First Methodist Dallas Hosts Texas United Drys, September 1941 In September 1941 First Methodist Church of Dallas hosted the state meeting of Texas United Drys. The group was composed mainly of veterans of the sruggle for the prohibition of alcohol. They had been successful in that goal, but the success did not last. National prohition was repealed in 1933. As part of the repeal legislation in Texas, the local option law was passed. That meant that a city, county commissioner’s precinct, or a county could regulate alcohol in that jurisdiction. The implication was that what had been a national campaign devolved to hundreds of inensely local campaigns. The work of the drys continued, but with different emphases. They now waged local elections, tried to hold law enforcement officers to account to enforce local prohibition laws, and educate youth on the dangers of alcohol beverage consumption. In 1941 there was an addition emphasis. The U. S. government was in the process of creating military bases around the state, and Drys wanted to make sure that the surrounding areas around those bases remained dry. It was particularly galling that under the doctrine of federal supremacy, PX’s on military bases located in dry counties could sell beer. Bishop Hiram Boaz was president of United Drys and the host pastor was Angie Smith, later elected bishop. Rev, Leslie Boone of Brownwood was on the program, and the morning keynote was delivered by H. D. Knickerbocker, perhaps the most prominent member of the SMU faculty. Knickerbocker was in the Jounalism Department. His life and career has been covered in a previous blog, so use the search function to learn more about him. The evening keynote was delivered by W. R. (Billy) White (1892-1977) President of Hardin Simmons and later president of Baylor University. The W. C. T. U. president, Lala Fay Watts (1881-1971) of Dallas was given 10 minutes---far less time than was warranted to one of the women who had devoted decades of her life to prohibition, suffragism, and labor reform. Texas United Drys later changed its name to Texas Alcohol and Narcotics Education (TANE). That was the name most of us would remember from the 1960s when its main activities shifted to producing film strips, pamphlets, and other educational material.

This Week in Texas Methodist History September 11 Waco District Mourns Lakeview Pastor Vernon White, Dies in Freak Hunting Accident September 1948 What does September mean to you—for most Texans it means the start of football season and the hope of cooler weather as we anticipate the first cool front of the year. To many Texans it also means the start of dove season. The mourning dove is by far the most commonly hunted game bird in Texas and most of the United States. Waterfowl are naturally concentrated on the coast in swamps and lakes, but doves are upland birds and taken in a variety of habitats including grain and sunflower fields, fence lines along pastures, and around stock tanks. Labor Day has been the traditional start of dove season and a ritual of opening day hunts is part of Texas culture. In 1948 D. M. Nolen, a member of Lakeview Congregation in the Waco District invited his pastor, Vernon While (b. 1914) to hunt with him in a field near Hubbard. White was a member of the Central Texas Conference in his fourth year at Lakeview, having previously served Barry. About 5:00 p.m. Nolen announced that he was going back to car and expected Rev. White to follow him. After a few minutes White had not joined him so Nolen became concerned about the possibility of a gun accident and went looking for his hunting companion. He couldn’t find him so he went to a nearby farm house and solicited the aid of two boys who lived there to help him in the search. One of the boys said, “have you looked in the old well?” The old well was really a brick and concrete cistern that had had no cover. The cistern was surrounded by cane and other brush and when the search party arrived at about 5:45, they found the body of Rev. White floating in the cistern. They had to call the Hubbard Fire Department to retrieve the body. Rev. White was buried in Oakwood Cemetery in Waco. He left behind a widow and a five year old daughter.

This week in Texas Methodist History September 4 SMU Pastor’s School Hosts Sir Eddy Asirvatham, Noted Indian Political Scientist, September 1948 India was one of the most important mission fields of Methodism in the 19th and 20th centuries. More properly stated, the area now encompassed by India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh was an important focus of Methodist missions. The ruling power, Great Britain had created a patchwork of poltical jurisdictions in the subcontinent and created an English speaking bureaucracy to carry out the colonial exploitation of Indian resources. It also constructed rail lines allowing for easy transportation throughout the subcontinent. Naturally British missionaries had an advantage but Americans also answered the call to the mission field. The best known American missionary was E. Stanley Jones whose 1925 book, the Christ of the Indian Road was a hugely influential best seller. Jones had gone to India in 1907 and in 1910 invited his Texas-born fellow student from Asbury Seminary to join him. Both Jones and Pickett were among the most articulate interpreters of the Indian Methodist church. After World War II, the long movement for Indian independence culminated in the declaration of Pakistan as an independent nation on August 14, 1947 and India on August 15. The nations had been designed to reflect the two majority religions, Hinduism and Islam, and the result was one of the largest migrations in world history as Hindus living in what was note Pakistan relocated to India and vice versa. Of course there were also Sikhs, Jains, Parsees, and Christians, both Catholic and Protestant who did not identify as either of the majority religions. The turmoil and violence associated with partition grabbed headlines and also the interest of American Christians. One year after independence, SMU hosted one of the most prominent Indian political scientists to speak at Pastor’s School. In September 1948 Pastor’s School was in its heyday. Sessions were held in McFarlin Auditorium where there were usually standing room only crowds. Asirvatham was well known through his scholarly publications including the textbook, Poltical Theory (1944) which has gone through 14 editions, the latest in 1995. He had also published Forces in Modern Poltics in 1936, and in 1953 was to publish a non-scholarly What the Bible Means to Me. Asirvatham was gentle but firm in his lectues on the subject of race. In 1948 Indian was still dealing with the caste system and the United States was dealing with its Jim Crow racism. Asirvatham denounced both racism against African Americans in the U. S. and the caste system in India. Both, he claimed hurt the cause of Christianity. In his lectures he said, “Christianity must be raceless, nationless, and casteless.” He also stressed that Christianity could not be superimposed upon Inda must must take into accounty the culture in which it operated.