A Betrayal of Their Fathers, Part 1

August 15, 2015

The Executive Committee, SBC

901 Commerce Street

Nashville, TN 37203-3699

 

Dear Sirs,

 

We are writing in regard to what is apparently the Southern Baptist Convention’s stand against our Southern heritage and the Confederate Battle Flag. At least, prominent members of the SBC have been outspoken in this regard. As a result, an increasing number of organizations have joined suit, and perhaps as an unforeseen result, Confederate monuments and gravesites are being plundered and defaced, and our Southern heritage has been devalued.

 

In a rebuttal to what has become the majority view of the Southern Baptist Convention, Pastor Edward DeVries, a member of this organization, issued the following statement:

 

“So the attack by our denominational leadership is not only an attack against my ancestors, it is also an attack against the men and women who birthed our denomination and established many of its critical institutions,” he said. “It is a direct attack against the character and the godliness of our fathers and heroes in the faith.”

 

As Southerners, (and cousins) we celebrate our own personal heritage, as numerous members of our family tree have been ministers of the Gospel; most Baptist ministers of one persuasion or another.

 

Our own 4x great Grandfather, Isom Peacock, a Missionary Baptist, and Revolutionary Soldier, founded and pastored the first Baptist congregation in the State of Florida in Nassau County; Pigeon Creek Baptist Church, a church which is still in existence.

 

His son-in-law, our 3x great Grandfather, Ryan Frier, a Primitive Baptist, founded and pastored Bethel Baptist Church, a racially-mixed congregation, prior to the Civil War. Though Rev. Frier, and his family were of the pro-union sentiment, his sons were forced to fight for the Confederate cause when the Union Army invaded, and began burning nearby towns.

 

Ultimately, Bethel Baptist Church split into two factions; one white and one black. These two small churches evolved into congregations of mega-proportions, and First Baptist Church, a Southern Baptist congregation, and Bethel Institutional Baptist Church, both located in Jacksonville, Florida continue to impact thousands of souls in the Northeast Florida area. (Each of these two Baptist churches, by the way, celebrate their heritage, and name our kinsman as a founding father).

 

Time and space would fail us to mention Rev. Nathaniel Walker, a Revolutionary War soldier, and founder and pastor of  the Healing Springs Baptist Church in South Carolina, Henderson Frier, the father of Ryan Frier, a veteran of the War of 1812, and a co-elder with him at the Macedonia Missionary Baptist Church in Georgia, our Cousin, Lazarus Dowling, a former Confederate soldier, who taught Sacred Harp music to the people of Hoboken, Georgia, and “Gen.” Henry Dowling, our gg Uncle, one of the last surviving veterans of the Civil War, the National Commander of The United Confederate Veterans organization as WWII drew to a close, the final resident of the Georgia Confederate Soldiers Home in Atlanta, and a Church of Christ minister.


By William McDonald, PhD. Excerpt from "(Mc)Donald's Daily Diary" Vol. 12. Copyright Volumes 1-15.

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