The Sermon That Rocked the Elks
A Presbyterian minister uses a memorial service for the departed to launch a fiery, public crusade against the morality of his fraternal hosts.
A sensation has been caused in the circles of Elkdom by the address delivered by Rev. A. H. Barnhisel at the Elks' memorial held in the Tacoma theater. Instead of a eulogy, Rev. Mr. Barnhisel, who is pastor of the First Presbyterian church, astonished the audience by attacking fraternal organizations, accusing them of slowly murdering their wives and children by neglect. He did not even mention departed friends or the mystery of death. The 300 Elks present expressed great disappointment. One member noted: 'The faults of our brothers we write upon the sands; their virtues upon the tablets of love and memory. Rev. Mr. Barnhisel may be able to read the writings in the sand, but he cannot scratch the tablets.' Barnhisel specifically targeted men in high municipal positions, claiming that while they moved in good society and took solemn vows of fidelity, their nights were spent in debauchery while their wives sat at home in grief.
“How many men whose standing in the community is high... walk the street with bold front and assurance, but whose souls are as black as the depths of hell?”
This clash between institutional piety and the private conduct of city elites is a classic civic scandal. It highlights the tension between the 'performative' morality of public fraternal life and the hidden realities of household domestic life, a theme that remains perennially explosive in local politics.
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