Baptist contributions to the world--help please

lizzybee · Dec 29, 2003

I was reading at a religious debate board mostly full of atheists (dumb I know!!) and one of them particularly hates 2 Baptist girls on there and said that the Baptists have made no significant contributions to history----I was tired and scratching my head but surely someone somewhere has?

I was going to email anything you could find to help me out to one of the girls there--of course it has to be what the "world" would consider a contribution like abolishing slavery etc--I think it could be anytime in history or anyplace

Thanks

Malissa

dianetavegia · Dec 29, 2003

Since they're trashing girls... start with the story of Lottie Moon who allowed herself to basically starve to death in an effort to feed the Chinese people she loved so very much.

Lottie (Charlotte) Moon
(b. Viewmont, Albermarle County, Va., Dec. 12, 1840; d. Kobe, Japan, Dec. 24, 1912). Missionary in Tengchow and Pingtu, China, for nearly 40 years; instrumental in instigating first Christmas offering, 1888. She was educated at Virginia Female Seminary (later known as Hollins) and at Albermarle Female Institute, Charlottesville. She was converted in the spring of 1859 in a meeting by John Albert Broadus, then pastor at Charlottesville. She taught at Danville, Ky., and Cartersville, Ga. She volunteered for missionary service in Feb., 1873, in response to a sermon on the text, "Lift up your eyes, and look on the fields; for they are white already to harvest," and she was appointed to China, July 7, 1873, by the Foreign Mission Board, Southern Baptist Convention. In 1888 she wrote to the Baptist women of the South, pleading for reinforcements. The first Christmas offering in 1888 provided three additional missionaries. She spent 14 years in China before taking her first regular furlough. Toward the end of her days, she suffered with her Chinese people in the terrible famine. She gave all she had. In the time of deepest trials she wrote, "I hope no missionary will be as lonely as I have been." Literally starving, she grew steadily weaker. Before Christmas, 1912, Cynthia Miller, faithful nurse, started back to America with Lottie Moon; death came to the frail missionary, Christmas Eve, while the ship was at harbor in Kobe, Japan. The present Christmas offering for foreign missions, sponsored by the W.M.U., is named for Lottie Moon.
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http://www.sbhla.org/bio_moon.htm

Annie Walker Armstrong
(b. Baltimore, Md., July 11, 1850; d. Baltimore, Md., Dec. 20, 1938). Woman's Missionary Union leader. Daughter of James D. and Mary (Walker) Armstrong, she did not become a Christian until she was 19, after which she was baptized by Richard Fuller into the Seventh Baptist Church of Baltimore, Md. She left Seventh Church with 117 others, joined Eutaw Place Baptist Church at its organization, Feb. 20, 1871, and taught the infant class there for at least 30 years.

She led in framing the constitution of Woman's Missionary Union which made the organization auxiliary to the Southern Baptist Convention instead of an independent body with power to collect and administer its own money and send out its own missionaries. Never discouraged, "Miss Annie" wrote, spoke, planned indefatigably. In 1899, while corresponding secretary of Woman's Missionary Union, she was absent from the Mission Rooms, which served as the Woman's Missionary Union office, for nearly two weeks due to sickness, and it was the first time this had occurred in 11 years. "The clerk made daily visits to the home-and the work was continued." She refused to accept a salary from 1900 until her resignation in 1906, when the union voted that the corresponding secretary must be paid. The fact that she did not approve of establishing the W.M.U. Training School in Louisville added to her reasons for resigning.

Caring for her own travel expenses until 1901, Miss Armstrong traveled great distances-3,300 miles in 21 days, visiting 19 places, and making 26 addresses. Besides writing leaflets for Woman's Missionary Union, Miss Armstrong, at the request of the editors, started a young people's Scripture department in Kind Words, a "Folks and Facts" column, and two departments in The Teacher. She was a frequent contributor to the two mission publications, Foreign Mission Journal and Our Home Field. In 1888, after conference with Henry Allen Tupper, secretary of the Foreign Mission Board, Miss Armstrong wrote by hand letters to all the societies, asking them to contribute to the first Christmas offering, which resulted in $2,833.49 for Lottie Moon in China. She led Woman's Missionary Union to enlarge its efforts in providing organizations for Negro Baptist women and children and in publishing literature for them.

As memorials to Miss Armstrong, Woman's Missionary Union voted in 1907 to give $5,000 to a Home Mission Board mountain school and $5,000 to a hospital in China. The Annie Walker Armstrong building, erected at Burnsville, N. C., was dedicated in 1908 in appreciation of her service. More permanent memorials are the Annie Armstrong Offering for Home Missions and the structure of Woman's Missionary Union, which she led in establishing.
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http://www.sbhla.org/bio_anniearmstrong.htm

Ann Hasseltine Judson
(b. Bradford, Mass., Dec. 22, 1789; d. Amherst, Burma, Oct. 24, 1826). American missionary to India; wife of Adoniram Judson. Ann (“Nancy”) became a Christian when she was 16. In June, 1810, she attended a missionary meeting at the Bradford Congregational Church when four young students from Andover Theological Seminary petitioned to be sent as foreign missionaries. One of these young men was Adoniram Judson, who was invited to dine in the Hasseltine home. On Feb. 5, 1812, Judson and Ann Hasseltine were married, and they sailed for India Feb. 19. During the voyage they studied the question of baptism and were convinced that the Baptist position was scriptural. Arriving at Calcutta, they were baptized by one of the associates of William Carey. Being ordered by the East India Company to leave India, they were permitted to go to the Isle of France, thence to Madras. When forced to leave Madras, they boarded the only ship in harbor ready to sail, which was bound for Rangoon, Burma; they arrived at that port July 13, 1813. They were in Burma six years before the first convert was baptized. In the bitter conflict between the British and Burmese armies, Judson was imprisoned many months and would have died had not Mrs. Judson, despite her own illness, managed to get food to him. After his release and their removal to Amherst, Mrs. Judson was stricken while her husband was absent on a mission to Ava, and she died Oct. 24, 1826.
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http://www.sbhla.org/bio_annjudson.htm

Wilma Rudolph

NAME: Wilma Glodean Rudolph

BIRTHDATE: June 23, 1940

BIRTHPLACE: Clarksville, Tennessee

EDUCATION: At first, Wilma was tutored at home by her family because she was crippled. She first began school at the age of seven. In 1947, the schools of the Southern states were segregated -- black students and white students had to attend separate schools. Even though blacks had to pay the same taxes as whites, the schools for black students were usually poorly funded, so they were less likely to have adequate books, teachers, classrooms, or equipment.

In junior high, Wilma followed her older sister Yolanda's example and joined the basketball team. The coach, Clinton Gray, didn't put her in a single game for three years. Finally, in her sophomore year, she became the starting guard. During the state basketball tournament, she was spotted by Ed Temple, the coach for the famous Tigerbells, the women's track team at Tennessee State University. Because Burt High School didn't have the funding for a track team, coach Temple invited Wilma to Tennessee State for a summer sports camp.

After graduating from high school, Wilma received a full scholarship to Tennessee State. Because of all the celebrity she received from her track career, she took a year off from her studies to make appearances and compete in international track events. She returned and received a Bachelor's degree in education, graduating in 1963.

FAMILY BACKGROUND: Wilma Rudolph was born into a large family -- she was the 20th of 22 children! Her parents, Ed and Blanche Rudolph, were honest, hardworking people, but were very poor. Mr. Rudolph worked as a railroad porter and handyman. Mrs. Rudolph did cooking, laundry and housecleaning for wealthy white families.

In 1940 millions of Americans were poor -- our of work and homeless because of the Great Depression. The Rudolphs managed to make ends meet by doing things like making the girls' dresses out of flour sacks.

Wilma was born prematurely and weighed only 4.5 pounds. Again, because of racial segregation, she and her mother were not permitted to be cared for at the local hospital. It was for whites only. There was only one black doctor in Clarksville, and the Rudolph's budget was tight, so Wilma's mother spent the next several years nursing Wilma through one illness after another: measles, mumps, scarlet fever, chicken pox and double pneumonia. But, she had to be taken to the doctor when it was discovered that her left leg and foot were becoming weak and deformed. She was told she had polio, a crippling disease that had no cure. The doctor told Mrs. Rudolph that Wilma would never walk. But Mrs. Rudolph would not give up on Wilma. She found out that she could be treated at Meharry Hospital, the black medical college of Fisk University in Nashville. Even though it was 50 miles away, Wilma's mother took her there twice a week for two years, until she was able to walk with the aid of a metal leg brace. Then the doctors taught Mrs. Rudolph how to do the physical therapy exercises at home. All of her brothers and sisters helped too, and they did everything to encourage her to be strong and work hard at getting well. Finally, by age 12, she could walk normally, without the crutches, brace, or corrective shoes. It was then that she decided to become an athlete.

In 1963, Wilma married her high school sweetheart, Robert Eldridge, with whom she had four children: Yolanda (1958), Djuanna (1964), Robert Jr. (1965), and Xurry (1971). They later divorced.

DESCRIPTION OF ACCOMPLISHMENTS: Wilma Rudolph's life is a story of achieving against the odds. Her first accomplishments were to stay alive and get well!

In high school, she became a basketball star first, who set state records for scoring and led her team to a state championship. Then she became a track star, going to her first Olympic Games in 1956 at the age of 16. She won a bronze medal in the 4x4 relay.

On September 7th, 1960, in Rome, Wilma became the first American woman to win 3 gold medals in the Olympics. She won the 100-meter dash, the 200-meter dash, and ran the anchor on the 400-meter relay team.

This achievement led her to become one of the most celebrated female athletes of all time. In addition, her celebrity caused gender barriers to be broken in previously all-male track and field events.

AWARDS

United Press Athlete of the Year 1960
Associated Press Woman Athlete of the Year 1960
James E. Sullivan Award for Good Sportsmanship 1961 *
The Babe Zaharias Award 1962
European Sportswriters' Sportsman of the Year *
Christopher Columbus Award for Most Outstanding International Sports Personality 1960*
The Penn Relays 1961 *
New York Athletic Club Track Meet *
The Millrose Games *
Black Sports Hall of Fame 1980
U.S. Olympic Hall of Fame 1983
Vitalis Cup for Sports Excellence 1983
Women's Sports Foundation Award 1984
* indicates first woman to receive the award/invitation
There were other honors as well. In 1963 she was selected to represent the U. S. State Department as a Goodwill Ambassador at the Games of Friendship in Dakar, Senegal. Later that year she was invited by Dr. Billy Graham to join the Baptist Christian Athletes in Japan.

There was one "first" accomplishment that was more special than any of the others, however. For Wilma, the fact that she insisted that her homecoming parade in Clarksville, Tennessee be open to everyone and not a segregated event as was the usual custom. Her victory parade was the first racially integrated event ever held in the town. And that night, the banquet the townspeople held in her honor, was the first time in Clarksville's history that blacks and whites had ever gathered together for the same event. She went on to participate in protests in the city until the segregation laws were struck down.

After retiring from track competition, Wilma returned to Clarksville to live. She taught at her old school, Cobb Elementary, and was the track coach at her alma mater, Burt High School. She replaced her old coach, Clinton Gray, who, tragically, had been killed in an auto accident. But small town life proved to be too conservative after all her worldly experiences. She moved on to coaching positions, first in Maine, and then, Indiana. She was invited to be the guest speaker at dozens of schools and universities. She also went into broadcasting and became a sports commentator on national television and the co-host of a network radio show.

In 1967 Vice-President Hubert Humphrey invited Wilma to participate in "Operation Champ," an athletic outreach program for underprivileged youth in the ghettoes of 16 major cities. She started her own non-profit organization, The Wilma Rudolph Foundation, to continue this kind of work. The foundation provided free coaching in a variety of sports, and academic assistance and support as well.

In 1977 she wrote her autobiography, simply titled, "Wilma." It was adapted as a television movie; Wilma worked on it as a consultant.

In 1997, Governor Don Sundquist proclaimed June 23 as Wilma Rudolph Day in Tennessee.

DATE OF DEATH: Saturday, November 12, 1994, at the age of 54.

PLACE OF DEATH: Wilma died in her home in Nashville, Tennessee. She had been in and out of hospitals for several months after brain cancer was diagnosed. Leroy Walker, president of the U.S. Olympic Committee, said, "All of us recognize that this is obviously a tremendous loss. Wilma was still very much involved with a number of Olympic programs. It's a tragic loss. She was struck with an illness that, unfortunately, we can't do very much about."
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http://www.lkwdpl.org/wihohio/rudo-wil.htm

Anne Bannister Spencer
(1882-1975)
Lynchburg
Poet

Poet Anne Spencer influenced a generation of writers during the Harlem Renaissance. Born Anne Bethel Bannister in Henry County, Anne and her mother moved to West Virginia after her parent's marriage ended. Her mother's poverty led Anne to be placed in the home of William T. Dixie, where she learned to read and to appreciate the written word. Anne eventually enrolled in the Virginia Seminary (spreviously the Lynchburg Baptist Seminary) in Lynchburg and graduated in 1899. She was chosen to give the valedictory address because of her "intellectual aggressiveness." While at Virginia Seminary she met Edward Spencer, the first parcel postman in Lynchburg, whom she married in 1901.

Anne began writing poetry at her home, Edenkraal, where her talents were discovered by James Weldon Johnson. He introduced her to H.L. Mencken who helped Anne publish her first poem, "Before the Feast at Shushan." Spencer's poems appeared in some of the period's most prestigious collections of the 1920s, including James Weldon Johnson's The Book of American Negro Poetry (1922) and Robert T. Kerlin's Negro Poets and Their Poems (1923). She was the first African-American and first Virginian to be included in the Norton Anthology of American Poetry. Highly personal and full of nature imagery, her works are often classified as part of the neoromantic tradition. Many of Spencer's poems addressed issues concerning women. Editors solicited her work, but she seldom obliged, and thus fewer than thirty of her poems appeared in print during her lifetime. Unfortunately, much of her work was lost, as she often wrote her thoughts on unusual items—paper bags, envelopes, telephone bills, and on the backs of checks—that were thrown away after her death.

In addition to publishing poetry, Anne Spencer was closely associated with some of the most influential figures of the Harlem Renaissance. Spencer's home became a prime destination for black writers, entertainers, and civil rights leaders, including W.E.B. DuBois, Paul Robeson, Langston Hughes, Thurgood Marshall, and George Washington Carver. The dynamic conversations on literary and social issues that took place in her home had a significant impact on the Harlem Renaissance. Her home continued to attract famous artists and thinkers even after her death from cancer in 1975. Anne Spencer was also known as a feminist and advocate for civil rights. She was the first black librarian in Lynchburg, serving the Dunbar High School for more than 20 years. This was the only access to library services for blacks in her community. She was instrumental in organizing the Lynchburg chapter of the NAACP in 1918. Anne Spencer's thirst for social justice and love of the written word have been an inspiration to artists of all races.
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http://www.virginiawomen.org/2003_poster_spencer.html

Now if you wanted to talk about men, start with Daniel Boone!

As the tide of immigration moved westward from the Atlantic seaboard, Baptists and their ministers were in the vanguard. New churches sprang up in the frontier settlements. It is said that the first Baptist preacher in the upper Clinch River settlements was Squire Boone, a brother of the famous Daniel Boone (Johnston--40). These daring brothers spent the winter of 1773-1774, in the vicinity of Castlewood, Russell County, Virgima. Two Baptist churches were on the waters of Clinch and Holston Rivers at an early date, but the Indian wars on the frontier broke them up (Semple-60). One of them was called Clinch River Church, and after the Revolutionary War closed and peace was temporarily restored on the border, some of the members returned, and the church was reorganized (Semple-360; Benedict-791). In 1788 Glade Hollow Church, near the prescut town of Lebanon, Virginia, was taken from the Clinch River Church (Semple-358). Other early Baptist churches organized in Southwest Virginia were North Fork of Holston (1783), St. Clair's Bottom (1791), Mill Creek (1799), and Cassells Wood (Castlewood) (1806) (Semple-358).
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http://www.ls.net/~newriver/va/washpba.htm

That should be a start!

Diane

rsr · Dec 29, 2003

A fierce defense of religious liberty, not toleration.

We shall do well, both as citizens and as Christians, if we will hark back to the chief actors and lessons in the early and epoch-making struggles of this great Western democracy, for the full establishment of civil and religious liberty—back to the days of Washington and Jefferson and Madison, and back to the days of our Baptist fathers, who have paid such a great price, through the long generations, that liberty, both religious and civil, might have free course and be glorified everywhere.

Years ago, at a notable dinner in London, that world-famed statesman, John Bright, asked an American statesman, himself a Baptist, the noble Dr. J. L. M. Curry, "What distinct contribution has your America made to the science of government?" To that question Dr. Curry replied: "The doctrine of religious liberty." After a moment's reflection, Mr. Bright made the worthy reply: "It was a tremendous contribution."

Indeed, the supreme contribution of the new world to the old is the contribution of religious liberty. This is the chiefest contribution that America has thus far made to civilization. And historic justice compels me to say that it was pre-eminently a Baptist contribution. ...

(Baptists') contention now, is, and has been, and, please God, must ever be, that it is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible right of every human being to worship God or not, according to the dictates of his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all religious beliefs and practices. Our contention is not for mere toleration, but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty. Toleration implies that somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from God. It is the consistent and insistent contention of our Baptist people, always and everywhere, that religion must be forever voluntary and uncoerced, and that it is not the perogative of any power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to compel men to conform to any religious creed or form of worship, or to pay taxes for the support of a religious organization to which they do not believe. God wants free worshipers and no other kind.
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George Truett, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, 1920

(Baptists) can honestly claim to have added another principle, namely, that the union of Church and State is contrary to the word of God, contrary to natural justice, and destructive to both parties to the union.

Next to a regenerate church-membership, this has been the principle for which Baptists have most strenuously contended and with which they have been most prominently identified. For this teaching they were from the time of the Reformation until a period within the memory of men now living, despised and rejected of men, loaded with opprobrium, reviled, persecuted, put to death. Toleration was a byword and a hissing among all parties of Christians, and religious liberty was an idea that apparently never entered men’s minds until it was professed, defended, and exemplified by Baptists.

It is difficult for Americans, living in an atmosphere of perfect religious liberty, where no law restrains any man from worshiping God in any way that his conscience dictates, or compels him to contribute of his substance to the support of any worship that he does not approve—it is hard for us even to imagine a state of society in which the majority determined what the community should believe, how men should worship God, and repressed all dissent with savage laws and penalties that did not stop short of the stake and the scaffold.

The once despised teaching of a few Baptists has become a commonplace of thought in our country, a fundamental principle of law, and he would be laughed at who should propose its overthrow or even its modification.

... There is still reason why Baptists should continue to bear their testimony in favor of this principle. It is generally acknowledged and professed, but not always obeyed. The separation of Church and State is not yet absolutely complete. Appropriations are made from Federal and State funds for the support of sectarian institutions on one plausible pretext or another; a certain denomination is recognized as having almost a monopoly of chaplainships in the army and navy, and its form of worship is generally maintained in both services; in some States inoffensive people who conscientiously observe the seventh day are prosecuted and punished by fines or imprisonment for quietly laboring in the fields on the first day of the week.
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Henry Vedder, A Short History of the Baptists, 1907

That which is taken from piety is this. If the matter be duly considered and weighed, it cannot be expected but that this outward constraint or restraint of men in matters of conscience and for the worship of God (in this present evil world, and by the powers therein) much chiefly reflect and light upon such as being called out of the world, but to the pure voice and word of God and to the testimony of Christ Jesus the Lord. Which, If true, as indeed it cannot be denied, then it will easily appear to be both unsafe and unprosperous for a state or nation to be found meddling herein.
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John Clarke, Ill Newes from New England, 1652

mioque · Dec 30, 2003

Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are all baptists.

Circuitrider · Dec 30, 2003

And your point...

dianetavegia · Dec 30, 2003

Originally posted by mioque:
Martin Luther King, Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter are all baptists.
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I ALWAYS get in trouble when I say this but I'm gonna say it anyhow....

I could sleep in my garage but that wouldn't make me a car!

rsr · Dec 30, 2003

I don't think this line of discussion is helpful to our sister. Let's keep that one in politics.

Nevertheless, MLK was following the precepts of John Bunyan:

I told him (the magistrate) that Paul did own the powers that were in his day, as to be of God; and yet he was often in prison under them for all that. And also, though Jesus Christ told Pilate, that he had no power against him, but of God, yet he died under the same Pilate; and yet, said I, I hope you will not say that either Paul, or Christ, were such as did deny magistracy, and so sinned against God in slighting the ordinance. Sir, said I, the law hath provided two ways of obeying: The one to do that which I, in my conscience, do believe that I am bound to do, actively; and where I cannot obey actively, there I am willing to lie down, and to suffer what they shall do unto me.
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John Bunyan, Relation of His Imprisonment, and Efforts of His Wife to Obtain His Release

lizzybee · Dec 31, 2003

ha ha about the Bill Clinton and Baptists--but hey maybe an atheist would sit back and think "hmm a Baptist I like"

Don't worry--you have all been very helpful and I'm feeling like it's been a long time since I took Baptist history if I can't remember some of that!! (I'm gettin old!)
Thanks for your help and keep it coming!

I appreciate it
Malissa

mioque · Jan 2, 2004

Groan...
lizzybee's question was:"one (atheist) of them in particularly hates 2 Baptist girls on there and said that the Baptists have made no significant contributions to history----I was tired and scratching my head but surely someone somewhere has?"
So everybody starts posting the names and bio's of those famous baptists guaranteed to never impress an atheist of their relevance in worldhistory.
The only one on Diane's list that would be meaningfull to me if I was an American atheist is Daniël Boone.
The contribution rsr mentions is the most important thing baptists have contributed to both the world and to Christianity, but the one man most of these notions can be traced back to is Menno Simons who is technically speaking not a baptist. I would go so far as to say that if Menno was a regular (yes I know he's been dead for centuries) on this board I could name half a dozen real regulars who would look down upon him.
So I name 3 baptists who have had a real recent noticable impact on worldhistory (for good or ill) and derision is what I get?!
Not to mention that nobody else came up with MLK, which proves that nobody on this thread has ever payed attention during black history month when either they or their kids were in school. Black history month doesn't even exist in my country, I know of it because all those American television programmes that get aired on Dutch tv.
Thus ended my tirade.

Daniel David · Jan 3, 2004

How about the Bill of Rights?

Major B · Jan 3, 2004

Issac Backus, who founded over 400 churches, supported the revolution, and was a key fighter for religious liberty.

For Better or Worse, John D. Rockefeller, Sr.

Billy Graham

A.T. Robertson

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