The most comprehensive state project of its kind, the Dictionary provides information on some 4,000 notable North Carolinians whose accomplishments and occasional misdeeds span four centuries. Much of the bibliographic information found in the six volumes has been compiled for the first time. All of the persons included are deceased. They are native North Carolinians, no matter where they made the contributions for which they are noted, or non-natives whose contributions were made in North Carolina.
Appalachia's distinctive brand of Christianity has always been something of a puzzle to mainline American congregations. Often treated as pagan and unchurched, native Appalachian sects are labeled as ultraconservative, primitive, and fatalistic, and the actions of minority sub-groups such as "snake handlers" are associated with all worshippers in the region. Yet these churches that many regard as being outside the mainstream are living examples of America's own religious heritage. The emotional and experience-based religion that still thrives in Appalachia is very much at the heart of American worship. The lack of a recognizable "father figure" like Martin Luther, John Calvin, and John Knox compounds the mystery of Appalachia's religious origins. Ordained minister John Sparks determined that such a person must have existed, and his search turned up a man less literate, urbane, and well-known than Luther, Calvin, and Knox—but no less charismatic and influential. Shubal Stearns, a New England Baptist minister, led a group of sixteen Baptists—now dubbed "The Old Brethren" by Old School Baptists churches in Appalachia—from New England to North Carolina in the mid-eighteenth century. His musical "barking" preaching is still popular, and the association of churches that he established gave birth to many of the disparate denominations prospering in the region today. A man lacking in the scholarship of his peers but endowed with the eccentricities that would make their mark on Appalachian faith, Stearns has long been an object of shame among most Baptist historians. In The Roots of Appalachian Christianity, Sparks depicts an important religious figure in a new light. Poring over pages of out-of-print and little-used histories, Sparks discovered the complexity of Stearns's character and his impact on Appalachian Christianity. The result is a history not just of this leader but of the roots of a religious movement.
According to conventional wisdom, theological liberals led the Southern Baptist Convention to reject segregation and racism in the twentieth century. That's only half the story. Liberals criticized segregation before mainstream Southern Baptists. They created racially integrated ministry opportunities. They pressed the Southern Baptist Convention to reject segregation. Yet historians have discounted the role of conservative theology in the convention's shift away from racial segregation and prejudice. This book chronicles how conservative theology proved remarkably compatible with efforts toward racial justice in America's largest Protestant denomination between 1954 and 1995. At times conservative theology was even a catalyst for rejecting racial prejudice. Efforts to eradicate racism and segregation were, in fact, least successful when they appealed to the social gospel or appeared to draw from liberal theology.
In its emerging Republicanism, the SBC has taken on characteristics of its more active fellow travelers in the Christian Right, forging alliances with former enemies (African Americans and Roman Catholics), playing presidential politics, establishing a Washington lobbying presence, working the political grassroots, and declaring war on Walt Disney. Each of these missions has been accomplished with calculating political precision.
The author has wonderfully traced the orgins of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Associations and its Founders from 1866 to 1966. He has included brief but substative narratives of the lives of the Founding Fathers namely: L. W. Boone, Z. H. Berry, H. H. Hays, C. E.Hodges, C. E. Johnson, William Reid, Emanuel Reynolds and others. Sufficient attention has been given to the activities of the Women Missionary and Education Union. Pictures and narratives of 10 of its previous presidents has been enshirned in the chapter entitled, "Woman, What of our Past." Historical sketches and pictures of selected churches within the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association displays the far reaching effects of the Founding Fathers. The concluding chapter details the founding of the West Raonoke Missionary Baptist Association from the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association. Dr. Boone has taken the Bataan from others who knew that this important historical contribution needed to be gathered, appreciated, shared and celebrated for a job well done. Unfortunately, no one was able to consistently pursue this great endeavor before Dr. Boones extensive and exhaustive work represented here. Massive in its scope the volume guides the reader in a comprehensive and challenging look at the origin and the significance of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association and the importance of the Founding Fathers and the work with the North Carolina and Virginia abolitionist. The lives of the Founding Fathers and the lives of the first three generations of pastors and officials are succinctly presented as they lifted up the esssential meaning of liberation for the pastor and the local congregations in northeastern North Carolina. The History of the Roanoke Missionary Baptist Association from 1866-1966 provides critical resources for the study of the formation of this grand institution. Dr. Boone has put in place a solid foundation that can be built upon as new information becomes available. He is married to the former Amanda Battle of Richmond, VA. They reside in Hampton Roads, Virginia.
