- J. Frank Norris
John Franklyn (J. Frank) Norris, (born
September 18 ,1877 ,Dadeville, Alabama , diedAugust 20 ,1952 ,Jacksonville, Florida , USA) was a firebrand fundamentalist preacher and popularBaptist leader. He was one of the most controversial and flamboyant figures in the history offundamentalism . Norris was popularly known as the "Texas Tornado" and the "Texas Cyclone."In 1881, the Norris family moved to
Hubbard, Texas . After graduation from high school, he attendedBaylor University (1898-1903) andSouthern Baptist Theological Seminary inLouisville, Kentucky , where he earned the master of theology degree. In 1905, Norris returned toTexas as the pastor of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas, resigning in 1907 to become editor of the "Baptist Standard ". Norris is credited with ending the Texas Baptist newspaper war, with movingSouthwestern Baptist Theological Seminary from Waco toFort Worth , and with persuading the state legislature to abolish racetrack gambling.In 1909, Norris sold his interest in the "
Baptist Standard " and accepted the pastorate of theFirst Baptist Church, Fort Worth , where he served for forty-four years until his death. In 1912, Norris was acquitted of both arson and perjury charges related to a fire that destroyed the church auditorium. Norris was also the radio pastor of stationKSAT dn, where he started the first regular radio ministry in the United States in the 1920s.The height of Norris's career came in the 1920s, when he became the leader of the
fundamentalist movement in Texas by attacking the teaching of "that hell-born, Bible-destroying, deity-of-Christ-denying, German rationalism known asevolution " atBaylor University . Because of his controversial attacks on Baylor, denominational leaders, and Texas Baptist politics, Norris and his church were denied seats at the annual meeting of theBaptist General Convention of Texas in 1922 and 1923.In his 1926 sermon series "Rum and Romanism," Norris attacked
H. C. Meacham theCatholic mayor of Fort Worth, accusing him of misappropriating funds for Catholic causes. That same year, Norris was indicted for the murder of lumberman Dexter Elliot Chipps, a friend of Meacham's, in the church office. Norris claimed the possibly unarmed Chipps had threatened his life, and Norris was acquitted on grounds of self-defense. [David O. Beale, "In Pursuit of Purity: American Fundamentalism Since 1850" (Greenville, SC: Bob Jones University Press, 1986), 234. No gun was found on Chipps, but at the trial, Norris produced a weapon that he said Chipps had been carrying at the time of the shooting.]Norris published a pastoral newspaper, "
The Searchlight ", the front page of which had a picture of Norris grasping aBible in one hand and a searchlight in the other whileSatan cowered in the opposite lower corner.During 1928, Norris actively campaigned against the election of
Al Smith to the presidency, voicing his anti-Catholic views from the pulpit, his radio station, and his weekly newspaper. In 1935, he accepted the pastorate of a second church, Temple Baptist Church inDetroit, Michigan . By 1946, the combined membership of the two congregations was more than 26,000. Norris commuted by train and later plane between the two churches for some 16 years.In the late 1930s, Norris organized the Premillennial Missionary Baptist Fellowship (which is known today as the World Baptist Fellowship), a group of independent, premillennial Baptist churches, to combat socialist, liberal, or "modernist" tendencies within the Southern Baptist Convention. After
World War II , whenJohn Birch , a graduate of his seminary in Fort Worth, was killed by the Chinese communists, Norris renewed his attack on Communist influences inside the United States. Norris's premillennial views [In November 1934 Norris conducted a contentious three-night debate withFoy E. Wallace on themillennium . For Norris' perspective see [http://www.penfoldbooks.com/product/30/185] ; for Wallace's see [http://www.wordsfitlyspoken.org/bible_banner/v6/v6n13p7-9a.html] .] led him to urge PresidentHarry Truman to recognize and support the new state ofIsrael . Norris died of a heart attack while attending a youth camp atJacksonville, Florida in 1952.References
* Roy Emerson Falls, "A Biography of J. Frank Norris, 1877-1952" (Euless, Texas, 1975)
* Barry Hankins, "God's Rascal : J. Frank Norris & the Beginnings of Southern Fundamentalism" (University Press of Kentucky , 1996)
* C. Gwin Morris, He Changed Things: The Life and Thought of J. Frank Norris (Ph.D. dissertation,Texas Tech University , 1973)
* C. Gwin Morris, "J. Frank Norris and the Baptist General Convention of Texas," Texas Baptist History 1 (1981)
* J. Frank Norris, "Inside History of First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, and Temple Baptist Church, Detroit" (Fort Worth, 1938)
* C. Allyn Russell, "J. Frank Norris: Violent Fundamentalist," "Southwestern Historical Quarterly" 75 (January 1972)
* E. Ray Tatum, "Conquest or Failure?: Biography of J. Frank Norris" (Dallas: Baptist Historical Foundation, 1966).External links
* [http://www.tsha.utexas.edu/handbook/online/articles/view/NN/fno7.html John Franklyn Norris] - from Handbook of Texas Online
* [http://www.jfranknorris.org/ J. Frank Norris Site]
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