Hitler and the Baptists

Baptist Comity

Throughout the late 1800's and early-to-mid 1900's, Baptists in America operated on a system which banned Southern Baptists from doing mission work in the American North, and which banned Northern Baptists from doing mission work in the American South. How was that necessitated? How did it work? Why did it fall apart? This episode answers these and other questions.

Hitler and the Baptists

In 1934, the Baptist World Alliance had their Congress in Berlin at the exact time that Adolf Hitler was elevated from Chancellor to Fuhrer. As the Nazis had official positions on religious practice, the Baptists took the opportunity to have meetings with Hitler and Reichsbishop Ludwig Müller. Representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention, Northern Baptist Convention, and Baptist Union of Great Britain sought to discuss religion with Hitler, and influence antisemitism and nationalism with German Baptists.

The C.S. Carnes Defalcation

In 1928, Clinton Samuel (C.S.) Carnes was the treasurer of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board (now NAMB). Carnes stole around $1,000,000 and disappeared. This is his story, and the story of how he did it.

Alexander MacLaren

Alexander MacLaren (1826-1910) was a Scottish Baptist preacher and contemporary of Charles Spurgeon. He was known as the "Prince of Expositors" and is considered the second-most-widely-read Baptist of all time, trailing only Spurgeon himself. His 17-volume Expositions of the Holy Scripture is still in widespread use on both sides of the Atlantic, and his impact continues to be felt generations later.

James David (J.D.) Grey

J.D. Grey is most famous for being the pastor of the First Baptist Church in New Orleans, LA., but was also a monumental figure in Baptist politics throughout the mid-1900s, serving as President of the SBC and Executive Committee member of the BWA.