From Segregation to Independence: African Americans in Churches of Christ

Total Page:16

File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb

From Segregation to Independence: African Americans in Churches of Christ FROM SEGREGATION TO INDEPENDENCE: AFRICAN AMERICANS IN CHURCHES OF CHRIST By Theodore Wesley Crawford Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Vanderbilt University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY in Religion August, 2008 Nashville, Tennessee Approved: Dr. Dennis C. Dickerson Dr. Kathleen Flake Dr. John S. McClure Dr. Lucius Outlaw To my father, who helped make this possible but did not live to see its completion and To my wife, Kim, whose support is responsible for this project ii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION……………………………………………………………………. ii LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS…………………………………………………….. v INTRODUCTION………………………………………………………………… vii Chapter I. UNDERSTANDING CHUCHES OF CHRIST……………..……………. 1 Denominational Organization…………………………………………. 1 Churches of Christ Journals………………………………………….... 7 Churches of Christ Schools………………………………………...….. 21 Churches of Christ Lectureships………………………………………. 34 Conclusion……………………………………………………………... 38 II. SEGREGATION…………………………………………………………... 40 White-Imposed Segregation…………………………...……………… 41 The Life and Ministry of Marshall Keeble…………...……………….. 61 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….. 83 III. INDEPENDENCE………………………………………………………… 84 The Foundation of Independence..……….…………………………… 85 African American Independence……………………………………… 98 White Responses to the Civil Rights Movement……………………… 117 A United Effort: The Race Relations Workshops…………………….. 128 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….. 134 iii IV. THE CLOSING OF NASHVILLE CHRISTIAN INSTITUTE…………… 137 Nashville Christian Institute: Concealing the Secret.…………………. 138 The Aftermath of Nashville Christian Institute’s Closing…………….. 147 Conclusion…………………………………………………………….. 161 V. GREATER SEPARATION COMING……………………………………. 162 African American Churches of Christ………………………………… 163 Jack Evans………………………………………………………… 163 Southwestern Christian College…………………………………... 170 African American Lectureships and Journal……………………… 176 Denominational Estrangement—Viewed Through Biblical Hermeneutics………………………………………………………….. 182 The Historic Stone-Campbell Hermeneutic………………………. 183 A Hermeneutical Shift…………………………………………….. 194 A Clash of Cultures…………………………………………………… 212 Conclusion……………………………………………………………. 219 EPILOGUE……………………………………………………………………….. 221 BIBLIOGRAPHY…………………………………………………………………. 226 iv LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AME Church Review AME Ch Rev American Christian Review ACR Atlantic Monthly Atl Mon Baptist Message Bapt M Baptist Standard Bapt St Bible Banner BB Century Magazine Cent Mag Christian Baptist CB Christian Chronicle Mid-South Edition CC MS Christian Chronicle Supplement CC Supp Christian Chronicle CC Christian Echo CE Christian Evangelist C Ev Christian Index CI Christian Leader CL Christian Standard CS Christian Studies C St Church History Ch H Contending for the Faith Cont F Firm Foundation FF First Century Christian FCC Gospel Advocate GA Journal of Blacks in Higher Education JBHE Journal of Negro History Journ Neg Hist Journal of Presbyterian History Journ Pres Hist Journal of Southern History Journ Southern Hist Lard’s Quarterly LQ Light Light Millennial Harbinger MH Mission Mission North American Christian NAC Presbyterian of the South Presb S Presbyterian Journal Presb J Presbyterian Outlook Presb Out Presbyterian Quarterly Presb Q Restoration Review Rest Rev Restoration Quarterly RQ Royal Service Roy Serv South Atlantic Quarterly SAQ Southern Presbyterian Journal SPJ v Voice of Missions VM William and Mary Quarterly WMQ Wineskins Wineskins vi INTRODUCTION Race matters. Even within a religious body that at times has claimed virtual immunity from the pressures of its social and historical context, the ever present and powerful confrontation between white and black has greatly affected the formation of Churches of Christ identity. Without a convention to make official pronouncements on race relations or a conference to declare the formation of two denominations along the Mason-Dixon Line some may believe Churches of Christ have escaped the grasp of perhaps the most volatile issue in American history.1 Nevertheless, one of the few denominations established on American soil did not avoid the effects of America’s most intractable dilemma.2 A history of segregation within the Churches of Christ has obscured their evolution in the late 20th century towards de facto denominational independence of their African American congregations. Predictably, much of that independence can be traced to the cultural and political effects of the Civil Rights Movement at mid century. This project seeks to recover that history. In addition, this project seeks to prove that Churches of Christ journals, colleges, and lectureships shielded from view the full measure of the separation between African American and white members of the denomination. 1 Jess O. Hale Jr. argued that slavery did not divide the Stone-Campbell Movement as it did other American denominations during the Civil War in “Ecclesiastical Politics on a Moral Powder Keg: Alexander Campbell and Slavery in the Millennial Harbinger, 1830-1860,” RQ 39, no. 2 (Second Quarter 1997): 65–81. 2 The “encounter of black and white” has been described as one of three central themes of American religious history. David W. Wills, “The Central Themes of American Religious History: Pluralism, Puritanism, and the Encounter of Black and White,” in African American Religion: Interpretive Essays in History and Culture, ed. Timothy E. Fulop and Albert J. Raboteau, 7–20 (New York: Routledge, 1997). vii This study contributes to the study of American church history in two ways. First, it challenges the illusion of racial unity among those congregations associated with Churches of Christ. African American and white members of this predominantly southern branch of the Stone-Campbell Movement mirrored the white-imposed segregation of their regional peers in the late 19th and early 20th centuries; and, following the American Civil Rights Movement, the denomination remained divided as African Americans formally declared their independence from white paternalism and control. Second, this study reveals the power of unofficial denominational bodies to mask significant division existent within a radical congregational denomination. Lacking centralized authority, Churches of Christ sought to mediate their theology through denominational journals, colleges, and lectureships. As the only centralized voices of the denomination, these entities failed to address the division between African Americans and whites, thereby providing a false veneer of cohesion to insiders and outsiders of Churches of Christ. These three bodies not only failed to cohere African Americans and whites, they also helped maintain the illusion of racial unity within Churches of Christ. Race and Racism At the outset of this project, one must become familiar with two key terms: race and racism. “Race” is a socially constructed phenomenon; therefore, one is incorrect to speak of the “white race” or the “African American race” as if lighter skinned individuals are necessarily and by nature classified separately from darker skinned individuals. In 1887, a Presbyterian leader made the statement, “The distinctions of race are drawn by viii God Himself.”3 He was wrong. Society has drawn the boundaries of race, not God. Such a statement may seem curious, for human beings are certainly born with different physical characteristics, such as skin color. To recognize the social construction of race, however, is to acknowledge that only certain physical features aid in race classification. As Michael O. Emerson and Christian Smith point out, though people have all sizes of feet and shapes of ears, those physical features are not used to classify one race from another.4 Society has chosen only certain physical features among many as racial determinants. It not only uses a select group of physical features to determine race, it also attaches social meaning to only certain physical characteristics.5 For example, a person with a large nose or red hair does not automatically have to fight the stereotypes of mental inferiority or financial hardship. A person born with black skin, however, often has to fight both. Those members of society who have exercised their hegemonic power have attached significant meaning to white and black skin color. In his discussion of “scientific racism,” Brad Braxton reminds his readers that countless white scientists, in their efforts to support the myth of white intellectual superiority, have attempted to prove that the skulls of white persons were larger than the skulls of black persons.6 These quasi- scientific efforts, however, followed centuries wherein society attached positive connotations to white and negative connotations to black. 3 C. R. Vaughan, “The Southern Assembly,” Presb Q 1 (July 1887): 147. 4 Emerson and Smith, Divided by Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in America (New York: Oxford, 2000), 7. 5 Ibid. 6 Braxton, No Longer Slaves: Galatians and African American Experience (Collegeville, MN: Liturgical Press, 2002), 8. ix Some scholars have suggested that white racism toward African Americans began on another continent, arguing that even before American colonization began, the English had certain views of white and black. Of that time and place, wrote Winthrop Jordan, “white and black connoted purity and filthiness, virtue and baseness, beauty and ugliness, beneficence and evil, God and the devil.”7 During an era in which Shakespeare described beauty as “snow white” and ebony as
Recommended publications
  • The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 2
    The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 2 The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 2; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos; 1731; W.K. Pendleton, 1731 DOWNLOAD PDF FILE: http://variationid.org/.R0KBH5n.pdf The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 1; IOWA:31858045999616; 1858; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos The Millennial Harbinger; IOWA:31858045999509; 1847; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos; Bethany (W. Va.) The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 1; Volume 7; IOWA:31858045999475; 1843; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 3; Volume 6; MINN:319510007410657; 1849; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos The Millennial Harbinger, Volume 7; Bethany (W. Va.); NYPL:33433082198569; 1843; Alexander Campbell, Charles Louis Loos 8 See Campbell, "Conclusion of Volume II," Millennial Harbinger, II (December 1831), 568; Forrester, "Progressive Development 40 See "The Second Coming of the Lord," Christian Standard, I (June 2, 1866), 68; "Que- ries," Gospel Advocate, XL (June 23, 1896). With religious leaders in Scotland re- veals his deep longing to see the millennial harbinger. Hopkins' 142-page "Treatise on the Millennium" appended to his two-volume work, The System Whatever the tragedy of the ultimate secularization of the millennial hope, it becomes. SEARCH BY CITATION. Volume: Issue: Page: cit., pp. 6â7; WE Garrison, Religion Follows the Frontier: A History of the Disciples of Christ, New York, 1931, pp. 201â2. 7 cit., p. 81; Rowdon, op. cit., pp. 23â6; Millennial Harbinger and Voluntary Church Advocate, 1835, pp. 10 ff. 9. HISTORY AUSTRALIA, VOLUME 2, NUMBER 2, 2005 MONASH UNIVERSITY EPRESS men are, to a great degree, unshackled and more easily brought to judge for themselves, in matters of faith, than they are in our native land.2 Millennial Harbinger (Bethany, West Virginia).
    [Show full text]
  • A Response to Fellowship Compromises in the Church of Christ Dub Mcclish
    A Response to Fellowship Compromises in The Church of Christ Dub McClish Introduction Satan and all of his minions outside the church have always opposed it. He did his best to prevent the Lord from establishing the church in the first place. Although he was allowed to put the Lord to death on the cross, thus employing even “the gates of Hades,” he could not prevail and, Christ built His church just as He had promised (Mat. 16:18)1. Since the establishment of the church, God’s faithful people in it have been a holy nation under siege by a world of allied forces consisting of atheism, humanism, paganism, hedonism, and denominationalism. Satan will not cease his opposition to the God-beloved and blood-bought church of Christ until he is finally cast into the lake of fire and brimstone, there to be forever confined (Rev. 20:10). From time to time there have been those spiritual “fifth columnists,” traitors within the kingdom of Christ, who are guilty of spiritual high treason. While feigning loyalty to their Commander-in-Chief and His Constitution, all the while they are consorting with the enemy. They sometimes have great swelling words of praise for the enemy while they harshly criticize and belittle the Lord’s elect in the very presence of the foe. In the last third of the twentieth century the number of these modern-day Judases has proliferated. They are in places of immense influence as elders, preachers, publishers, editors, authors, and university administrators and professors. These ungodly and misguided brethren are attacking the church at every fundamental point of doctrine and practice, thereby attempting to change it to fit their culturally-dictated agenda.
    [Show full text]
  • Reaching for Freedom: Black Resistance and the Roots of a Gendered African-American Culture in Late Eighteenth Century Massachusetts
    W&M ScholarWorks Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects 1998 Reaching for Freedom: Black Resistance and the Roots of a Gendered African-American Culture in Late Eighteenth Century Massachusetts Emily V. Blanck College of William & Mary - Arts & Sciences Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.wm.edu/etd Part of the African American Studies Commons, African History Commons, and the United States History Commons Recommended Citation Blanck, Emily V., "Reaching for Freedom: Black Resistance and the Roots of a Gendered African-American Culture in Late Eighteenth Century Massachusetts" (1998). Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects. Paper 1539626189. https://dx.doi.org/doi:10.21220/s2-yxr6-3471 This Thesis is brought to you for free and open access by the Theses, Dissertations, & Master Projects at W&M ScholarWorks. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations, Theses, and Masters Projects by an authorized administrator of W&M ScholarWorks. For more information, please contact [email protected]. REACHING FOR FREEDOM Black Resistance and the Roots of a Gendered African-American Culture in Late Eighteenth Century Massachusetts A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of the Department of History The College of William and Mary in Virginia In Partial Fulfillment Of the Requirements for the Degree of Masters of Arts b y Emily V. Blanck 1998 APPROVAL SHEET This thesis is submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts Emily Blanck Approved, April 1998 Leisa Mever (3Lu (Aj/K) Kimb^ley Phillips ^ KlU MaU ________________ Ronald Schechter ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS As is the case in every such project, this thesis greatly benefitted from the aid of others.
    [Show full text]
  • CHRISTIAN MESSENGER INDEX Edited by Barry Jones Contributors
    CHRISTIAN MESSENGER INDEX edited by Barry Jones Contributors Warren · Baldwin Roderick Chestnut Charles Dorsey* Mark Jam-eson Barry Jones Jesse Kirkham *compiled scripture index wrote introduc~ion Word ·Processing by Jean Saunders II II I .. TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE I. INTRODUCTION . .• • • . •· . .. • 1-11 II. INDEX . o .. • . • • . 0 • • • • 0 1-108 A-Z • • • • . .. •: .. ! • • .• • 1-84 Pseudonyms • • • • • • 85-86 Scriptures· • .. ~ . 0 • .. • • . • 0 0 .. • .. 87-108 ·.. I I INTRODUCTION Barton W. Stone and the Christian Messenger No study of the restoration movement would b.e complete without the Christian Messenger. This periodical "was a reflection of the heart of its .editor .. l Barton W. ' Stone. While Stone's popularity has been somewhat over­ shadowed by Alexander. Campbell in the study of the restor­ ation movement, he nevertheless exerted great. influence in his own day for the return of New Testament Christianity. Upon recei~ing the news of Stone's death T. J. Matlock wrote, "I have for a long time regarded him as the moderator of this whole reformation."2 Similarly, Tolbert Fanning wrote, · "If justice is ever done to his memory, he ~ill be regard­ .. ) ed as the first great American reformer • • • Barton Warren Stone was born·near Port Tobacco, Maryland on Thursday, December 24, 1772. He died at Han­ nibal, Missouri in the home of his daughter, Amanda Bowen:, November 9, 1844. He was first buried on his farm near .1James DeForest Murch, Christians Only (Cincinnati: Standard Publishing Co., 1962), p. 92. 2T. J. Matlock, "Letter," Christian Messenger 14 (December 1844):254. )Tolbert Fanning, "A Good Man Has Fallen," Christ­ ian Review 1 (December 1844) : 288 .• 1 .
    [Show full text]
  • Enter Your Title Here in All Capital Letters
    View metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk brought to you by CORE provided by K-State Research Exchange THE BATTLE CRY OF PEACE: THE LEADERSHIP OF THE DISCIPLES OF CHRIST MOVEMENT DURING THE AMERICAN CIVIL WAR, 1861-1865 by DARIN A.TUCK B. A., Washburn University, 2007 A THESIS submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree MASTER OF ARTS Department of History College of Arts and Sciences KANSAS STATE UNIVERSITY Manhattan, Kansas 2010 Approved by: Major Professor Robert D. Linder Copyright DARIN A. TUCK 2010 Abstract As the United States descended into war in 1861, the religious leaders of the nation were among the foremost advocates and recruiters for both the Confederate and Union forces. They exercised enormous influence over the laity, and used their sermons and periodicals to justify, promote, and condone the brutal fratricide. Although many historians have focused on the promoters of war, they have almost completely ignored the Disciples of Christ, a loosely organized religious movement based on anti-sectarianism and primitive Christianity, who used their pulpits and periodicals as a platform for peace. This study attempts to merge the remarkable story of the Disciples peace message into a narrative of the Civil War. Their plea for nonviolence was not an isolated event, but a component of a committed, biblically-based response to the outbreak of war from many of the most prominent leaders of the movement. Immersed in the patriotic calls for war, their stance was extremely unpopular and even viewed as traitorous in their communities and congregations. This study adds to the current Disciples historiography, which states that the issue of slavery and the Civil War divided the movement North and South, by arguing that the peace message professed by its major leaders divided the movement also within the sections.
    [Show full text]
  • Christian Unity in Stone-Campbell Movement
    M. Horvatek: New Testament Paradigm of the Unity of Christians Christian Unity in Stone-Campbell Movement Douglas A. FOSTER Abilene Christian University, USA UDK: 261.8 Original scientific paper Received: February 15, 2008. Accepted: March 15, 2008. Abstract Author offers review of the backgrounds to Stone-Campbell concepts of Christian unity, insides on the early unity impulse in the Stone-Camp- bell Movement, as well as the development of the idea of unity in the Post-Bellum Period. A valuable explanation is offered on the twentieth- century understandings of unity in the Three Streams, and on the efforts at internal unity in the Stone-Campbell Movement. Introduction In the western church the divisions resulting from the Protestant Reformation became a source of deep concern for some leaders. Lutheran Philipp Melanch- thon proposed compromise in the area of adiaphora, indifferent or non-essential matters, if it would maintain the church’s visible unity. George Calixtus suggested that only heresy, defined as denial of an essential truth of Christianity believed by the church in the first five centuries, could be the basis for breaking fellow- ship. Calvin and other Reformed theologians insisted that the true church was invisible, ultimately known only to God, thus lessening the severity of the visible divisions. I. Backgrounds to Stone-Campbell Concepts of Christian Unity The transplanting of European Christianity to America exacerbated its divisions as religious freedom led to schism in existing bodies and the creation of new ones. For many Americans the developing system of denominationalism appeared to be the desired and normal condition of the church.
    [Show full text]
  • American Political Thought: Readings and Materials Keith E. Whittington
    American Political Thought: Readings and Materials Keith E. Whittington Index of Materials for Companion Website 2. The Colonial Era, Before 1776 II. Democracy and Liberty John Adams, Letter to James Sullivan (1776) John Cotton, The Bloudy Tenent Washed and Made White (1647) John Cotton, Letter to Lord Say and Seal (1636) Jacob Duche, The Duty of Standing Fast in Our Spiritual and Temporal Liberties (1775) Massachusetts Body of Liberties (1641) James Otis, Rights of the British Colony Asserted and Proved (1764) Elisha Williams, The Essential Rights and Liberties of Protestants (1744) Roger Williams, The Bloudy Tenent Yet More Bloudy (1652) John Winthrop, Arbitrary Government Described (1644) John Winthrop, A Defense of an Order of Court (1637) John Winthrop, Defense of the Negative Vote (1643) III. Citizenship and Community Agreement among the Settlers of Exeter, New Hampshire (1639) Combination of the Inhabitants of the Piscataqua River for Government (1641) Robert Cushman, The Sin and Danger of Self-Love (1621) Fundamental Agreement, or Original Constitution of the Colony of New Haven (1639) Fundamental Orders of Connecticut (1639) Patrick Henry, Give Me Liberty Speech (1775) William Livingston, “The Vanity of Birth and Titles” (1753) Oath of a Freeman in Massachusetts Bay (1632) Thomas Tryon, The Planter’s Speech to His Neighbors and Countrymen (1684) IV. Equality and Status Address of the Mechanics of New York City (1776) Jonathan Boucher, Sermon on the Peace (1763) Charles Inglis, The True Interest of America (1776) William Knox, Three Tracts Respecting the Conversion (1768) William Byrd, Letter to Lord Egmont (1736) Samuel Sewall, The Selling of Joseph (1700) John Saffin, A Brief and Candid Answer (1701) John Woolman Some Considerations on Keeping Negroes (1762) V.
    [Show full text]
  • A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Satisfaction of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy
    UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN DIEGO PUBLIC CATHOLICISM AND RELIGIOUS PLURALISM IN AMERICA: THE ADAPTATION OF A RELIGIOUS CULTURE TO THE CIRCUMSTANCE OF DIVERSITY, AND ITS IMPLICATIONS A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree Doctor of Philosophy in Sociology by Michael J. Agliardo, SJ Committee in charge: Professor Richard Madsen, Chair Professor John H. Evans Professor David Pellow Professor Joel Robbins Professor Gershon Shafir 2008 Copyright Michael J. Agliardo, SJ, 2008 All rights reserved. The Dissertation of Michael Joseph Agliardo is approved, and it is acceptable in quality and form for publication on microfilm and electronically: Chair University of California, San Diego 2008 iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Signature Page ......................................................................................................................... iii Table of Contents......................................................................................................................iv List Abbreviations and Acronyms ............................................................................................vi List of Graphs ......................................................................................................................... vii Acknowledgments ................................................................................................................. viii Vita.............................................................................................................................................x
    [Show full text]
  • Is FHU Serious About Commending a Clown Ministry?
    Is FHU Serious about Commending a Clown Ministry? Gary McDade In the late ‘70s Time magazine ran a story about the introduction of clowns into the ministry in denominational churches. Members of the church of Christ who commented on it reacted with more sadness than surprise due to the loss of dignity for things divine. More recently a local congregation has adopted the clown concept. The degradation of the Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis into denominationalism is demonstrated by the description of the clown ministry on the church’s website: “The Sycamore View Church of Christ Funnybones Clown Troupe was born in January, 2000. It had been a vision of Ed ‘Shivers’ Cookenham and his wife Leanne ‘Sadie’ Braddock to start a clown ministry. The idea was presented to the church’s Youth Minister, Joe Godley, who thought it was a great idea. Shortly after he told the youth group about it eight young men and women said yes. When the clown classes started in early February of 2000 the goal was to get ready for our church’s mission trip to Donetsk, Ukraine” (http://svcc). The disappointment of developments deepens when a full page ad on the last page of the so-called Christian Chronicle which boasts a circulation of near 100,000 reads: “As far as Lisa’s quest to become a clown, she put her trust in Michelle that one day it might come true. Michelle took her to her home congregation, the Sycamore View Church of Christ, which just happened to have a clown ministry, complete with make-up, training...the whole circus.
    [Show full text]
  • The Century of Evangelicalism
    THE CENTURY OF EVANGELICALISM by David A. Rausch and Carl Hermann Voss "What! Have you found me already? Another Methodist preacher!" exclaimed the shocked settler who had just pitched his tent on the ground of his future western home in 1814. "I left Virginia to get out of reach of them, went to a new settlement in Georgie, ... but they got my wife and daughter into the church. I was sure I would have some peace of the preachers, and here is one before my wagon is unloaded!" The Methodist missionary. Richmond Nolley, looked the bewildered man straight in the eye and counseled: "My friend, if you go to heaven, you'll find Methodist preachers there; and if to hell, I am afraid you will find some there; and you see how it is in this wor ld~ so you had better make terms with us, and be at peace." Modern Evangelism The nineteenth century was the great age of the modern Evangelical movement. Protestantism was permeated with the revivalistic spirit, and its compulsion to spread the message of the gospel to every corner of the earth was fervent and aggressive. Its goals went beyond revamping society. Indeed, optimistic nineteenth-century initiatives were to remake the world. The term "evangelical" (pertaining to the gospel or good news) had been used to describe Lutherans in their assertion of Protestant prin­ ciples during the Reformation era and soon had been commonly applied to all German Protestants, Lutheran and Reformed. By 1800, the word connoted a broader, ecumenical spirit that influenced the Protestant move­ ment in Britain and America.
    [Show full text]
  • Campbellite and Restorationist Traditions in the South
    CAMPBELLITE AND RESTORATIONIST TRADITIONS IN THE SOUTH (Converted to html from Lippy, Charles H. Bibliography of Religion in the South. Macon GA: Mercer University Press, 1985. Used with permission of Mercer University Press) THE FRENZIED EXCITEMENT of nineteenth-century frontier revivalism not only helped to imprint the evangelical style on much of Southern religion, but also led to the emergence of an interest in returning to the practices of primitive Christianity. Both commonsense rationalists and emotional revivalists sought to return to a presumably more pure Christian practice untainted by the accretions of time that had corrupted authentic Christianity. While this restorationist impulse attracted many campmeeting advocates, including Barton W. Stone, in time it coalesced around Alexander Campbell (1788-1866). Restorationists discarded denominational labels at first as signs of division within the one church, preferring to call themselves simply "Christians." In time, however, the followers of Alexander Campbell grew into one of the first indigenous denominations in the United States, the Disciples of Christ or the Christian Church. As the movement grew, it enlarged its vision to include a conviction that American society itself could be transformed into a culture replicating the pure simplicity of New Testament Christian communities even as it extended its following into both the North and the South. For many years Campbell maintained an unofficial headquarters in Bethany, West Virginia. As with other groups, the sectional divisions over slavery brought tension to the movement, which combined with disagreement over religious practices (such as the use of musical instruments in worship, the support of ecumenical missionary societies, and the like) to split the developing denomination in two by 1906, 276 BIBLIOGRAPHY OF RELIGION IN THE SOUTH though for all practical purposes the emerging schism was obvious at least two decades earlier.
    [Show full text]
  • Our Heritage of Unity and Fellowship
    OUR HERITAGE OF UNITY AND FELLOWSHIP Writings of Leroy Garrett and W. Carl Ketcherside Edited and Published by Cecil Hook Order From: Cecil Hook (Mira Prince) 905 Forest Canyon Cove Round Rock TX 78664 (512) 716-3066 Table of Contents DEDICATION ................................................................................................................................i Introduction ....................................................................................................................................1 1. It Began In Scotland.................................................................................................................8 2. Thomas Campbell Writes His Declaration of Independence ................................................13 3. The Spirit of the “Declaration and Address” ........................................................................17 4. Principles of the Document ....................................................................................................23 5. Historic Notes on Our First Church .......................................................................................27 6. “Let Christian Unity be Our Polar Star” ................................................................................29 7. The Noblest Act in Barton Stone’s Life.................................................................................34 8. Learning from a Backwoods Preacher ...................................................................................40 9. Christians in Babylon.............................................................................................................43
    [Show full text]