Religious liberty is the first freedom for Americans. Thomas Jefferson authored the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom, which since 1786 has provided a benchmark for the western world. James Madison, influenced by Virginia Baptists, reasoned that religious liberty would become…
A definition of high energy
A dictionary gives the following definition of energy: “Capacity or habit of vigorous activity; also, ability to produce action or effect.” The compiler of words must have known Hugh Thomas Busey. In everyday laymen speak, he has been aptly called…
With a song in his heart
Sixteen Candles was a popular song for the teen and college set in 1959 and was among the repertoire of a singing group at the University of Richmond known as The Jeters. (Readers of this column and UR alums recognize…
Dates of Infamy
They are dates that “will live in infamy.” September 11, 2001. April 16, 2007. December 7, 1941. President Roosevelt summarized that last date: “America was suddenly and deliberately attacked by the naval and air forces of the Empire of Japan….
Pioneering in music ministry
Sixty years ago a young married couple, recent graduates of the prestigious Westminster Choir College and still in their 20s, arrived on the Virginia Baptist scene and almost immediately made contributions which had lasting results. Jim and Hattie Copeland came…
Friends to civil liberty
In the summer of 1789, the General Committee—an early and loose organization of Virginia Baptists—met in Richmond. In a spirit of national pride, they endorsed a letter of congratulations to the Republic's first president, a fellow Virginian, George Washington. Although…
Showing courage
Only two years into his big city pastorate at First Baptist Church of Richmond, Jeremiah Bell Jeter at age 36 engineered a major change. It was a threatening change not only to members of his congregation but also to fellow…
Spreading love
In 1942 Alma Cree finished business school in Henderson, N.C, and did the unthinkable. She had grown up hearing about the Foreign Mission Board and imagined that it would be “a good place to work.” She wrote a blind letter…
Beginnings and endings
Noah Calton Baldwin was the grand old man among the Baptists of Southwest Virginia. For nearly 60 years, he was a central figure in the religious life of the frontier from Marion to Abingdon. He was the father of the…
Finding a home
Shiloh Baptist Church, along the King's Highway in King George County, Va., has been home for many people in the course of its 150 years. It was created to give people a home during one of the great divisions among…
In the schoolhouse or the church house?
Fifty years ago most children received some exposure to the Judeo-Christian faith tradition in the tax-supported public schools. My faintest recollection is that my school had opening exercises with the pledge to the flag, some Bible verses and a prayer….
South of the border
Several Virginia Baptists — including this columnist — found their way south of the border to Mexico City for the recent gathering of the Baptist World Alliance. In a sense, I once again was following in the footsteps of my…