incident at La Sarre

In the early evening, people began to gather around the rickety Victoria Hotel on the main street of the farming village of La Sarre (pop. 3,100). Soon the Baptists drove in from their little church outside of town. Six men and four women, they gathered on the corner, opened hymn books, and began to sing in French: What Will Wash Away My Sins?

The onlookers jeered and whistled. A 19-year-old in a white sweat shirt drew loud laughter by pretending to direct the hymn. Then, some in the crowd picked up dust and debris from the road and tossed it over the singers, but they paid no attention. A loudspeaker truck blaring jazz music raced up and pointed its horn directly at the group. Chief of Police Edward Carpentier arrived and ordered the singers to move on. When the Baptists refused, a dozen burly men hit them in a flying wedge. For 15 minutes the mauling went on.

It ended at last with the arrest of the Baptists. Five men were held in jail three days, charged with illegal assembly, until bail of $1,900 was raised. Dark-eyed, quiet-voiced Leslie G. Barnhart, leader of the band, was neither surprised nor dismayed. "We fully expected this to happen," he said. The group had been attacked twice before in La Sarre--once by a crowd, once by a pressure hose of the town fire department. The pattern was familiar in many towns of French Canada during the past decade since Baptists and other Protestant groups have stepped up their efforts to organize churches in the solidly Catholic towns and villages. This time, the attack on the evangelists caused an immediate uproar. Telegrams poured in on the La Sarre town council from Catholics and Protestants in Quebec and outside the province.

In the excitement last week, La Sarre's Mayor Franc,ois Xavier Martel was stricken with a heart attack. Members of the sobered town council motored 52 miles to talk things over with Baptist Pastor Barnhart. They would withdraw all charges against the group, they said, and would give the Baptists police protection for further street meetings. All they asked was that he not press charges of false arrest. Said Pastor Barnhart: "You can't fight God and win."

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