A few weeks ago I wrote about the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, the primary Baptist organization in the state. In 1901, after years of growing dissatisfaction, a large percentage of members withdrew from the Convention, forming what would become known as the Missionary Baptists.
The division was long in coming, and the debate might seem esoteric to modern ears. It is important to keep in mind that throughout the 19th century Baptists were riven by competing beliefs and biblical interpretations.
Many different reform movements grew out of the Second Great Awakening of the early 19th century. The Primitive Baptists, for example, stressed taking the church back to its first-century origins. Known as "Hardshell Baptists" to their critics, the Primitive Baptists rejected non-biblical practices such as Sunday schools since they were not mentioned in the New Testament.
The Campbellite reform movement, which ultimately resulted in the creation of the Disciples of Christ and Church of Christ denominations, also had an impact on Baptist thinking.
The notion of purging the church of unbiblical modern trappings grew with time, ultimately resulting in the Landmark Movement. Among the reformers preaching this doctrine was James R. Graves, a Tennessee Baptist newspaper editor, who popularized Landmark beliefs.
One of the original tenets which Graves preached was opposition to recognizing or associating with churches "not organized according to the Jerusalem church." Thus, Landmark leaders opposed union revival meetings and argued against inviting non-Baptist preachers to share the pulpit on holidays or special occasions.
Communion should be "closed," meaning that non-Baptists should not be allowed to partake. Only baptisms performed by Baptists were legitimate, and "alien immersion" was forbidden. The local church was supreme, and there was no need for "mission boards."
Landmark followers believed that the local Baptist church could be traced backward in an unbroken line of succession to New Testament congregations.
Many of the followers of the Landmark Movement harbored a deep suspicion of any religious organizations above the local congregation. Thus, many Landmark leaders opposed cooperative efforts to sponsor missionaries, opposed paid staff, and generally sought to return emphasis to the local church.
Baptist historian E. Glenn Hinson has stressed that the split within the Baptist Church in Arkansas was far more than theological: "It was deeply rooted in the natural divisions of Arkansas society--uplanders and lowlanders, back-woodsmen and planters, impoverished and wealthy, uneducated and cultured."
Former Confederate general and Arkansas governor James P. Eagle, a wealthy planter from Lonoke County, served 24 years as president of the Baptist State Convention and came to be resented by a rising cadre of younger Baptists.
All this rancor led to a dramatic confrontation at the 1901 annual convention in Paragould. President Eagle and the Executive Board tried to pre-empt problems by issuing a Statement of Baptist Principles, which among other things recognized "the time-honored and fundamental doctrine of the absolute autonomy of the churches." The report stressed that while local control is paramount, "there is no antagonism between this doctrine and that other sublime and almost equally important doctrine, the co-operation of the churches."
One of the major points of contention at the convention was the practice of coordinating missionary efforts through a salaried "Missionary Secretary." Adding a personal touch to the debate was W.A. Clark, a long-time Baptist official and editor of the Arkansas Baptist newspaper.
A few years earlier Clark had been passed over for the position of Corresponding Secretary, and subsequently used the pages of his newspaper to criticize the State Convention leadership and programs. Clark, a leading Landmarker, was reprimanded by the Convention in 1900, and when that did little good, a more explicit censure was issued in stern rebuke.
Clark did not accept the reprimand, and he quickly became one of the leaders of the revolt in Paragould. However, a far more aggressive and combative Landmark leader stepped to the forefront during the Paragould conference.
Benjamin M. Bogard was born in 1868 in Kentucky, the son of tobacco farmers. As a youngster he was drawn to the Baptist church and regularly attended evangelical camp meetings. Bogard was 16 when, on a cold February day in 1885, he was baptized in a pond covered with ice. After a short time in college, Bogard began his career as a minister of the Gospels.
Bogard moved to Searcy in 1899 to become pastor of First Baptist Church. He would go on to pastor several large Baptist congregations, including at North Little Rock, but his longest tenure was as pastor of the Antioch Missionary Baptist Church in Little Rock from 1920 to 1947.
Bogard, W.A. Clark, and their allies roiled the meeting in Paragould by continually attacking Eagle for his centralizing zeal, an approach which Landmarkers saw as threatening the sanctity of local church autonomy. The politically skilled Eagle worked out a supposed compromise, but as historians have noted, "... the Convention was hopelessly divided. There was simply no room in the Convention for Ben Bogard--the most ardent Landmarker--and the Eagles, their supporters, and their cooperationist ideal."
As they had threatened at the convention in Paragould, Bogard and other Landmark leaders met in Little Rock in April 1902 to establish a new Baptist organization, the General Association of Arkansas Baptists. Eagle, who had invested decades of his life in the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, fought to pre-empt the new association by compromise and conciliation. Both sides agreed to appoint a "peace committee" to resolve the differences, but matters had gone too far for a true reconciliation.
Individual Baptist churches, as well as the regional associations, began to choose sides. Glenn Hinson has noted that almost half of the district associations voted to join the General Association in mission work. Around one-fourth continued with the State Convention, and "the remaining fourth, chiefly the larger associations, voted to remain neutral as a result of sharply divided opinion within their own ranks."
The White River Baptist Association, for example, established ties with both sides. However, as time passed, most of the undecided associations stayed with the State Convention. By 1921, State Convention membership stood at 98,376, while the General Association could count 34,271 members.
Geography played an important role in the Baptist division. Most of the larger Baptist congregations--sometimes called county seat churches--stayed with the State Convention. Rural churches and those with membership under 73 tended to affiliate with the General Association.
I would be remiss if I did not mention that Ben Bogard was known as much for his political activities as his church work. In 1921 Bogard came out with a ringing endorsement of the recently reorganized Ku Klux Klan, calling the Klan a defender of white supremacy and "100 Per Cent Americanism."
In the autumn of 1921, Bogard led a tent revival in which he preached for 70 days in a row, which the Arkansas Catholic newspaper The Guardian decried as a KKK meeting in disguise--"preaching 100 percent Americanism but less than one-half of no percent Christianity." Not long after the revival Bogard went on the road as a KKK speaker. According to the Arkansas Democrat, Bogard "thanked God for the Ku Klux Klan."
Bogard is also well known in Arkansas history for his opposition to the teaching of Darwinian evolution in the public schools. Indeed, in 1928 he led a successful campaign to adopt an amendment to the State Constitution outlawing evolution in the classroom.
Also in 1928, the tireless Bogard organized an attempt to defeat the Democratic nominee for president that year, Catholic Alfred E. Smith of New York. He especially believed that Smith would overturn prohibition, take orders from the Pope, and impose "Negro equality."
Tom Dillard is a historian and retired archivist living near Glen Rose in rural Hot Spring County. Email him at [email protected].
Editorial on 08/25/2019