Tragedy Challenges Church Dogma
The death of a prominent Methodist in the Iroquois Theater fire forces Tacoma’s religious leaders to grapple with the church's strict ban on theater-going.
The story, cleaned up
A cleaned-up reading of the newspaper page: spelling and layout repaired, one story lifted off a crowded page. It follows the original closely but it is not a transcription. The original page is below; read it if a detail matters.
The effects of the Iroquois theater fire in Chicago have been so far-reaching that it will probably influence the action of one of the greatest religious denominations in the world on the amusement question. One of the victims was Willis W. Cooper, a devout Christian worker. Yet this man, one of the leading spirits in the Methodist church, saw no harm in occasionally attending a theater performance. Now that his life has been lost in one of the places condemned by the discipline of the Methodist church, the leaders hesitate to condemn him. Methodist ministers in Tacoma are inclined to look upon the proposition of amending the amusement clause with disfavor. Dr. D. L. Rader, pastor of the First Methodist church, says, 'The rule against theater-going is arbitrary, but my opinion is that it will not be changed. The theater in many cases is like a pill; the few good plays are the sugar coating that covers up the bad ones.'
“The theater in many cases is like a pill; the few good plays are the sugar coating that covers up the bad ones.”
This reflects the cultural clash between Victorian-era religious moralism and the rising popularity of commercial entertainment. The conflict mirrors contemporary debates about the role of religious institutions in shaping public morality and personal behavior.
From readers
No comments yet. If you know something about this story — a correction, a family memory, a source — it belongs here.