Southern Baptists

Fort Worth restaurant keepers near the city's stucco Colosseum, where boxing and wrestling matches are the usual attractions, covered their signs with new ones reading: WELCOME, BAPTISTS, NO BEER and EAT HERE, NO BEER. In session in the Colosseum last week was the 89th annual gathering of the Southern Baptist Convention, a body which, like the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, sprang from schism over slavery (in 1845) with the Northern brethren. Next to Roman Catholicism the largest single U. S. church, the Southern Baptist has 4,173,928 members. In Fort Worth representing its 24,270 churches were 5,000 "messengers"' (delegates), 7,000 visitors.

The messengers re-elected as their president Dr. Monroe Elmon Dodd, a bald, jovial, Tennessee-born cleric who stepped up from a vice-presidency last year when President Fred T. Brown fell ill. Dr. Dodd went to Shreveport, La. 22 years ago where he helped found a college named Dodd in his honor, of which he is still president. This year he traveled 50,000 miles on Southern Baptist business. A lusty parliamentarian, he whammed his gavel often last week, told the messengers: "Our church is stronger spiritually today than in years. Men are spending more of their time on their knees. . . . Southern Baptists are facing a $6,000,000 debt but encouraged by signs of a great spiritual revival, we are determined to sweep all material problems before us."

Apparently much less bothered with their debt than the Episcopalians with theirs (see p. 32), the Southern Baptists reaffirmed confidence in their "100,000 Club"--an organization to get 100,000 members to contribute $1 per month for five years. When the messengers learned from Dr. Melbourn Evans Aubrey, a Baptist who brought greetings from Great Britain, that no denominational boards were in debt in his country. Dr. George W. Truett of Dallas stirred them to laughter by remarking that they should "follow the great American game of kidnapping and bring Dr. Aubrey to rescue Southern Baptists from some of their financial difficulties."

Apprehensively predicting a season of riotous living, the Southern Baptists zealously voted to promote an intensive spiritual revival this summer.

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