Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission. (1976). "Dr. Donald Anderson" Baptists and the American Experience Retrieved March 8th, 2018.
I arrived at the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 8:00 a.m. I resumed digitizing the oral history collection and completed the final two cassettes of the "Baptists and the American Experience Series." An address from the first cassette I digitized that struck my attention was from Dr. Clarence Cranford, an academic whom had also been a pastor. Dr. Cranford talked about the importance of religious liberty and the idea of respecting other Christian denominations and religions for that matter. Dr. Cranford presents a quote from U.S. President Thomas Jefferson. According to Dr. Cranford, Thomas Jefferson said to a group of Baptists in 1808, "Freedom of Religion is Compatible with order in the government and obedience to the laws" (MBHC, 1976). Again, the idea of the separation of church and state is stressed. I took a break for lunch at 12:40 p.m. and returned at 1:10 p.m.
An address from the second cassette, which was the last cassette in the "Baptists and the American Experience Series", that caught my eyes was from a gentleman named Dr. Donald Anderson. In his address, Dr. Anderson quoted from an academic paper of a gentleman named Dr. Gaddy. The year of the bicentennial was 1976. During this time, Gerald Ford was the President of the United States. In quoting the paper of Dr. Gaddy, Anderson states "President Ford performed two actions that seemingly expressed American Civil Religion: the pardoning of former President Richard Nixon and the granting of amnesty" (MBHC, 1976). In addition, Anderson states "There was a comment from the floor that President Ford's calling on a higher consciousness in pardoning President Nixon is evidence of National Civil Religion" (MBHC, 1976). However, Dr. Gaddy didn't totally agree with this assessment. According to Dr. Anderson, Gaddy said "Presidents in National Crisis have always called on God but no president has ever called on the God of the Bible, the Father our Savior, Jesus Christ." (MBHC, 1976). I completed the digitization of the cassette and spent the last hour editing metadata tags for previous files. I left the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 4:30 p.m.
Just some information that I want to add to this discussion from Dr. Anderson. 1976 was also an election year in which the aforementioned Gerald Ford faced Jimmy Carter. Ford was defeated by Carter. As stated, President Ford was seen by some as performing actions that expressed 'civil religion.' Jimmy Carter was a born-again evangelical Christian whom fellow evangelicals rallied behind in the election. However, that changed when Ronald Reagan became President. Some of the evangelicals did stay with Carter when he was defeated by Reagan in 1980. However, after Ronald Reagan officially became President of the United States, the evangelicals rallied behind him in full force. I just thought those were some interesting facts, that I already knew, to add to the relation of the America's bicentennial and religion.
In relevance to the discussions in these recordings, attached is a picture of Thomas Jefferson, the Gerald Ford and Jimmy Carter 1976 Presidential Debate, and a friendly picture years later with Presidents Ford and Carter. It should be worth noting that after the two left office, the two former Presidents and their wives became close friends.
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