A Straight Line to the Pulpit: The Legacy of John MacArthur

In the middle of the twentieth century, with suburbs and churches exploding with intensity, novelist Peter De Vries saw big problems ahead for mainline Protestantism. He wrote of the Reverend Peter Mackerel, so sophisticated, erudite, and cultured. The very epitome of Protestant respectability—at least it seemed—Mackerel preached to a wealthy suburban congregation of liberal Protestants. The congregation designed their new church building with care, “America’s first split-level church,” with no straight lines. Everything was curved, including the pulpit.