Tuesday, March 6th, 2018

Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission.  (1976).  Baptists and the American Experience.  Retrieved March 6th, 2018.

I arrived at the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 8:00 a.m.  I resumed digitizing the Baptists and the American Experience series.  The next address was from Dr. W Morgan Patterson whom discussed a paper primarily concerning the Americanization of citizens throughout American History and the relation of Baptists to the national experience.  I found this particular address very informing.  Dr. Patterson discusses the huge period of immigration that occurred at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th century and the concerns that American inhabitants had about so many new people coming into the country.  The National Americanization Day Committee made July 4th, 1915 'Americanization Day' where the issues concerning immigrants were addressed.  Dr. Patterson discusses the ethnic groups of Baptist bodies that came into fruition during the period of mass immigration to the United States.  These included bodies of Swedish, German, Hungarian, and Russian origin.  I took a break for lunch at 12:45 p.m. and returned at 1:15 p.m. 

The next address, form Dr. Glenn T. Miller, is another discussion concerning the support of the separation of separation of church and state among early Baptists and where the divisions concerning the matter began.  Prior to the Civil War, there was a split among Baptists on the issue of slavery.  Certain Baptists began preaching eulogies attempting to justify slavery.  Outside of the obvious divisions between north and south, these religious divisions brought about different organizations.  The First National Organization for Baptists in the United States was the Triennial Convention.  The American Baptist Home Mission Society was formed in 1832.  The South would form its own in the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845 in Augusta, Georgia.  This still exists today.  In addition, there were also other ideological changes that would happen to Baptists as a whole.  For instance, prior to WWII, the majority of Baptists were opposed to War.  However, after the attack on Pearl Harbor, that mindset began to change.

The final address (oral history) I digitized was that of Dr. Richard G. Torbet.  In it, he discusses the different ideological divisions among Baptists such as liberal, conservative, and moderate.  In addition, he places a lot of emphasis on the practices of the Baptists in the north as opposed to the south. 

I left the Mississippi Baptist Historical Commission at 4:30 p.m.