"A Christian Looks
At the Religious Right"
J. Frank Norris
It is Sunday morning at the First Baptist Church in Fort Worth. The famous pastor by the name of J. Frank Norris enters into the pulpit carrying a broken quart bottle with him. It is the early part of the 20th century and the church is relieved that their pastor was just acquitted by court allegations that he had torched the church. With fervent passion the preacher is proud in his exoneration from the accusations. He preaches a sermon from the text, "Thou are weighed in the balances and found wanting." He tears into the attorney who had brought charges against him. The lawyer has just met a horrible death driving his Cadillac on North Main accompanied by a lady companion. His vehicle is full of liquor and is driven head on into the streetcar. Pastor J. Frank announces to the congregation that in the broken bottle there is whiskey and brains from the lawyer. The story is a splendid portrait of the life and ministry of J. Frank Norris.
In his autobiography, Norris suggested that his enemies either lost their fortunes, died from V.D. or met an untimely death. He tolerated no dissent in his church and bragged about how many people he ran off from the church. J. Frank could evidently replace them. He, at one time, was pastor of the largest congregation in the nation, counting his Fort Worth crowd and the church he also pastored at the same time in Detroit. Norris is credited with founding the Fundamentalist movement that eventually took over Southern Baptist’s national convention many decades after J. Frank’s death. He is known in his home state as the father of modern Fundamentalism.
Baylor professor, Barry Hankins, has written a biography about J. Frank titled, God’s Rascal. Baylor was often at the receiving end of Norris’ attacks. J. Frank often bragged about the people at Baylor he got fired or harassed.
Hankins claims Norris was influenced by Haydenites. This was a group of disgruntled people in Texas who despised the Baptist General Convention of Texas, claiming it was filled with too many men walking around in three piece suits and doing nothing. The movement would eventually spread to strongholds in East Texas and Arkansas and lead to the founding of the Baptist Missionary Alliance, (BMA). Hankins said Norris ran off traditional Baptists in the church and replaced them with poorer members without much acquaintance with Baptist beliefs about how too operate a church. Norris once brought in a sheriff to swear to the corruption of a local judge before the congregation. Norris would bring in local candidates he liked to speak to the congregation in downtown Fort Worth. He even used his newsletters to urge people to vote against presidential candidates. He said the election of Al Smith, a Catholic, would be a threat to Southern segregation and White Supremacy.
Hankins said that Norris often had dealings with Gerald Winrod. Winrod was the "Jayhawk Nazi" who ran for senator from Kansas. Norris was also special friends with Gerald Smith, the notorious anti-Semite. Norris once had Smith into his church to preach a series of revival meetings. Smith’s topics he preached on included a Communist plot to deceive Negroes and why Elliot Roosevelt is closer to Stalin than any other American. One message dealt with a special deal insiders had going to pick Stalin as the next President of the United States. Norris would part with this branch of the Religious Right over the issue of Jews. Norris’ view on end of times led him to embrace modern Israel.
Norris once accused Southern Baptist President, Louie Newton, of being tainted by Communism. J. Frank wrote the House on Un-American Activities volunteering to appear to expose the Southern Baptist conspiracy before the committee. Norris aligned himself with the anti-labor movement and befriended Henry Ford. Other historical Religious Right figures like, Carl McIntire and Father Coughlin, were friends with Norris. Norris praised Joe McCarthy.
Norris once commented, "The American people, the real white folks, the Protestant population, rose up and put the Catholic machine out of business, and a Roman Catholic is not even allowed to clean spittoons in the court house of city hall in Birmingham." Norris changed his mind about some Catholics later on. It is interesting that Norris would find kinship with Catholics like Father Coughlin and would denounce people like George Truett. Truett was pastor of First Baptist in Dallas. Norris called Coughlin the most fearless and outstanding Catholic in the world. Norris liked Coughlin’s views on Roosevelt and the New Deal. (Note that Coughlin blamed the depression and Word War II on Jews.)
Gerald Smith claims that J. Frank often reinvented himself. He could curse the Pope and then praise the Pope. He praises Jews and curses Jews. He is for Roosevelt and then against Roosevelt. Smith said Norris would thus do anything to keep himself in the public eye.
Of Democrats, Norris said, "What a conglomeration, Tammy Hall, Roman Catholicism, bootleggers, carpet bag politicians and Negroes. What will white people of Texas do?" Norris believed the Catholic Church stood for racial equality with Negroes. Norris was opposed to sending Negroes to Congress and allowing Negroes to hold political office. 1
Some might excuse some of the preacher’s antics by his controversial attempts to reach people. Norris often coaxed people to come to church services to learn about local political corruption and scandal. Norris excused such tactics saying they reached lost people. Even famous Baptist statesman, R.G. Lee, once was confronted after church by a church member’s husband. The man said he was going to go home and kill himself. Lee advised the man that Memphis would be better off if he did! Such harsh confrontation, shunned now by pulpits, was often justified in the past to get people’s attention. Norris believed by being God’s rascal he was fulfilling his calling.
What Norris said about himself in his autobiography makes Hankins remarks pale by comparison. His friends admit in the book that Norris enjoyed a fight. J. Frank says the people at First Baptist Church who were originally there made him a mean person. He thus had to come to a new understanding of the ministry. Norris believed that everyone who lifted their hand against him in the church failed to prosper. He said of the state’s Baptist General Convention of Texas,that the organization was a denomination of Hamans.
Often in the book, Norris and others who stood behind the pulpit, told folks publicly to go to hell. Norris said he would not let a few half dressed women raise hell in the church and tell him what to do. He preached a sermon to the Texas Legislature and ended it by telling Joseph Stalin to go to hell. One of the laymen in the church gave his testimony about what Norris meant to him. The man was encouraged to leave the controversial church by his boss. The man tells the congregation that he told his boss to go to hell. The church applauds.
Norris believed Baptist organizations in his day martyred Baptist preachers. He thought denominations ought to be smashed to smithereens because they were unscriptural. Norris often accused denominations of being centers for Communist movements. J. Frank said of modernist preachers that they were asses. He said of these, "Lick-the-skillet-two-by-four aping asinine preachers, who want to be in the priest’s office so they can have a piece of the bread, and play kite tail to the Communists." Of the World Baptist Alliance, Norris said, "the World Baptist Alliance is the biggest cuckoo frame-up ever known to Baptists."
Norris said he was on a crusade and needed to be given the liberty to speak out. He would excuse his language saying God can’t use sissies and cowards. One woman lamented his attitude. He replied, "Honey, you wouldn’t know the Christian spirit any more than a bull would know Shakespeare." The church then burst out in laughter.
J. Frank once announced to the church to come that Sunday night and hear him expose the ten biggest devils in Fort Worth. He named names and some were present at the discourse. Norris listed the acquaintances and occupations of who he considered the worst ten sinners in the city. 2
One day a friend of one of the men Norris had publicly berated appeared in Norris’ office to confront the preacher. Norris pulled a gun on the man and killed him. J. Frank was acquitted again on the charges. Norris was tried twice for torch jobs and once for murder.
In seminary I was told by a history professor that every Christmas Norris got his deacons to collect rotten fruit. They would then deposit the gift at the doorsteps of Southwestern Seminary professors as an annual Christmas activity. It is a well known fact that Norris would send a weekly condemning telegram to George Truett. The message was sent to arrive in Dallas just before Truett was to enter the pulpit for his Sunday morning sermon. Norris’ telegram was so cruel and vindictive, deacons at First Dallas intercepted the messages before they could get to their pastor.
The Klan in Texas was fond of Norris, which is no surprise, considering his positions. When Norris was indicted in the shooting death of the visitor in his office, the Texas Klan publicly said they were ready to rally to his aid. 3 Norris once commented that all professors in the state universities are denied the right to challenge the fundamentals of the Christian faith. 4
Hankins claims Norris’ influence is stamped on the ministry of Jerry Falwell. The preacher’s friendship with the early Religious Right in the nation is interesting. It is noteworthy how Norris would cooperate with Catholics and Disciples preachers but not with traditional Baptists. His leadership provides a clue to understanding modern Fundamentalism which often crosses over denominational and religious lines but will not cross over political ones. J. Frank certainly was God’s rascal.
Don S. Wilke, Jr.
Endnotes
1. Hankins, Barry, GOD’S RASCAL, Univ. Press of Kentucky, Lexington, Kentucky, 1996, pgs. 9,11,15,49,52,60,63,69,81,100,102,105,109,125,134,135,136,147,148,152,154,158, 163,165.
2. Norris, J. Frank, INSIDE HISTORY OF FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH FORT WORTH and
TEMPLE BAPTIST CHURCH DETROIT, pgs. 12-18,56,58,72,80,82,93,112,117,120,158,
184,187,194,220,225,226,234,303,307.
3. William Pitts, Ed., TEXAS BAPTIST HISTORY Vol. VII 1987, pg. 6.
4. Ibid., pg. 6.