Then again, what would you really expect from a guy who has (and I am not making this up) GodGunsGutsGlory4KJV for his screen name? For more crazy goodness you can check out his website godgunsgutsglory.com

There is a mythology in Baptist fundamentalism that when the movement started out in the early 1900s it was a pure movement with good, godly men who only possessed the best of intentions. We are told by defenders of the “old paths” that it is only in the last few decades that fundamentalism started to inexplicably go horribly wrong. Fundamentalism was so much better off when represented by men like…J. Frank Norris.

In the book The Shooting Salvationist: J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial that Captivated America, author David R. Stokes gives some insight into the life and legacy of a fundamentalist preacher with a  name which is still breathed in reverent tones in the halls of fundamentalism.  But as Stokes records, the legacy of J. Frank Norris was, in short, a holy mess.

J. Frank Norris was the son of an alcoholic father and spent his childhood poor and abused. After surviving being shot three times while attacking a man who was fighting with his father, Norris had a conversion experience and decided to enter the ministry. He went to seminary and within a few years he found himself the pastor of the prestigious First Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas. It was a meteoric rise that was fueled in no small part by his own personality and love for controversy. As Stokes writes, “to his die-hard followers he was a warrior, prophet, hero, their prophetic voice crying in the wilderness.”

In true fundamentalist fashion, Norris was certainly never one to back down from a fight. And if there wasn’t a fight available, he would inevitably start one himself. He was constantly involved in political wrangling, butting heads with local city officials and wielding political influence via the local KKK chapter. In fact, the local Grand Wizard of the KKK was a member of The First Baptist church. Norris started a radio station and his own newsletter and routinely preached on local politics in his Sunday messages.

It was after one such episode of accusing the local mayor and city employees of being part of a Catholic conspiracy to ruin the nation that a supporter of the mayor, a lumberman named D.E. Chipps, entered the offices of the First Baptist Church to threaten Norris if he didn’t stop spreading his accusations. Norris shot him and left him to die on the office floor. What followed next was a trial that captured the attention of the nation as a supposed minister of the Gospel stood accused of gunning down an unarmed man. That trial is meticulously documented for in the last 160 pages of this book and it’s well worth reading for the fascinating human drama it unfolds.

It is impossible to know for sure exactly what happened in the offices of the First Baptist Church that day when Norris decided to pull his gun and fire. But there’s a larger point that leaps from the pages of this book for any student of Baptist fundamentalism and that is that the confrontation which preceded the murder should never have happened. Norris was not confronted for preaching the Gospel, he was threatened for preaching politics and launching personal attacks. He was not suffering for Jesus but rather for John Franklyn Norris.

For those of us who have grown up in fundamentalism some of the themes of this story will be all too clear. The conflation of Jesus with personalities and politics. The spinning of scandals from the pulpit. The lionization of a pastor who is surrounded by controversy.  The fiercely loyal single female secretary who when asked by a reporter why a minister would shoot a man could only repeat “We have faith in the Living God!” and refused to say more. Even the sermons on booze, Southern Baptists, and global Catholic conspiracies will remain eerily familiar.

The best summary of the entire affair was perhaps given by Mr. Toomer editor of the Fort Worth Press who David Stokes quotes as saying:

“[Norris] would be of infinitely greater service to his people if he would forget his continual personal bickering and approach more nearly ‘the mind which is in Christ Jesus’ the example which I am sure it would be any man’s greatest desire to emulate.”

Amen and Amen.

Although we featured soulwinning.info as a FWOTW over a year ago, someone recently sent me a link to this page which is was featured on that larger website. How could I possible resist sharing a manual on street preaching that is featured on chick.com?

What’s really interesting about this manual is that the author is obviously trying to to appear reasonable and nice. He purports to stand against obnoxious evangelism techniques while he himself uses slurs and recalls the time he was tempted to preach “on integration” at a civil right rally.

I salute you, Gerald Sutek. You’re a cautionary tale to us all. Be sure to check out the rest of the content on streetpreaching.com as well

Update 1: Do be sure to check out the photos page as well for lost more fundy goodness.

Update 2: A big shout out to Rob James who sent this link along! Thanks.

Though I speak with the tongues of men and of angels (not that those gifts are still for today you understand), and have not charity(which is such a much better word that “love” don’t you think?) , I am become as sounding brass, or a tinkling cymbal (only we don’t use cymbals unless it’s to play John Phillips Sousa). And though I have the gift of prophecy (Since I’m the pastor you know I do!), and understand all mysteries (I’m the pastor that’s a given!), and all knowledge (have you seen the diplomas on my wall??); and though I have all faith (which I pretty much do), so that I could remove mountains (or at least remove people from the membership rolls that I don’t like), and have not charity(that word is really hard to understand we’ll get back to this later), I am nothing. And though I bestow all my goods to feed the poor (not that we actually go in for that kind of thing around here) , and though I give my body to be burned (probably by Roman Catholics), and have not charity, it profiteth me nothing. Charity suffereth long (oh, how I suffer! I haven’t had a new car in months!), and is kind (to those who deserve it and aren’t liberals); charity envieth not (no problem here, I’m already the best at everything); charity vaunteth not itself (whoops. go back and scratch out that last note), is not puffed up (Again this is confusing. I’m assuming this is a reference to being gay), Doth not behave itself unseemly (no rock music or britches on women), seeketh not her own (eh?), is not easily provoked(unless of course it’s holy anger which all of mine is), thinketh no evil(no bad shows on TV, amen?); Rejoiceth not in iniquity(Doesn’t vote Democrat), but rejoiceth in the truth(Votes Republican); Beareth all things(it doesn’t say “bareth” amen? so you women keep yourselves covered), believeth all things(at least the things I tell you to believe), hopeth all things(I hope I get a better bonus this year), endureth all things(like me putting up with you more sinful folk). Charity never faileth. (at least as long as you stay on my good side.)

And all God’s people said?

(this has been yet another entry from the SOTL gift package o’ crazy)

The accusation often goes out that fundamentalists are the kinds of people who would burn books given half a chance. I disagree. I think that the act of burning a book would be superfluous to the even more egregious act of simply ignoring their existence. After all, why burn what is irrelevant?

This isn’t to say that fundies don’t like books. Quite the opposite, I’ve never been in a fundamentalist pastor’s office that wasn’t crammed with books from top to bottom. Many fundamentalist houses have hundreds if not thousands of books from ceiling to floor as their primary source of entertainment. With so many volumes scattered around — from the great leather bound editions (of Louis L’amour) to cheap paperback books (also Louis L’amour) — it would seem ludicrous to imagine that fundamentalist were opposed to the idea of gathering insight and understanding through the printed word. But they are.

For when a fundamentalist reads he places his Spectacles of Moralism and Simplicity upon his nose and simply ignores anything that doesn’t fit his own prescribed view of the world. And it’s not just non-fiction. If the fundy happens to stumble upon some literary work, whether it’s Hester’s plight in the Scarlet Letter or the plotted revenge of the Count of Monte Cristo, the fundamentalist will only see what he considers to be moral or immoral actions and never consider what’s being said about the humanity or the larger social implications behind them.

For every fundamentalist plot can be boiled down to these elements: Someone is right. Someone is wrong. And Someone is bound to be damned if they keep it up. That’s all that matters. Insight into things like life, love, pain, greed, sacrifice, hate, bravery, desire, and the common human condition are just so much window dressing. Hardly worth noticing, really.

So I put the question to you: is it worse to burn a book or to have a library full of them that you will not allow to expand your mind or touch your soul? Perhaps it might be kinder simply to set them ablaze and have done with the façade.

I mean just because Norris got away with murder doesn’t mean that people should use creepy looking pictures of him, amen?

And the BIG FIVE are(drum roll please):

Oh, look and there’s an unspecified 6th sin. I wonder if that’s “shamelessly tempting the managawd into having an affair with you that is totally not his fault you brazen hussy.”

Given that title one would imagine a work of Fundies Guide To The Galaxy proportions, but a quick look at the back cover reveals that the only answers Gipp is providing are to a strangely eclectic group of questions about the King James Version.

Looking at the bright side, at least Sam has decided to tackle some questions that are worthy of him and leave the discussion of the actual text to others.