THE FUNDAMENTALIST CREED

 

I began wondering, after reading “The Fundamentals; A Testimony to the Truth”, the seminal work of Christian fundamentalism, how such a document had come to exist. The very first sentence of the very first of the 90 essays sought to explain it all. “In 1909 God moved two Christian laymen to set aside a large sum of money for issuing twelve volumes that would set forth the fundamentals of the Christian faith…” Upon further investigation I discovered that the two anonymous Christian laymen were Lyman Stewart and his younger brother Milton. And Lyman's personal history may provide some insight into cognitive dissonance he fathered and funded.

Lyman Stewart (above) was the deeply religious eldest son of a tanner. He hated his father’s business and wanted to be a missionary. But, as Jesus before him, Lyman would need funds to support his ministry. Then, on the morning of 28 August, 1858, almost in Lyman’s backyard, the foreman of the Pennsylvania Oil Company spotted fresh oil standing in the 69 foot drill hole he had decided to abandon the night before. Within a few weeks this well, outside of Titusville, Pennsylvania  would be producing the unheard bounty of 20 barrels a day. Jonathan Watson, the man who had leased the site to Penn Oil, became the first oil millionaire. Lyman  saw the hand of God in this miracle of sudden wealth.

It was a risky business. The towers of Ancient Babylon may have been constructed in part with asphalt. But in 1859 there was no explanation of how petroleum, or “rock oil” was created, nor why it was found where it was. Even today three out of four oil fields are first located because of surface “seeps” of asphalt. And finding  oil beneath the ground remained a matter of pure luck and, if you asked Lyman Stewart, divine intervention.  Those whom God loved, found oil. 

On 5 December 1859,  Layman used his life savings of $125 (equivalent of $3,000 today) to buy an option on a section of land not far from Penn Oil’s big score. But Lyman’s lease proved to be a dry hole, and it took him until 1861 to save enough cash to finance a second try. This time Lyman hit oil, but over-production had by then driven the price down to ten cents a barrel, and Lyman and his partners lost their money and eventually, their lease. 

By now chemical analysis had determined that oil had once been living plants and animals. From this it was theorized that oil was never found in the rocks in which it had formed, the “source rock”.  Instead it flowed into a permeable “reservoir rock”, which was always found beneath a layer of impermeable “cap rock”. 

If there were no cap rock and the oil made it to the surface, it formed a seep. Geologists still had no idea how old oil was.  But connecting the work of Scottish geologist James Hutton with the "Origin of Species", published in 1859 by the English Naturalist Charles Darwin, gave a strong hint that it might be unimaginably old. But you didn't need to believe Darwin to find oil. You just needed to be lucky, or faithful.

In 1866, after serving in the Civil War, Lyman returned to the oil fields. He opened an office in Titusville, helping other wildcatters negotiate leases from local farmers. On some of the better looking leases, Lyman waved his fee in exchange for a share of any oil found. By 1868 he had made a small fortune and a reputation as a savvy oil man. By 1869 he was broke again. But he remained convinced that God would not let him fail. 

In 1877 Lymen teamed up with a roustabout from the Pennsylvania and California oil fields, named Wallace Hardison. Hardison had made enough money in California to fund Lyman for one more try. And Layman hit the black gold again. This time, when they were on top, the pair sold out to Rockefeller’s Standard Oil.  In 1883 the Stewart brothers and Hardison packed their bags and moved to California, to escape Rockefeller's growing monopoly.

The desperate search for oil drove capitalists to take a hard look at the pulverized rocks drawn up from both dry and successful holes. It was the only empirical evidence they had. They found these cores to be filled with the remains of microscopic Foraminifera. There are some 4,000 species of these single celled aquatic creatures in today’s oceans, from the surface to the bottom mud, from the Artic to the tropics. But the fossils of some 275,000 separate Foraminifera species were coming out of the drill holes.

Obviously the vast majority of these little creatures and plants had gone extinct. By studying which  extinct species had been found with the oil in past well cores, the capitalists could better judge their chances of finding oil in any new drilling hole. Eventually, oilmen would depend on former Foraminifera fossils to lead them toward the oil underground.

The move west did not change Lyman Stewart. He forbade his normally profane roustabouts from cursing on the drilling site, and earned his first California well the title of “Christian Hill”. Still, even with the Lyman’s piety, it took seven dry wells before Lyman and Harding produced their first gusher in Santa Clarita.  And by 1886 the Hadison and Stewart Oil Company was producing 15% of all the petroleum being pumped out of California. 

In 1890 they merged with three other local oil companies controlled by Thomas Bard, to form the Union Oil Company of California. Bard was named President of the new company, Lyman was named Vice President, and Hardison became the treasurer. The company’s headquarters was established in the pretty little town of Santa Paula, at the corner of Main and Ojai streets, surrounded by hundreds of nodding mechanical donkeys, pumping out profits for Layman and his partners. 

Success and wealth merely confirmed Lyman’s faith in his own righteousness. He had no doubt that God meant him to be wealthy and wanted him to expand his empire. Wallace Hardison was not so certain, and in 1892 he sold out. Then in 1894 Bard resigned after repeated fights with Lyman. Evidently, being pious did not make Lyman a congenial partner.  

But finally Lyman Stewart had reached the top of the mountain. He kept drilling, now following the extinct creatures to find new wells, to feed the growing demand for his product. 

He built pipelines and refineries. He built a fleet of tankers to carry his Unocal Oil up and down the West Coast. He opened a string of service stations, to sell his gasoline.  Company profits went from $10 million in 1900 to over $50 million in 1908. 

California was now producing almost 78 million barrels of oil a year.  The following year, Wallace Hardison died in Sun Valley, California, when his car was struck by a train, and Lyman Stewart's last opponent was welcomed into heaven.  It seemed that God was truly smiling upon his favored son.

Now at last Lyman Stewart had the fortune to fund his ministry. The brothers, Lyman and Milton,  endowed $300,000 for the publication of 12 volumes (90 essays) written in defense of what they believed were the five fundamental tenets of Christianity; the total absolute accuracy of the bible, the divinity of Jesus, his death for humanities’ sins, and his second coming, which was expected soon, perhaps in the lifetime of people then living. 

However there were a few other points made in the fundamentals, in particular a listing of the enemies of Christianity, as detailed later by Robert Wuthnow, of Princeton University. These enemies included “…Romanism (Catholicism), socialism, modern philosophy, atheism...Mormonism, spiritualism,...and Darwinism, all of which, in the Stewart's belief appeared to "undermine the Bible's authority.”  Formed originally as a response to "modernism", the foundations of Fundamentalism are primarily negative, insisting upon what they against, rather than what they seek to be.
The first target of the Fundamentalists was the growing acceptance of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution through natural selection. William Riley, writing for the World Christian Fundamentals Association in 1922, declared “We increasingly realize that the whole menace in modernism exists in its having accepted Darwinism against Moses, and the evolutionary hypothesis against the inspired word of God." There are hundreds of teachers, Riley argued, who were pouring the poison of Darwinism into youthful minds where their evil teachings could "take root in the garden of the Lord.”

But seemingly in defiance of the Stewart's anti-Darwinism, by the 1920’s Union Oil geologists had realized that Foraminifera could be used to measure ancient ocean temperatures, and the amount of oxygen in extinct seas. Both of which impacted the formation of oil. And they were now basing multimillion dollar drilling decisions at individual well sites on the fossilized shells of now extinct microscopic creatures found in drilling cores. All of which Fundamentalism said was a lie. And yet those lies were making Lyman Stewart and the other oil investors richer by the day. 

But thanks to Layman Stewart and his brother's largess, millions in profits from this oil provided for the Los Angeles Mission, which has helped to feed and shelter tens of thousands of homeless and lost souls, and a nearby Fundamentalist Christian College, which explicitly teaches that those creatures used to find the wealth which built that college, had all died in a great flood, which had occurred, just six thousand years ago.

In 1923 Lyman Stewart died at the age of 83, very rich and still insisting to all who trusted him that the creatures which had made him wealthy were myths. But he kept the money.

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Christine and the Beast

 

I have given up looking for “justice”. As proof of its nonexistence I offer you the “ostentatiously wealthy” British Labor politician John Lewis (above). Called an evil man and “vindictive” by one of his victims, his allies described the self made rubber millionaire as a "nasty piece of work", “one of the lowest forms of human existence I've ever met...” and “loathsome in every sense”. His “lack of personal...honesty or integrity” made him an “embarrassment to his political party”. In a “just” world John Lewis would have retreated after karma thoroughly kicked his ass in 1951. He did not.

That year,  after four years of her husband's promiscuity and "odd" sexual proclivities,  Lewis' fashion model wife, Joy Fletcher (above, left), left him for a female Swedish beauty queen (above, right).  She later moved on to another male millionaire.  

Shortly thereafter Lewis' (above)  bruised ego was further offended when a traffic cop ordered him to stop at an intersection. Lewis ran his car into the officer's car, three times. His justification was that he was late for a vote. The public chastisement resulted in him losing his seat in October of 1951 . As I said, it was not a good year for John. 

But Lewis avoided the productive introspection such justice suggested, by inventing a villain to blame for his just deserts. Lewis decided that the Joy (above) in his life had been seduced by the unlucky, undeserving and unrepentant Stephen Ward, because it had been Ward who had introduced Joy to the Swedish Beauty Queen. Lewis swore, “I will get Ward whatever happens”. In public.

The irony was that Stephen Ward (above) did not sleep with Joy Fletcher Lewis. In fact Doctor Ward ( he was an American trained osteopath) was not that interested in sex. We know this because that is the one thing Christine Keeler, one the most inventive, inveterate and inexhaustible liars in 20^th century England, never changed her story about.  Stephen was honest.

The 18 year old show girl always said that although she and Stephen Ward slept in the same bed, it was always “like brother and sister.” She never claimed to have had sex with Stephen Ward. And this is notable because charting the admitted sexual contacts of this beautiful hedonistic exhibitionist narcissist  would have exhausted a team of Public Health epidemiologists.

Christine Keeler (above) , in the words of her most famous victim, “seemed to like sexual intercourse”. She was uneducated, and uninterested in much beyond her own vagina. But in her chosen field she was an expert, the epiphany of common carnal knowledge  It seems at times that this high school drop out had sex with every male in mid-century London, including Soviet secret agents, American military officers, London policemen, bankers, drug dealers, musicians, doctors, lawyers, even members of the British Cabinet. 

And like a single woman Ponzi scheme, Christine's constantly crescive coitus circle eventually brought her into contact with the only male in London who wanted to hear this gorgeous uneducated woman speak. And he was the despised and despicable John Lewis.

Lewis and Christine had a meeting at a 1961 Christmas Eve party. Christine (above)  was, as usual, concerned only with her own problems, which were not insubstantial. Two weeks earlier, a former boyfriend, Lucky Gordon, had fired “several shots” into the front door of the tiny apartment which Christine had once platonically shared with Stephen Ward. 

The publicity generated by that gunfire had killed her affair with British Secretary of State for War, John Profumo (above)...

...as well as scaring off  the other man she was concurrently sleeping with",  Yevgeny Ivanov (above), a Soviet naval attache.   Christine recalled later that John Lewis “could not have been more helpful....” that Christmas Eve.   But the only five words John Lewis heard in Christine's hour long self absorbed diatribe was “Stephen Ward”, “John Profumo”, and “Soviet”.  It was enough for Ward to promise the young fool £30,000 for names and dates of her sexual contacts with the two men , which Christine was happy to provide. 

Meanwhile, the dreadful Lewis was still trying to get the London press interested in attacking Stephen Ward (above, left). But they were no more interested in Ward than the judge at  Lewis' 1954 divorce case, who had dismissed Lewis' fantasies about Ward being a pimp for his wife, Joy Fletcher. 

 But by adding the name of Profumo to his vendetta, Lewis acquired an ally, in the Conservative Party political hatchet man, George Wigg (above). 

Wigg scurried off to repeat Christian’s details to Conservative Party leader, Harold Wilson. And with his okay, Wigg then fed the “News Of The World” the story of a Liberal Party cabnet member who was having an affair with a woman who was also having an affair with a Soviet Spy.

Christine Keeler (above)  met John Profumo while skinny dipping at a 1961 summer night pool party at  Lord Astor's country estate. She had been invited as a guest of Stephen Ward, who was Lord Astor's osteopath and who rented a summer house on Astor's property.  

Over that weekend, John Profumo got Christian Keeler's phone number, but the lady who was a tramp went home with another party guest, Yevgeny Ivanov, who was in fact a Soviet secret agent.  Monday morning, Stephen Ward felt nervous enough to call his MI 5 contact to report the triangle that had formed in Lord Astor's swimming pool.

The three dominant sections of British Military Intelligence have always been MI 1, code making and breaking, MI 5, counterintelligence, and MI 6, intelligence gathering. In 1960 MI 5 thought they saw a chance to “flip” Yevgeny Ivanov, and they asked Stephen Ward, who knew Ivanov casually,  to befriend him. 

At their urging, Ward had invited Ivanov to the pool party at the Astor estate (above). But it was also Ward who warned the government that the Secretary of War might be dipping his wick into Christian Keeler, at the same time she was partying with the Soviet Agent they were interested in.

Christine (above)  may or may not have slept with Ivanov.  She did sleep with Profumo, but in her own words she saw him merely as “a screw of convenience.”  Ward tried to penetrate her myopia to warn her how deep the water in the pool was by joking that she should ask Profumo when NATO was going to share nuclear weapons with the West German government.  

Ward (above) knew Christine well enough to doubt the stunning brunette knew what NATO was, or West Germany, or even nuclear bombs. However Ward's little joke would come back to bite his own ass, with teeth that belonged to his sworn enemy, John Lewis.

During the summer of 1963 the London Press exploded with lurid details of Christine Keeler's sex life, her affair with John Profumo and a Soviet spy,  both of which had been arraigned, said the press, by Stephen Ward.  Christine was having a ball, feeding the press dark and sexy stories depicting Stephen Ward as her pimp and a tool for the Soviets. For an ego maniac, especially one as dim as Christine, it was a joy ride. 

Not everyone was having as much fun. Yevgeny Ivanov was called back to the Soviet Union before the story exploded. Soviet officials usually showed little sympathy for secret agents who get their pictures on the front pages of London tabloids.  John Profumo first denied his affair with Christine, and then resigned after admitting to it. Stephan Ward (above, left center)  insisted he had been working for British Intelligence, who, of course, denied everything.  The CIA treats their operatives the same way.

 Eventually Stephen Ward was charged with “living off the earnings of an under aged female” - i.e. pimping children.

As Stephen's trial was starting, Christine was in another court room, testifying at Lucky Gordon's trial, charged with shooting Stephen Ward's front door.  Eventually an appeals court would decided her testimony there had been unreliable, and probably perjury. But because the Foreign Office had yet to determine if national security had been breached (it had not), the damage to her reputation - such as it was - were considered proved, and the press lost interest in her. 

But since left Stephen Ward's jury did not know that, they took her story that Ward had asked her to "to find out, through pillow talk, from Jack Profumo when nuclear warheads were being moved to Germany." as true.  It wasn't. 

Samuel Herbert (above), the Chief Inspector running the investigation broke quite a few rules, including threatening to destroy anyone who testified in support of Stephen Ward.  And then, in his closing, the prosecutor reminded the jury that no one had come forward to defend Stephen.  As if lack of evidence was evidence.

The entire trial was a travesty,  and one judge later said the case should never have gone to the jury. But the damage had been done. Stephen Ward (above), took an overdose of sleeping pills. Rushed to the hospital he died two days later. But the jury was still allowed to convict the dead man. 

That conviction helped to bring down the Liberal government, and made Harold Wilson (above) Prime Minister. Three years later 48 year old Inspector Herbert died of a heart attack. His will left only 300 pounds to his family. But his bank account contained 30,000 pounds, well over half a million dollars today.  Where he got that much cash was never explained.

The night that Stephen Ward died, John Lewis celebrated with champagne in a London restaurant. There's political justice for you. Ironically, the vindictive man who created the entire mess, John Lewis, died of a heart-attack on 14 June, 1969. Until that moment, a lot of people would have said he didn't have a heart, just a liver filled with bile.

Most of the money Christine Keeler had been paid by the newspapers went to her lawyers.  Convicted of perjury in December of 1973,  Christine Keeler served 4 1/2 months in prison. By 1972 she had been married and divorced twice, and given birth to two children, who were largely raised by her mother.

She died at 76 years of age, on 5 December, 2017, of  chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, just another victim of John Lewis' hunger for revenge.

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