McIntire, Carl Curtis

▪ 2003

      American evangelist and radio broadcaster (b. May 17, 1906, Ypsilanti, Mich.—d. March 19, 2002, Voorhees, N.J.), was a firebrand fundamentalist preacher whose radio show, 20th Century Reformation Hour, was broadcast daily on more than 600 radio stations during the 1960s. The son of missionaries, McIntire helped found the Bible Presbyterian Church in 1937. Under his leadership the church grew into a multimillion-dollar ministry that owned radio stations and operated a publishing division. McIntire's radio show gradually lost its audience, however, after the Federal Communications Commission ruled in 1971 that a station run by the church violated a “fairness doctrine” by failing to provide free time for opposing viewpoints to be presented. The show went off the air in 1973. McIntire later became embroiled in theological disagreements with his fellow fundamentalist leaders, though he continued to deliver sermons through the 1990s.

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