The Second Coming of Paisley: Militant Fundamentalism and Ulster Politics

7. Paisley, the Elijah of Ulster

182 7 Paisley, the Elijah of Ulster In August 1966, the Reverend Carl McIntire sent a telegram to Queen Elizabeth II, protesting the jailing of Paisley and his associates that followed the Paisleyite demonstration in front of the Presbyterian General Assembly. McIntire argued that the convictions of Paisley, John Wylie, and Ivan Foster constituted religious persecution and that their arrests had been carried out at the request of the WCC and the Presbyterian Church in Ireland. McIntire based his claims on the fact that it took the authorities in Northern Ireland almost a month after the General Assembly to bring charges. We can assume that McIntire’s wire had little effect on the royal family (or on the British government), but the action was meant as publicity —and it succeeded. The mainstream and militant American press reported the story, and Paisley’s star rose higher. On his way to Beirut for a conference of the Middle East Bible Council, McIntire stopped in Belfast and was permitted to see Paisley, Wylie, and Foster in Crumlin Road Jail. McIntire, the most avid promoter of Paisley’s “martyrdom,” pushed Paisley’s cause to militant fundamentalist allies and within the ACCC and ICCC.1 The result was that Paisley’s time in jail—or, more specifically, his selfless willingness to suffer for the cause—raised his stature among not only militant fundamentalists and secular Loyalists within Northern Ireland , but also among the wider community of militant fundamentalists within the British Isles and the United States. The previous August, the bond between Paisley and McIntire drew closer after Paisley attended the Sixth Plenary Conference of the ICCC in Geneva and made a short trip to the United States. McIntire wrote to Norman Porter shortly after Paisley’s American trip concluded, boasting that the Ulsterman had been received at Bob Jones University and at the Paisley, the Elijah of Ulster † 183 Collingswood Bible Presbyterian Church. He noted that Paisley made a strong impression in churches affiliated with the Independent Fundamental Churches of America that he spoke to. According to McIntire, Paisley spoke emotionally with the “big lungs of Elijah and the sound of the rushing of wind.”2 During the Thirtieth General Synod of the Bible Presbyterian Church in October 1966, held at Cape May, New Jersey, the perceived persecution of the Free Presbyterians and their moderator was made a prominent subject of discussion. The synod passed two resolutions: one to support Paisley ’s martyrdom and the other to protest the United Press International’s (UPI) reports on his imprisonment. The Bible Presbyterians were upset that the UPI portrayed Free Presbyterians as extremists, not evangelists of the correct gospel, and that it depicted Paisley’s imprisonment not as a protest, but as a staged charade to seek publicity.3 The Christian Beacon printed the letter Paisley wrote to McIntire from his jail cell (also intended for the Bible Presbyterian Church and the ACCC) that explained the Cromac Square and General Assembly disturbances as the result of government persecution, not a criminal act, and thanked McIntire for his support. The Christian Beacon expanded its coverage of the fundamentalist–ecumenical battle within the British Isles. McIntire’s paper reported on the International Christian Youth’s picketing of the British embassy in Washington, DC; Donald Soper’s attacks against Paisley during a Methodist conference in Wolverhampton, England ; and the Orange Order’s 12 July resolution against British Anglicans.4 To the militant fundamentalist press, Paisley had become a modern-day prophet.5 The Irish crusader became a constant and featured subject in the Christian Beacon. Beginning with an article that covered Paisley’s protest trip to Rome in March 1966, McIntire’s paper chronicled the Ulsterman’s arrest, trial, and imprisonment and complained about the biased press coverage of the events. McIntire wrote a long article on the persecution that Paisley and Bible Protestants suffered in Northern Ireland.6 The Christian Beacon reprinted a copy of McIntire’s letter to Life protesting the magazine’s August 1966 article “The Unholy War of Preacher Paisley.” McIntire charged that the Life story attempted to discredit opponents of the ecumenical movement. He did have a point: the article 184 † The New Testament employed innuendo to compare Paisleyism to McCarthyism and Chicagostyle gangsterism and to link Paisley’s rhetoric directly with Protestant paramilitary and communal violence. Life blamed Paisley for inciting two Catholics to toss projectiles at the British monarch when...