The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980 Page: 39
464 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Texas Baptists, the Social Gospel, and Race
and twentieth largest Standard Metropolitan Statistical Areas in the
United States. Still, Texas cities, like southern cities elsewhere, were
rigidly segregated in the 1950s. After the 1954 Brown decision, however,
civic leaders in many southern cities sought to "discourage blatant racial
injustice, less because they were committed to full racial equality than
because they desired to protect their businesses and their national urban
image." Maston, Miller, and Valentine, therefore, emerged at a propi-
tious moment. Texas was an urban state accustomed to growth and
change. The vehicle through which these and other Texas Baptists
labored to arouse the social consciousness of fellow churchmen was the
Christian Life Commission of Texas, which subsequently became the
model for the Christian Life Commission of the Southern Baptist Con-
vention.21
In 1948 Maston wrote to a small group of Baptists about the prospects
of a Christian Action Conference. The ethics professor revealed himself
to be an astute politician. He wanted Baptists who shared his theological
conservatism to assume leadership on social issues. Maston believed the
social gospel movement of the late nineteenth and early twentieth cen-
turies had been hampered in the South by its identification with theo-
logical liberalism. Theologically conservative Southern Baptists had re-
sented many of the theologically liberal northern ministers who cham-
pioned the social gospel. Maston, therefore, carefully sought out con-
servative leadership.22
In 1949 Maston corresponded with Dr. J. Howard Williams, execu-
tive secretary of the Texas Baptist General Convention. Both Maston
and Miller subsequently considered Williams instrumental in estab-
lishing the Christian Life Commission. In 1950, having recovered from
a heart attack which had stalled progress in 1949, Williams appointed a
three-man committee consisting of Maston, Miller (who then headed the
Interracial Cooperation Committee for the Texas Baptist General Con-
21Eighmy, Churcies in Cultural Captivity, 55; Rufus B. Spain, At Ease in Zion: Social
History of Southern Baptists, r865-1900oo (Nashville, 1967), 211; Texas Almanac and State
Industrial Guide, 1970-1971 (Dallas, 1969), 165, 172; Blaine A. Brownell, The Urban South
in the Twentieth Century (St. Charles, Missouri, 1974), 16, 24-27, 29 (quotation). The Unit-
ed States Census defines as urban any area with 2,500 people or more. Richard B. Morris
(ed.), Encyclopedia of American History (2nd ed.; New York, 1961), 467.
22Oral Memoirs, Maston, 25. See also Oral Memoirs, Miller, 104. Theological liberalism
and conservatism are not easily defined, for there is significant variety within each cate-
gory. Broadly, however, liberalism as used here denotes a certain degree of optimism about
human progress; faith in reason; a de-emphasis of Original Sin; and belief in the im-
manence of God. By contrast, conservatism is characterized by skepticism of human prog-
ress and reason and by emphasis upon sin and the transcendence of God.
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 83, July 1979 - April, 1980, periodical, 1979/1980; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101207/m1/59/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.