Shocking! Shadduck at Bryan!
My wife is the college archivist, and she loves to fill me in on all the gossip from 60 years ago. Her latest discovery left me oddly giddy, and here it is:
This photo came from an envelope marked "guest speakers at Bryan," and the men in the photo are all identified on the back (but no date is given). On the left is H.O. Van Gilder Sr., who was a Baptist pastor and the first national representative of the General Association of Regular Baptists. He apparently set up their Chicago office, where my Aunt Linda worked for years. Small world! The jovial fellow in the middle is R.G. LeTourneau, whom you might remember from the Christian university named after him. The guy on the right was the real shocker. That's B.H. Shadduck! Author of Puddle to Paradise and Jocko Homo Heavenbound. Focus of my ire and scorn as author of "one of the worst antievolution pamphlets I've ever seen," the racist Rastus Augustus Explains Evolution. Apparently, that B.H. Shadduck spoke right here at Bryan College. Small world, indeed.
I can't say I'm surprised. The college was born in the anti-evolution fervor of the 1920s, named after one of the most famous anti-evolutionists, and even unsuccessfully courted Harry Rimmer to be president. I'm very glad to say that the Bryan College of today, as well as creationism and evangelicalism in general, have matured beyond the likes of B.H. Shadduck. Thank you, Lord!
Thanks to the Bryan College Archives for permission to post this photo
Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.
This photo came from an envelope marked "guest speakers at Bryan," and the men in the photo are all identified on the back (but no date is given). On the left is H.O. Van Gilder Sr., who was a Baptist pastor and the first national representative of the General Association of Regular Baptists. He apparently set up their Chicago office, where my Aunt Linda worked for years. Small world! The jovial fellow in the middle is R.G. LeTourneau, whom you might remember from the Christian university named after him. The guy on the right was the real shocker. That's B.H. Shadduck! Author of Puddle to Paradise and Jocko Homo Heavenbound. Focus of my ire and scorn as author of "one of the worst antievolution pamphlets I've ever seen," the racist Rastus Augustus Explains Evolution. Apparently, that B.H. Shadduck spoke right here at Bryan College. Small world, indeed.
I can't say I'm surprised. The college was born in the anti-evolution fervor of the 1920s, named after one of the most famous anti-evolutionists, and even unsuccessfully courted Harry Rimmer to be president. I'm very glad to say that the Bryan College of today, as well as creationism and evangelicalism in general, have matured beyond the likes of B.H. Shadduck. Thank you, Lord!
Thanks to the Bryan College Archives for permission to post this photo
Feedback? Email me at toddcharleswood [at] gmail [dot] com.