Earl Scott claimed that he was “no hero.” As proof, he cited that he won no medals. But he did have war stories. He liked to tell about his “window on the Battle of the Bulge.”
It was a pilot's window. “It all began in the predawn hours of December 16, 1944,” Scott once recalled, “as massive artillery barrages fell on American troops in the Schnee Eifel area along the German/Belgium boundary.” The date was Scott's 26th birthday and he was a pilot with the 106th Infantry Division.
“Dec. 16 came in with a great blast — artillery barrages hit my position. Weather still foul, I headed back [to base] with my other pilot. We never got there. [We were] intercepted with a message to return to the strip. We returned to the airstrip and took off. Flying at about 1,500 feet altitude we received MG fire — tracers and the zip zip of bullets just a few feet out in front of the plane. What to do? The evasive action taught at [school] was to execute a diving turn and come out over trees or ground with hedgehopping. Pilots of the 2d Division said this maneuver was useless, the Germans were onto it; but they didn't tell what to use in place. I did some rather tricky flying at that point and finally got out of danger. Neither of us was hit, but the plane sustained multiple bullet holes. What a birthday celebration!
“The next day, we were ordered to fly to Bastogne. The ceiling was zero. Two planes were without pilots and my observer volunteered to fly one of them out. It took off and crashed over the end of the runway. He flew [another] plane out. I followed him into the air and quickly flew into a solid fog bank. Decided to gain altitude and return to the airstrip but fog was there also. In the process of climbing [the other plane] sailed across my front. I barely missed hitting him. At this point, I decided that he would not make it and I gave myself a very slim chance. I decided to spiral down and hopefully come out of the fog before crashing. This I did and at 100 feet, I was out of the fog and over a field large enough to land. There at the edge of the field along a concrete highway stood a lone American soldier. Taxing up to the road, the soldier came over and he was actually a chaplain. Just what I needed!”
There was more to the story. He managed to dodge enemy fire time and time again, slept in a barn, and often “prayed that God would let me get out of this situation.” On Christmas Eve, 1944 he “slept little because of German Buzz bombs” and he believed the Germans meant it when they claimed that the area would be “devastated or leveled by bombs on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day.” But the young pilot survived to tell the story, to serve in the Virginia Army National Guard, to work in a high level position in the Commonwealth's Division of State Planning and Community Affairs, and to grow old with the woman whom he had left behind to enter the war, Catherine Stone Scott.
But along life's journey the gentle warrior also accomplished outstanding service as a Baptist layman in his church, local associations and in the Baptist General Association of Virginia, which he served as president in 1985. He was converted and baptized at age 15 and joined Venable Street Baptist Church in Richmond. In time, he became active in the life of the Richmond Baptist Association, serving as historian, Sunday school director and moderator.
In 1977 when Venable closed and merged with Westhill to form Mechanicsville Baptist Church, Scott joined the others at the Hanover County church. Once again, he found work to do in the local association, the Dover, which he served as moderator. In his churches, the layman found plenty of jobs — trustee, teacher of youth and adults, and superintendent of the Sunday school. He was chairman of the construction committee for the Hillside Baptist Center in Richmond. He had a long tenure as a trustee of the Religious Herald and two terms on the Mission (then called General) Board.
It was an easy step from moderator of Dover in 1984 to the presidency of the General Association in 1985; but the gentle warrior walked straight into the hornet's nest called “the controversy.” The SBC “holy wars” were at their height and the times called for a leader who was calm, reasonable and deliberate.
As president, Scott met with other state presidents within the SBC and together they issued a statement in April 1985, which attempted to calm the waters. “The manner in which the present controversies are being discussed among Southern Baptists,” said the statement, “in many instances diminishes our ability to reflect Christ's love to the world, limits our ability to carry out the Great Commission and diverts our attention from the responsibilities God has given us.
“We believe persons involved with all positions of these discussions are sincere people seeking to serve the cause of Christ. We urge, however, that all participants in the debate reflect the character of Christ in their discussions, articles and statements.
“We are convinced that only God can produce healing and reconciliation… We urge those in the SBC who make appointments and those who carry out programs to be mindful of involving people from a broad range of our constituency.”
The Virginia leader also sent his own letter. “Controversy is running unbridled with the potential for destroying what we believe God led us to create. More than ever, we need to seek God's divine guidance ….”
The appeals were noble attempts at peace. Ahead lay Dallas with its massive turnout of messengers and deeper rifts.
In November 1985, Earl Scott delivered his president's address. In part, the gentle warrior said: “God's love must prevail if we are to accomplish the task of reaching the world. When a church drifts away from its main thrust of expressing God's love, Christianity suffers. Conflict greatly reduces the effectiveness of our calling and becomes a stumbling block to the work. As factions battle it out, the community passes by on the other side and reflects, ‘Well, that's Christianity for you.' Well, it isn't Christianity. It is the devil in his relentless effort to undermine and destroy God's plan.”
On November 18, a month shy of his 90th birthday, Earl Arthur Scott died. He still believed that the peculiar people called Baptists offered a way in which all believers, clergy and laity, could be priests and together they could be “a mighty army marching to God's command.”
Fred Anderson is executive director of the Virginia Baptist Historical Society and the Center for Baptist Heritage and Studies. He may be contacted at [email protected] or at P.O. Box 34, University of Richmond, VA 23173.