J. Frank Norris
Encyclopedia
Biography
J. Frank Norris was born in Dadeville, AlabamaDadeville, Alabama
Dadeville is a city in Tallapoosa County, Alabama, United States. At the 2000 census the population was 3,212. The city is the county seat of Tallapoosa County.Dadeville is part of the Alexander City Micropolitan Statistical Area.-History:...
, but the family shortly moved to Arkansas
Arkansas
Arkansas is a state located in the southern region of the United States. Its name is an Algonquian name of the Quapaw Indians. Arkansas shares borders with six states , and its eastern border is largely defined by the Mississippi River...
and then back to Columbiana, Alabama
Columbiana, Alabama
Columbiana is a city in Shelby County, Alabama, United States. At the 2010 census the population was 4,197. The city is the county seat of Shelby County.-History:...
. In the late 1880s, the Norrises bought land near Hubbard, Texas
Hubbard, Texas
Hubbard is a city in Hill County in Central Texas. It was named for Texas Governor Richard B. Hubbard. The population was 1,586 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Hubbard is located at ....
, about thirty miles from Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, where they farmed. James Warner Norris was an alcoholic, and Frank Norris claimed that his father once severely injured him after he had emptied his liquor bottles. In 1891, both were shot by an acquaintance of Warner Norris, and Frank said he did not fully recuperate for three years.
Norris was converted at a Baptist revival meeting in the early 1890s, and in 1897, he became pastor of Mount Antioch Baptist Church, Mount Calm, Texas
Mount Calm, Texas
Mount Calm is a city in Hill County in Central Texas. The population was 310 at the 2000 census.-Geography:Mount Calm is located at .According to the United States Census Bureau, the city has a total area of , all of it land....
. The following year he enrolled in Baylor University
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
(1898-1903). He earned a master of theology degree from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southern Baptist Theological Seminary
The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary , located in Louisville, Kentucky, is the oldest of the six seminaries affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention . The seminary was founded in 1859, at Greenville, South Carolina. After being closed during the Civil War, it moved in 1877 to Louisville...
in Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville, Kentucky
Louisville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Kentucky, and the county seat of Jefferson County. Since 2003, the city's borders have been coterminous with those of the county because of a city-county merger. The city's population at the 2010 census was 741,096...
. In 1905, Norris returned to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
as the pastor of the McKinney Avenue Baptist Church in Dallas
Dallas, Texas
Dallas is the third-largest city in Texas and the ninth-largest in the United States. The Dallas-Fort Worth Metroplex is the largest metropolitan area in the South and fourth-largest metropolitan area in the United States...
, resigning in 1907 to become editor of the Baptist Standard. Norris is credited with ending the Texas Baptist newspaper war, with moving Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, headquartered in Fort Worth, Texas, is a private, non-profit institution of higher education, associated with the Southern Baptist Convention...
from Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
to Fort 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 the First Baptist Church, Fort Worth, where he served for forty-four years until his death. In 1912, Norris was acquitted of arson and perjury charges related to fires that respectively destroyed his church auditorium and severely damaged his home. Norris was also the radio pastor of, variously, KFQB, KTAT and then KSAT (not to be confused with KSAT in San Antonio
San Antonio, Texas
San Antonio is the seventh-largest city in the United States of America and the second-largest city within the state of Texas, with a population of 1.33 million. Located in the American Southwest and the south–central part of Texas, the city serves as the seat of Bexar County. In 2011,...
), 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 as evolution
Evolution
Evolution is any change across successive generations in the heritable characteristics of biological populations. Evolutionary processes give rise to diversity at every level of biological organisation, including species, individual organisms and molecules such as DNA and proteins.Life on Earth...
" at Baylor University
Baylor University
Baylor University is a private, Christian university located in Waco, Texas. Founded in 1845, Baylor is accredited by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.-History:...
in Waco
Waco, Texas
Waco is a city in and the county seat of McLennan County, Texas. Situated along the Brazos River and on the I-35 corridor, halfway between Dallas and Austin, it is the economic, cultural, and academic center of the 'Heart of Texas' region....
, Texas. Because of his attacks on Baylor and denominational leaders, Norris and his church were denied seats at the annual meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas
Baptist General Convention of Texas
The Baptist General Convention of Texas is the oldest surviving Baptist convention in the state of Texas. The churches cooperating with the Baptist General Convention of Texas partner nationally and internationally with both the Southern Baptist Convention and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship,...
in 1922 and 1923.
In his 1926 sermon series "Rum and Romanism," Norris attacked H. C. Meacham, the mayor of Fort Worth
Fort Worth, Texas
Fort Worth is the 16th-largest city in the United States of America and the fifth-largest city in the state of Texas. Located in North Central Texas, just southeast of the Texas Panhandle, the city is a cultural gateway into the American West and covers nearly in Tarrant, Parker, Denton, and...
, accusing him of misappropriating funds for Catholic causes. That same year, Norris was indicted for the murder of lumberman Dexter Elliott Chipps, a friend of Meacham's, in the church office. Norris claimed that Chipps had threatened his life. Norris was acquitted on grounds of self-defense.
During 1928, Norris campaigned against the election of Al Smith
Al Smith
Alfred Emanuel Smith. , known in private and public life as Al Smith, was an American statesman who was elected the 42nd Governor of New York three times, and was the Democratic U.S. presidential candidate in 1928...
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 in Detroit, Michigan
Detroit, Michigan
Detroit is the major city among the primary cultural, financial, and transportation centers in the Metro Detroit area, a region of 5.2 million people. As the seat of Wayne County, the city of Detroit is the largest city in the U.S. state of Michigan and serves as a major port on the Detroit River...
. By 1946, the combined membership of the two congregations was more than 26,000. For sixteen years, Norris commuted by train and plane between the two churches. In September 1947, while on a tour of Europe, Norris secured an audience with Pope Pius XII and declared that the pope was "the last Gibraltar in Europe against Communism." Thereafter, Norris took the position that communism was more dangerous than Catholicism, and some of Norris's erstwhile allies, such as Toronto evangelist T. T. Shields, criticized him for his "folly."
In the late 1930s, Norris organized a group of independent, premillennial Baptist churches into the Premillennial Missionary Baptist Fellowship (later the World Baptist Fellowship
World Baptist Fellowship
The World Baptist Fellowship is a separatist, fundamentalist Baptist organization. The organization was founded by J. Frank Norris of Texas, a southern fundamentalist leader in the first half of the 20th century.-Background:...
), in an attempt to combat what he believed were socialist, liberal, and "modernist" tendencies within the Southern Baptist Convention
Southern Baptist Convention
The Southern Baptist Convention is a United States-based Christian denomination. It is the world's largest Baptist denomination and the largest Protestant body in the United States, with over 16 million members...
. After World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, when John Birch
John Birch
John Birch may refer to:* John Birch , soldier in the English Civil War and MP for Leominster* John Birch , nephew of Col...
, a graduate of his seminary in Fort Worth, was killed by the Chinese communists, Norris renewed his attack on Communist influences in the United States. Norris's premillennial
Premillennialism
Premillennialism in Christian end-times theology is the belief that Jesus will literally and physically be on the earth for his millennial reign, at his second coming. The doctrine is called premillennialism because it holds that Jesus’ physical return to earth will occur prior to the inauguration...
views led him to urge President Harry Truman to recognize and support the new state of Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
.
Norris published a religious newspaper, The Searchlight, the front page of which had a picture of Norris grasping a Bible
Bible
The Bible refers to any one of the collections of the primary religious texts of Judaism and Christianity. There is no common version of the Bible, as the individual books , their contents and their order vary among denominations...
in one hand and a searchlight in the other while Satan
Satan
Satan , "the opposer", is the title of various entities, both human and divine, who challenge the faith of humans in the Hebrew Bible...
cowered in the opposite lower corner. Norris died of a heart attack while attending a youth camp at Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville, Florida
Jacksonville is the largest city in the U.S. state of Florida in terms of both population and land area, and the largest city by area in the contiguous United States. It is the county seat of Duval County, with which the city government consolidated in 1968...
in 1952. He was succeeded at the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth by Homer Ritchie, who pastored the church for 30 years.
Further reading
- 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 KentuckyUniversity Press of KentuckyThe University Press of Kentucky is the scholarly publisher for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, and was organized in 1969 as successor to the University of Kentucky Press. The university had sponsored scholarly publication since 1943. In 1949 the press was established as a separate academic agency...
, 1996), ISBN 0-8131-1985-5 - Roy A. Kemp, "Norris Extravaganza!: A biography of Dr. J. Frank Norris, 1877-1952, my reminisce" (Calvary Publications, Fort Worth, Texas, 1975) OCLC 45768232
- C. Gwin Morris, He Changed Things: The Life and Thought of J. Frank Norris (Ph.D. dissertation, Texas Tech UniversityTexas Tech UniversityTexas Tech University, often referred to as Texas Tech or TTU, is a public research university in Lubbock, Texas, United States. Established on February 10, 1923, and originally known as Texas Technological College, it is the leading institution of the Texas Tech University System and has the...
, 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)
- David R. Stokes, The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial that Captivated America (Steerforth Press/Random House, 2011)
- E. Ray Tatum, Conquest or Failure?: Biography of J. Frank Norris (Dallas: Baptist Historical Foundation, 1966).