as a political entity. Although the Irish clergy maintained a steady discourse with American counterparts and were well aware of the growing modernist –fundamentalist controversy of the early twentieth century, the Irish Protestant laity came into direct contact with the theological concept through the evangelist crusade of William Patterson Nicholson.1 Born in April 1876 in Cottown, Northern Ireland, Nicholson grew up in a devout Presbyterian family. Educated at the Bible Training Institute in Glasgow—an institution that D. L. Moody strongly influenced—Nicholson worked as an evangelist in Scotland and Australia before ending up in the United States on the eve of the First World War. Although the Presbyterian Church in the U.S.A. ordained Nicholson as a minister, he associated with fundamentalists of all denominations and adopted a militant theology. Most of his exposure to fundamentalism and separatism occurred during his stays at the Moody Memorial Church in Chicago and 94 † The New Testament at the Los Angeles Bible Institute. In 1920, an illness forced him to return to Ulster, and after addressing a meeting of workers, he began the first of two interdenominational revival and tent campaigns. These efforts were aimed primarily at the Protestant working class; for instance, during his second campaign, which began in 1924, the evangelist helped to found the Irish Alliance of Christian Workers (an organization that has continued to exist and still sporadically conducts revivals) to spread the gospel among the Protestant working class. Many of the workers Nicholson attracted were not churchgoers.2 During his meetings, Nicholson espoused a theology that resonated with the Ulster Protestant community. Many Protestants were wary of the unstable political situation that partition created and were susceptible to the deliverance and millennialism that a revival promised. Working in areas such as the Shankill Road in West Belfast and employing unorthodox methods, such as rough, colorful, and “un-Christian” language, Nicholson made an immediate impact. Many Ulstermen amazingly—Ulster Protestants are historically Calvinist—accepted the message of universal atonement, the promise of being “born again,” and premillennialism. In addition, extensive newspaper coverage ensured the campaign’s popularity and Nicholson’s notoriety. His revivalism employed populist antiCatholicism ; for instance, he preached that the Free State and the Catholic Church were conspiring to destroy Protestant Ulster—closely associating his message with the local political situation. During his initial campaign, his meetings were held amid a continual cycle of sectarian street fighting, and IRA violence ensured support from the Unionist leadership. In 1921 and 1922, Belfast experienced extensive sniping and street violence, and Northern Ireland endured Irish Republican attacks and an economic boycott in the South. Mark Sidwell argues that because Nicholson’s preaching diverted attention from economic problems and encouraged Protestant workers to remain loyal to the UUP, the Protestant ascendancy tacitly supported Nicholson. Sidwell contends that the evangelist’s second campaign received less evident support from the Protestant political and economic leadership because it came at a less contentious time.3 Nicholson’s legacy and his near-prophetic status inspired a devotional renewal among a wide spectrum of Ulster evangelicals—including the Fundamental Defense of Ulster Protestantism † 95 Reverend James Hunter, minister of the Knock Presbyterian Church in Belfast; James Kyle Paisley; and William James (W. J.) Grier, a young doctoral student at the Presbyterian College, Belfast. Grier had been “saved” during the Nicholson campaign. All three were conservative Calvinists, but because of Nicholson’s strong attacks on liberalism and modernism, they overlooked his Arminian ideal of unlimited atonement. Like many Irish Presbyterians, Hunter, Paisley, and Grier were concerned with modernism in the Irish and Scottish churches. Until the early twentieth century , Irish Protestant theologians were overall conservative, and liberals did not publicly endorse higher criticism or Darwinism. Andrew Holmes attributes...