Abstract:
This article examines the war between fundamentalism and modernism that swept the nation in the first part of the 20th century as it was manifested in a conflict between Kentucky evangelist Mordecai F. Haim and editor of the weekly newspaper, the 'Independent,' W.O. Saunders, which took place in Elizabeth City in the autumn of 1924. Haim led the forces of fundamentalist Christianity in a mission to rid the country of the 'pantheistic agnosticism' of the modernists, while Saunders defended the forces of secular idealism and American animosity towards protestant authority.