Caudill Under El Caudillo: Southern Baptists, Cuba, and the Origins of Conservatism, 1959-1979

Home , Caudillo

CAUDILL UNDER EL CAUDILLO:

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, CUBA, AND THE ORIGINS OF CONSERVATISM, 1959-

1979

Colton Babbitt

A Thesis Submitted to the Facultiy of

Dorthy F. Schmit College of Arts and Letters

In Partial Fulfilllment of the Requirement for the Degree of

Master of Arts

Florida Atlantic University

Boca Raton, FL

ii CAUDILL UNDER EL CAUDILLO:

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, CUBA, AND THE ORIGINS OF CONSERVATISM, 1959-

1979

Colton Babbitt

This thesis was prepared under the direction of the candidate's thesis advisor, Dr. Kelly Shannon, Department of History, and has been approved by all members of the supervisory committee. It was submitted to the faculty of the Dorothy F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters and was accepted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts.

SUPERVISORY COMMITTEE:

Michael J. H well, Ph.D. Dean, Doro y F. Schmidt College of Arts and Letters A?(,\ \2, '2.o\9 Khaled Sob han, Ph.D. Date Interim Dean, Graduate College

iii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I am very grateful to have had the support and guidance of my thesis committee.

Special thanks to Dr. Kelly Shannon for taking on this project and patiently guiding me through the process of writing a thesis and defining transnationalism. I also thank Drs.

Evan Bennett and Graciella Cruz-Taura for their willingness to help me at every stage of the project. I am also grateful to Dr. Taffey Hall and the Southern Baptist Historical

Library and Archives in Nashville, Tennessee, for providing me with assistance and the opportunity to research at the archives.

iv ABSTRACT

Author: Colton Babbitt

Title: Caudill Under El Caudillo: Southern Baptists, Cuba, and the Origins of Conservatism, 1959-1979

Institution: Florida Atlantic University

Thesis Advisor: Dr. Kelly Shannon

Degree: Master of Arts

Year: 2019

In 1965, the Cuban government arrested two Southern Baptist missionaries and several Cuban Baptists and charged them with multiple crimes, including espionage.

Almost immediately, a backlash to the arrests swept across Baptists in the United States.

During the four years between the missionaries’ imprisonment and their release, W.A.

Criswell, conservative pastor of the massive First Baptist Church of Dallas, incorporated the missionaries’ testimonies into his own agenda. This thesis examines Herbert Caudill’s experiences as a part of rising conservatism in the Southern Baptist Convention in the late nineteen sixties and explains the role of anti-communism and the Cold War as a subject of Baptist debate. It also places the U.S. South in a global context by examining the transnational nature of the Cuban Baptist mission and in Herbert Caudill’s identity.

vi DEDICATION

For my family, who has always encouraged me to dream big, and for Tessa, who

has shared those dreams with me.

CAUDILL UNDER EL CAUDILLO:

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS, CUBA, AND THE ORIGINS OF CONSERVATISM, 1959-

1979

LIST OF FIGURES ...... iix

INTRODUCTION ...... 1

CHAPTER 1: HERBERT CAUDILL AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CUBAN

BAPTIST MISSION ...... 6

CHAPTER 2: THE CRACKDOWN IN CUBA, 1965 ...... 25

CHAPTER 3: “TRUMPETS IN DIXIE:” CHANGES AT HOME, 1966-1968 ...... 49

CHAPTER 4: “CONSERVATIVE WINDS”: HERBERT CAUDILL AND THE

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION AT NEW ORLEANS, 1969 ...... 71

EPILOGUE: THE LEGACY OF THE CAUDILL INCIDENT ...... 98

BIBLIOGRAPHY ...... 104

viii LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1 “Our Missionaries,” The Baptist Standard, May 5, 1965, 5...... 34

Figure 2 “centennial celebration,” Word and Way, September 19, 1968, 12...... 65

Figure 3 “Dr. W. A. Criswell, new president of the convention” Word and Way, July 11,

1968, 3.” ...... 69

Figure 4 “Poor Guidepost,” The Baptist Record, May 15, 1969, 4...... 81

ix Southerners are an unusual people… their speech betrays them wherever they go… their devotion to the past–particularly to the Southern past–is strong. Wherever they go, they compare everything with the way things are done back home. They are the people who will stand respectfully for the playing of “The Star Spangled Banner,” but who will burst into wild cheers and rebel yells when the band plays “Dixie…” The tides of change are rising all over America, but nowhere more dramatically than the South.

– Roger H. Crook, A Tide Comes In, 1967, 1-2

INTRODUCTION

In 1969, Wallie Amos Criswell, the powerful conservative president of the

Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), reflected on a dramatic event that had recently galvanized his movement within the denomination:

There is no more thrilling or more romantic story to be read or heard in modern Christendom than the story of… Herbert Caudill. It is like a twenty-ninth chapter in the book of Acts. It is like a modern saga of Foxe’s Christian Martyrs of the World. It is like the incomparably moving stories of the Christians who suffered for their Lord in the first century… It is my prayer and earnest hope that this story will be read by hundreds of thousands.1

Four years earlier in Cuba, Fidel Castro’s communist regime had arrested Southern

Baptist missionaries Herbert Caudill and David Fite, along with dozens of Cuban

Baptists. During the resulting outcry from Southern Baptists, W. A. Criswell emerged as a consistant figure with a clearly articulated message. He had good reason to want thousands to read and know about the missionaries’ arrest. To many Baptists, the arrest and imprisonment vindicated Criswell’s staunch anti-communist message and – by extension – helped to legitimize his broader conservative agenda. In the process, Herbert

Caudill’s narrative became entangled in the roots of a complex, conservative religio- political movement, which grew substantially in the southern United States during the

1960s.2

1 Clifton Edgar Fite and W. A. Criswell, In Castro's Clutches (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969), 9-10.

2 Ibid., 9-10.

This thesis examines conservatism broadly as a religious, political, and social force that swept through the United States during the latter half of the twentieth century.

This modern conservatism redefined many American institutions, including the

Republican Party and the Southern Baptist Convention.3 As historians Earl and Merle

Black examined in The Rise of Southern Republicans and regional case studies have affirmed, this conservatism found political expression in the Republican Party and appealed especially in the U.S. South. These conservative Republicans increasingly courted southerners and adopted their concerns in exchange for their support.4

In addition to politics, modern southern conservatism also found expression in a new wave of religious “Fundamentalism.”5 Fundamentalism is a “powerful, richly connotative but elusive term,” which often conjures images of “bigotry or fanaticism”; however, at its core, fundamentalism refers to the evangelical religious movement that formed in the early twentieth century in reaction to theological liberalism.6 While the concept was not uniquely southern, the popular fundamentalist movement to narrow the diverse existing theological traditions into a standard orthodoxy redefined the southern religious landscape in the latter half of the century. In specific reference to the conflict

3 Oran P. Smith, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 2.

4 Earl and Merle Black, The Rise of Southern Republicans (Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press, 2002); Sean P. Cunningham, Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right, Cowboy Conservatism Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right (Lexington, Kentucky: The University Press of Kentucky Press, 2010); David R. Colburn, From Yellow Dog Democrats to Red State Republicans: Florida and its Politics Since 1940 (Gainesville, FL: University Press of Florida, 2007); The Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, 2nd ed., ” s.v. “Religion and Politics” (Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2005), 657-660.

5 Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, s.v. “Fundamentlism,” 332-36.

6 Ibid., 332.

within the Southern Baptist Convention, this thesis tends to use “conservative” and

“moderate” in reference to the “fundamentalist” and “liberal” factions. In doing so, this work tends toward the names that these groups preferred to use to identify themselves and distances the historical discussion of these groups from the charged terms that the opposing factions ascribed to each other. Not all conservatives considered themselves to be fundamentalists, and few Southern Baptists saw themselves as liberal.7

This work seeks to put southern religious history in a transnational or global context. As Thomas Borstelmann has observed, “a blossoming transnational sensibility” emerged among diplomatic historians in response to globalization in the post-Cold War era that has reshaped (and continues to reshape) historical perspectives and interpretations in all fields of history.8 As David Hollinger exhibited in Protestants

Abroad, Christian missionaries who lived between American and other cultures in the late nineteenth and twentieth century represented the epitome of transnational identity. As he argued, their cross-cultural interactions had a liberalizing effect on their worldview.9

Just as diplomatic historians have encouraged examining the United States in the context of world history, southern historians have begun to study the U.S. South with an international lens. Charles Reagan Wilson anticipated transnationalism in a series of lectures delivered at Baylor University in 2006 entitled Southern Missions: the Religion

7 Samuel S. Hill, “Fundamentalism in Recent Southern Culture: Has it Done What the Civil Rights Movement Could Not Do?” in Southern Crossroads: Perspectives on Southern Religion and Culture (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2008), 354-367.

8 Thomas Borstelmann, “A Worldly Tale: Global Influences on the Historiography of U.S. Foreign Relations” in America in the World, 2d ed. (Cambridge University Press, 2014) 338-60.

9 David Hollinger, Protestants Abroad: How Missionaries Tried to Change the World but Changed America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2017).

of the American South in a Global Context, which identified the need for scholarship that studied southern missionaries, the global networks they forged, and the consequences of those connections. This thesis is in part a response to Wilson’s lectures, as it embraces his call to utilize Christian missionaries as a metric for studying the South in a larger context.

In contrast with popular perceptions of an inward-looking “Bible belt,” missionary studies reveal that religion intimately connected the modern U.S. South to the world.10

Herbert Caudill’s arrest and imprisonment, hereafter referred to as the Caudill incident, was a significant case that highlights this interconnectedness.

Chapter 1 familiarizes the reader with background knowledge on the SBC and its central figures in the early 1960s and the undercurrent of religious fundamentalism and secular conservatism of the time. It also introduces Herbert Caudill and the Southern

Baptist mission in Cuba from its inception shortly before the Spanish-American War through the early the years of the Cuban Revolution of 1959. Chapter 2 examines

Southern Baptists’ reactions to the arrest of Herbert Caudill in 1965. Special attention is paid to the functions of the Baptist state papers, which played a central role in disseminating the news and served as a forum for editorials. Chapter 3 briefly examines

Caudill’s imprisonment and discusses the cumulative changes in the U.S. South, 1966-

1968. It also follows W.A. Criswell’s ascendency and his election as president of the

SBC in 1968. Chapter 4 examines Herbert Caudill’s return to the United States,

Criswell’s role in emerging controversies, and the conservative wave at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans in 1969.

10 Encyclopedia of Religion in the South, Charles Reagan Wilson, s.v. “Bible Belt,” 117.

Scholars disagree about when the conservative movement began in the SBC.

Some date the modern conservative-fundamentalist movement’s beginnings to 1979, as that is when the parliamentary strategy that made the takeover possible began; however, this interpretation does not take into account the deeper cultural and intellectual roots of the takeover.11 As Barry Hankins acknowledged in Jesus and Gin, the era between the fundamentalist surges of the 1920s and 1980s may have appeared docile, but a closer look reveals an undercurrent of conservative fundamentalism.12 I argue that the transnational network between Southern Baptists and Cuba created the means for a foreign event, Caudill’s arrest, to contribute to domestic change in the U.S. South.

Caudill’s return and appearance at the 1969 SBC in New Orleans marks a major moment in the rise of conservatism in the SBC and the career of W.A. Criswell. The victories won at that convention hardened Criswell’s grip on the conservatives’ movement and signaled the formation of “the gathering storm” that swept the convention over the next two decades.13

11 Smith, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 7.

12 Barry Hankins, Jesus and Gin: Evangelicalism, the Roaring Twenties and Today's Culture Wars (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2010), 1-2.

13 Bill J. Leonard, God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 134. 5

CHAPTER 1: HERBERT CAUDILL AND THE ORIGINS OF THE CUBAN BAPTIST

MISSION

In order to understand the full consequences of Herbert Caudill’s arrest and imprisonment, it is necessary to examine the factors and forces that shaped southern religion and politics in the first half of the twentieth century. This chapter will examine

Caudill’s southern roots and the factors that led him to the Cuban mission field. The focus will then shift to the modern expansion of the Southern Baptist Convention from the South to the rest of the United Statea and the foundations of the Cuban Baptist mission. The final section will deconstruct the multifaceted beginnings of southern conservatism during the 1960s.

Herbert Caudill

Herbert Amos Caudill was born on August 17, 1903 in Clinchport, Virginia, just as the U.S. South was experiencing a major transition. Much of the folkways, southern traditions, and “old-time” religion remained present in the early twentieth century; however, an electric revolution was pulling up the agrarian roots of southern society and planting modern industry in its place.14 The world became increasingly smaller for southerners, as telephones and automobiles made distances a lesser obstacle for businessmen, clergy, and kin. This new interconnectedness made the shared cultural experiences of mass culture, such as sport, cinema, and phonograph records, possible in a

14 Kenneth K. Bailey, Southern White Protestantism in the Twentieth Century (New York: Harper and Row, 1964), 166.

way unmatched prior in the region’s history.15 This “bulldozer revolution,” as C. Vann

Woodward later described it, lasted much of the twentieth century and left few areas of southern life untouched by modernization.16 Like many in his generation, Caudill turned away from the agrarian life of his parents, pursued an education, and left his home to seek an alternative future. Also like many others, he brought his southern Protestantism with him.17

Caudill’s family made several moves during his childhood. His father, William

Henry Caudill, worked as an educator and farmer and maintained active church membership in Baptist churches wherever the family moved. As William Caudill searched for employment, the family moved to several rural towns in Maryland and

Georgia before settling in Vanceville, Georgia in 1916. Within a year of arriving in Tift

County, Herbert Caudill dropped out of the eighth grade to farm. After a few months of hard agricultural labor, he had a revelation: he did not want to be a farmer. In the summer of 1918, as he prepared to re-enter school, Caudill had a religious experience and was baptized into New River Baptist Church. Although Caudill had been saturated in southern religion and Baptist teachings from an early age, it was not until this moment that Caudill considered himself a converted, born-again Christian. With a new faith and determination, Caudill walked and rode a bicycle 11 miles daily down rough dirt roads to

15 Ted Ownby, Subduing Satan: Religion, Recreation, and Manhood in the Rural South, 1865-1920 (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1990), 194-212.

16 C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern History (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 1960), 5.

17 Caudill Oral History, Tape 1, Side 1, Transcript, 1-3, Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN, Box 2, Folder 8.

continue his education, and graduated second in his class from Tifton High School in

1922.18

By the time Caudill graduated, he had experienced what he described as a “call to ministry” and made arrangements to attend Mercer University, a Baptist institution in nearby Macon, Georgia.19 Caudill excelled at Mercer, where he was a member of the

Ciceronian Literary Society and Ministerial Association. He also won the coveted Greek

Medal for his exceptional performance in biblical Greek studies in 1924. Caudill financed his studies by tending to the wood stoves that heated professors’ offices in the winter, working in the library, and preaching at nearby churches. Caudill’s fellow students recognized his industrious work ethic. The Cauldron, an annual publication produced by

Mercer’s senior class, noted Caudill’s “perseverance” and informed readers in archaic prose, “to the winner of the Greek Medal should be given great credit.”20 By taking on extra courses and summer term classes, he completed both his A.B. and his M.A. concurrently within a three-month period in 1926. In March of that year, Caudill was ordained at Tattnall Square Church and left to continue his studies at Southwestern

Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas.21

Caudill first learned about the Cuban Baptist mission from William Wright

Barnes, a professor of church history and fixture at Southwestern Seminary from 1913 to

1953. Barnes’ students remembered him for his intellect, memory, linguistic skills, and

18 Ibid., 1-5.

19 Ibid., 3.

20 The Cauldron, 1926, 36, Mercer University Special Collections, Macon, GA.

21 Caudill Oral History, 9; The Cauldron, 1924, Mercer University Special Collections, Macon, GA; The Cauldron, 1926, 36.

his rebellious penchant for smoking cigars on campus, despite their prohibition. Barnes was also known for experiences in Cuba. He first went to Cuba in 1904, when the Home

Mission Board appointed him to tutor American children in Santiago. After briefly returning to the United States for further study at Southern Seminary in Louisville,

Kentucky, Barnes returned to Cuba and became the principal of El Colegio Cubano-

American in Havana in 1909, a post he held until his permenant return to the United

States in 1912. Caudill later recalled that Barnes had made a significant impact on him during his time at Southwestern. It is highly likely that Barnes’ lectures on his experiences inspired young Caudill to imagine himself in Cuba.22

After graduating from Southwestern in 1928, Caudill returned to preach at four churches from the Middle Association in central Georgia near Newington.23 Around

Thanksgiving, Caudill met with Walter Moore, a friend from seminary, who was currently on leave from working in Cuba. When Moore mentioned that he was considering leaving Cuba, Caudill admitted his own interest in the work there.24 A few months later, Caudill received a letter asking him to become the pastor of the First Baptist

Church in Havana. He hesitated to leave the churches of the Middle Association, but he eventually responded to the urging of Dr. Moses N. McCall, director of the Cuban

22 Caudill Oral History, 12-13; Robert A. Barker, "William Wright Barnes," Baptist History and Heritage 5 (July 1970): 144-146; Michael E. Williams, “Enduring Legacy: William Wright Barnes and Church History at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary,” Baptist History and Heritage 37, no.1 (Jan 2002): 6-27.

23 Caudill Oral History, 13.

24 Ibid., 14.

mission field. On May 23, 1929, Herbert Caudill arrived in Havana, Cuba, which became his home for the next forty years.25

Southern Religion: “a Cesspool of Baptists”

In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, southerners were overwhelmingly Protestant in their views, although doctrinal diversity existed within southern Protestantism.26 By the early twentieth century, southern Protestantism could be generally characterized by an emphasis on experiential religion, moral discipline, doctrinal integrity, and public expressions of faith.27 These developments affected southern religion as the localized, oral-based traditional styles of folk religion were transfigured into new forms of popular religion adapted for mass communication.

Increasingly, the southern message spread across newspapers, radio, and later television, far beyond the traditional boundaries of the South. In the process, southerners became concerned that the accelerated development of the twentieth century was erasing some aspects of their regional identity. The same progress that brought “paved highways” challenged “fidelity to the Democratic party,” fomented the decline of “rural agrarianism,” and even faded “the disticintive speech” of southern dialects.28 Religious southerners also began to wonder if their ideas on doctrine, evangelism, and morality would be lost or diluted as they spread from regional localites to the rest of the nation and

25 Ibid., 13-15.

26 Bailey, Southern White Protestantism, ix, 162; Charles Reagan Wilson, Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1995), 7-11.

27 Ownby, "Mass Culture, Upper-Class Culture, and the Decline of Church Discipline in the Evangelical South: The 1910 Case of the Godbold Mineral Well Hotel," Religion and American Culture: A Journal of Interpretation 4, no. 1 (1994): 107- 32.

28 Bailey, Southern White Protestantism, 166. 10

across the globe. Caught between modernization and tradition, conservative southerners doubled down in defense of their faith when they perceived a threat. Nowhere was this more apparent than in the battle over the future of the Southern Baptist Convention.29

As the largest southern denomination, as well as the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, the Southern Baptist Convention was in many ways emblematic of southern Protestant religious culture as a whole. Like the Methodists,

Southern Baptists split with their Northern counterparts over slavery-related issues in the mid-1840s. The centrality of missions to Baptist life was apparent in this split; Southern

Baptists left to form their own convention when their Northern counterparts could no longer condone commissioning slaveholders as missionaries. Although initially devastated by the Civil War, Southern Baptists were able to rebuild and expand; even as other denominations began to reconcile in the post-Civil War period, Southern Baptists chose to remain separate from their Northern counterparts.30 When the Methodists reunited in 1939, Southern Baptists were determined to continue as an independent denomination.31

Baptist hegemony in the South attracted both praise and detraction. H. L.

Mencken, an oft-cited critic of the modern South, described the region as a “cesspool of

29 Wilson, Judgment and Grace in Dixie, xviii, 16; Edward L. Queen, In the South the Baptists are the Center of Gravity: Southern Baptists and Social Change, 1930-1980 (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson, 1991); Ownby, Subduing Satan, 194.

30 Oran P. Smith, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism (New York: New York University Press, 1997), 7; Leon. H. McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1987), 392, 412, 423-31; Charles Reagan Wilson, Southern Missions the Religion of the American South in Global Perspective (Waco, TX: Baylor University Press, 2006).

31 Bailey, Southern White Protestantism, 162, 166-67; Wilson, Judgment and Grace in Dixie, 5.

Baptists.”32 Although Mencken’s intent was to criticize the South for what he perceived to be a lack of cultural development, in doing so, he exposed the centrality of Baptists to southern religious identity. As one sociologist observed, “Baptists in the Southern United

States… transformed into a dominating religio-cultural force. And in the move from minority to majority, the character of their battles changed.”33 Any understanding of religion in the modern South must include the Southern Baptist experience as a reference point.

As the SBC began to reach beyond the South, it adapted to new climes; however, the denomination retained its southern flavor.34 Southern Baptist conservatives and fundamentalists especially maintained their identities as southerners even as they advocated connecting with the rest of the nation and the world. Billy Graham, perhaps the world’s most famous Southern Baptist preacher, exemplified the combination of the

Christian fundamentals, southern regionalism, and globalism. Graham consistently maintained his image as the humble southern preacher from Montreat, North Carolina, even as he traveled to lead massive revival meetings, popularly refered to as crusades, in cities around the world. He also continued to believe conservative, fundamentalist doctrines while remaining willing to pursue ecumenical partnerships in order to ensure

32 Charles Angoff, H.L. Mencken: A Portrait from Memory (New York: Yoseloff, 1956), 126; Wilson, Judgment and Grace in Dixie, 140.

33 Nancy T. Ammerman, Baptist Battles: Social Change and Religious Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention (New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1990), 18.

34 Bill J. Leonard, God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 17.

his crusades were successful.35 W. A. Criswell exhibited this same ethos when he led the committee that recommended that Southern Baptists join the North American Fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance in 1965.36

Throughout the twentieth century, Southern Baptists extended their reach past the traditional Southern Bible Belt into the Sun Belt and beyond.37 The Great Depression and

Dust Bowl pushed many emigrants to leave the South in search of work, bringing their culture and religion with them into new regions, especially California and other areas of the Sunbelt.38 The Second World War sent another wave of southerners across the country, and soldiers brought the SBC to military posts such as Alaska and Hawaii.39 If and when southern migrants found local churches in these new areas to be unsatisfactory,

35 Steven P. Miller, Billy Graham and the Rise of the Republican South (Philadelphia, PA: University of Pennsylvania Press. 2011), 2; Billy Graham, Just as I Am: The Autobiography of Billy Graham (San Francisco, CA: Harper Collins, 1997); The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture, Vol. 1: Religion, s.v. “Graham, Billy,” Samuel S. Hill and Charles Reagan Wilson, eds. (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2006), 185-187; The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook, s.v. “William (‘Billy’) Franklin Graham (1918- ),” Glen H. Utter and John W. Storey, eds. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001), 86-87.

36 “SBC Group Approves Affiliation,” Christian Index, Jan. 25, 1965, 5; Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Dallas, Texas, June 1-4, 1965 (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1965), 85.

37 Ammerman, Baptist Battles, 50-63.

38 Darren Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011).

39 John F. Mullholland, Hawaii’s Religions (Rutland, VT: Charles E. Tuttle, 1970), 177-182; Naomi Ruth Hunke, I Have Planted Thee in This Land: the Story of the First 25 Years of Southern Baptist Missions in Alaska (Anchorage, AK: Alaska Baptist Convention, 1971).

they started their own churches.40 Southern Baptists were unique among denominations in that they were “both expansionist and conservative.”41 In 1942, California became the first state not traditionally considered part of the U.S. South to form a Southern Baptist state convention, and in the following decade the denomination expanded rapidly throughout the United States.42 As a result of this national expansion, many Southern

Baptists began to question their identity and the accuracy of their name. In the mid-1960s some Baptists suggested that the regional name be dropped in “the interest of realism and outreach” and that a more inclusive name such as “Baptist Convention USA” be adopted.43 The failure of this proposal is telling; even as the SBC spread nationally and globally, many Baptists were unwilling to part with their traditional southern identity.

Baptist Missions and Cuba

From the founding of the Convention in 1845, Southern Baptists prioritized sending missionaries as the purpose of the denomination’s existence. This collective effort primarily meant educating, training, and financially supporting missionaries; this was solidified in 1925 with the founding of the “Cooperative Program.”44 Either the

Foreign Mission Board (FMB) or the Home Mission Board (HMB) sent the missionaries, depending on each mission field’s geographical distance and diplomatic relationship with

40 James N. Gregory, The Southern Diaspora: How the Great Migrations of Black and White Southerners Transformed America (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2007), 283-320; Ammerman, Baptist Battles, 50-51.

41 Smith, Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 7.

42 Roger H. Crook, A Tide Comes In (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention), 2.

43 “We Join Campaign to Change Some Baptist Names,” Christian Index, July 22, 1965, 4; “Name Change, Again,” Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, June 17, 1965, 3.

44 Leon. H. McBeth, The Baptist Heritage: Four Centuries of Baptist Witness (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1987), 392, 496. 14

the U.S. After some discussion, it was decided that Cuba would be part of the HMB. The establishment of American influence over Cuba following the Spanish-American War in

1898 reinforced the idea that Cuba was a “home” field for Southern Baptists.45

Southern Baptists’ roots in Cuba ran deeper than any other American Protestant denomination. Alberto J. Díaz, a Cuban émigré, physician, and Ten-Years-War veteran, became an ordained and commissioned Southern Baptist missionary to Cuba on

December 13, 1885 at First Baptist Church in Key West, Florida.46 Díaz’s ordination at

FBC Key West illustrated the role of that city as a crossroads between the U.S. South and

Cuba. With Díaz’s appointment, Southern Baptists became the first U.S. Protestant denomination to establish permanent ties to Cuba. These ties later expanded beyond commissioned missionaries to include church-owned properties, such as a school, a cemetery, and a theatre that was converted into a church. Following the establishment of an American sphere of influence in Cuba after the Spanish-American War, Americans took the reigns of Southern Baptist missions in Cuba. This began with M. N. McCall, who became the superintendent of Cuban missions in 1905. It was also in this postwar period that the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board and the Northern Baptist Home

Mission Society divided the island into separate spheres of influence, in the west and east

45 Harold Greer, History of Southern Baptist Mission Work in Cuba: 1886-1916 (Ph.D. diss., University of Alabama, 1966); Harold Greer, "Baptists in Western Cuba: From the Wars of Independence to Revolution," Cuban Studies 19 (1989): 61-77.

46 The Ten Years War was an anti-colonial conflict in Cuba that lasted from 1868- 1878, which sent a wave Cuban exiles to the United States. For more on the Ten Years War and Cuban exile communities, see Dalia Antonia Muller, Cuban Émigrés and Independence in the Nineteenth-Century Gulf World (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017), 26.

respectively.47 In 1929, Herbert Caudill became connected to the Baptist work in Cuba, where he served as a missionary and pastor of the English-speaking First Baptist Church,

Havana.

Caudill excelled at his work as a missionary and later as a professor at the Baptist seminary in Havana. The next year, Caudill briefly returned to Georgia to marry Marjorie

Jacob, whom he had met in 1923 at a Baptist Young Peoples’ Union meeting while at

Mercer University; thus began a 57-year partnership in ministry and life.48 After M. N.

McCall’s death in 1947, Caudill became the superintendent of Home Missions in Cuba.

Caudill’s work in Cuba won him respect and notoriety among Baptists stateside, as he continued to fulfill the Southern Baptist ideal of missionary service. In 1948, he was invited to address the graduating class at his alma mater, Mercer University, and he received an honorary Doctorate of Divinity for his leadership in the Baptist mission in

Cuba.49

In the minds of many Baptists, Cuba was one of the most successful home mission fields at mid-twentieth century. This success was facilitated by Cuba’s warm

47 Harold Edward Greer, History of Southern Baptist Mission Work in Cuba: 1886-1916 (Ph.D. diss., University of Alabama, 1965), 32-52; Marcos Antonio Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba (Coral Gables, FL: University of Miami Press, 1989).

48 Caudill Oral History, 5-6, 14-15; “Mercer Women Around the World” The Mercerian, April 1949, 9; Marjorie Caudill later used her talents to write Carmita of Cuba (Atlanta: Home Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, 1942).

49 Spright Dowell, A History of Mercer University, 1833-1953 (Macon, GA: Mercer University, 1958), 407; “With the Classes: By the Keeper of the Archives,” Mercerian, December 1938, 15; “Herbert Caudill Missionary Supt.,” Mercerian, December, 1947, 15; “Dr. Herbert Caudill Principal Speaker at Commencement,” Mercerian, August, 1949, 5.

political and economic climate, which was friendly to all things American. Caudill characterized pre-revolutionary Cuba as a place of relative prosperity:

In almost three decades before January, 1959, we had seen Cuba advancing in many ways. For many years Cuba had enjoyed growing prosperity. Wages were improving. More automobiles were on the streets and highways… Nearly all homes had radios, and people were buying television sets... True, poverty still existed but the standard of living was rising.50

In pre-revolutionary Cuba, the Baptist ministry had advanced unhindered. By 1959,

Caudill had lived, worked, and worshiped in Havana for thirty years.51 That same year, the Home Mission Board decided the Cuban mission field had developed to such a point that the board would soon “make a gradual transfer” in authority to the local Cuban

Baptist convention.52 These plans were soon disrupted by revolution in Cuba.

Southern Politics: the Cold War and Conservatism

During the early Cold War, several Baptist fundamentalists actively preached against communism as the antithesis of Christianity. J. Frank Norris, the fiery fundamentalist pastor of First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, set the precedent for later Baptist anti-communism. From 1931 onward, Norris preached vehemently against communism, which he perceived to be a modernist threat to Christianity; sometimes his rhetoric was so heated that it seemed to encourage violent action.53 Like Norris, Billy

50 Herbert Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge: Ten Years Under Communism in Cuba (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1975), 5.

51 “Operation Baptist Biography Data Form: Herbert Caudill,” Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

52 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Miami Beach, Florida, May 30- June 2, 1967 (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1967), 85.

53 Barry Hankins, God's Rascal: J. Frank Norris & the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism (Lexington, Kentucky: University Press of Kentucky, 1996), 148-47.

Graham delivered several sermons condemning communism as incompatible with

Christendom on his radio program, The Hour of Decision. These sermons, later distributed as pamphlets, included Christianism vs. Communism (1951), America at the

Crossroads (1958), and Man Made Religion (1961). He criticized communism and atheistic-materialism in all forms as evil systems seeking to divert people from the

Christian faith.54

In the 1960s, Americans increasingly began to identify themselves as conservatives, moderates, and liberals. The new conservatism was identifiable largely by its hard-line anticommunism, states rights rhetoric, and its gradually increasing identification with the Republican Party. To the surprise of many, it found receptive ears in the Deep South. Formerly an unquestionably Democratic stronghold, southern political unity was broken from 1948 onward by battles over racial segregation and the civil rights movement.55 The tectonic shift of the southern states toward the conservative

Republicans began during the 1964 election, when Republican candidate Barry

Goldwater “brought millions of whites to the conservative cause” by winning six Deep

South states with his “Southern strategy.”56 Although they understood the South was

54 Smith, Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 40-41; Billy Graham, Christianism vs. Communism (Minneanoplis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1951); Billy Graham, America at the Crossroads (Minneanoplis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1958); Billy Graham, Man Made Religion (Minneanoplis, MN: The Billy Graham Evangelistic Association, 1961).

55 For more on the decline of Southern Political unity see, Kari A. Frederickson, The Dixiecrat Revolt and the End of the Solid South, 1932-1968 (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2001).

56 David Farber, The Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism: A Short History. (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2010), 79; Bernard Cosman, Five States for Goldwater: Continuity and Change in Southern Presidential Voting Patterns (University, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1966), 59.

politically volatile, political scientists at the time were caught off guard by this red sweep in five historically blue states.57 According to historian David Farber, Goldwater

“personally supported integration,” but his libertarian, states rights-geared philosophy left room for segregationists within his coalition; he opposed the Civil Rights Act of 1964 from the floor of the Senate on the grounds that it would empower a federal “police state.”58 Most Goldwater supporters were unified by anti-communism and Goldwater’s common appeal. In contrast to the intellectual conservatism of William Buckley,

Goldwater’s brand of “common sense” conservatism was accessible to the masses of common folk.59 Although Goldwater’s presidential bid was an electoral failure, he left a new coalition of “anticommunist militants, committed anti-secularists, pro-states’ rightists, and dedicated segregationists” in his wake.60 W. A. Criswell, a rising conservative within the Southern Baptist Convention, fit at least two of these categories.

W. A. Criswell: Baptist Conservative

Although conservatism in the SBC sprang from multiple wells, Criswell came to represent the image and goals of Baptist conservatism and was later recognized as its

“ideological Godfather.”61 Despite Criswell’s denials of political ambitions, scholars have

57 Avery Leiserson, ed., The American South in the 1960’s (New York: Fredrick A. Prager, 1964); Cosman, Five States for Goldwater, 120.

58 Farber, Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism, 103.

59 Ibid., 78, 106-7.

60 Ibid., 79, 116, 118; Cosman, Five States for Goldwater, 120.

61 Nathan A. Finn, “The Development of Baptist Fundamentalism in the South, 1940-1980” (Ph.D. diss., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007), 190; Jerry Sutton, The Baptist Reformation:The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (Nashville, TN: Broadman & Holman, 2000), 65-67.

frequently characterized him as a “political preacher.”62 His actions and sermons often carried political connotations on issues such as civil rights, communism, and anti- secularism. Most infamously, Criswell delivered an “impromptu” speech in South

Carolina against the instability he perceived to be caused by desegregation in the 1950s.63

This clearly political episode is significant to understanding his tendency to express political opinions publicly; however, it is not consistent with Criswell’s later professed views on civil rights, which supported integration. Although these statements would not hinder his ascension into power, they would follow him for the rest of his life. He later reflected, “making that speech…was one of the colossal blunders of my young life.”64 By the late 1960s, many Southern Baptists, including Criswell, recanted segregation and accepted civil rights as the status quo.65

Criswell’s leadership of the conservative movement manifested itself in various forms. Over the course of his career, Criswell produced a steady stream of Christian literature, including biblical commentary, doctrinal guidelines, collected sermons, and even an annotated study Bible, The Criswell Study Bible (1979). This last contribution is

62 Criswell was so visibly central to the promotion of conservative ideology that a 1997 political science study of Baptist conservatives, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism, featured an image of Criswell preaching on the cover; Smith, The Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 40; W. A. Criswell, Standing on the Promises: The Autobiography of W.A. Criswell (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1990), 202.

63 Criswell resented President Eisenhower’s assertion that the South was the sole responsible party for race problems in America. Criswell, Standing on the Promises, 203.

64Ibid., 204, 217.

65 James C. Hefley, The Truth in Crisis: The Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention (Dallas, TX: Criterion Publishing, 1986), 51. For more on Southern Baptists and civil rights see Mark Newman, Getting Right with God: Southern Baptists and Desegregation, 1945-1995 (Tuscaloosa: University of Alabama Press, 2012); Alan Scot Willis, All According to God's Plan: Southern Baptist Missions and Race, 1945-1970 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005).

especially notable because his career was built around his commitment to a conservative view of the Bible. Its introduction featured glowing comments on Criswell from none other than fellow Baptist Jerry Falwell, founder of Moral Majority and a central figure of what would later be known as the Religious Right.66

Much of Criswell’s authority came from his reputation as the pastor of one of the largest and most influential churches in the SBC, First Baptist Church (FBC) in Dallas,

Texas. Criswell’s church became the model for the modern “proliferation of megachurches” - urban Evangelical churches with thousands of members.67 FBC Dallas was so central to the conservative movement and its takeover of the SBC that historian

Charles Reagan Wilson described it as the “Baptist Vatican, if Baptists had such a thing.”68 If FBC Dallas was a Baptist Vatican, then Criswell was its pope. When the church mustered its resources to establish a conservative alternative to the six SBC seminaries in 1970, they named the alternative Bible school after Criswell himself. In the mid-1960s, conservative-fundamentalist forces brewed, which led to the founding of

“The Criswell Center for Biblical Studies.”69

Conservative Baptist leaders shared and communicated their anti-communist beliefs with each other as well with as their congregants. Graham revealed this connection in one 1951 broadcast:

66 W. A. Criswell, These Issues We Must Face (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1953); W. A. Criswell, The Doctrine of the Church (Nashville, TN: Convention Press, 1980) W. A. Criswell, With a Bible in My Hand (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1978); W. A. Criswell, ed., The Criswell Study Bible: Authorized King James Version, (Nashville, TN: Thomas Nelson Publishers, 1979).

67 Sean P. Cunningham, Cowboy Conservatism: Texas and the Rise of the Modern Right (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2010), 187.

68 Wilson, Judgment and Grace in Dixie, 139.

69 Hefley, The Truth in Crisis,17; Smith, Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 216. 21

Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of the great First Baptist Church in Dallas, Texas, has just completed a world tour. He told me… [what] frightened him to the very marrow of his bones was [the] promise that Communism holds to the world… to redeem mankind from sin and weakness. It promises to create a new world in which the redeemed man shall live. Christians, hold your hat! Communism says, “Ye must be born again.”70

These words reflected the shared sense of alarm between Graham and Criswell, who perceived communism as a force inherently in competion with Christianity for the world’s souls. As Criswell continued to gain notoriety within the SBC, he was increasingly associated with staunch anti-communism, in addition to his reputation as a biblical fundamentalist.71

Other regional conservative Baptists leaders, such as Dr. Hubert E. Williams, adopted these anti-communist positions, as well. Williams, the founding president of

Southern Baptist College in Walnut Ridge, was well known in Arkansas as a zealous fundamentalist preacher and one-time candidate for governor of Arkansas. In the 1960

Democratic primary, which included incumbent Governor Orval Faubus, Williams frequently attacked communism in his bid for the gubernatorial nomination. In a stump speech entitled “America’s Point of No Return,” Williams proclaimed, “There is no difference between Socialism in Memphis or Moscow. It is only more complete in one than the other.”72 As Southern Baptists experienced the Cold War, the spokesmen of the

“good news” also proclaimed communism to be the bad news.73

70 Graham, Christianism vs. Communism.

71 Erin R. Yates, "‘The Sickle or the Cross’: W.A. Criswell and Southern Baptists during the Early Cold War" (M.A. thesis, Liberty University, 2016); David T. Morgan, New Crusades, the New Holy Land: Conflict in the Southern Baptist Convention, 1969- 1991 (Tuscaloosa, AL: University of Alabama Press, 1996).

72 Hubert Ethridge Williams, America’s Point of No Return, 9, Dr. H. E. Williams Papers, Felix Goodson Library, Walnut Ridge, Arkansas. 22

Warning Signs: Early Controversy in the SBC

In 1961, a seemingly simple biblical commentary on Genesis became a warning sign to fundamentalists and theological liberals that the SBC was divided, and it fomented a new wave of conservative dissent. Ralph H. Elliott’s The Message of Genesis

(1961) was not unique in its interpretation that much of Genesis was allegorical; however, many Baptist ministers were shocked that this interpretation of the Bible came from an SBC professor from Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and that it was published by the SBC’s own Broadman Press. The book was so disruptive that one

Baptist journalist described it as a “timebomb.”74 The crisis was resolved, but only after

Elliott had been fired. This was not necessarily a conservative victory, as Elliott was fired for disobeying the seminary’s demand to retract the book from publication and not for therein expressed in his book. The issue was temporarily resolved at the 1963 convention when the messengers, individuals representing their churches through votes at the convention, reaffirmed the “1925 Baptist Faith and Message,” a product of early fundamentalist dissent during the 1920s, but the issue of biblical inerrancy soon surfaced again.75 The top priority of conservatives in the 1960s was “Biblical Authority,” and

Criswell became its “most eloquent defender.”76

73 Graham, Christianism vs. Communism.

74 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 49; Ammerman, Baptist Battles, 64; Bill J. Leonard, God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 72.

75 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 51; McBeth, Baptist Heritage, 576-77.

76 Ammerman, Baptist Battles, 80.

The conservatism that began to seep into the SBC was defined by its dichotomy; it was composed of religious and political forces that were distinct yet nearly always appeared in tandem. Politically, conservative Baptists looked in many ways like their secular counterparts, especially in regards to states rights and anti-communism.

Religiously, conservatives began to rally around fundamentalist teachings and against theological liberalism. Like other conservative movements of the twentieth century, it was a counter movement; they were responding to perceived encroachment of global communism and theological liberalism. The changes, political and theological, sought by moderates sparked a new conservative movement led by Criswell.77 As with Goldwater’s coalition in 1964, Southern Baptist conservatives fought foundational battles in the 1960s that would enable a full-scale takeover of the SBC by the 1980s. The GOP and the SBC were simultaneously enveloped by the same conservative wave.78 The Caudill incident occurred in the midst of this wave and became a part of the conservative Baptists’ narrative.

77 Smith, Rise of Baptist Republicanism, 48-50.

78 Farber, Rise and Fall of Modern American Conservatism, 118. 24

CHAPTER 2: THE CRACKDOWN IN CUBA, 1965

Early in the morning of April 8, 1965, the fears of the Caudills, the Cuban

Baptists, and the Home Mission Board became reality:

With the feeling that something important was to happen that night, we went to sleep. We had been sleeping for about two hours when we were awakened by a sharp knock at the door. It was about one o’clock in the morning…Marjorie said, “Herbert, they’ve come to get you.”79

Herbert Caudill was caught in the crossfire of the Cold War when the Cuban secret police ransacked his home and arrested him. Simultaneously, they arrested his son-in-law and fellow missionary, David Fite, as well as dozens of Cuban Baptist pastors, and took them into custody. With Easter just a week away, these mass arrests in the early hours of April

8 ensured that the absence of many Baptist leaders would dampen the celebration. As

Fidel Castro worked to consolidate his power and thwart outside influences on the Cuban people, the Cuban Baptists’ and missionaries’ transnational ties to Southern Baptists in the United States made them a natural target. Although imperceptible at the time, the

Caudill incident would have far-reaching consequences.80

79 Herbert Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge: Ten Years Under Communism in Cuba (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1975), 59.

80 Ibid, 58-71; Accent Magazine, 12, n.d.; Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 34; Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba; Julia E. Sweig, Inside the Cuban Revolution: Fidel Castro and the Urban Underground (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2004); The concept of a “knock in night” as Caudill described had its own meaning within the Cuban Revolution. In Spanish, it translates to a single word, aldobonazo, which refers both to a literal knock at the door and the announcement of something to come. It was also the early name of the Cuban revolutionary newspaper. Armando Hart, Aldobonazo: Inside the Cuban Revolutionary Underground, 1952-58 25

As evidenced by letters, editorials, and sermons, Southern Baptists at all levels actively followed the events in Cuba and engaged with the developments of the Caudill incident. Denominational officials, editors, and everyday congregants demonstrated the depth of their transnational ties through the responsibility they felt to their missionaries to offer support through prayer and action. The Caudill incident galvanized Baptist anti- communism and captured national attention, which Baptist headlines maintained throughout his imprisonment. It also appeared to validate the outspoken Baptist conservatives, such as W. A. Criswell and Billy Graham, who had consistently preached against communism as a dangerous force globally at odds with Christianity. At the annual

Southern Baptist Convention meeting and throughout 1965, Criswell capitalized on the momentum from the Caudill incident by publicly airing his anti-communist views along with other conservative ideas.

Cuban Baptists and the Revolution

Initially, Baptists supported the idea of revolution as an expression of Cuban nationalist protest against dictator Fulgencio Batista’s corrupt regime. The Cuban Baptist mission donated a tractor to the revolution, and a few of Caudill’s students briefly participated in the revolution. In early 1959, Caudill was still able to travel through the provinces of Matanzas and Las Villas, preaching and meeting with Cuban Baptist pastors.

The Caudills were cautiously optimistic that revolution would open new doors for

(New York: Pathfinder Press, 2004), 125; For more on progressive attitudes among missionaries in the Sixties, see Alan Scot Willis, All According to God's Plan: Southern Baptist Missions and Race, 1945-1970 (Lexington, KY: University Press of Kentucky, 2005). For more on the Southern evangelism’s uniqueness and the prominence of Southern Baptists, see Charles Reagan Wilson’s Southern Missions (2006). 26

missions and ministry, and Mrs. Caudill was even invited to attend the wedding of Fidel

Castro’s sister, Agustina, which took place in a Cuban Baptist church. 81

The future of the Baptist mission became increasingly less certain as the deterioration of Cuban-American relations worsened between 1959 and 1961. On January

4, 1961, Cuba broke diplomatic relations with the United States. On April 17, a force of exiled Cubans supported by the CIA launched a failed invasion of the Bay of Pigs. While

Caudill traveled shortly thereafter, Cuban militia stopped him thirty times, but they did not challenge his right to distribute religious literature at that time.82

On May 1, the dynamics of the Cuban-American relationship and the realities of the Cuban Baptist mission were forever altered when Castro openly declared himself a communist and the revolution took a clear anti-American stance. On that day, Fidel

Castro nationalized the private schools of Cuba and took control of all Christian schools, including a Baptist school at Yaguajay. Herbert Caudill later lamented these seizures as a step toward communist indoctrination of the youth. “Communists have studied the methods used in churches in dealing with children and adapted them,” Caudill warned readers in his 1975 memoir, “to lead children into thinking as Communists.”83

In this early period, the Castro regime also began the currency exchange reform that led to Caudill’s arrest. The Cuban government announced a series of confusing and contradictory currency policies. For example, it declared all foreign currency illegal; however, “one had to have the equivalent of American dollars” in order to purchase a

81 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 8-10; Harold Greer, "Baptists in Western Cuba: From the Wars of Independence to Revolution," Cuban Studies 19 (1989): 68.

82 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 19, 22-23.

83 Ibid., 24-26. 27

ticket to leave Cuba.84 This confusion was compounded by a surprise announcement for everyone to turn in all money for a new currency (the government would only return 500 pesos the same day). As Castro’s regime continued to alter the Cuban financial sphere, it became more difficult for foreign missionaries to keep pace with the changes and maintain the financial obligations of the Southern Baptist mission in Cuba. The Cuban government intended these restrictions to limit the abilities of groups, such as the

SBC/HMB, to transfer funds legally to their missionaries to support their work.85

Despite all these challenges, the years between 1959 and 1962 were successful for

Baptist missions, at least in the eyes of Herbert Caudill. He was still able to travel freely and meet with Cuban pastors. The seminary remained open with students enrolled. Fidel

Castro himself used biblical language in his speeches about Cuba’s future. The Baptists were able to host a two-week youth retreat at Camp Yumuri in 1962, which included

Caudill’s lessons on “the promises of God” and his Cuban colleagues’ messages intended to “combat the philosophy of materialistic atheism.”86 The student turnout surpassed the camp’s capacity, and camp organizers had to improvise makeshift accommodations for the surplus students. In these uncertain times of change under the Castro regime, many

Cubans looked to the steady message of their fellow Baptists.87

From 1962 onward, however, the religious situation in Cuba became increasingly tense. After outlawing the distribution of all religious literature, the Cuban government

84 Ibid., 26.

85 Ibid., 26-27.

86 Ibid., 28-29.

87 Ibid., 29.

seized Bibles and hymnals and ground them to pulp. Cuban Baptists were not the only

Christians targeted; Catholic and Pentecostal clergy faced deportation and significant losses of property. In further moves to consolidate power, Cuban authorities suspended

“The Baptist hour” radio program and required churches to register their members with the government.88 Caudill and the Cuban Baptists were still able to spread their message and conduct religious services; however, the Castro regime continued to place restrictions on religious activities.

By 1964, nearly all HMB missionary personnel had left Cuba for other assignments because they were afraid to stay in a communist nation that had no diplomatic relations with the United States. Only the Caudills, who had lived in Cuba for

35 years by that time, their daughter Margaret, and son-in-law David Fite, remained to work with the Cuban Baptists. For those who left, a new and burgeoning Cuban-

American population created opportunities for mission work within the safety of

Southern Florida. After fleeing Cuba in 1960, one former missionary to Cuba, Hubert O.

Hurt, resumed his work with Spanish-language missions among Cuban émigrés in

Miami.89

Herbert and Marjorie Caudill temporarily returned to the United States as well in

1964 to seek treatment for Herbert’s cataracts. As they prepared to return to Cuba, Llyod

Corder, the HMB director in Atlanta, reminded the Caudills that they had the option to request a new assignment, but they declined the offer. In Februrary 1964, Herbert Caudill wrote an article in the HMB’s Home Missions magazine, entitled “Why we Remain in

88 Ibid., 28-35.

89 Ramos, Protestantism and Revolution in Cuba, 160. 29

Cuba.”90 In this article, he discussed the continuing mission in Cuba in intentionally vague terms and informed readers that “it is very important that we be careful how we express ourselves,” which hinted that speaking ill of Castro and the Cuban government could have repercussions for the Baptist mission there.91 Despite mostly ambigious language, he shared with Southern Baptists that the Baptist radio had been shuttered and that Bibles had been seized and destroyed. He also discussed the exodus of many other

Christians and hinted at the possibility of being deported. “We have made no plans to leave,” he informed readers, “…others may plan for us to leave. That is another matter.”92

Herbert and Marjorie Caudill returned to Cuba on December 30, 1964 because they felt an unshakeable sense of purpose and duty to be there. As they later told one interviewer:

There are still multitudes of people living in Cuba…without a saviour. We ask prayers that we may be faithful to His service…We are often more afraid of ourselves than anything else. The Bible is full of exhortations to be courageous…We cannot hold our position by turning our backs on duty when danger threatens.93

The Caudills understood that they were taking a considerable risk by returning to Cuba.

The Baptist papers duly noted their return, but they followed Caudill’s example and refrained from making direct comments about the political situation. Caudill did not have

90 “Why we Remain in Cuba,” Home Missions, Februrary 1964, 8-10, 31.

91 Ibid., 9.

92 Ibid., 31; “Cuban Refugees Deserve Compassion in Action,” Christian Index, November 11, 1965, 6; “Cuban Refugees Ask for Clothing,” Christian Index, Dec 16, 1965, 3; “New Thrust: Urge Relief For Cuban Refugees” Christian Index, Nov. 4, 1965, 7; Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 20, 30-34.

93 “Caudills Leave U.S., Once Again in Cuba,” South Carolina Baptist Courier, Jan. 14, 1965, 17.

to name the danger for readers to understand what he meant; the danger was communism.

It was impossible to know how or when that danger would manifest. In early January

1965, all the Baptist papers could do was report the Caudills’ return and follow Caudill’s instructions to pray.94

Baptist Media Response

In April 1965, news of Caudill’s and Fite’s arrest reached the U.S. through radio broadcasts from Radio Havana, which alleged Caudill had “gathered much military information…which was turned over to espionage agencies of the United States.”95 That the news came via radio was unsurprising, as the Castro regime used radio during and after the revolution to make official proclamations. Cuban radio, which had stopped carrying the once-popular Baptist broadcasts nearly three years before, now concentrated on sending propaganda messages to the United States. This included “Radio Free Dixie,” a broadcast hosted from 1963 to 1965 by early Black Power activist Robert F. Williams that played primarily African-American-influenced styles of music and focused on exposing white supremacy in the U.S. South. Southerners heard that Baptist missionaries had been arrested from Cuban-based radio.96

94 “Caudills Return to Cuban Post,” Baptist Record, Jan. 7, 1965, 2; “Georgians: Caudills in Cuba,” Christian Index, Jan. 17, 1965, 11; “Caudills Leave U.S., Once Again in Cuba,” Word and Way, Jan. 21, 1965, 14; “Caudill’s Leave Cuba Once Again,” Hawaii Baptist, Feb. 1965, 6.

95 “Two SBC Missionaries are Arrested in Cuba,” Baptist Record, April 15, 1965, 1.

96 “Cuba Arrests Caudill, Fite 53 Others,” Baptist Digest, April 24, 1965, 1; Cuban Pastors and Missionaries Arrested,” Hawaii Baptist, May, 1965, 1; Timothy B. Tyson. Radio Free Dixie: Robert F. Williams and the Roots of Black Power (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 1999), 2, 285. See also Cristina Mislan, “Transnationalism, Revolution and Race: The Case of Cuba’s Radio Free Dixie” (Ph.D. diss., Pennsylvania State University, 2013). 31

At the time of Caudill’s arrest, Baptist newspapers were well equipped to spread the message quickly and effectively to SBC constituents nationwide. Their swift and articulate reactions demonstrate the deep connections that Southern Baptists felt with their missionaries and their Cuban brethren; to attack one missionary was to attack the convention itself. Nationwide, the 28 Baptist newspapers were a major part of denominational life in the mid-twentieth century and were the main vehicles for regular communication within the denomination. They linked local congregations with national and international missions and evangelism, reinforced doctrinal concepts, and facilitated denominational identity. These newspapers saturated the southern states and reached far beyond the South to national audiences; by the 1960s even Alaska and Hawaii had monthly Southern Baptist papers. The Mississippi state paper, The Baptist Record, proudly billed itself as having the “largest circulation of any newspaper of any kind in

Mississippi.”97 In 1965, the Baptist state newspapers’ subscriptions totaled 1,540,260.

Readership was likely higher, as multiple members of a church or family would have shared a subscription. Some state conventions even sought to maximize readership by sending a paper to every family in their constituencies. Because of this network of state papers, Baptists were informed and reactive to Caudill’s arrest.98

97 Baptist Record, April 22, 1965, 4.

98 For more data on the Baptist state papers, see Appendix A: Baptist State Papers (1965-1969); “Committee on Baptist State Papers: Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Dallas, Texas, June 1-4, 1965” (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1965), 277-78; “Committee on Baptist State Papers: Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Detroit Michigan, May 24-27, 1965” (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1966), 273-74; “Committee on Baptist State Papers: Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Houston, Texas, June 4-7, 1968” (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1968), 265-66.

Immediately following the missionaries’ arrests, multiple editorials appeared in these papers praising Caudill and Fite for their commitment to their missions. One such editorial, entitled “Christians in Cuba Need Prayer as Never Before,” in The Christian

Index exemplified the papers’ overwhelming impulse to cast the jailed missionaries as heroes. “If the 10 Million Southern Baptists had half the dedication of Herbert Caudill and David Fite,” the editor charged readers, “this would be a vastly different world.”99

This article also embodied some common themes that Baptist editorials employed in their immediate responses to the arrests, including flat denial of any espionage, requests for prayer, and an emphasized blame on “Communist Cuba.”100

Editor E. S. James of The Baptist Standard of Dallas, Texas published “Heroic

Baptists in Cuba,” a quintessential example of these editorials, on May 5, 1965:

There will be Baptists among us who are ready to say the missionaries should have left Cuba while they could. Perhaps those who say this would have left, but would Jesus or Paul or Peter or John have run because of danger? Who could say with certainty that their imprisonment may not result in the salvation of many Cubans who do not know the Lord? The courage, the conviction, and the constancy of the Caudills and the Fites who have elected to stay with the people among whom God called them to work cannot fail to impress the coldest hearts.101

This language typified the way these editorials elevated Caudill and Fite to the level of

Baptist saints. James considered their decision to stay in Cuba an act of holy obedience to

God’s will; the Cuban government’s decision to arrest the missionaries made them martyrs for the Christian faith. An accompanying cartoon reinforced the idea. It featured

99 “Christians in Cuba Need Prayer as Never Before,” Christian Index, April 22, 1965, 6.

100 Ibid., 6.

101 “Heroic Baptists in Cuba,” The Baptist Standard (Dallas, TX), May 5, 1965, 4, 5. 33

a silhouette of a man sitting slumped in a prison cell, with the words “our missionaries” behind it.102

Figure 1 “Our Missionaries,” The Baptist Standard, May 5, 1965, 5.

The personal connection Baptists felt to the missionaries was evident in the newspapers’ and institutions’ eagerness to claim these “Heroic Baptists” as their own by mentioning the missionaries’ connections to their states. The Baptist Record of

Mississippi emphasized that Marjorie Caudill was born in Little Springs, MS. The

Religious Herald of Virginia claimed Herbert Caudill, as he was born in Clinchport, VA.

The Christian Index of Georgia proudly claimed both Herbert Caudill and Fite as graduates of Mercer University in Macon, GA. The paper also emphasized its personal

102 Ibid., 4-5.

connection to Caudill, citing a recent letter he sent to the Christian Index. Southeastern

Baptist Theological Seminary in North Carolina also made sure that people understood

Fite was an alumnus. Although they had never set foot in Cuba and many did not know

Caudill or Fite directly, Baptists across the South felt a sense of connection with the lives and struggles of these missionaries.103

Baptist Institutions Respond

When news of Caudill’s arrest first reached the Home Mission Board, officials scrambled to confirm the news. They had feared for the missionaries’ safety since 1961; however, they were not prepared for charges of espionage. Much of the HMB statement hinged on Caudill’s personal commitment to the Cuban mission. Officials at the HMB insisted to readers that Caudill “would do nothing that would injure his Christian witness,” in Cuba to the extent that he refused to talk any politics during his time in the

U.S. the previous year.104 Caudill had tried to avoid saying or doing anything that would jeopardize the Cuban Baptist mission and force him to leave. The official HMB press release, written by Executive Secretary Arthur B. Rutledge, scoffed at the notion that

Herbert Caudill “would even be considered in any way subversive” because of his love for Cuba and its people.105

103 “Two SBC Missionaries are Arrested in Cuba,” The Baptist Record, April 15, 1965, 1; “Missionaries Arrested in Cuba,” Religious Herald, April 22, 1965, 9; “Caudill and Fite Jailed in Cuba,” Christian Index, April 15, 1965, 3; “Call to Prayer for Missionaries,” Christian Index, April 22, 1965, 3; “Southeastern Alumni Appeal for Prisoners,” Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN. Box 2, Folder 21.

104 “Two SBC Missionaries are Arrested in Cuba,” Baptist Record, April 15, 1965, 2; “Home Mission Board Defends Missionaries Jailed by Cuba,” Baptist Standard, April 14, 1965, 12.

105 “Two SBC Missionaries are Arrested in Cuba” Baptist Record, April 15, 1965, 1. 35

Caudill’s presumed unwillingness to damage his mission in Cuba is indicative of the way that Southern Baptist missionaries became living transnational links between the

U.S. South and the world. Although Caudill had deep southern cultural, educational, and religious ties, by 1965 he had spent more of his life in Cuba than in the United States. In the process of carrying out his mission, he had come to identify as a southerner whose home was in Cuba. Herbert Caudill later reflected on, “how deeply rooted our lives were…Cuba had become our home...The ties were strong, the love of the people with whom we had worked…was very deep.”106

Incumbent SBC President Wayne Dehoney also attempted to aid Caudill by rallying support across the convention. The SBC president’s powers were limited to appointing trustees to SBC institutions, such as seminaries, and making symbolic gestures. President Dehoney marked Sunday, April 25, 1965 as a day of prayer for the missionaries in Cuba. In the press release, he declared “every Southern Baptist should respond, and there should be prayer ascending to God from every one of the 33,000

Southern Baptist churches, and from millions of Baptist homes.”107 Dehoney’s tone reflected the seriousness of the issue. The appeal for prayer had to be voluntary for the local churches. The state Baptist papers responded by relaying the message. The

Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine included a full-page copy of Dehoney’s telegrammed statement. Despite the president’s limited power, Baptists would have understood the call to prayer as a major action. They believed that individual and collective prayers of intercession from Christians were essential in times of crisis. The intervention of the SBC

106 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 111.

107 “A Call to Prayer,” Baptist Record, April 22, 1965, 4.

president on Caudill’s behalf and the call for millions of Baptists to pray for him reflected the scope of the crisis.108

The Trial

In total, the Cuban government charged Herbert Caudill with six crimes:

(1) Conspiracy against the security and integrity of the nation… (2) Collaboration with the Central Intelligence Agency (3) Helping people get out of the country illegally (4) Ideological diversion (5) Covering up the activities of others (6) Illegal currency exchange.109

Caudill flatly denied the charges, except ideological diversion and illegal currency exchange. In response to the ideological charges, Caudill argued that he had preached the same messages in Cuba for 35 years. In regards to currency exchange, Caudill maintained that no currency left Cuba. Because Cuban restrictions on currency made transferring funds nearly impossible, Caudill had improvised a system whereby Cubans leaving the country would leave their

Cuban pesos with Caudill and receive U.S. dollars once they arrived in the United

States. The Cuban government maintained that these activities counted as illegal currency exchanges. To Baptists living stateside, it made little difference whether or not the currency exchanges were technically illegal. They viewed the arrests as anti-Christian persecution; the Caudill incident affirmed what Baptist leaders, such as Billy Graham and W. A. Criswell, had been preaching for years about communism.110

108 “Prayer asked April 25 for Missionary Prisoners,” Baptist Standard, April 21, 1965, 12; “A Call to Prayer,” Word and Way, April 22, 1965, 3; Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, April 22, 1965, 15.

109 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 66-67.

On May 14, 1965, Caudill, Fite, and 34 Cuban Baptists stood trial.111 SBC

President Wayne Dehoney appealed directly to Fidel Castro for a fair trial via telegram at that time. Other Baptists globally petitioned Castro for a fair trial, including many members of the Baptist World Alliance, a transnational Baptist entity. The BWA matched the SBC’s call to prayer with its own.112 Despite their desperate pleas for a fair trial, many Baptists doubted such a thing would be possible in a communist state. As The Christian Index bitterly remarked,

“conviction in a Communist court is almost automatic with the filing of charges.”113

Although some Baptists held out hope the Cuban courts would not convict

Caudill, the U.S. State Department confirmed the results of the trial on June 3,

1965. Herbert Caudill and David Fite were to serve 10 and 6 years respectively for “illegal foreign currency exchange” and ideological charges.114 Arthur

Rutledge, executive secretary of the HMB, drew a direct comparison between

Caudill, Fite, and the Cuban Baptists’ experiences and the persecution of the first century Christian churches of the New Testament. This was not a comparison to

110 Greer, “Baptists in Western Cuba,” 69; “Home Mission Board Acknowledges Aid to Cuban Missionaries,” Baptist Standard, June 9, 1965, 13.

111 “Outcome Awaited – 34 Baptists Tried Before Cuban Court,” Baptist Record, May 20, 1965, 2.

112 Ibid., 2.

113 “Cuba: Missionaries Face Prison terms,” Christian Index, May 20, 1965, 3.

114 “Cuban Sentencing Still Unofficial, Corder Says,” Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine, June 3, 1965, 5; “Cuban Sentencing Is Confirmed,” Baptist Record, June 3, 1965, 1. 38

be taken lightly; by framing the situation in those terms, he was reaffirming the weight of the Caudill incident as a struggle between good and evil.115

Caudill’s imprisonment immediately elicited reactions from average Southern

Baptists. They attempted to aid Caudill directly in a variety of ways, including attempts to provide a ransom, to send material aid through Miami, and, less tangibly, through prayer. One popular idea among Baptists was for individuals and local Baptist congregations to donate money toward a ransom to secure the captive missionaries’ release. Auburn Hayes, a preacher from Orlando, Florida, claimed to have been in contact with Fidel Castro and to have received calls from Mexico indicating the possible negotiation of a fine to secure the missionaries’ release in lieu of jail time. Although the convention denied any knowledge of a negotiation or plans to pay for the missionaries’ release, many Baptists expressed their desire to help by raising funds to free Caudill and

Fite. Silver Springs Baptist Church in Osyka, Mississippi sent a check for $50 to the

Home Mission Board to put toward the missionaries’ release. Members of First Baptist

Church in Staunton, Virginia suggested raising money for a ransom at the 1965 Southern

Baptist Convention or sending volunteers to take the missionaries’ places. One New

Orleans woman even offered to donate her prize bull for the cause. Although their efforts failed to free the missionaries, they showed the sense of connection that Southern

Baptists felt with their missionaries.116

115 “Cuban Sentencing Is Confirmed,” Baptist Record, June 3, 1965, 1; “Cuba: Caudill, Fite Seek New Trial,” Christian Index, July 15, 1965, 3; “Caudill, Fite Appeal for New Cuban Trial,” Word and Way, July 22, 1965, 16; “Caudill and Fite Appeal for New Cuban Trial,” Baptist Digest, July 24, 1965, 3; and Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 66.

116 “HMB Not Informed on Cuba Ransom Try,” Baptist Record, May 27, 1965, 1; Letter from John W. Landrum, Jr. forwarded to Llyod Corder, June 11, 1965, Cuba 39

Other Baptists participated by offering practical and immediate assistance channeled through Florida. The Miami Baptist Association, which served thousands of recent Cuban Baptist refugees, passed along information it received from Cuban émigrés to the HMB. This information helped those at the Home Mission Board to understand

Caudill’s situation, and it allowed the HMB to keep data on how many and which Cuban

Baptist pastors were imprisoned in Cuba.117 With formal relations between the U.S. and

Cuba severed, the Home Mission Board relied on the Cuban Baptist community to find back channels to send essentials to Cuba. Through Hubert O. Hurt, the Home Mission

Board was able to get some money for essentials, such as medicine, to send to Havana.

Despite the limited nature of this assistance, Baptists were able provide significant aid to

Cuban émigrés who came to the U.S. during the 1960s.118

Internal Divisions within the SBC

In the short term, the Caudill incident may have had a silver lining for Baptists. It was a distraction from divisive issues then arising in the convention. One such issue was the separation of church and state. As President Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society agenda increased federal funding for social welfare, Baptists faced a major dilemma over whether or not to take government money to fund Baptist institutions. The problem was especially complex because, although Baptist hospitals and universities needed the money, many Baptists considered the separation of church and state a key tenant of

Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives; Jerry Windsor, “‘The Board no Longer has Missionaries in Cuba,’ 1970-1994,” Journal of Florida Baptist Heritage 14 (2012): 110.

117 Letter from Daniel Rodriguez to Llyod Corder, September 13, 1965, Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. Box 2, Folder 31.

118 Letter from Llyod Corder to Hubert O. Hurt, December 29, 1965, Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives. Box 2, Folder 31 40

Baptist heritage and belief. A 1965 editorial published in the Arkansas Baptist

Newsmagazine, “Baptists at the Crossroads,” informed Baptists they needed to choose “to maintain their historic teaching and practice on separation of church and state…or…weaken their practices…in order to find and secure government loans and grants” to sustain Baptist work.119 Popular interest in the issue was evident in the letter

Raymond B. Higgens of El Dorado, AR wrote to the Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine to affirm the editorial as “among the best articles on the great issue of our day.”120

Pragmatically, the funding would help keep Baptist institutions strong but at the cost of

Baptist tradition.121

The SBC also experienced increased division over doctrinal issues, as fundamentalist Baptist preachers and moderate seminary faculty began to show signs they had become uncomfortable serving under the same roof. On February 18, 1965, the

Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine published a seething letter from the outraged pastor of

Second Baptist Church in Monticello, Arkansas. In this letter, Pastor Bill H. Lewis vilipended a devotional from Home Life Magazine, a Southern Baptist publication of the

Sunday School Board, for casting doubt on the existence of a literal Hell. “Can you imagine what kind of a devotion a family could have when you must stop to debate the several non-scriptural speculations of these comments?” Lewis angrily asked readers

119 “Baptists at the Crossroads,” Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine, Jan. 7, 1965, 10.

120 “Letters to the Editor: The People Speak,”Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine, Jan. 28, 1965, 4.

121 For more on Roger Williams and Baptist beliefs about church-state relations, see Edmund S. Morgan, Roger Williams: The Church and the State (New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1967). 41

before issuing the apocalyptic warning, “if Baptists continue to permit things like these to go unchallenged, the day of ‘the falling away’ will be hastened.”122

Around this time, Baptist professors began to feel emboldened to challenge fundamentalists, many of whom they denounced as “heretic hunters.”123 Although not all of these professors embraced and taught theological liberalism, emerging moderates believed that divisive doctrinal debates were a waste of time and energy. Other Baptists at this time wrote editorials in attempts to stem division by encouraging unity and redirecting attention to the Cooperative Program. This voluntary funding mechanism made it possible for the autonomous churches of the SBC to finance Southern Baptist missions collectively across the globe, sustain six theological seminaries, and support a plethora of other Baptist causes.124 The emerging controversies threatened to upend

Baptist unity and damage the Baptist mission at home and abroad.

Indeed, the increasing toll of these controversies was evident by the stress of

Baptist newspaper editors. In a letter to the editor of the Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, one writer recommended to anyone considering an editorial position at a Baptist paper to

“locate a good tranquilizer prescription,” because “there are few jobs more taxing than riding out the many storms a state editor must face.”125 The separation of church and state became such an all-consuming issue that Baylor University, a Baptist institution in Waco,

122 “Literal or Figurative?” Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, Feb. 18, 1965, 4, 16.

123 “No Time for Civil War,” Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, Feb. 4, 1965, 10.

124 “The Cooperative Program Is Love in Action,” Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, Feb. 25, 1965, 8.

125 “The Baptist Papers,” Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine, May 13, 1965.

Texas, began offering a master’s degree in “church-state study” in 1965.126 In his defense of church-state supporters who objected to taking state funds, Baptist Standard editor E.

S. James decried the divisions the issue had caused.

In that same publication, James printed the words of Rufus C. Harris, President of

Mercer University, who warned that southerners, of all people, should understand the costs of radical and divisive politics. As Charles Reagan Wilson has noted, the southern failure in the Civil War and the lost cause became a critical part of southern culture and religious life in the postwar years. In the turbulent 1960s, a few attentive Southern

Baptists drew parallels between the bitter divisions of the U.S. during the antebellum era and the SBC in their own time, and they feared the destruction a civil war would bring within the convention. This grave language speaks to the fear of division and the reality that Southern Baptist disunion was potentially impending. In the meantime, the imprisoned missionaries provided something all Baptists could rally around.127

The Annual Southern Baptist Convention, Dallas, 1965

In spite of internal conflicts, many Baptists looked forward to the 1965 Southern

Baptist Convention in Dallas as an opportunity for unity. They anticipated and received a packed convention with minimal conflict. Over 16,000 Baptists, a record number, attended the 1965 convention at a facility intended for 10,000. The two main agenda items were whether to join the North American Fellowship of the Baptist World Alliance and whether to limit the SBC presidents’ terms to one year. Baptist messengers, the

126 “Baylor Offers Master’s in Church-State Study,” Baptist Record, May 6, 1965.

127 “Intra-Denominational Politics,” Baptist Standard, May 19, 1965, 4-5; “Do Government Grants Mean Government Control?” Christian Index, Aug. 26, 1965, 17. For more on the legacy of the Civil War within southern religion, see Charles Reagan Wilson, Baptized in the Blood: The Religion of the Lost Cause, 1865-1920 (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2009).

representatives of individual SBC churches, passed the first resolution, thanks in part to

W. A. Criswell’s backing. The other main issue of the convention, term limits, was not successful; however, this issue was not contentious enough to divide the convention in any significant way.128 In his address to the convention, President Wayne Dehoney urged

Baptists to remember that the opposition was “the devil and the forces of materialism, secularism, and atheism – not other Christians and Baptists.”129 In the past year said opposition had manifested itself in Cuba with the imprisonment of the missionaries. In response, SBC messengers passed a resolution asking the Cuban government to release

Caudill and Fite.130

The convention was a major moment for Criswell in many ways. The convention was held in Dallas, the city where he pastored the massive First Baptist Church, and his pivotal support pushed the SBC to join the North American Fellowship of the Baptist

World Alliance. The largest victory he achieved, however, was in his closing address to the 1965 convention entitled “our mandate from heaven”:

One of our statesmen recently asked, “Can we emerge from this century without annihilation?” It is not the preacher, it is not the evangelist, it is the scientist and the military strategist and the statesman who is preaching the demise and the annihilation of a godless world! Time was when men scoffed, and laughed, and mocked, and ridiculed at the hellfire and damnation of the old time preacher. But look who is preaching it now, only in more lurid tones and in hopeless frustration and despair! …agonizing disappointments…face our Christian world…[such as] the advance of atheistic communism. They are dedicated to the destruction of our

128 “Looking to Dallas,” Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine, May 27, 1965, 3; “Harmonious Convention in Prospect,” Baptist Standard, May 12, 1965, 4; “SBC Highlight Report,” Baptist Record, June 10, 1965, 1.

129 “Issues and Imperatives,” Arkansas Baptist Newmagazine, June 3, 1965, 6.

130 “SBC Highlight Report,” Baptist Record, June 10, 1965, 1; “SBC Establishes New Attendance Record,” Word and Way, June 17, 1965, 2; “Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Dallas, Texas, June 1-4, 1965” (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1965), 54.

Christian witness—never forget it. Whether in Cuba or in China or in Russia, it is ever the same.131

With Caudill’s arrest fresh on the minds of convention-goers, Criswell was able to deliver a scathing rebuke of communism. In Criswell’s perspective, the events in Cuba and the escalation of the Cold War around the world vindicated “the old time” preachers who gave apocalyptic warnings.132 Reading the mood and capturing the moment, Criswell’s address seemed to connect with many Baptists, who “felt that it was a stirring climax” to the convention.133

Following his speech at the 1965 convention, W.A. Criswell reaffirmed his reputation as a Baptist leader willing to take on communism by traveling to the Soviet

Union from August 3 through September 7, 1965 in the name of religious liberty, along with pastor W. O. Vaught of Little Rock, Arkansas.134 Criswell wanted to make his case for the religious liberty of Russian Christians and Jews directly to Leonid Brezhnev, the head of the Russian Communist Party.135 Criswell was not the only figure to take aim at the U.S.S.R. during the 1960s for its abuses against its own people. As Sarah B. Snyder established in From Selma to Moscow (2018), a wave of American protest to Soviet repression arose in the 1960’s, and with that wave came a more widespread understanding of human rights. Criswell’s advocacy and his lack of results represents the

131 W. A. Criswell, “Our Mandate From Heaven,” (sermon, Dallas, June 4, 1965), W.A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

132 Ibid.

133 “SBC Highlight Report,” Baptist Record, June 10, 1965, 1; Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention: Dallas, Texas, June 1-4, 1965 (Nashville, TN: Executive Committee, Southern Baptist Convention, 1965), 93.

134 “A Journey to the Soviet Union” Baptist Standard, May 5, 1965, 12.

135 “Baptist Pastors Make Russia Trip,” Baptist Record, Aug. 12, 1965, 2. 45

tension Snyder identified between American citizens who tenaciously advocated the rights of minority groups, such as Soviet Jews, and the hesitancy of the U.S. executive to take action and thus risk U.S. – U.S.S.R. relations.136

Criswell reported back to Southern Baptists that the church in Russia was nearly dead. The cities of Leningrad and Moscow each had only one legal Baptist church. Even these churches, he asserted, were only open so that the Soviet Union could claim that religious liberty existed there. He insisted that the real Baptist movement was

“underground,” like “the catacomb churches of early Christians.”137 Although the visit accomplished little for Russian Baptists, it reaffirmed to Southern Baptists that Criswell was taking active measures to confront global communism. In the midst of the Caudill incident, Criswell was emerging as an activist and Southern Baptist leader. Through his anti-communist stances, he continued to gain media attention and momentum within the convention.138

Just as the Soviet Baptist issue remained unresolved, the missionaries remained imprisioned in Cuba. On October 10, 1965, reports via Havana radio that Castro would allow some Cuban nationals and political prisoners to leave Cuba, including some

Baptists, briefly reignited hope that the Caudill crisis would end. Llyod Corder asked

Baptists to lower their expectations and explained that the State Department was working to secure the missionaries’ release. To the disappointment of many Southern Baptists,

136 Sarah B. Snyder, From Selma to Moscow: How Human Rights Activists Transformed U.S. Foreign Policy (New York: Columbia University Press, 2018), 18-41.

137 “Criswell Reports On Soviet Union Tour,” Baptist Record, September 30, 1965, 1; “Criswell Says: Religion Almost Dead in Russia,” Christian Index, September 7, 1965, 15.

138 Ibid., 15. 46

Castro’s amnesty did not include Herbert Caudill and David Fite. The reason they were not counted as political prisoners was unclear; regardless, Baptists viewed the missionaries’ imprisonment as a political act and their imprisonment as illegitimate. By late 1965, it became abundantly clear that Caudill and Fite would not receive an early release from the Cuban government, despite the hopes of many Baptists. 139

Conclusion

In late 1965, Billy Graham published World Aflame, which identified several

“flames,” or issues, plaguing the world. This book originated from a sermon he had delivered at the Baptist World Alliance meeting held earlier that year in Miami, not far removed geographically from Caudill and Fite.140 Graham captured the mood of the time by listing the “Red Flame” of Communism among the challenges he saw facing the world.141 Without making direct reference to Caudill and Cuba, Graham warned readers,

“the Communist flame becomes ever more dangerous – and in some areas of the world it is out of control!” 142 Many Southern Baptists reading Graham’s newest work in late 1965 would have been thinking of Herbert Caudill and David Fite’s arrest and imprisonment in

Cuba, which had dominated headlines in Baptist newspapers for months.

139 “Castro’s Cuba – Missionaries Not Affected By Decree,” Baptist Record, Oct. 12, 1965, 1;“Cuba: No Prison Release,” Christian Index, Oct. 21, 1965, 5. “Caudill and Fite Appeal for new Trial,” Baptist Digest, Oct. 16, 1965, 8; “Cuban Release Premature,” Baptist Record, Oct. 21, 1965, 1; “Cuba Missionary Release Premature, Official Says,” Hawaii Baptist, Nov. 1965, 3.

140 Baptist Record, July 15, 1965, 6.

141 Billy Graham, World Aflame (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1965), 8-12; “World Aflame: Billy Graham,” Word and Way, Sept. 9, 1965, 14; “Graham Among Current Authors,” Christian Index, Sept. 7, 1965, 15; “Why Billy Graham Believes That World Aflame Is His Most Important Book,” Christian Index, Sept. 7, 1965, 23.

142 Graham, World Aflame, 12.

By the end of 1965, any Southern Baptist with his or her finger on the pulse of denominational life would have heard of the Caudill incident at some point from news articles, sermons, or that year’s Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Dallas. Informed and engaged, Southern Baptists became involved in an international, geopolitical crisis, as two American missionaries remained imprisoned in communist Cuba. In this time of crisis, the long-time anti-communist and conservative pastor of FBC Dallas, W. A.

Criswell, took aim at global communism through both sermons and action, as he traveled to the Soviet Union to demand religious liberty for Soviet Baptists. These actions endeared Criswell to Baptists and helped secure his status as the rising star of conservatism in the SBC. During the intermediate years from Caudill’s imprisonment in

1965 to his return to the United States in 1969, Criswell would continue to co-opt

Caudill’s story with other developments at home and abroad into a narrative that supported his larger religious and political goals.

CHAPTER 3: “TRUMPETS IN DIXIE:” CHANGES AT HOME, 1966-1968

In the period between Herbert Caudill’s arrest 1965 and his return to the United

States in 1969, southerners of all socio-political backgrounds attempted to make sense of the “Bulldozer Revolution,” which was – both literally and figuratively – remaking the

South.143 The Cold War facilitated economic growth in the South by allowing southerners to benefit from capital investments from the military industrial complex. In addition to industrial development, the fruits of the Civil Rights movement had fomented great social change. In general, Southern Baptists had mixed responses to these changes. Baptist institutions such as the Home Mission Board, based in the emerging metropolis of

Atlanta, Georgia, attempted to steer the denomination into the future by guiding Baptists through these changes. Baptists were united in their understanding that much had changed and that they needed to prepare reach new people in a new land. As the decade neared its end, the conservative faction in the SBC became more clearly defined and ambitious. W. A. Criswell offered his own vision for the future of the Southern Baptist

Convention. From his pulpit in Dallas, he harnessed Caudill’s testimony and made it part of a larger narrative that pitted the forces of conservative Baptists and what he defined as

“real religion” against communism, worldly secularism, and theological liberalism. As

143 C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern History, 3rd ed. (Baton Rouge, LA: Louisiana State University Press, 2008), 6.

Criswell rose in stature during this period, his narrative found larger audiences and gained more traction.144

Life in a Cuban Prison

Due to his age, Cuban authorities did not sentence Caudill to hard labor in the

UMAP, prison labor camps operated under Fidel Castro’s government; however, prison life was still a harrowing experience for the aging missionary. Throughout his imprisonment, he was acutely aware of his lack of control over events. He was shuffled from one cellblock to another, fights erupted unpredictably between prisoners, and visiting hours were irregular. Caudill took comfort in being with Fite for a time, but they were later separated.145

In defiance of the communist government that imprisoned them, Caudill, Fite, and the other Cuban prisoners attempted to create some kind of normalcy by holding religious services, despite the lack of liturgy or Bibles:

We had no hymnbooks. We began to copy hymns from memory in notebooks that our relatives brought us. Two favorites were “How Great Thou Art!” and “A Mighty Fortress Is Our God.” We frequently heard men singing who did not attend the services or show interest in them…the prison authorities were not happy about services held within the ward by prisoners. We were on the alert that some guard might scold us for what we were doing.146

By continuing their worship covertly, their religious practice became a form of resistance and an exercise of agency against the regime. Reports of the missionaries’ experiences made their way into the Baptist presses and further endeared the missionaries to their fellow Baptists in the U.S. South. In May 1966, Jane Pringle, Caudill’s daughter and a

144 W. A. Criswell, “Real Religion” (sermon, Dallas, April 7 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

145 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 90-93.

146 Ibid, 77-78. 50

missionary to Panama, addressed the Women’s Missionary Union and shared reports of her father’s experiences. She described her father as being at peace with the situation and relayed his belief that he was where God wanted him to be. She described his impact on those around him in the prison and recounted the birthday he celebrated in prison. His fellow prisoners had given him bread in lieu of a birthday cake with matches in place of candles. She optimistically described the situation as “the hour of opportunity in Cuba, for we have witnesses in prison and out of prison, in the military as well as in civilian life.”147

During this period, the Baptist newspapers kept the Caudill incident alive by reprinting whatever developments they could ascertain. Scattered updates came from various sources, including the Baptist World Alliance. Most of these articles reported changes in Caudill’s health, which fluctuated during his imprisonment. He grappled with illness, particularly the flu, on multiple occasions; however, it was his eyesight that ultimately proved most devastating. Despite the fact that the Caudills had visited the U.S. for treatment shortly before their return to Cuba and arrest, Herbert Caudill’s vision continued to fail during his imprisonment. In December 1966, the Cuban government granted Caudill a conditional release to seek medical treatment in Havana. This was not complete freedom, as he was still unable to leave the island, and his poor eyesight made life difficult at home. At the time, much of this information regarding Caudill reached the

U.S. primarily through telephone correspondence with Mrs. Marjorie Caudill.148

147 Leuna Baskin Wood, Cuba, the Caudills, and I, 1970, Mercer University Special Collections, Macon, GA. This source is an unpaginated scrapbook compiled by an associate of the Caudills. It contains various news clippings, magazine articles, and personal notes; “Unending Praise for Missionaries,” Word and Way, September 22, 1966, 2.

For nearly four decades, Mrs. Caudill had proved to be an exceptional partner in sustaining the Cuban Baptist mission field. She played the piano for various church functions, helped maintain the seminary, and even wrote a novel set in Cuba for the

Home Mission Board.149 Now, in what seemed to be the darkest hour for the Caudills and

Cuban Baptists, Mrs. Caudill ably stepped into the role of mediator between the HMB and the imprisoned missionaries. From the time of Herbert Caudill’s arrest in April 1965 to the beginning of his house arrest in December 1966, Mrs. Caudill was the Cuban

Baptist mission’s primary American representative. During Herbert Caudill’s conditional release in Havana, his failing eyesight meant that he needed her help more than ever.

Even when her own eyesight began to fail, Mrs. Caudill refused to leave without her daughter’s family, the Fites. Reportedly, she told Margaret Fite, “I would rather go blind than leave you now.”150

In early 1966, news reached the Baptist Press through telephone correspondence with Mrs. Caudill that the Baptists of Western Cuba were able to hold their annual convention on February 22-25. Despite the absence of the missionaries and several

Cuban Baptist ministers, roughly 2,000 of the 8,781 recorded Cuban Baptist church members attended each night of the convention. Despite these attendance numbers, it was

148 Baptist Digest, March 5, 1966, 3; “Caudill + Fite Separated, Caudill Has Flu,” Baptist Digest, Feb. 12, 1966, 6; “Caudill and Fite Reunited, Caudill Over Flu,” Baptist Digest, March 5, 1966, 3; Baptist Digest, Oct. 8, 1966, 6; “Cuban Missionaries Said Having Health Problems,” Word and Way, September 15, 1966, 14; “Cuba gives Caudill Conditional Release,” Baptist Digest, Dec. 10, 1966, 4; Baptist Digest, Sept. 10, 1966, 8; Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 93-95.

149 Marjorie Jacob Caudill, Carmita of Cuba (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention, 1942).

150 “Mini Biography: Marjorie and Herbert Caudill,” Accent, news clipping from Cuba Mission Collection, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Box 2, Folder 21; Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 98.

evident at the convention that the Cuban Baptist church had experienced decline. Since the last convention, over 1,000 Cuban Baptists had left the churches, most of whom had fled Cuba and communism altogether. It was also clear that much of the decline directly correlated with the mass arrests in 1965. The year before the arrests, Cuban Baptists had given $88,410 to the Cooperative Program. In 1966, they were still contributing to the

Cooperative Program, but they had struggled and failed to meet their much-reduced goal of $60,000. Baptisms – the most prized metric in Southern Baptist missions for measuring church growth and success – had reached a “new low of only 136” in 1966, in contrast to the 376 baptisms in 1964.151 In summation of her report on the Cuban Baptist meeting, a taxed Mrs. Caudill reflected, “we are trying to keep on keeping on.”152 These words captured the state of the Cuban Baptist mission as a whole in the period immediately following Caudill’s arrest; the church was strained but alive.

On May 27, at the Friday afternoon session of the 1966 annual Southern Baptist

Convention in Detroit, Michigan, Baptist messengers requested more information on

Herbert Caudill and David Fite. Additionally, Leobrado Estrado, a Hispanic pastor from

New York state, led the entire convention in prayer for the imprisoned missionaries.153 At the same time, Southern Baptists continued to ask questions about who they were as a body. In the same session that saw requests and prayers for the missionaries, a resolution passed reaffirming a focus on missions in “the great urban communities of the West, the

151 “Sorrow Underscores Cuban Baptist Meeting,” Word and Way, March 24, 1966, 15.

152 Ibid., 15.

153 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, Detroit, Michigan May 24-27, 1966 (Nashville, TN: Southern Baptist Convention, 1966), 97. 53

North, and the East.”154 As convention attendees initiated discussion of a possible name change from the regional “Southern Baptist Convention” to something more geographically inclusive, it became clear that an identity crisis was developing within the convention. What had once been a primarily regional entity bound to the U.S. South had expanded into a national and transnational community linked by missionaries and the

Cooperative Program.155

“A Changing Church:” the South in the Late 1960s

While Caudill, Fite, and their families remained imprisoned in Cuba, their other home, the U.S. South, underwent significant change. From the advances of Civil Rights to increased industrialization, the South in the latter half of the 1960s looked vastly different from when the Caudills left for Cuba in 1930, or even when they had visited the

U.S. in 1964. In their absence, a Christian left had developed, and a subgroup of outspoken Southern Baptist progressives, primarily focused on Civil Rights, had emerged.

Rev. Will D. Campbell was one such progressive. Campbell was active in the

Civil Rights movement at a very early stage. He was present at the founding of Dr.

Martin Luther King, Jr.’s Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) in 1957 and was an escort for the Little Rock Nine during the desegregation of Central High School that same year. Campbell was also the editor of Katallagete, a left-leaning Christian journal, from 1963-1972. Katallagete, a Greek word meaning, “be reconciled,” encapsulated Campbell’s belief that Christianity was a personal state of being, as opposed

154 Ibid., 94.

155 “Indiana Baptists Endorse Change in Name of SBC,” Word and Way, November 24, 1966, n.p. 54

to an institutional religion.156 Although scholars have frequently characterized Campbell as an exceptional individual, his opposition to the Vietnam War, embracing of social gospel, and rejection of typical religious and political organizations typified attitudes of the Christian left. Campbell criticized religious institutions, such as denominations, as dysfunctional and unnecessary for Christian living. He also decried Billy Graham for being too close with President Richard Nixon and mixing faith and politics. He also traveled widely, visiting draft evaders in Canada, working with Civil Rights leaders, ministering to Klansmen despite his wholesale rejection of their agenda, and visiting many prisoners. In Up to Our Steeples in Politics (1970), Campbell expressed many of the progressive views he aired in the late 1960s during his tenure as the editor of

Katallagete.157

Another Baptist progressive, Clarence Jordan, exemplified the Christian left’s focus on spiritual and material poverty in the South and the world. Jordan graduated from

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, the flagship theological institution of the SBC, and returned to his home state of Georgia to found an interracial

Christian commune called Koinonia Farm in 1942. Utilizing his training as a Greek scholar, he translated the New Testament into a series known as the “Cotton Patch

Gospels” between 1963 and 1969.158 These translations contextualized the New

156 Will D. Campbell and James Y. Holloway, Up to Our Steeples in Politics (1970; Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Publishers, 2004), 1.

157 Campbell, Up to Our Steeples in Politics; Will Campbell, Brother to a Dragonfly (1977; Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2018); Will D. Campbell, Forty Acres and A Goat (1986; Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2018); Will D. Campbell, Conversations with Will Campbell, ed. Tom Royals (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2018), ix-xix.

158 Clarence Jordan, Cotton Patch Gospel: The Complete Collection (Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys, 2014). 55

Testament within the U.S. South by replacing the biblical cities with Southern ones and replacing crucifixion with lynching. Jordan’s translation both brought the story of the gospels closer to the South and illustrated the issues of race and poverty. By the late

1960s, he anticipated an increasing rate of change that would make the work of Koinonia

Farm obsolete, so he planned to create an organization that could uplift rural communities from poverty and make home ownership accessible. Although Jordan would not see his plans come to fruition because of his unexpected death in 1969, the organization he helped establish, Habitat for Humanity, has constructed thousands of homes across the

South and the world in the decades since Jordan’s death and has “helped more than 13 million people achieve strength, stability and independence through safe, decent and affordable shelter.”159

In addition to spurring a small but growing Southern Baptist left, the Cold War fomented other kinds of changes by facilitating economic growth in the South and extending the benefits of the military industrial complex to southerners. Military bases and munitions factories disrupted communities and ecologies, but they also created high paying jobs that many southerners were eager to accept, given their desire to escape the poverty that had defined much of the region for so long. Baptist moderates and conservatives agreed that the South and the nation had changed, but they found themselves increasingly divided by how to approach those changes. The HMB responded

159 “Habitat’s History,” Habitat for Humanity, accessed January 25, 2019, https://www.habitat.org/about/history; “Koinonia Farm Founder Dies,” Word and Way, November 27, 1969, 11; Ann M. Trousdale, Cotton Patch Rebel: The Story of Clarence Jordan (Eugene, Oregon: Resource Publications, 2015); Jordan, Cotton Patch Gospel.

to these changes by issuing “The New South: Home Mission Series,” a series of Bible studies written in 1967 and distributed in 1968.160

One such study, Trumpets in Dixie, interpreted economic and social changes to

Baptists and suggested possible opportunities and approaches to evangelism. This study captured the period’s southern identity crisis and Southern Baptists’ attempts to remain relevant. It contained a recommended reading list, including Harper Lee’s To Kill A

Mockingbird, for discussions on the differences in the “Old and New South.”161 The

Trumpets in Dixie Sunday School curriculum also demonstrated southerners’ dual identities, asking leaders to begin the lesson by playing patriotic music, along with

“Dixie,” the tune most associated with the Southern experience – for better or worse.162

In the wake of industrial, political, and demographic changes across the South, many of which were connected to the Cold War, Trumpets in Dixie represented an attempt to embrace many of these “drastic changes taking place in ‘the land of cotton.’”163

In a relatively short time, then, rural agrarianism had declined in the South. While southern emigrants of earlier generations had found opportunity in the Midwest and across the Sunbelt, by the mid-twentieth century, southern cities held the promise of good jobs. So changed were the South’s major urban centers, such as Atlanta and Dallas, that

160 Kari Frederickson, Cold War Dixie: Militarization and Modernization in the American South (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2013). For more on historical rd poverty in the South, see C. Vann Woodward, The Burden of Southern History, 3 ed. (Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 2008), 14-18; Edward L. Queen, In the South the Baptists are the Center of Gravity: Southern Baptists and Social Change, 1930- 1980 (Brooklyn, NY: Carlson Publishing, 1991), 90.

161 Trumpets in Dixie: Teacher’s Guide (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board, 1967), 8.

162 Trumpets in Dixie, 8.

163 Ibid., 17.

they were “almost unrecognizable” to southerners who had visited just a few years before.164 Southerners attempted to avoid industrial whiplash as “the influence of atomic plants and space centers” swept across the region.165 These Cold War outposts created pockets of diverse, affluent communities, comprised largely of non-southerners, which stood in stark contrast to the cultural and economic homogeneity of the pre-WWII South.

The demographic deck was further shuffled as the southern hospitality industry expanded as northerners “discovered” the South, especially sunny Florida.166 One activity outlined in Trumpets in Dixie encouraged Baptists to role play these new characters, such as a wealthy businessman connected to burgeoning southern industry, a leisure-seeker visiting from the North to enjoy the southern climate, and a poor inner city dweller left behind by the economic boom. These new arrivals to the South were outsiders to the southern religious and cultural experience, yet they presented an opportunity for Southern Baptists to practice evangelism within their own communities. In spite of its saturation in

Protestantism, the Deep South nevertheless had become a mission field as a result of the population influx from the rural South, across the United States, and abroad during the

Cold War.167

Cuban Émigrés and the U.S. South

Industrialization, urbanization, and the growth of the hospitality industry were not the only forces fueling the population explosion in the South. Thousands of Cuban refugees fled the same revolutionary government that had arrested Caudill. They made

164 Ibid., 17.

165 Ibid., 9.

166 Tracy J. Revels, Sunshine Paradise: A History of Florida Tourism (Gainesville, FL: University of Florida Press, 2011).

167 Trumpets in Dixie, 17. 58

new homes in the U.S. South, especially in Miami, Florida. Cuban émigrés were not a new feature on the Southern landscape; they had long been a part of the southern experience. In the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, Cubans lived in cites in the Gulf South from New Orleans to Key West.168 One such early émigré, Adela Fales, embodied this Cuban-southern connection and was a testament to the interconnectedness of the nineteenth century Gulf World. Born to a Cuban family in the mid-nineteenth century and raised in Biloxi, Mississippi, Fales regularly attended Sunday school at the local Southern Baptist church. After briefly returning to Cuba, she later found her way to

Key West, where she served as a teacher, translator, and advocate of the Baptist faith to fellow émigrés. She was responsible, in part, for establishing the Baptist mission in Cuba in the late nineteenth century by connecting Southern Baptists from the Home Mission

Board with Alberto Díaz.169

While earlier waves of Cuban emigrants had fled for various political and economic reasons, the scale of Cuban emigration and the communist regime from which the refugees fled set the 1960s wave apart. Trumpets in Dixie challenged Southern

Baptists to take action to help their newly arrived Cuban neighbors. This could be as simple as practicing speaking English with a recent Cuban émigré or as complex as starting migrant ministries within local churches to “reach and minister to these people.”170 Almost overnight, Cuban immigrants reshaped their local communities.

168 Dalia Antonia Muller, Cuban Émigrés and Independence in the Nineteenth Century (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2017).

169 Jesse Laney Boyd, A Popular History of Baptists in Mississippi (Jackson, MS: Baptist Press, 1930), 146-47; See Chapter 1.

170 Trumpets in Dixie, 24.

Calvary Baptist Church in Miami, for example, went from being an English-only church to a Spanish-language church with an English language department. The Cuban refugee community added to the cultural, linguistic, and religious diversity in the South. Those at the Home Mission Board who wrote Trumpets in Dixie presented this concept to churches as an opportunity. Émigrés also became living evidence that the U.S. South was not peripheral to the Cold War. As the Cold War reverberated throughout the South through industry and Cuban refugees, W. A. Criswell responded by taking aim at global communism. Southern Baptists could see the transnational consequences of conflicts between Cuba and the United States and between the Communist Bloc and the capitalist

West. As southerners wondered how to confront the challege of global communism,

Criswell offered them hard-line answers.171

Developments in Cuba

When news reached the United States in December 1966 that Herbert Caudill had been granted a “conditional release” into house arrest and was allowed limited mobility around Havana, it sparked a surge of renewed interest in Caudill’s experiences among

Baptists. The news of Caudill’s release ranked “among the ten most significant Baptist news developments of 1966.”172 Reports of Caudill’s visual ailment inspired action from two American surgeons from Emory University in Atlanta, Georgia. The Cuban government permitted Drs. William S. Hagler and Harry Taylor to visit Havana in return for humanitarian aid to Cuba in the form of medical equipment. The doctors were not random volunteers, however. Dr. Hagler had ties to the Fites; he was a colleague of

171 Trumpets in Dixie, 3.

172 “Cuba Gives Caudill Conditional Release,” Word and Way, December 22, 1966, 16; “Federal Aid Question Top SBC ’66 Story,” Word and Way, January 19, 1967, 3.

David Fite’s twin brother, Donald, who was an associate professor of ophthalmology at

Emory. With clearance from the U.S. State Department and the Czechoslovakian

Embassy, Cuba’s diplomatic representative in the U.S., the doctors traveled to Havana in

March 1967 to repair Caudill’s detached retina. The surgery was a success, and the

Cuban government allowed Caudill to remain in his home. Meanwhile, the Caudills’ son- in-law and fellow missionary, David Fite, remained in prison.173

The same time the surgeons traveled to Cuba, Clifton and Ruby Fite – David

Fite’s parents – also traveled there to appeal for Fite’s release. After failed appeals to the

Czechoslovakian Embassy in Washington, D.C. and the Cuban Embassy in Ottawa,

Canada, the Cuban ambassador in Mexico City finally granted the Fites permission to travel to Cuba. While there, the Fites were able to see their son, who was “healthy but thin” from his labor in the marble pits. They lobbied the Cuban government for an early release for David Fite; during the process, Cuban officials gave them “cordial treatment.”174 While appealing to Cuban authorities, Clifton Fite was careful to distance himself from his identities as both an American and a Southern Baptist. He instead based his appeal on his identity as a father, which he hoped would transcend cultural and political barriers to win the sympathy of Cuban authorities and ultimately lead them to release David Fite. While their trip did not result in immediate action from the Cuban

173 “Surgeon Visits Cuba; Operates on Caudill,” Word and Way, April 20, 1967, 15; “Caudill Improving, Hopes to Read Soon, Letter Says,” Word and Way, July 20, 1967, 13.

174 “Fites Return From Cuba; David Well, Encouraged,” Word and Way, May 18, 1967, 11.

government, the Fites left Cuba in May 1967 having seen their son alive and having made their case to the Cuban authorities.175

“Our Far-Flung Mission Line”

On March 5, 1967, W. A. Criswell delivered a sermon outlining the conflicting natures of Christian missions and global communism. Herbert Caudill’s experience was

Criswell’s case-in-point in illustrating communism’s role in slowing global missionary progress. “Until Fidel Castro removed Cuba into the orbit of atheistic socialism,”

Criswell charged, “our witness of the Home Mission Board was also in Cuba. There have been, languishing in the prisons of Cuba, two of our greatest missionaries for several years now, Herbert Caudill and David Fite.”176 Criswell here revisited the saga of 1965, conjuring memories of how Cuba had been home to a thriving mission but quickly had become an atheistic, communist state. He illustrated his global ambitions for Southern

Baptists and his frustrations with the present geopolitical obstacles hindering that mission. The message implied that the Caudill incident would be repeated throughout the world if Baptists did not take the threat of communism seriously.

Criswell also tied together the global mission of the SBC and his vision for the convention’s future in this sermon:

We need a remembrance of the interlinking of all mankind… We need – oh, so desperately! We need the spirit of evangelistic missionary conquest that has fled us… We need a resurgence, a renaissance, a recrudescence of that spirit of evangelism and witnessing that our fathers knew when they faced a pagan and lost world, and sent missionaries and preachers and built churches and institutions to make the name, the saving name of Christ known in the earth.177

175 W. A. Criswell and Clifton Edgar Fite, In Castro’s Clutches (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969).

176 W. A. Criswell, “Our Far-Flung Mission Line” (sermon, Dallas, March 5, 1967), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

177 Criswell, “Our Far-Flung Mission Line.” 62

Criswell’s call to Southern Baptists was not a push for new theology and perspectives; rather, it was a call to return to American Christianity at the turn of the twentieth century, which he idealized as being more evangelical than the church of the 1960s. This appeal to return to old-time gospel roots formed the basis of conservative rhetoric in the following decades. Criswell’s use of the word “resurgence” in this sermon was particularly interesting, as conservatives and fundamentalists later described their movement to take control of the convention between 1979 and 1990 as the “conservative resurgence.”178

That same year, two young conservatives who later served as the architects of the emerging conservative-fundamentalist movement, Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler, met at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss the future of the SBC.179

The then-imagined resurgence not only targeted communism; Criswell also took the opportunity to link atheistic communism with theological liberalism. In a clear response to “God is dead” theology, Criswell charged that society had “fallen into the atheistic persuasion that God has somehow been run out of the universe and is dead.”180

In doing so, Criswell conflated all theological liberalism with this strain of thought and identified all liberalism and communism as dangerous and radical. He considered the end result of liberalism to be atheism and the death of evangelism. In this single Sunday service, Criswell had reminded Baptists of the threat of global communism evidenced by the Caudill incident, and he had advocated for a conservative “resurgence” to revive the

178 James C. Hefley, The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (Hannibal, MO: Hannibal Books, 1991).

179 Nathan A. Finn, The Development of Baptist Fundamentalism in the South, 1940-1980 (Ph.D. diss., Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, 2007), 186.

180 Criswell, “Our Far-Flung Mission Line.”

evangelical spirit of the denomination.181 Criswell’s ideal future for the convention was clear; Southern Baptists would be a transnational force guided by theologically conservative principles.

1968

In contrast to the tumultuous state of domestic U.S. and global politics at the time, Criswell’s prestige was at an all-time high in 1968. That year, First Baptist

Church of Dallas celebrated its centennial and 25 years with Criswell at its helm.

Criswell reflected on his career:

When I came here to the church…I received a letter from one of the executive leaders of our Southern Baptist Convention from Nashville, Tennessee and listen to what he wrote the young pastor: “Never yet has there been a downtown church that really has done the job. Reach the people; commiserate with the great business houses, skyscrapers, movements of the masses. We are watching your church, your program, staff, organization. Maybe you will do it.”182

Criswell and his congregation certainly believed that he had done the job at First Baptist

Church, Dallas. The church, “the largest church in the Southern Baptist convention,” had recorded 261 baptisms over the previous year, the fourth highest of all SBC churches.183

In an increasingly urbanizing South and world, FBC Dallas served as a potential model for the future of urban ministry.

181 Ibid.

182 W. A. Criswell, “The Outpouring of the Holy Spirit” (sermon, Dallas, February 4th, 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

183 “Oklahoma Church Leads SBC in ’67 Conversions,” Word and Way, May 9, 1968, 3.

Figure 2 “centennial celebration,” Word and Way, September 19, 1968, 12.

The church used its massive facilities and resources to hold a celebration with grand patriotic undertones to mark Criswell’s 25th anniversary as pastor of FBC Dallas.

On this occasion, Criswell interpreted the church’s history to his congregants in the sermon, “Century of Blessings.” He illustrated the church’s growth from eleven members in 1868 to the 14,825-member congregation in 1968, which occupied a massive complex of buildings on prime real estate in downtown Dallas. Interestingly, much of his sermon focused on the physical expansion of the church. Criswell proudly recounted the acquisitions of neighboring properties and the constructing of new buildings under his tenure. He believed God had shown favor toward the church by allowing them to carve increasingly large spaces for religious worship out of downtown Dallas. As a presumably

favored church and ministry, Criswell expected great things for the future of his church and ministry.184

Any expectations Criswell had for wider influence were not unreasonable. By the

1960s, Criswell’s messages regularly reached beyond his massive congregation in Dallas to thousands of Baptists who heard his sermons via radio or read print copies. Criswell had risen to such a stature that it became almost a pilgrimage for Southern Baptists from around the country to hear him preach when visiting Dallas. One such pilgrim was Robert

J. Hastings, editor of the Illinois Baptist, who visited Dallas on April 7, 1968, when

Criswell preached a sermon entitled “Real Religion.” Hastings left the church with an energized spirit, writing, “as the congregation melted into the city streets, I wistfully longed to be starting my ministry all over again, dedicated more than ever to ‘Real

Religion’… Really, is there any other kind?”185 Criswell’s message that the world was besieged by false doctrines of atheism, liberalism, and communism, among others, reached ever-wider audiences. By the late 1960s, it was evident that Criswell’s influence and prestige as a powerful, conservative preacher was broadly recognized within the

SBC. He thus clearly had the convention-wide recognition necessary to run for president of the SBC in 1968.186

184 W. A. Criswell, Standing on the Promises: The Autobiography of W. A. Criswell (Dallas, TX: Word Publishing, 1990), 212-214; W. A. Criswell, “Century of Blessings” (sermon, Dallas, June 28, 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

185 “A Sunday in Dallas,” Word and Way, June 6, 1968, 7; W. A. Criswell “Real Religion” (sermon, Dallas, April 7 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

186 “A Sunday in Dallas,” Word and Way, June 6, 1968, 6-7.

The 1968 Southern Baptist Convention, Houston, TX

In the weeks leading up to the annual Southern Baptist Convention, Criswell preached almost exclusively about spiritual revival. FBC Dallas traditionally held revival meetings in the weeks leading up to Easter; however, in 1968, the revival theme carried on well past Easter Sunday. Criswell’s views and intentions were best illustrated in “The

Hope of America – Revival,” delivered on April 28, just one week before the convention meeting. In this sermon, Criswell framed all of American history as a providential act of

God. According to Criswell’s perspective, the United States was founded as a godly nation by English separatists, such as Baptist Roger Williams, and from that initial foundation in New England, pioneer preachers carried their faith across the continent.

Like other conservatives – religious and otherwise - emerging in the U.S. during this time, Criswell harnessed patriotism to build support for his agenda. By promoting the narrative that the United States was founded as a Christian nation, Criswell could characterize his agenda as a return to earlier principles. It would be a restoration, not a revolution.187

Criswell moved closer toward that restoration during the annual Southern Baptist

Convention held June 4-7, 1968 in Houston, Texas, when he was able to step onto the highest platform in the Southern Baptist Convention: the SBC presidency. On

Wednesday afternoon, June 5, James E. Coggin of Texas nominated Criswell for the presidency, and he was elected that afternoon. The election of a candidate so outwardly identifiable as a “conservative” made it clear that division existed in the Southern Baptist

187 W. A. Criswell, Standing on the Promises, 213; “Revival or Revolution” (sermon, Dallas, April 21, 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX; “The Hope of America – Revival” (sermon, Dallas, April 28, 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX; “The Flame of Revival” (sermon, Dallas, April 28, 1968), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

Convention. Criswell later remembered reporters asking him, “‘What about the split between Baptist Conservatives and Baptist Moderates?’”188 Divisions not only existed in

1968, but they also continued to deepen.

Conservatives cheered Criswell’s election as a triumph and a chance to steer the

SBC in their direction. One Missouri Baptist, A. H. Stainback, wrote in an editorial published in Word and Way, “Our new president, W. A. Criswell, will give the Southern

Baptist Convention a powerful, effective and conservative voice. Much needed.”189

Stainback’s letter exposed the developing fault lines within the convention and the mechanisms by which conservative voices could be amplified. He alluded to the conservative-dominated pastor’s conference, which met before conventions, as being

“again the tail trying to wag the dog” in 1968.190 He applauded the work of the pastor’s conference, but wanted a larger conservative movement. He expressed discontent with the “liberal trends of our schools and writers” and emphasized the need for more conservatives to get involved with voting.191 In these remarks, Stainback touched on the goals and strategies that conservatives later implemented in their movement to curb the influence of moderates and liberals in the convention.192

188 W. A. Criswell, Standing on the Promises, 217.

189 “Convention Observations,” Word and Way, June 27, 1968, 14.

190 Ibid., 14.

191 Ibid., 14.

192 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, Houston, Texas, June 4-7, 1968 (Nashville, TN: Southern Baptist Convention, 1968), 63, 66; “Officers Elected at Southern Baptist Convention,” Word and Way, June 13, 1968, 3.

Figure 3 “Dr. W. A. Criswell, new president of the convention” Word and Way, July 11, 1968, 3.” Conclusion

Criswell later claimed that he was a reluctant leader, who would never have pursued the SBC Presidency had not “God and a handful of my friends intervened.”193

Regardless of the accuracy of this claim, few could deny that his gradual but steady rise in influence over the preceding decade made his election as SBC president in 1968 not an altogether surprising event. As the rapid changes of the late 1960s sent shockwaves through American culture and politics, Criswell had been on the attack. Throughout the decade, he had consistently and intensely issued declarations against atheism, secularism, theological liberalism, and communism.

Criswell repeatedly pointed his fellow Baptists toward perceived acts of communist aggression, such as the Caudill incident, in sermons and speeches. He had called for a return to what he characterized as the historic values and beliefs of previous

193 W. A. Criswell, Standing on the Promises, 218. 69

generations of American Christians to counter this encroachment. He advocated global actions to spread the conservative-fundamentalist counterrevolution, or “resurgence,” across the denomination, the country, and around the world. He had stoked the fires of

Baptist conservatism and found himself at the helm of the largest Protestant denomination in the United States. Despite the grandiose scale of these pronouncements and his election as SBC president, Criswell’s so-called “higher hour” was yet to come.

Herbert Caudill, David Fite, and their families returned from Cuba the following year.

Their return would become part of the formidable spectacle that was the 1969 Southern

Baptist Convention in New Orleans, over which Criswell would preside. 194

194 W. A. Criswell, In Castro’s Clutches, 9. 70

CHAPTER 4: “CONSERVATIVE WINDS”: HERBERT CAUDILL AND THE

SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION AT NEW ORLEANS, 1969

In late December 1968, Southern Baptists received an unexpected Christmas present when the Cuban government released David Fite and removed the last obstacle preventing the missionaries from leaving Cuba.195 Almost immediately, Caudill and

Fite’s release dominated both the mainstream and Baptist news cycle, which recounted celebratory headlines and told how “a prayerful Southern Baptist Convention” had followed Caudill’s experiences.196 As Baptists across the United States celebrated the missionaries’ release, newspapers recounted the “heartwarming reports” they had heard about prayer and worship at La Cabaña Fortress and the birthday Caudill celebrated in prison with a roll covered with matches in lieu of a cake.197 After nearly four years of imprisonment, the missionaries would be returning home; however, the Caudill incident continued to reverberate throughout the SBC. Unbeknownst to the missionaries at the time, their return coincided with the eruption of a new doctrinal controversy between

Criswell’s conservatives and Baptist academics. The missionaries arrived stateside in time to witness this controversy and its effect on the deepening debate between so-called

195 “David Fite Is Freed From Cuban Prison,” Baptist Record, January 6, 1969, 1- 2; “Herbert Caudill Free,” Baptist Digest, January 18, 1969, 1, 3.

196 “Second Baptist Missionary to Cuba Free, May Return,” Baptist Record, January 16, 1969, 2.

197 Ibid.

conservatives and liberals over what it meant to be a Southern Baptist. At the tumultuous

1969 Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, Herbert Caudill and David Fite gave testimonies of their experiences in Cuba in front of the convention and, in doing so, contributed to the larger debate about Baptist identity.198

Coming Home?

Southern Baptists were both surprised and elated to learn about Herbert Caudill’s and David Fite’s release, and they scrambled to prepare for the missionaries’ homecoming. “We don’t know what is happening or why,” L. D. Wood of the Home

Mission Board told reporters, “we are just grateful they are both free.”199 Arranging their return proved difficult because communication was primarily “second, third and fourth- handed”; however, the Home Mission Board organized a welcome party.200 When the missionaries’ flight from Cuba reached Matamoros, Mexico, a crowd of familiar Cuban and American faces awaited to surprise them, and together they sang “Praise God from

Whom All Blessings Flow” in Spanish. Among the crowd were Arthur B. Rutledge, executive secretary treasurer of the HMB, and L. D. Wood, assistant secretary of language missions, who waited to escort the missionaries to HMB headquarters in Georgia.201 From

Matamoros, the party traveled to Brownsville, Texas, and finally to Atlanta, where

Georgian Baptists welcomed the missionaries as heroes. In Waynesboro, Georgia, where

198 “Imprisoned Missionaries Arrive in U.S. Safely,” Baptist New Mexican, February 15, 1969, 7; “Missionary: Cubans Release Herbert Caudill,” Christian Index, January 16, 1969, 5; “Imprisoned Missionaries Arrive from Cuba: Caudill, Fite Land in States, February 7,” Indiana Baptist, February 19, 1969, 1, 5.

199 “Second Baptist Missionary to Cuba Free,” 1.

200 “Second Baptist Missionary to Cuba Free,” 1; Baptist Digest, Feb. 22, 1969, 1.

201 “Second Baptist Missionary to Cuba Free,” 1.

David Fite had preached for five years preceding his appointment in Cuba, the mayor declared March 1, 1969, “David and Margaret Fite Day,” and several members of the community turned out to celebrate the patriotic event and see the faces they had known as neighbors and prayed for as prisoners.202

Despite the missionaries’ warm reception in Georgia, Herbert Caudill expressed mixed feelings at the time of his return that exposed his complex transnational identity.

The Caudills and Fites had a familiarity with Georgia that eased their adjustment, as both sets of missionaries had lived, studied, worshipped, and married in the state. Is spite of those facts, the Caudills did not necessarily consider Georgia home. By 1969, Caudill had spent more of his life in Cuba than in the United States. Upon his arrival, reporters asked

Herbert Caudill what it was like to leave Cuba after his 40-year ministry there. “It’s like leaving home,” he responded.203 In many ways, Herbert Caudill had experiences like those of an émigré. He was unable to return to Havana, where he had spent nearly four decades teaching, ministering, and raising a family. The Castro regime had pushed him and his family to the breaking point, and they found themselves cast abruptly back into their identity as Georgians. While Havana was Caudill’s home, it had changed so drastically under the Castro regime that Caudill recognized and accepted they could not stay. “After more than ten years in Cuba under the Communist system,” Caudill later wrote in his memoirs, “we were ready to settle down.”204

202 Clifton Edgar Fite and W.A. Criswell, In Castro’s Clutches (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969), 152-53.

203 “Herbert Caudill Freed,” Baptist Digest, February 22, 1969, 7.

204 Herbert Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge: Ten Years Under Communism in Cuba (Atlanta, GA: Home Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1975), 118. 73

As the Caudills and Fites’ settled in Georgia, concerns for Baptists in Cuba, other communist countries, and missionaries around the world continued. The editor of The

Baptist Record, Joe T. Odle, informed his readers:

Perhaps few Southern Baptist missionaries have had so many people praying for them, as have these men…At the same time we should continue to pray for those Cuban pastors who still remain in jail in that sad land…Mission work and Christian witness continue to become more difficult in many areas in the world…This is even more true in Communist countries, where already almost all doors for Christian witness have closed…We need to pray continually for God to lead and bless all our missionaries, our mission boards, and all of those giving true, evangelical witness to Jesus Christ, anywhere in the world. Thank God, but keep on praying!205

Odle’s editorial, entitled, “Thank God, But Keep On Praying,” served as a reminder that

Southern Baptists were a transnational body and that the resolution of the Caudill incident was by no means an end to the geopolitical struggle between global Christianity and global communism. It also highlighted most Southern Baptists’ belief that intercessory prayer could affect their missionary endeavors worldwide; they considered prayer a potent action with tangible and intangible results. In the context of the Cold War, this often translated into support for civil religion, or the acceptance of “transcendent religious symbols” in the public sphere to reinforce American values.206 For example, some

Baptists showed support for prayer and Bible study as a part of the space program, in response to critics who saw it as out of place.207

205 “Thank God, But Keep On Praying,” Baptist Record, Feb. 13, 1969, 4; “Southern Baptist Family Lives in Moscow,” Baptist Record, Jan. 16, 1969, 1; “How are Baptists Doing in Communist Countries?” Baptist Digest, April 5, 1969, 8.

206 Glenn H. Utter and John W. Storey, The Religious Right: A Reference Handbook, 2nd ed. (Santa Barbara, CA: ABC-CLIO, 2001), 348.

207 “Circulates Petition Commending Bible Reading by Astronauts,” Baptist Digest, April 10, 1969, 4. 74

The Caudills and Fites reinforced the belief that Baptists prayers of intercession had affected their release in an “Open Letter to Baptists,” published on April 10, 1969. In the letter, which was published in multiple newspapers, the missionaries thanked their fellow Baptists for their support in prayer and material aid. Although not all of the

Baptists’ measurable efforts to help were successful, local congregations had acted in ways that were global in aim and had participated an ideological battle between Southern

Baptists’ mission in Cuba and communism. Caudill’s letter recognized and affirmed the network of Baptists that had prayed throughout their imprisonment and acted as a global body.208

After turning their attention to getting Marjorie desperately needed surgery to repair her detached retinas, the Caudills were free to rest in Atlanta.209 Likewise, David

Fite continued to “get used to being free” in the United States following his four-year imprisonment, most of which he had spent in a labor camp.210 The rest, however, proved

208 Herbert Caudill, “Open Letter to Baptists: Freed Missionaries Express Thanks,” The Baptist and Reflector, April 10, 1969, n.p, Cuba Mission Collection, Box 2, Folder 21, Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives [SBHLA], Nashville, Tennessee; Herbert Caudill, “Letters to the Editor,” The Alabama Baptist, April 10, 1969 n.p., clipping from Cuba Mission Collection, Box 2 , Folder 21, SBHLA; Letter from Bob Frike to Lloyd Corder, June 18, 1965, Cuba Mission Collection, Box 2, Folder 31, SBHLA.

209 “Cuba Missionaries Are Now Resting; Mrs. Caudill Is Due Eye Surgery,” Baptist Standard, February 26, 1969, n.p., Cuba Mission Collection, Box 2, Folder 20, SBHLA.

210 “After Years in Prison – Fite Says He Needs Time to Get Used to Being Free,” Florida Baptist Witness, April[?] 1969, 2, Cuba Mission Collection, Box 2, Folder 22, SBHLA; “Must Re-learn American Way,” Baptist Record, May 22, 1969, n.p.

temporary, as Herbert Caudill and David Fite soon found themselves in the spotlight at the turbulent 1969 annual Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans.211

Criswell and the “Literally True” Controversy

In early 1969, W. A. Criswell published a new book entitled Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True, and it created a controversy that divided Baptist professors and more conservative Baptists when it hit the shelves of the denominational publishing outlet

Baptist Book Stores that year. Criswell’s newest publication was not remarkably different from messages he had preached and written in the past. He enthusiastically supported conservative doctrines and implored Southern Baptists to preach the Bible “literally, grammatically, and historically.”212 Criswell had preached many sermons and published several works in the recent past with similar messages, such as The Bible for Today’s

World (1965) and In Defense of the Faith (1967).213 Two factors set the circumstances surrounding the publication of Criswell’s 1969 book apart from his earlier work: the author’s position and the publisher. First, Criswell now wrote as the sitting SBC president and therefore represented the leadership and spirit of the convention. Second, he wrote

Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True for Broadman Press, the official publishing arm of the Sunday School Board and the SBC, whereas he had released his earlier works through Zondervan, an independent Christian press. Like they did for any book Broadman

Press published, the Sunday School Board promoted the book and sold it in Baptist Book

211 “The Caudills and Fites Are Now Resting,” Baptist Record, Feb. 27, 1969, 3.

212 W.A. Criswell, Why I Preach the That Bible Is Literally True (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1969), 192; Book review of “Why I Preach the Bible Is Literally True,” Word and Way, April 10, 1969, 2.

213 Criswell, Why I Preach; W.A. Criswell, In Defense of the Faith (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1967); W.A. Criswell, The Bible for Today’s World (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 1965).

Stores. To some Baptists, primarily professors of theology, the combination of these two factors appeared to equal an official denominational endorsement of conservative theology.214

This perceived endorsement of Criswell’s book pushed Baptist professors, who were frustrated by the increasingly conservative climate of the convention, to a breaking point. At a March meeting of the Association of Baptist Professors of Religion held in

Atlanta, 64 professors decried the Sunday School Board and the convention’s apparent endorsement of Criswell’s work. The professors assessed Criswell’s views as conservative but “not so completely conservative or fundamental as the title implies”; rather, the professors took issue with the book’s contribution to the “conservative trends.”215 They discerned an increasingly conservative attitude in the convention that threatened to limit their academic freedom to apply historical-critical methods to biblical studies, and they charged New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary with being among the most academically restrictive institutions. Although Criswell’s overall message in Why I Preach

That the Bible Is Literally True was not the primary factor that ignited debates, Baptist academics worried that Criswell’s provocative, “misleading and unfortunate” title would encourage fundamentalism and anti-intellectualism within the convention.216

Conservative responses were equally forceful, and many Baptists generally interpreted the professors’ protests as a wholesale rejection of biblical authority. In “An

214 “Baptist Professors Protest Restrictions,” Tallahasee Democrat, March 8, 1969, 13.

215 Ibid.

216 “Baptist Professors Protest Restrictions,” Tallahasee Democrat, March 8, 1969, 13; “Religion Prof Seeks to Clarify Position,” Florida Baptist Witness, April 1969, 2, Cuban Mission Collection, Box 2, Folder 22, SBHLA.

Open Letter to 64 Baptist Professors of Religion,” Dr. Tal D. Bonham of Pine Bluff,

Arkansas questioned the professors’ authority and motives. He asked, “[W]ho are you?

What are your names and where do you teach?”217 Bonham’s tone represented the immediate backlash many Southern Baptists felt toward these professors and hinted at a desire to find and displace them from Baptist academic institutions. In response to the uproar, Joe T. Odle, a moderate conservative, asserted that Baptists did not need be divided as long as the SBC maintained the “middle-of-the-road conservative position” on

Biblical doctrine.218 Odle firmly believed that if Biblical authority appeared to be questioned, most Southern Baptists would reaffirm “that the Bible IS the Word of God, and when men…try to lead them away, they will find that Southern Baptists will not follow.”219 Likewise, Odle dismissed “ultra-fundamentalists” as destructive to the convention, as their radicalism also threatened the status quo.220

Another editorial, published by W. Ross Edwards of The Word and Way, “Why

Can’t Southern Baptists Have Peace?,” similarly supported Criswell’s work while denouncing divisive rhetoric in the convention. Edwards called instead for Baptists to focus on evangelism.221 Reactions to Edwards’s editorial, which was published alongside

“An Open Letter to 64 Baptist Professors of Religion,” illustrated the tense divisions within the convention. Multiple liberal-moderate Missouri Baptists wrote to express their

217 “An Open Letter to 64 Baptist Professors of Religion,” Word and Way, April 10, 1969, 2.

218 “Southern Baptists Do Not Need to Divide” Baptist Record, March 27, 1969, 4.

219 Ibid.

220 Ibid.

221 “Why Can’t Southern Baptists Have Peace?” Word and Way, April 10, 1969, 2. 78

disgust with the “unchristian” nature of Edwards’ editorial.222 “Shame on you, Dr.

Edwards,” wrote Bob Hamblin of Cape Girardeau, “for a biased coverage…of the

Criswell–64 Baptist professors matter…I, for one, refuse to believe only the simple- minded and the single-minded can be Southern Baptists.”223 Another critical reader, Ron

Scharer of Liberty, Missouri, accused Edwards and The Word and Way of “spiritual pollution” and reprimanded Edwards, “I remember a college professor who taught that the

Pharisees were a political group with religious overtones. The Baptists may very well be the Pharisees of today.”224 Clearly, Edwards’ stay-the-course attitude and support of

Criswell struck a nerve among liberal-moderates who were put off by what they perceived as an “anti-intellectual attitude” among their fellow Baptists.225

Conservatives wrote with equal enthusiasm to reaffirm Edwards’ positive assessment of Criswell’s book and his appeal for a conservative consensus. Edward E.

Wolfe, a Baptist living in Alaska who described the Word and Way as his “vital tie” to his home state of Missouri, thanked Edwards for taking a “firm stand on…the inspiration and authority of the Bible.”226 Wolfe reflected the increasing belief among grassroots conservatives that the professors who opposed the publicity surrounding Criswell’s Why I

Preach That the Bible Is Literally True opposed the Bible itself, despite their claims to the contrary. Increasingly, conservatives came to believe that a liberal cadre was seeking to

222 “People’s Forum,” Word and Way, May 1, 1969, 7.

223 Ibid.

224 Ibid.

225 Ibid.

226 Ibid.

take control of the convention, and they needed to act to stop this by attending the convention and supporting Criswell. This impulse extended to the grassroots. George S.

Reuter, Jr., for example, wrote from Iowa to indicate his continued support for Edwards and to share that he would “still vote for Dr. Criswell.”227 Melvin Mabry of Callao,

Missouri, expressed both fear of doctrinal compromise and concern for the convention’s future in his letter to Edwards, which asked why people “can’t accept the Bible like it is?” and suggested that divisions had arisen in the SBC because “the devil knows we are the largest evangelical group… If he can get our teachers and leaders to disagree, we will lose our influence.”228 These strong reactions were not isolated to the Word and Way, and the majority of editors wrote in support of Criswell.229 It was in this divisive climate that

Southern Baptists prepared to meet in New Orleans.

227 Ibid.

228 Ibid.

229 “Reaction Roundup: Letters, Editorials, Protest Professors Reactions’ Book Resolution,” Word and Way, May 1, 1969, 4. 80

Figure 4 “Poor Guidepost,” The Baptist Record, May 15, 1969, 4.

The Annual Southern Baptist Convention at New Orleans, 1969

“Conservative winds were blowing strongly at the 1969 convention in New

Orleans where W. A. Criswell was [re]elected president,” wrote one self-identified conservative Baptist journalist, James C. Hefley, when describing the annual meeting in retrospect.230 New Orleans was an appropriate place for a conservative Baptist revolt, as it was home to the fairly conservative New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary

(NOBTS). NOBTS was founded in “the great metropolis of the South” by action of the

SBC in 1917 as “The Baptist Bible Institute.” It was intended to expand Baptist influence

230 James C. Hefley, The Truth in Crisis: The Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention (Dallas, TX: Criterion Publishing, 1986), 53.

in the Gulf South and to train missionaries “to reach into Mexico and Cuba and other

Latin-American countries.”231 Although all six SBC seminaries employed at least some professors who held theological views that Criswell and the conservatives would have defined as liberal, NOBTS produced several notable conservatives. 232 Until 1969, it was home to conservative Professor Clark H. Pinnock, who frequently spoke at Baptist state conventions and trained two figures who later played integral roles in reshaping the convention: Paige Patterson and Adrian Rodgers.233 Pinnock had attracted major attention after calling for “reformation” and decrying the advance of theological liberalism at the

1968 annual SBC in Houston.234 More moderate and liberal Baptist academics identified

NOBTS’s conservative tilt as problematic as the 1969 convention drew near. NOTBS

Professor Robert R. Soileau resigned his position under protest in February 1969 because

“the theological direction [of] the seminary” was moving “toward a more conservative point of view.”235 The seminary professors who had protested Criswell’s book earlier that

231 “The Baptist Bible Institute,” Word and Way, November 15, 1917, 7.

232 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, iii, 64; Bill J. Leonard, God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 137.

233 James C. Hefley, The Truth in Crisis: The Controversy in the Southern Baptist Convention, Volume 3: Conservative Resurgence or Fundamentalist Takeover? (Hannibal, MO: Hannibal Books, 1988), 9, 13.

234 “Clark Pinnock Resigns Post At New Orleans Seminary,” Baptist Record, February 13, 1969, 1.

235 “New Orleans Seminary Professor Resigns Under Protest,” Word and Way, February 13, 1969, 4.

year in Atlanta also had singled out NOBTS as the most conservative of the six SBC seminaries.236

Southern Baptists expected that the convention in New Orleans would be well attended as they prepared to debate several issues concerning the future of the convention.

Baptists knew the docket would include whether or not to honor the tradition of reelecting the incumbent president or to vote Criswell out in the wake of the recent controversy.

They also knew a resolution condemning extremism and a new, previously undisclosed name for the Training Union would be revealed.237 It was also known that the Caudills and Fites would be at the convention; the Home Mission Board announced a planned reunion of former missionaries to Cuba for Thursday, June 12, at the Monteleone Hotel.

The HMB invited all convention attendees to meet Herbert Caudill and David Fite.238

Criswell also planned an “evangelistic service” for the convention and he announced that

May 25 would be a day of prayer in anticipation of the final day of the convention, Friday,

June 13.239 Rumors also circulated that James Forman, an integral leader in the civil rights and later Black Power movement, would deliver a manifesto demanding reparations for slavery to the convention and demand the convention recognize it. If the rumors had been true, such an action would surely have escalated any anticipated tensions at the convention

236 “Baptist Professors Protest Restrictions,” Tallahasee Democrat, March 8, 1969, 13.

237 “SBC Agenda, New Orleans: Extremism, Crisis Implementation, Crusade Reports Set,” Word and Way, June 5, 1969, 16.

238 “Reunion of Cubans: HMB Reception At SBC,” Baptist Record, April 17, 1969.

239 “Day of Prayer Slated For Convention Service,” Baptist Record, May 15, 1969, 1.

by adding another layer to the controversy.240 For a plethora of reasons, Southern Baptists understood that the 1969 convention would be consequential.

“Conservative Winds” at the SBC in New Orleans

The “conservative winds” of the convention manifested in a variety of ways, but one of the most vivid conservative moves was the rejection of a proposed name-change of the Training Union to “Quest.”241 The Training Union was a feature of Southern Baptist denominational life that helped manage auxiliary church affairs. Within many Southern

Baptist churches, the Training Union delegated responsibilities to members, tracked attendance, and planned social activities.242 By the late 1960s, the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Convention believed that the Training Union was in need of an update. The change was intended to give a modern image to the denominational ministry.

The Sunday School Board, which had jurisdiction over the Training Union, kept the new name a secret because they expected that the surprise would contribute to enthusiasm.

This proved to be a major miscalculation.

On Wednesday night of the convention, June 11, President Criswell introduced

James L. Sullivan, executive secretary of the Sunday School Board, to give the board’s annual report. Sullivan shared the board’s plans for the next decade, which included

240 “Tares Among Wheat,” Word and Way, June 5, 1969, 2; “The New Orleans Convention,” Word and Way, June 26, 1969, 2. For more on James Forman and the movements he was involved in, see his autobiographical work The Making of Black Revolutionaries (Seattle, WA: University of Washington Press, 2000).

241 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 53.

242 “A Standard Training Union,” Word and Way, February 3, 1955, 11; “The Standard of Excellence – What is it?” Word and Way, September 15, 1955, 11.

forthcoming “Broadman Bible Commentary” set.243 He then presented a promotional film that announced that “Quest” would be the new name for the Training Union. There were immediate signs of uneasiness when an open forum yielded no questions whatsoever from the audience. The big reveal was not met with enthusiasm, as the leadership of the Sunday

School Board had expected. Instead, the name change stimulated conservatives’ fears that the SBC establishment in Nashville had been keeping secrets from them. They perceived a

“widening gulf of understanding between the planning desks and the churches.”244

Consequently an anti-establishment attitude began to surface among conservatives. On

Thursday morning, June 12, this anti-establishment attitude burst forth when Noah

Phillips of Texas moved “that we consider ‘Quest’ to be unsuitable as a name for the training program of Southern Baptists.”245 This opposition sentiment was evident on the floor of the convention. One Baptist journalist recalled hearing a messenger (delegate) remark, “we aren’t questing for anything…we’ve found the truth.”246 Phillips’s unexpected motion was “referred for later consideration” until the next day.247

On Friday morning, June 13, the Quest issue arose again as part of a series of conservative actions. Foy Valentine presented the report of his agency, the Christian Life

Commission, and then presented a “Statement on Extremism—Left and Right” to the

243 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, New Orleans, Louisiana, May 10- 13, 1969, 6. The first of the promised Broadman commentary set was released later in 1969 and caused further controversy because of its non-literal interpretation of Genesis. See Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 54-57.

244 Annual of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1969, 64; “A Baptist Convention,” Baptist Record, June 19, 1969, 4.

245 Ibid., 71.

246 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 54.

247 Ibid., 71.

convention.248 The resolution recommended that Southern Baptists “seek to become alert to the extremist forces, left and right, in church and society, which if allowed to go unchallenged will divide us and ultimately take us down the dreadful road to ruin.”249

Conservatives immediately felt that this resolution was directed at them. Robert Kay of

Texas inquired of Valentine whether or not this anti-extremist resolution applied to theological views. Valentine responded opaquely that the resolution “had not specified any limits but was meant to deal with extremism as such.”250 In response, Richard Barrett of Mississippi “offered a substitute motion to thank the Christian Life Commission for the report and to receive it without adopting the recommendations.”251 In simpler terms, this substitute motion was a parliamentary slap in the face to Valentine, the Christian Life

Commission, and the Nashville establishment. The substitute motion passed.252

Shortly after the messengers rejected Valentine’s anti-extremism measure, Registration

Secretary William Kendall announced the results of the presidential election. The conservative incumbent W. A. Criswell had overwhelmingly defeated William C. Smith, a

“liberal” professor at the University of Richmond, by a margin of 7,482 to 450.253

Immediately following this news, the resolutions committee brought before the convention Noah Phillips’ motion to strike down Quest as a potential new name for the

248 Ibid., 77.

249 Ibid., 71.

250 Ibid., 78.

251 Ibid.

252 Ibid.

253 Ibid.; “112th Southern Baptist Convention Attracts 17,000 Messengers to Consider Problems and Chart Future,” Alaska Baptist Messenger, June 1969, 1.

Training Union. The secrecy of the name change confirmed to conservatives that the executive committee of the SBC had been plotting in Nashville to promote liberalism within the convention. They believed the name itself suggested ties to liberalism; conservatives believed they knew biblical truth and did not need to go on a “quest.” In a move against the establishment, messengers, led by conservatives, voted down the name change with alacrity.254 In response, Secretary Sullivan addressed the convention as “a matter of personal privilege” to admit the embarrassing fact that the Sunday School

Board, which had not anticipated any opposition whatsoever to the name change, had already printed thousands of training materials with the proposed new name at significant cost.255 Despite Sullivan’s appeal and a motion to reconsider from former SBC President

Wayne Dehoney, Quest became a casualty of the emerging conservatism in the Southern

Baptist Convention. The messengers had rejected more than a name; they had rejected the status quo of Southern Baptist life.256

Caudill and Fite Speak

In contrast to the chilly reception that Quest and other proposals received during the convention, the Caudills and Fites were received as heroes. When introduced to the convention on Wednesday morning, June 11, the messengers gave the missionaries a standing ovation. Despite the cumulative conservative victories throughout the annual meeting, Criswell considered the Caudills’ and Fites’ moments on stage to be the pinnacle of the convention. “In all the years that I have attended the annual sessions of the Southern Baptist Convention,” Criswell wrote in late 1969, “I have never experienced

254 Hefley, Truth in Crisis, 54.

255 Ibid., 80.

256 Ibid., 81.

a higher hour than when Herbert Caudill and David Fite were presented to the people at the convocation in New Orleans, June, 1969.”257 Even considering Criswell’s penchant for hyperbole, his memories of Caudill and Fite revealed his level of investment in their narrative. Criswell had taken the missionaries’ stories and integrated them into his own.258

The missionaries had extended time to speak on the June 13, final day of the convention. During the Friday afternoon session, Herbert Caudill and David Fite took the stage.259 The session began with hymn singing, and Arthur Rutledge led the convention in prayer. Fite was the first of the missionaries to address the messengers and share his experiences about the day he was released from prison in Cuba. Fite told of getting off the packed bus with his bag over his shoulder and a letter in his pocket “to certify that James

David Fite has been set free as a special case.”260 He recounted the surreal moments after he arrived home from the Cuban prison:

I can never describe the feeling as I saw the familiar landscape. The houses, the yard, and the trees…My heart pounded and I quickened my step as I rounded the corner and saw my house in the middle of the block. I stepped on the porch and knocked at the open door. “Anyone home?” I asked. And I heard the little boy as he came running through the living room. “¡Papi!” he cried as he grabbed me by the neck. “¡Papi!” “¡Papi!” I knew I was home. I knew I was free. God had responded to your prayer[s].261

257 W.A. Criswell, “Foreword” to Clifton Edgar Fite and W.A. Criswell, In Castro’s Clutches (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969), 9.

258 Annual of the SBC, New Orleans, 1969, 60.

259 Ibid., 53-54.

260 A facsimile of the letter certifying Fite’s release as a “caso especial” was reprinted in Fite and Caudill, In Castro’s Clutches, 146.

261 David Fite at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, June 13, 1969 - Audio recording, Digitized from reel to reel in July 2018 at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

Fite’s words brought the entire convention into the dramatic moment of his release and reaffirmed the belief that their intercessory prayers had made them party of it. “But our prayers have not been completely answered,” Fite added, reminding the messengers that

“there are still fourteen [Cuban Baptists] in prison. And there are many who labor under the pressure of constant surveillance.”262 The missionaries had departed Cuba, but the

Cuban Baptist Church lived on, despite the difficulties the communist system imposed on it. The missionaries’ retreat did not mean that the tie between Southern Baptists and

Cuban Baptists was severed totally. Fite encouraged Baptists to keep praying and to remember “from the day that we were imprisoned your prayers were being answered, and are being answered, today.”263 In that moment, Fite acknowledged the belief that Baptists were part of a larger spiritual network that crossed continents and held the intangible power to foment change.

Following another interlude of singing and prayer, it was Caudill’s turn to speak.

Like Fite, his words brought the messengers into his experiences in Cuba; however,

Caudill chose to tell a broader story that emphasized the central theme of the role of the

Bible in Cuban missions. He told of how “an average of more than 300,000 portions,

Testaments and Bibles” had been imported annually in the two decades before Castro’s reign. “Many of these are in the hands of Christian people and are being read and studied,” Caudill said. Steering attention toward the issue of biblical authority, he commented, “Cuban Christians are anxious to share what they have received. For them the

262 Ibid.

263 Ibid.

Bible is a very precious book.”264 He then explained how the Cuban government had gradually increased restrictions on importing and distributing religious literature, eventually seizing many Baptist books, grinding the pages to pulp, and turning the “better leather” Bibles into purses.265

Caudill’s overarching message was that the Bible had helped him through his imprisonment and would help Cuban Baptists, as well:

When my eyes were bound for many weeks in 1964 and again in 1967 and I could not see, I rejoiced that I could nourish my spiritual vision from joyous passages learned many years before. Also in the stillness of the long nights spent in the Cuban prison, La Cabaña, I was strengthened by God’s word, and I felt that his promises were for me…I had a number of experiences with my fellow prisoners there in La Cabaña…two fellow pastors and I decided that we wanted to have in our possession the 27th psalm. We didn’t have a Bible or a psalm and so as we could we remembered verse by verse this precious psalm. And it became our scripture there in that place…One of my fellow prisoners who was at my side in the ward in La Cabaña’s fortress along with some 200 other men, said “Caudill, I feel better now after hearing the preaching of the word of God and the teaching from the word of God and seeing something of the testimony of what the word of God means in your life. There was another man who stayed quite close to me and at that time we had a copy of the Bible with large print. This man was pretty well up in years, and during the months that we were there together, beginning with the book of Genesis, he read almost the entire Bible. When he was moved to another prison, he was already about to the book of Hebrews. And that word had brought about a change of attitude and spirit in the life of that man… Truly the Word of God is not bound in Cuba or anywhere else in the world.266

Out of context, Caudill’s persistent use of “word of God” to refer to the Bible would have carried no added significance; however, in the wake of the clash between the 64 Baptist professors and those who approved of Criswell’s book, a serious rift had developed among Baptists over the exact nature of biblical authority. At face value, Caudill’s words

264 Herbert Caudill at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, June 13, 1969 - Audio recording, Digitized from reel to reel in July 2018 at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

265 Ibid.

266 Ibid.

were an account of life as a missionary under Castro’s communist regime and a message of hope for Baptist witness in Cuba. In its subtext, however, Caudill’s account reaffirmed the “middle-of-the-road conservative position” on biblical authority described by Joe T.

Odle.267 In eight minutes, Caudill referred to the Bible as “the word of God” twenty times.268 Caudill’s words themselves were not radical, but they did have resonance in the debate between Criswellian conservatives and moderate-liberal professors over how to approach biblical scholarship. The missionaries presence was more important than any words they could say; after reading headlines and hearing sermons about the missionaries and the threat of global communism, attendees at the SBC could see Caudill and Fite standing before them – apparently delivered by Criswell himself.

The Evangelistic Service (the Convention Closes)

Later, during at the last session of the convention, Criswell got the opportunity to address the convention with his sermon entitled “The Two-Edged Sword.”269 While the sermon’s central point was to outline how to balance the “two cutting edges” of the religious and social responsibilities of Christianity, it also warned that Christians should expect conflict in carrying forward global missions. “The sword is a weapon for advance. It’s not a defensive weapon,” Criswell explained, adding, “We are in a war from which there is no discharge. We may be the church triumphant someday, but we are the

267 “Southern Baptists Do Not Need To Divide,” Baptist Record, March 27, 1969, 4.

268 Herbert Caudill at the Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, June 13, 1969 - Audio recording, Digitized from reel to reel in July 2018 at the Southern Baptist Historical Library and Archives, Nashville, TN.

269 W. A. Criswell, “The Two-Edged Sword (SBC)” (sermon, New Orleans, June 13, 1969), W. A. Criswell Sermon Library, Dallas, TX.

church militant today.”270 Globally, Baptists were locked in a spiritual war with the forces of evil, which had “not only blunted our attack, but…stopped our forward progress.”271

Criswell hinted at a desire to see not only mission fields remain open, but to see Baptists push into closed fields, perhaps within the Soviet bloc.

As he continued, it became apparent that the conflict Criswell expected was not only with spiritual elements, but also with theological liberals:

The world is weary of being told what they cannot believe. They are frank to say that if the church is nothing but a conglomerate of political tappers and tinkers, and if the Bible is so unreliable it cannot be accepted as being true, and if the Christian faith is built upon a gigantic fraud of a man who is supposed to have risen from the dead but didn’t, then why try to modernize the whole mess? Just throw it out and be done with it. That’s what many students, and what businessmen have done: they listen to the preacher who believes nothing, has no convictions, has no message; they yawn and they go out and play golf.272

Criswell’s sermon implied that theological liberals were contributing to the global weakening of evangelical influence. He further stirred the sentiments of conservatives against the professors by imploring Southern Baptists to continue to “believe that the

Bible is the Word of God,” implying that the moderate professors did not believe that.273

He ended his sermon with a nod to the convention’s future by declaring, “fundamentally and deeply we commit ourselves tonight to the Holy Scriptures, to the saving gospel of the grace of the Son of God, to the evangelization of the world, and to our ministry in it.”274

Under Criswell, Southern Baptists’ goals would remain global in scope and would

270 Ibid.

271 Ibid.

272 Ibid.

273 Ibid.

274 Ibid.

prioritize evangelism. Although Southern Baptists remained a non-creedal people at the conclusion of the convention, serious conversations over the acceptable amount of diversity in doctrines had spilled over into the ongoing debates. 1969 did not bring

Baptists closer to a clear consensus, rather, it opened the gates for labeling and divisve doctrinal battles.

Reactions to the Convention

In the wake of the annual Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, the formation of fissure lines and a clear conservative turn within the SBC became apparent, to the alarm of some Baptists and the acclaim of others. Baptist newspapers acknowledged that the convention had been charged. As editor John Hurt of The Baptist Standard wrote,

“It was a convention…of liberals vs. conservatives, and you can define the terms any way you like.”275 Baptist editors tried to make sense of the debates, the tense votes, and the

“anti-establishment” sentiment.276 Several editors explained that problems had arisen because the annual Southern Baptist Conventions had grown to an unmanageable size and the yearly gatherings created a host of logistical difficulties. It was obvious in New

Orleans that there were “problems in maintaining democratic process when 17,000 messengers jam [into] a 12,250 seat auditorium.”277 Additionally, many attendees believed the prices of hotels and meals in New Orleans had been inflated and far too expensive.278

Editors offered multiple potential solutions, including limiting the number of messengers from each state, changing the way representation worked, or holding four to six regional

275 “Editorials See SBC as Too Big, Conservative, Anti-Establishment,” Baptist Standard, July 10 1969, 1.

276 Ibid.

277 “State Papers View SBC Too Big,” Baptist Standard, July 9, 1969, 5.

278 Ibid., 5. 93

conventions.279 As for the rejection of Quest, the editor of The Maryland Baptist wrote simply, “Baptists don’t like secrets.”280

Others blamed “liberal, loosely defined, ”agitators for this disruption, most notably

“a group called Baptist Students Concerned and…the E. Y. Mullins Fellowship,” which represented the main challenge to conservatives.281 Although they had not dominated the tone of the convention in the way the conservatives had, “liberals were more vocal at the

New Orleans convention than ever before,” editors noted.282 As vocal as they were, these groups composed a voting block of only approximately 250-300 messengers, less than 2% of the total delegates present at the convention. Despite Criswell’s rhetoric against liberalism, he seemed to feel unthreatened at the convention. As one newspaper recounted,

“When asked about whether these dissidents could change the convention, Dr. Criswell replied that it would not come in his lifetime.”283 Either Criswell believed the conservative movement was inherently undefeatable by 1969, or he meant that he would expend all his personal abilities and resources to see that liberals did not take control of the convention.

At that time, the faction identified as liberal did not have the numbers to make such a move.

Many conservatives viewed the proceedings of the 1969 convention as a clear victory for their cause. “It was a Baptist convention indeed!” wrote Joe T. Odle of The

Baptist Record. “It debated, it decided, it spoke clearly, and it made its position known.

279 “Editorials See SBC as Too Big,” 2.

280 “State Papers View SBC Too Big,” 5.

281 Ibid.

282 Ibid.

283 “A Baptist Convention,” Baptist Record, June 19, 1969, 4. 94

That position was the New Testament, Christ-centered, conservatism, which characterizes most Southern Baptist churches.”284 Odle informed readers that the state editors had been told about Quest a year before and had expected it would be resisted, but they had been told to keep it secret. Odle also boasted of how easily W. A. Criswell had defeated the

“liberal” candidate. For conservatives, Criswell had delivered. Why I Preach That the

Bible Is Literally True served as their de facto manifesto, and Criswell had led them into the 1969 Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, where they had vented their frustrations against the “liberals” and the establishment.285

In the midst of the turmoil and debate at the convention, Herbert Caudill emerged as a symbol of Southern Baptist identity to some Baptists. One convention attendee met

Caudill and his family at a restaurant during the convention and wrote of the encounter:

Spanish…Seafood…three sons…Cuba. Of course, those were the Caudill and Fite families! I had seen their pictures so often (score one for the Baptist papers) that I felt I had already met them…My memories of the hippies, the pickets, the protestors, the debates have all faded. And I remember New Orleans with a warm glow because I saw the real representative of our convention – warm, friendly, human, and loveable. Others may thank the Caudills and Fites for their great missionary endeavors; but I thank them for giving me a picture of Southern Baptists.286

As the author of this quote, assistant editor Marjorie Moratto of The Baptist Digest, illustrated, Baptists connected with Herbert Caudill’s experiences and embraced him as a symbol of their global mission and identity. They had seen his picture repeatedly in

284 Ibid., 1.

285 “Dr. W. A. Criswell,” Baptist Record, June 26, 1969; “Southern Baptists in New Orleans Undergird Conservative Position,” Baptist Record, June 19, 1969; “112th Southern Baptist Convention Attracts 17,000,” 1; “The New Orleans Convention,” Word and Way, June 26, 1969, 2.

286 “An SBC Extra,” Baptist Digest, July 5, 1969, 6.

Baptist newspapers, heard his story, and prayed for his safe return. When the Caudills and

Fites had appeared before them in New Orleans, they believed that those prayers had been answered. For those who had been following the story in the long term and listening to

Criswell, it brought the missionaries’ experiences, which he had preached about and put in the context of a global struggle between communism and the free world.

At the beginning of 1970, Southern Baptist newspaper editors assessed 1969’s headlines and voted to determine those that best expressed the Baptist experience during that year. These editors’ perspectives mattered, as they were in many ways the gatekeepers of Southern Baptist news and public opinion – at least for what appeared in print. Herbert Caudill’s and David Fite’s release secured the second spot on the list, coming behind only Hurricane Camille, which had recently devastated the Mississippi

Gulf Coast. Even several months later, the story remained fresh and persisted in the mind of Southern Baptists. Several of the remaining top ten stories connected to doctrinal issues and the annual Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans. The controversy surrounding Criswell’s Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True and the Baptist professors ranked fourth on the list, and the messengers’ rejection of Quest at the 1969 convention ranked third. Overall, the results showed that the climactic end of the Caudill incident and the year’s controversies that had played out at the convention were at the forefront of the Baptist experience that year. Criswell had drawn them into his conservative movement, and their stories had served as reminders of the communist threat and to vindicate Criswell’s hardline against communism.287

287 “Camille, Cuban Missionaries, Doctrine Named 1969’s Top Baptist News Items,” Indiana Baptist, January 1970, 1. 96

Conclusion

The Caudill incident (1965-1969) and the missionaries’ appearance at the 1969

Annual Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans had a mixed impact on the SBC as an entity. Because Baptists were unified in support of the missionaries, their presence helped maintain the status quo by serving as a welcome distraction from the divisions that were unmistakably present at the 1969 convention. Simultaneously, the publicity surrounding the Caudill incident fomented the conservative movement in the long term by buoying the career of W. A. Criswell and stroking fears of communism. In sermons and speeches before, during, and after the 1969 convention, Criswell adopted the story of the missionaries’ imprisonment as a part of his larger campaign to rally the convention against his perceived dangers to the SBC, which began with communism and stretched to a host of other issues, including theological liberalism. In a world of uncertainty, Criswell’s consistent anti-communist message, which included the missionaries’ experiences, continued to grow into broad-based support within the convention.

EPILOGUE: THE LEGACY OF THE CAUDILL INCIDENT

The Caudill incident remained relevant and exhibited a staying influence beyond the annual convention in 1969, as firsthand accounts emerged in the following decades and circulated the story afresh. The first of these accounts, Clifton Edgar Fite’s In

Castro’s Clutches (1969), detailed the experiences of Clifton Fite, David Fite’s father, during the missionaries’ imprisonment, and his trip to Cuba in attempt to get his son freed. The title, along with a menacing photo of Fidel Castro, on the cover emphasized the hostile depiction of the communist regime in Cuba. W.A. Criswell wrote the introduction to this work and used that opportunity to identify himself again with

Caudill’s and Fite’s struggle. “I only wish that I could be present with each reader as he finishes reading this glorious story,” wrote Criswell, “and that we could pray together, thanking God for His remembrance of us.” 288 Moody Press, an independent Christian publisher in Chicago with a history of emphasizing fundamentalism, published the book, and it was also distributed by the Baptist Book Store and marketed in Baptist newspapers.289

288 Clifton Edgar Fite and W.A. Criswell, In Castro’s Clutches (Chicago: Moody Press, 1969), 9.

289 “Special Fall Release; In Castro’s Clutches” (advertisement), Alaska Baptist Messenger, December 1969; For more on Moody Press and the historic link between modern fundamentalism and the consumer economy, see Timothy E . W. Gloege, Guaranteed Pure: The Moody Bible Institute, Business and the Making of Modern Evangelicalism (Chapel Hill, NC: University of North Carolina Press, 2015). 98

In 1975, Herbert Caudill released his own account, On Freedom’s Edge: 10 Years

Under Communism in Cuba, which gave readers a first-hand perspective of his experiences during the revolution and his imprisonment. The book and its publication through the Home Mission Board suggested a continuing concern with global communism as a threat to global Christianity. In the final section of the book, “The Work

Continues,” Caudill briefly summarized the encroachment of communism on the Cuban

Baptist church and delivered a message to contemporary readers about the future of

Cuban Christianity and communism. “A darkness has settled down on Cuba – deep dense darkness,” he warned readers in reference to communism’s influence on religious life in

Cuba.290 He explained that the Cuban Baptists’ efforts to go “back to the most important things, the fundamentals of the Christian life,” were what kept the church alive in spite of the limits communism imposed on it.291 Caudill’s emphasis here on the “fundamentals” suggestted sympathy with the emerging conservatives.292 This autobiographical work sold well enough to warrant a second printing in 1979, and he and Marjorie were also able to share their experiences through speaking engagements. Thus, the Caudill incident remained in public discussion. 293

Among Southern Baptists the Caudills became venerated figures. James and Marti

Hefley included Caudill in By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century

(1979), a volume that accounted notable slayings and imprisonments of Christian

290 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge, 119.

291 Ibid., 121.

292 Ibid., 121.

293 Caudill, On Freedom’s Edge. 99

missionaries.294 In 1985, Broadman Press released The Caudills: Courageous

Missionaries as part of the “meet the missionaries” children’s book series. The book perpetuated the Caudill incident to the next generation by recounting the basic narrative of the Caudills’ life and ministry. It also further elevated the Caudills and put them in a divine context. “God used Herbert and Marjorie Caudill because they were willing to do

God’s will,” the book informed children, “they were missionaries with courage.”295 Both

Hefley’s work and the children’s book projected the Caudills as models for Christian living and missions; the former targeted the adult demographic, while the latter was aimed at youth. Interestingly, both works mistakenly indicate that Caudill was “convicted of espionage;” whereas, he was actually convicted on currency exchange and ideological charges.296 Despite these inaccuracies (perhaps added for dramatization), these publications illustrated the continuation of the Caudill incident in the collective Baptist memory.

Criswell and the “Conservative Resurgence” Post-1969

After the 1969 Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans, it was clear that

Southern Baptists were divided. In 1971, progressive Baptist Will Campbell gave an interview to The Presbyterian Survey and discussed the fault lines developing among

American Christians:

Ben Hartley: People representing different positions in the denominations– conservative and liberal–seem to be locked in a win-lose battle from which they

294 James and Marti Hefley, By Their Blood: Christian Martyrs of the Twentieth Century, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker, 1998).

295 Tom McMinn, The Caudills: Courageous Missionaries (Nashville, TN: Broadman Press, 1982), 58.

296 Hefley, By Their Blood, 549; McMinn, The Caudills, 44.

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cannot be extricated and reconciled. How do you feel about this polarization? Where will it lead us?

Will Campbell: Nowhere. I really don’t think it makes any difference…It’s silly having all these spearing things called denominations. You could merge all the morgues in town, and you don’t get a single living body.297

To the anti-institutional, progressive Baptist and civil rights activist, Will D. Campell, a divided SBC was a sign of the failure of institutional Christianity. To the majority of

Baptists who were active participants in the denominational life of the SBC, the emerging divisions mattered deeply. The conservative actions actions and the liberal voices raised at the 1969 Southern Baptist Convention in New Orleans made it a defining moment for the future of the convention. It was in these early victories that conservative Baptists gained the confidence to return in subsequent conventions and eventually wrest control of the SBC away from more moderate and liberal influences.298

Despite his propulsion into leadership of the conservative Southern Baptists by

1969, Criswell’s two-terms as SBC president did not result in an immediate conservative take-over of the convention. Criswell relied upon recommendations from current SBC executive committee members for whom to appoint on the boards of SBC institutions.

Even if Criswell had not fully conquered the convention for conservatives by the time end of his second presidential term in 1970, he had sown the seeds of conservatism during his tenure. Within ten years, Criswellian conservatives, such as Paige Patterson, had organized and launched a conservative-fundamentalist takeover, also known as “the

Conservative Resurgence” or “Fundamentalist Takeover,” which effectively removed

297 Will Campbell, Conversations With Will D. Campbell, Tom Royals, ed. (Jackson, MS: University Press of Mississippi, 2018), 6.

298 Bill J. Leonard, God’s Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention (Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing, 1990), 134. 101

influences of theological liberalism from the Southern Baptist Convention between 1979 and 1990.299 As Barry Hankins and Thomas Kidd recognized in Baptists in America,

“both the Reagan and SBC revolutions were part of a larger conservative shift taking place in the wider [American] culture.”300

“Looking Out”

In late January 1987, Editor Jack Harwell of The Christian Index wrote an editorial on the Caudill and Fite families entitled “Looking Out.” 301 He reminded

Georgian Baptists of the work the missionaries had done in Cuba, how Caudill and Fite had spent time in “Castro’s prison,” and how “Southern Baptists around the world rejoiced in their dramatic release from a Cuban prison in 1969.”302 He also informed readers that Herbert Caudill, then 83, was not well. After a series of debilitating strokes, he had lost the ability to walk and speak. He lay bedridden, under Marjorie Caudill’s care. “Why am I writing about the Caudills and Fites?” Harwell asked his readers, rhetorically, “Because I think Georgia Baptists…ought to write to them, to assure them of our love, our prayers and our abiding gratitude.”303 As Caudill had spent nearly half of his 83 years of life in Georgia, it is likely that many Georgian Baptists who had known

Herbert Caudill as a student at Mercer University, as a colleague in ministry, or as a

299 James C. Hefley, The Conservative Resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention (Hannibal, MO: Hannibal Books, 1991).

300 Barry G. Hankins and Thomas S. Kidd, Baptists in America: A History (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), 230.

301 “Looking Out,” Christian Index, January 22, 1987, 2.

302 Ibid., 2.

303 Ibid., 2.

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friend read this editorial and sent letters of encouragement to the Caudills, or at least reflected on his life and imprisonment in Cuba. Later that year, on September 30, 1987,

Herbert Caudill died at age 84. 304 As Harwell had written a few months earlier, “People such as Herbert and Marjorie Caudill embody the best in the missionary tradition of

Southern Baptists.”305 Caudill’s life ended, but his story had influenced many Baptists from Havana to Georgia and beyond.

304 “Herbert Caudill” (obituary), Mercer Spirit, n.p.

305 “Looking Out,” Christian Index, January 22, 1987, 2. 103 BIBLIOGRAPHY

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105

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IV. Newspapers and Periodicals

Alabama Baptist (Birmingham, AL) Alaska Baptist Messenger (Anchorage, AK) Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine (Little Rock, AR) Baptist and Reflector (Nashville, TN) Baptist Digest (Topeka, KS) Baptist New Mexican (Albuquerque, NM) Baptist Press (Nashville, TN) Baptist Standard (Dallas, TX) Christian Index (Atlanta, GA) Dallas Morning News (Dallas, TX) Florida Baptist Witness (Jacksonville, FL) Hawaii Baptist (Honolulu, HI) Home Missions (Nashville, TN) Indiana Baptist (Indianapolis, IN) Mercer Spirit (Macon, GA) South Carolina Baptist Courier (Charleston, SC) Word and Way (Kansas City, MO)

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