The Baptist Heritage: McBeth Reviewed

I wonder if we might see the book you have written on Baptist history?

 

McBeth would say that the section of European Baptists is the weakest section and he wanted to include more information in a new book. It has been awhile since I talked with him. The last time I did his wife was not doing well and with all the upheavel in the SBC.

A few years ago he was asked to write a book on women in Baptist life which he did. Broadman printed a few copies and when the books sold they refused to print more copies. Effectively the book was killed. It was killed on purpose.

There are a number of things not in the book which he discussed in class when asked. His opinion of J. Frank Norris was not favorable toward Norris. He believes it was very likely that Norris got away with murder at least once. I think it was when when Norris' father in law fell off of a bridge while the train was crossing over a river.

 

Also when he shot Chipps in his study.

 

McBeth would say that the section of European Baptists is the weakest section and he wanted to include more information in a new book. It has been awhile since I talked with him. The last time I did his wife was not doing well and with all the upheavel in the SBC. </font>[/QUOTE]His wife passed away a few years ago. He has since remarried and seems to be doing well. I saw him in church a few weeks ago.

For good reason. I’ve researched Norris for a feature article in the local Fort Worth magazine a few years ago and have toyed with the idea of writing a book on him based on the wealth of information available. Norris was a complicated man who did a lot for the poor in the community, yet also seemed to be an unstable egomaniac.

I haven’t heard anything about his father-in-law…

Norris was put on trial three times and the details are fascinating, but here is the overview:

Trial One:

Tried for arson for the burning of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth building. (The parsonage also burned a few weeks later.) Norris claimed that he had been receiving threatening letters that indicated someone was going to burn down the church building and the parsonage. Norris was found to be in possession of the stationary used to write the letters (even the other half of a piece of stationary that had the corresponding matching torn edge – the photo was published in the Fort Worth newspaper). There was also a witness (his own church secretary) that testified that Norris had had a postal cancellation stamp created (they even located the man who created the stamp for Norris who testified against him) and had previously given her a stack of letters that she was forbidden to mail until he had be out-of-town for a few days.

There was a wealth of evidence against him, and it seems clear that Norris perjured himself on the stand, but he was found not guilty at the judge’s demand (the judge was a supporter of Norris).

Trial Two: (Immediately after the first one)

Tried for perjury in his grand jury testimony for the arson trial. Things looked hopeless for Norris until his attorney discovered that the records did not indicate that Norris was sworn to tell the truth on the second day of his grand jury testimony – the day that Norris made assertions that were clearly demonstrated to be false – and no one could testify for certain that he was sworn on the second day (everyone apparently assumed that his swearing-in from the day before was sufficient for both days). He was found not guilty of perjury since he was obviously lying, but he wasn’t legally obligated to tell the truth because he had not been sworn-in on the second day.

Trial Three: (January 1927)

Tried for the murder of Dexter Chipps in his pastor’s study. Norris alleged that he has shot Chipps in self defense. Chipps was shot three times in the back (one of the four shots missed) and no weapons were found on or around Chipps. A deacon (L.H. Nutt, a zealous Norris supporter) who was in the office with Norris claimed Chipps was armed, but a church member (Roxie E. Parker) waiting outside Norris’s office testified that Chipps was running out of Norris’s office when Norris shot him. The trial was moved to Austin and the jury pool suddenly began receiving Norris’s church newspaper that repeatedly painted Norris as the innocent victim of a conspiracy.

The prosecution sought the death penalty for Norris, but a juror had a medical emergency shortly after they were sent to reach a verdict and the jury ended up finding Norris not guilty.

 

For those interested in the Baptist history here in America, I would strongly recommend America in Crimson Red - The Baptist History of America. I have personally read this book and have found it to be a warehouse of information. It is very easy to read.

LINK

 

BB, I think you make a good point. If there were not some good sides to the man, he probably could not have ever achieved the fame (and infamy) that he did. Overall, I don't have that good of an impression of him either. But neither do I of Fosdick, though perhaps for different reasons.

Bro. Osgatharp, thanks for the review. I think you make some valid points. I think no one should be surprised that a person's book would reflect their bias. I think part of the problem is that somehow in our day we've arrived at a false notion that scholars, newspapers, news programs, and so on, do not have opinions but rather are merely robots recording and citing the facts.

I don't think that invalidates the usefulness of a book like McBeth's. It has a lot of good historical information. And I expect him to make his point of what he believes. People just need to have their eyes open, whether they're reading McBeth or Christian or whomever. That's one good thing with which book reviews help.

Perhaps you would like his sourcebook better. It contains lots of documents with a minimum of commentary. BTW, thanks for the Hallmark BC link.

 

BB, I think you make a good point. If there were not some good sides to the man, he probably could not have ever achieved the fame (and infamy) that he did. </font>[/QUOTE]I’m sure you are right. My wife’s great-grandmother and her three young children were deserted by her husband at the beginning of the Great Depression. Because job opportunities for everyone, especially women, were very scarce in those days, her great-grandmother was in a desperate situation. Under the leadership of Norris, First Baptist Fort Worth sought out her great-grandmother and provided food and financial assistance to her family which made the difference between living in a very modest home and living on the street (or worse). A lot of other local churches didn’t do anything for the poor.

I’ve often been accused of bashing Norris even though I have carefully noted my sources and tossed out material that has an obvious negative bias. But I’m convinced that God used Norris to do some good work – even though I’m convinced that Norris often worked hard against God’s will for his life and ministry.

I have some appreciation for Fosdick, but his theology is a mess. Norris’s theology seemed to change to fit whatever cause he happened to be promoting.

I agree completely.

 

McBeth is doing very well. I was worrieda about him after his first wife died, but his second wife, Thelma, has breathed new life into him. There is not a time when I speak to him that I don't learn something. He is an encyclopedia of Baptist knowledge. I feel the same way about James Leo Garrett. I would have to consider him the greatest living Baptist theologian. I am sad to say, they don't make them like McBeth and Garrett anymore. Both have retired and no one has stepped into the void.

 

I find that it is at least as bad on the "right".

Haven't ever heard that from Leon McBeth or most other people of character that are regularly trashed on Baptist Board...

I know some people like that (on both the left and the right), but McBeth isn't one of them.

 

In spite of his acumen, McBeth is a good ole boy and has no arrogance in him at all. Little crow from McBeth, unless he is bragging on his wife.

 

Add Greg Wills (like Nettles, at SBTS) to the mix. His book Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785-1900 should be read by every Baptist pastor.

Concerning McBeth's Baptist Heritage, it does reflect the author's moderate biases. No one, of course, writes with pure objectivity. One must decide what to include and what to leave out, and the decision is doubtlessly colored by one's perspective. Overall, I think McBeth is a good book and very readable.

Concerning the OP's statement concerning General Baptists and apostasy:

it should be noted that this statement reflects a minority position among General Baptists. According to Lumpkin's Baptist Confessions of Faith, "The Creed was not published in the name of the General Assembly but of a group of the more earnestly orthodox General Baptist churches [in contrast to the followers of the heretical Matthew Caffyn] of the Midlands, in the counties of Buckinghamshire, Hertfordshire, Bedfordshire, and Oxford" (295). Most GBs did believe in the possibility of apostasy. Is there another General Baptist confession which endorses such a Calvinistic view of perseverance?

Bill

 

I have read Nettles' work and I find him a great scholar and historian. Timothy George is also a fine scholar. Nettles is working on new Baptist history book for a press somewhere in England, I think. I kind of like McBeth better because he is not quite so Reformed. They are both great scholars. Garrett comes closer to being objective than any Baptist scholar I have read. McBeth, George, and Nettles, are not quite as objective as Garrett.

 

Dr. BcBeth was a mentor to Dr. Karen Bullock. She was often touted by both the faculty and students as being the best teacher at SWBTS. That is until Paige Patterson saw fit for some strange reason to get rid of her.

She does live in Godly, Texas.

http://www.dbu.edu/honors/faculty.asp

 

She was one of my teachers at SWBTS. She is a really good teacher. A good explainer. I wonder why this wonderful teacher was removed from SWBTS?

 

It is my understanding that McBeth would have been at odds theologically with his uncle who wrote a commentary on the Book of Romans. I have that book in my study and at first glance Uncle McBeth seems to be strongly Calvinistic.

I'm not in the office now or I could tell you his name. Does any one know it?