Lollypopularity

"Get on and go to Sunday School! Get on and go to Sunday School!"

Cruising the streets of New Bedford, Mass., in a truck on Sunday mornings, two men shouted this invitation to each & every child they saw. They were members of New Bedford's Church of the Nazarene (a small sect placing great emphasis on revival and "holiness"), which was running a Sunday School attendance contest with the Church of the Nazarene in Maiden. Their method of proselyting was to lure young moppets into the truck with lollypops, trundle them off to church.

But in an excess of zeal they lured Roman Catholic children. Angered, the Club of Our Lady of the Assumption sent a delegation to the New Bedford Chief of Police, who immediately reprimanded Rev. R. J. Kirkland, pastor of the Church of the Nazarene. Pastor Kirkland agreed to stop the lollypop luring, had never approved of it anyway. But Pastor Kirkland felt satisfied. In the twelfth week of the contest, attendance at his Sunday School totaled 1,373, to Maiden's 1,030.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.