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1961 SBC-St. Louis W. C. Fields, Press Re~~esentatjve Thso Somtverkamp, assistant For Immediate ~elense-~/2S,/bl Election of Executive Committee The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptfst Convention held its reorganization meeting Thursday afternoon in St. Louis. John H. Haldeman, pastor, Allapattah Baptist Church, Miami, Fln., was elected chairman, succaoding Kedll Berry, Rlytheville, Ark., layman. The new vice-chairman Ss J, Ralph Grant, pastor, First Baptist Church, Lubbock, Tex. The new recording secretary is James S. Abernethy, Albuquerque, N. M., minister. The Executive Commfttee reelected its executive secretary, Porter W. Routh of Nashville, Tenn., where its staff offices are located. The Executive Committee is the Convention "ad interim1'or between sessions In matters not committed to some Convention agency. In addition to a pre- Convention meetiing and one after new members are c lected fn the Convention city, tho commfttee meets in Nashville in Septevber and February. I I .- 1961 Southern Baptist Convention For Immediate Release Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis, Mo. W, C. Fields, Press Representative Theo Sommerkamp, Assistant Potter Routh Sheraton Jefferson Hotel, St. Louis Deeply grateful for the conventions message. Regret that urgent duties here prevent my attending the convention. My thoughts and prayers are with you. Secretary Rusk wanta me to express his appreciation for the profound contribution being made by our Baptist people to the spiritual foundation for world peace, Brooks Hays 1961 Southern Baptist Convention Saturday AMs Kiel Auditorium, St, Louis, Mo, LAST SBC ROUNDUP W. C. Fields, Press Representative Roy Jennings Theo Somerkamp, Assistant ST. LOUIS, May 26--1 The curtain rung down on the 104th Southern Baptist Convention Friday night at Kiel Auditorium after four action-filled days which brought decisions on race relations, religious liberty, and religious unity, The 11,500 messengers who registered from 50 states made the convention the sixth largest: since 293 Southern Baptists got together in Augusta, Qa,, for the first convention- wide session back in 1645, The messengers elected Herschel H. Hobbs, an Oklahoma City pastor, to a ohe-yeaf term as president of the 9,700,000 member denomination. He succeed$ Ramshy Pollard, a Memphis, Tenn., preacher. Other new officers are Roland Q. Leave11 of Jackson, Miss., president emeritus of New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, first vice-president, and W. Herschel Ford, pastor of First Baptist Church, El Paso, Tex., second vice-president. Convention action deploring mob violence as a means of solving the race problem in the South came after a veteran missionary to Nigeria, Miss Josephine Skaggs, roundly de- nounced Southern Baptists for their attitude toward Negroes. She told of a church which invited her to tell about her mission work in Africa, then refused to let her bring along a young Nigerian who was a product of African missions, On the religious liberty issue, the Baptists urged a strong program of public instruction and vigorious opposition to the use of tax money for grants or other direct aid to church schools on all educational levels, The messengers also voted to commend President John F. Kennedy by telegram for hie stand against granting aid to parochial schools in the face of pressure from Catholic leaders, A resolution urging the United States to withhold aid from countries restricting full freedom of conscience and worship was referred to an agency for study. A plea for a committee to study the possibilities of closer fellowship and eventual unity with fellow Baptists in this country was rejected when messengers approved a resolutions committee report which said local churches and pastors associations already were at work in this field. A proposed liaison arrangement between Southern Baptists and Boy Scouts of America was turned down after delegates contended the plan may hurt the denomination's boys program. The proposal was to have the Baptist Brotherhood Commission provide information about Baptist missions and other programs to Baptist Boy Scouts trying to qualify for Scouting's God and Country Award. A recommendation -to observe a - Cooperative Program Week during the first full week in October almost met a similar fate. It was referred to a committee for another year. The tnessengers indicated they already had ample special weeks to promote. This convention expanded the role of the layman in its policy-making areas by changing by-laws to provide two members per state on the influential committee an boards, one to be a laynan. 1961 Southern Baptist Convention Riel Auditorium, St. Louis, Mo. POLL OF MESSENGERS W. C. Fields, Press Representative Jim Newton Theo Sommerkamp, Assistant ST. LOUIS, May 26--Discussion of race relations was the most significant issue to come before the 11,600 messengers attending the Southern Baptist Convention, a spar poll of 50 messengers indicated Friday. Other issues ranked by the messengers were an apparent trend towards improving relations with other denominations, support of sepatation of church and state, and the threat of cammunism in the present world crisis in that order. The polled messengers disagreed on whether the convention action oa two race relations resolutions was good or bad. Some said the convention sidestepped the integration problem. Others said the resolutions expressed an intelligent approach to the problem without inciting a furor. One resolution deplored mob violence as a solution to racial strife and suggbsted Christian love as the baais for dealing with the problem. Another resolution proposed from the floor which would instruct Baptist colleges and seminaries to accept seminaries of all races was rewritten by the convention's resolution committee. The new version said Baptist seminaries already admit students of all races and the convention has no authority to instruct colleges owned by state Baptist conventions on whom to admit, Several of the messengers said sermons in the Baptist Pastors' Conference showed a trend toward a more sympathetic view of an ecumenical (universal) movement. But during the main convention the opposite seemed to emerge, they said. A few messengers said that they didn't think the convention took a significant stand on anything. HZ I uukrlm &rC4rC, Oo~lrrCLI I4rurl.y 4Mm Kiel Auditorium, St. Louis SBC Roundup W. C. Fields, Press Reprase%;ive Roy J ehdh8s ST. LOUIS, May 25---Southern Baptists were urged here Friday afternoon to decide once and for all to finance their religious work with tithes and offerings instead of government tax money. E. S. James of alla as, Texas, newspaper editor and nationally known supporter of the principle of aeparation of church and state, told messengers to the 104th Southern Baptist Convention to examine their records, see what they owe the govern- ment, and pay it back before they start building anything else. "Let us surrender the propertlea we have leased for a token, or else divorce the institutions that refuse to do so," he suggested. Then, "let us determine this day that we will never again embarrass one another by accepting from public tax funds something that belongs to all the people." ~ames'appeal for continued church-state separation by Southern Baptists was the second during the week of religious activities at Kiel Auditorium which attracted 11,600 messengers from 50 states. Glenn Archer of Washington, executive director of Protestants and other Americans United (POAU), dealt with the issue Monday night in an address to 5,000 Southern Baptist preachers. Some Baptists are weak in defending the separation of church-state principle, James said, because they are afraid, presumptious, guilty, blind, proud, greedy, or undiscerning. 'We are afraid to take a public stand on It lest we offend our Catholic neighbors whom we love, We are afraid of the epithets that will be thrown at us. "We don!t want to be called bigots, prejudiced and narrow. We forget that: the broadcast rivers are always the shallowest and carry little traffic except trash,It Where do Baptists likely violate the principle? I1It may be in the mailing permits we have accepted, the price supports our people enjoy, our chaplains who are paid by the government, or the tax-free status of some of our church and denominational properties," James said. The 61-year-old preacher, called by many tSe mast influencial Baptist in Texas as editor of the 367,000-circulation weekly, listed six major foes to separation of church and state--communism, socialism, secularism, atheism, modernism and Roman clericalism, The Roman clergy is attacking the principle on four fronts, James said. He identified them as the population front through controlled immigration and uncontrolled multiplication, the communications front through information, ministration and intimidation, the legislation front, and the education front. One the legislation front, the Roman clergy stumped their toes, James indicated. "In President Kennedy she (the hierarchy) has found a son who is too much for her to handle. His courage in opposing the hierarchy on separation of church and state is amazingly encouraging, "Here is a strange thing now. The crossovers who ignored party lines to elect him (Kennedy) have crossed back to the other side, while the bigoted Baptists who opposed his election are now backing him up. We should." James shared the podium the final day of the convention with R. G. Lee of Memphis, Tenn,, former convention president, and W. A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, the convention.'^ largest. Earlier Friday the messengers heard Owen Cooper of Yazco City, Miss., acttve Baptist layman, set some standards for Baptist colleges. Among them was denomin- ational loyalty. "No person has a right under the cloak of academic freedom to use a position in a Southern Baptist college to attack the denomination, to plant seeds of dis- trust in the minds of pupils regarding the denominational program, to undermine faith in the denomination's doctrine or to belittle the efforts of the denomin- ationrtthe said.

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