Curtis Lee Laws (1868-1946)
First “fundamentalist”
Curtis Lee Laws coined the term “fundamentalist” and made it part of the American lexicon.
Laws established himself as a strong leader of the denominational conservatives during 20 years of successful pastorate. In 1913 he left the pulpit to become editor of an independent and influential Baptist publication, the Watchman-Examiner. Laws declared from the beginning an editorial partisanship in favor of the conservatives and against the modernist camp.
In 1920 he joined with 22 Baptist leaders, including militants like William Bell Riley and J. Frank Norris, to plan and lead the Buffalo Conference on the “Fundamentals of the Baptist Faith.” In an editorial after the conference Laws rejected popular labels for the increasingly organized protest movement, such as “landmarker”, “conservative” and “premillennialist.” He thought these were inaccurate or had negative connotations. Instead, he chose “fundamentalist” as a neutral and inclusive term for those “who still cling to the great fundamentals and who mean to do battle royal for them.”
Laws felt his greatest achievement at the 1920 conference was the agreement that fundamentalists would work within the Northern Baptist Convention and cease boycotting general meetings. He was a voice for moderation within the fundamentalist camp, and wanted to work to reform the Convention from within, believing that conservative thought still predominated.
He took his fellow fundamentalists to task for the tone of the meeting where, “a sober, reverential, thoughtful body of men and women was transformed into a shouting, hissing, applauding bedlam.” He also editorialized in his paper, “In contending for the faith, men should have and manifest the spirit of the Master.”
His more moderate position eventually split Laws from Riley and the militants in the Baptist Bible Union. He supported the formation of Eastern Baptist Theological Seminary and the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism as conservative organizations training ministers and missionaries loyal to the Northern Baptist Convention. Laws retained his position as a conservative leader within the Northern Baptist Convention until his retirement in 1938.
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“Militants, Moderates, & Millionaires” (part 1): Curtis Lee Laws