 DR. L. L. PINKERTON
An Early Change Agent
Lewis Letig Pinkerton, was born Jan. 28, 1812 near Baltimore Maryland; one of seven sons, five of which became ministers. While yet a young man he chanced to see a copy of Alexander Campbell's Millennial Harbinger. Campbell's appeal for the truth and justice stirred Pinkerton deeply. When he was privileged to hear Campbell preach the gospel in 1830, he confessed his faith and was immersed according New Testament teaching.
Pinkerton prepared himself for three careers, teaching, preaching and medicine. Campbell was impressed with the young disciple and wrote "I have no hesitation in recommending him to the confidence and communion of the brethren...I think he might be very usefully employed as an evangelist..."
To Pinkerton, Campbell wrote, "...be instant on all proper occasions in preparing yourself, by laying up and hiding in your heart the law of the Lord. Have the first principles all well arranged in your mind, and the Scriptures which treat of them very familiar. Avoid all appearance of censoriousness, acrimony or irony in your speaking...strive to show yourself a workman who needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth."1 Bethany College eventually conferred an honorary Master's Degree upon Pinkerton.
Pinkerton was privileged to be associated with some of the early giants of the Restoration movement. He was associated with Walter Scott in Carthage, Ohio, John T. Johnson and William Morton in Kentucky. Bro. Johnson wrote of him, "He is destine to do much good if he lives. I could sit and listen to him all the time." 2 He was an "earnest, eloquent, devoted and successful evangelist." 3
In 1844 the new congregation in Midway, Woodford County, Kentucky invited Pinkerton to be their first minister. He was 32 years old and in the prime of his life. While there he organized a female school first called "Baconian Institute." In 1849 he, along with John T. Johnson and J. W. Parrish, opened a Female Orphan School at Midway. The project enjoyed the good will of the brotherhood and was generously supported. In ten years the church in Midway grew from 32 members to 168. Pinkerton immersed 154 of those added. Of the Midway church, J. T. Johnson wrote, "If I wished to witness a specimen of primitive Christianity in its modesty, humility, piety, simplicity, order, devotion, intelligence and liberality in Christian enterprise in providing for the poor, the church at Midway would claim my attention"
Pinkerton was a gifted writer and edited a number of Christian journals. He was an ardent opponent of slavery and the making, selling and use of alcoholic beverages. His ant-slavery militancy eventually cost him the respect and fellowship of most of the Kentucky churches.
Instrumental Music in Worship
The question of instrumental music in Christian worship had been occasionally discussed prior to 1859, but Pinkerton carved himself a place in our brotherhood history when he introduced a melodeon into the worship of the Midway Church. The decision to do so was not unanimous and bitter feelings were stirred. Within a few days the instrument disappeared and the mystery was unsolved for years. Many years later, upon the death of Bro. Adam Hibler, one of the church's elders, it was found stored away in his home. He and his slave Reuben had spirited it away and hid it. The pro-instrument folks were undaunted, they simply got another for their use.
Hearing of the Midway action, Benjamin Franklin, editor of the American Christian Review blasted them and all who were contemplating the same. Pinkerton took personal office and replied:
..So far as is known to me...I am the only ‘preacher' in Kentucky of our brotherhood who has publicly advocated the propriety of using instrumental music in some church, and that the church in Midway is the only church that has yet made a decided effort to introduce it......if your article on church music reflects the notions of the Reformation as to what constitutes Christian courtesy, manly literature, logic, rhetoric, religion; nay, if any considerable portion of the Reformation can even tolerate such coarse fulminations, then the sooner it is extinct, the better; and I, for one...would feel myself impelled by everything I owe my family, my country and myself, and my Savior, to aid in ridding the world of it, as of an immeasurable abomination." 4
It is interesting that Pinkerton offered no scriptural justification for introducing the instrument. He said the singing at Midway was so bad that the rats had been scared away from the worship, hence they needed instrumental accompaniment. The example of the Midway church was like a match tossed in a field of dry brush. Following the war, churches throughout the land began buying organs and pianos to "aid in their worship." For forty long years the battle raged. Churches divided over the issues by the hundreds. Eventually the brotherhood was rent, leaving the Christian Churches/Disciples of Christ with their instruments and Churches of Christ with their acappella singing. Dr. Pinkerton's famous melodeon is now housed in a glass case at Midway College. An object of historic pride to those who use instrumental music in worship, but viewed as Aaron's golden calf by those who are committed to doing Bible things in Bible ways.
When the Civil War erupted, Pinkerton volunteered as a surgeon in the Union Army. Following the war he moved to Lexington expecting to resume his career of preaching. To his chagrin, the brethren shunned him. He was not asked to preach, pray, give thanks or exhort. In part this was because of his service in the Union Cause and his outspoken political views. After a year, "he drew the sword and threw away the scabbard, determined...if he must die ecclesiastically, that he would die fighting." 5 His bitterness only served to further the chasm between him and his brethren. Many viewed him as an unsound, dangerous man for his politics, if not for his faith.
Heresy Charges
Added to Pinkerton's political baggage were charges of heresy brought by the Lexington church in 1870. It as reported that he claimed to belong to the church universal and was responsible to no particular congregation. They felt that his conduct for several years had been schismatic and calculated to stir up strife and division in the body. Numerous offensive citations were noted from his published writings. In his usual biting and sarcastic style, the doctor looked at their letter and replied that he "would rather plead guilty than read it." He said he enjoyed the extracts from his own writings so well that he regretted the brevity thereof. He closed by saying that if the Lexington elders had invited his assistance, he could have gotten up a much stronger case against himself than they had done..." 6
Pinkerton has been dubbed " the first liberal of the Restoration Movement." He wore that titled without shame or embarrassment.
* He held heretical views about congregational government and organization.In 1854 he wrote in the Christian Age:
"It has long been our conviction, that the Presbyterian organization is Scriptural and expedient. We believe that every church should have a plurality of elders, one of which should be a preacher...we believe...the Presbyterian plan of operation, through presbyteries and synods, the best extant...churches are left at liberty to adopt such a plan of cooperation as shall seem best adapted to secure the ends mediated by the cooperation."
It is noteworthy that he offered no Scripture for this view. To those who disagreed with his view he wrote, "The greatest little tyrants I have known
have been the greatest sticklers for what they call the independence of churches" 7
Pinkerton was an eager participant at the meeting held in Cincinnati in 1849 to organize the American Christian Missionary Society. He opposed all effects to appease those brethren who objected to the Society arguing that such an organization was essential. 8 - His views on church membership were heretical. Pinkerton affirmed that he would accept into fellowship a pious, unimmersed soul who had previously held membership in some other religious body. In 1873 he wrote in the Christian Standard, "I will not, therefore, thrust my translation of a Greek word (baptidzo) between your conscience and your God." In the same piece he stated, "The New Testament is not a code of cast-iron laws for trembling souls; but a rule of life for loving children–not a hole through a granite rock through which fools and Pharisees are required to crawl...but the ‘King's highway' on which rational beings with free sprits...walk." 9
- His views on the inspiration of the Bible were faulty. In 1869 he wrote, "It is now more than twenty years since we were compelled to abandoned what Neander calls, ‘the red theory of the plenary Inspiration of the Scriptures....' Young men who go out to preach the Gospel in these days, committed to a theory that requires them to believe...that the ninth verse of the one hundred and thirty-seventh Psalm was inspired...will be liable...to perpetrate a great many follies in the name of the Lord." 10
- Pinkerton's views on salvation grew progressively liberal. In an article written about an imaginary Bob Lawson from the Gosser Creek church, he defended Lawson who believed that "a great many people will get to heaven without being immersed." Bob Lawson believed that only immersion was baptism and that baptism was for remission of sins, but he also believed "that God will accept the spirit of obedience in some cases for exact conformity to law." 11
- He went even further in a parabolic story he composed about a widow O'Flanigan and her son Mike, ignorant immigrants from Ireland. Unchurches and unChristianized, they died without profession of faith in Christ, repentance, baptism or church membership. After painting an emotional, heart-rendering picture of these poor lost souls, Pinkerton wrote, "When I consider the infinite patience of God with sinners here, I am induced to hope that light may rise on the destiny of many poor wretched ones, after they have passed to that undiscovered country..." 12
His friends liked to point out that "no unsoundness can possibly be charged to his faith in Christ—his person, his authority, his mediatorial work."13
But then Christ made it clear, that "not everyone that saith unto me Lord, Lord shall enter into the kingdom of heaven, but he that doeth the will of my Father who is in heaven" (Matt.7:21).
Death came to L. L. Pinkerton January 28, 1875. In 1896 the Midway church dedicated its new auditorium. The principal stain-glass window bore a picture of Dr. Pinkerton. To this day those who visit the church can see the doctor, looking over the congregation he made famous by his disobedience to Christ's Will..
Thus ends the story of a man of great talent, energy and ability who make his mark upon the brotherhood of the Restoration churches. His great potential for good was marred by his partisan politics, his heretical views of things sacred and his unyielding, warlike and censorious spirit. He was truly the grandfather of our current generation of change agents. They have copied his agenda almost "to a T." They should be rejected as was he. JHW  |
ENDNOTES
1. John Shackleford, Jr., Life, Letters and Addresses of Dr. L. L.
Pinkerton, Cincinnati, Chase & Hall Pub. 1876, pp. 21-22
2. Ibid., pp. 27-28
3. Ibid., p. 30
4. William H. McDonald, Whatever Other Might Do. A Look at the Principles of L. L. Pinkerton. A speech delivered at Midway College on the 175th anniversary of the birth of L. L. Pinkerton, typescript, Jan. 28, 1987. pp. 5-7.
5. Ibid., pp. 77-79.
6. Ibid., pp.104-105.
7. Ibid., pp.107-108.
8. Ibid., pp. 99.
9. Ibid., pp. 109-111.
10. Ibid. p, 113.
11. Ibid. p. 115-116.
12. Ibid. pp. 116-117.
13. Ibid. p. 118 |
Bibliography:
Harry Giovannoli, Kentucky Female Orphan School, Midway, KY, by the school, 1930.
B. C. Goodpasture and W. T. Moore, Biographies and Sermons of Pioneer
Preachers, Nashville, B. C. Goodpasture, pub. 1954.
W. H. McDonald, Ripple: A History of the Midway Christian Church,
Lexington, KY, unpublished Research Project, 1985.
Whatever Others Might Do. A Look at the Principles of L. L. Pinkerton, unpublished manuscript. 1987.
Unknown, The Phrenological Miscellany, New York, Fowler and Wells Pub., 1882
John Shackleford, Jr. Life, Letters and Addresses of Dr. L. L. Pinkerton, Cincinnati, Chase and Hall Pub., 1876.
M. C. Tiers, The Christian Portrait Gallery, Cincinnati, pub. By M. C.. Tiers, 1864.
Earl I. West, Search for the Ancient Order, Two Volumes, Indianapolis, Religious Book Service, 19__ |
