The Fundamentalist – June 9, 1950

I stumbled across a couple of copies of J. Frank Norris’ The Fundamentalist weekly paper while going through some old church records while at Friendship Baptist Church in Boyd, TX. This issue, from June 9, 1950, was in the best shape and I have succeeded in scanning it.

I think some explanation may be necessary to explain the contents of this issue. It is most definitely a product of Norris’ darker side. The May of 1950 was when men such as G.B. Vick broke away from Norris’ World Fundamental Baptist Missionary Fellowship. This split led to the founding of the Baptist Bible Fellowship International and the Baptist Bible College in Springfield, Missouri. For months after the split of the Fellowship, Norris vigorously attacked his once allies.

This particular issue of The Fundamentalist is full of accusations and insinuations. While doing some research into this time, I found that it is quoted multiple times in Homer Ritchie’s biography of Norris. It is a classic, and sad, example of Norris’s waning influence and composure in his later years. For further reading and more perspective, I’d recommend W.E. Dowell’s The Birth Pangs of the Baptist Bible International or Billy Bartlett’s History of Baptist Separatism.

---

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

•