Conservative theology was consistent with the advance of racial justice in the Southern Baptist Convention during the second half of the twentieth century. Historians have downplayed the role of conservative theology in the advancement of racial justice within the Southern Baptist Convention. Yet rank-and-file Southern Baptists went along with efforts to abolish segregation only when those efforts did not conflict with evangelical interpretations of Scripture. Between World War II and the Supreme Court's school desegregation decision, Southern Baptists from all theological camps advocated racial equality. They did not consider, however, that a belief in equality might conflict with segregation. The changing social climate between 1955 and 1970 drove Southern Baptists to reflect on segregation and subsequently to change their views based on their theology. Even within the theologically liberal Christian Life Commission, progressive thinkers appealed to evangelical theology to move their denomination on the race issue. Southern Baptist seminaries and colleges gradually integrated and appropriated conservative theology to gain support from the denomination. African Americans felt evangelical theology logically demanded racial inclusiveness and wondered why the Southern Baptist Convention failed to live up to the theology it professed to believe. By the 1980s, evangelical views had established denominational opinion in favor of racial equality and integration. Because of the widespread agreement on race, people on both sides of a denominational controversy agreed in their approach to race despite disagreeing on a host of other issues. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

"Bingo" and Other Stories is a collection of short stories whose individual primary characters are forced to make profound changes in the wake of a discovery that comes about as a result of a tragedy or strained personal relationship or a combination of both. This collection is multigenerational in its collective scope and it reflects influences that come from the African-American and Southern literary traditions. In addition, it uses realism to create the settings for and sensibilities of the characters who populate the stories. Stories in the collection are also connected in how they conjure up various geographical locations in Florida, especially regions of Florida that identify with the traditional American South. / by Richard Peacock. / Thesis (M.F.A.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2009. / Includes bibliography. / Electronic reproduction. Boca Raton, Fla., 2009. Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The purposes of this investigation were to 1) determine to what extent nontraditional external doctorates will be recognized for employment and promotion in school systems accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; 2) determine to what extent nontraditional external doctorates will be recognized for initial employment and promotion in junior/community colleges accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; 3) determine to what extent nontraditional external doctorates will be recognized for initial employment and promotion in baccalaureate granting colleges and universities accredited by Southern Association of Colleges and Schools; 4) determine which degree and institutional factors concerning the nontraditional external doctorate are not accepted in a) school systems b) junior/community colleges c) baccalaureate granting colleges and universities; 5) determine which degree and institutional factors concerning the n on traditional external doctorate are acceptable in a) school systems b) junior/community colleges c) baccalaureate granting colleges and universities. The major conclusions were that the traditional doctoral degree still has strong advantages and that the institutional and program characteristics of the degree granting institution were very important. Many chief administrators are still undecided concerning the external doctoral degree. Chief administrators appear to be receptive to changes in traditional doctorate programs.

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Thesis (Ph.D.)--College of William and Mary, Dept. of History, 2005. / Microfiche of typescript. UMI Number: 32-01118. Includes bibliographical references. Also available via the World Wide Web to subscribers to Proquest dissertations and theses, full text.

This dissertation examined the relationship between open and closed Sunday school groups and real and perceived measurements of church health in growing Southern Baptist churches. The concern for Sunday school growth was explored through an analysis of the relationships between open and closed Sunday school groups in 1,013 small and medium sized Southern Baptist churches that were experiencing significant positive growth, in the geographic South. According the precedent literature, research, and an expert panel, the growth characteristics leadership, evangelism, fellowship, and ministry were expected to rank among the most significant of the measured growth factors. Data collected, however, demonstrated critical differences in the perceived significance of the identified growth factors. Sunday school members and leaders ranked discipleship, doctrine, prayer, and worship as the most significant growth factors. The research also identified significant differences between the expected measurements and perceived measurements of open and closed Sunday school groups. Fifty-eight percent of all respondents perceived their Sunday school to be an open group; however, 78% of all respondents perceived Sunday school's primary purpose as instruction and discipleship; 5% perceived Sunday school's primary purpose as nurture and fellowship; and 17% perceived Sunday school's primary purpose as evangelism. Based upon the definitions of open and closed groups, both groups were expected to exhibit biases toward specific growth characteristics; however, there was no significant difference between how open groups and closed groups perceived discipleship, doctrine, and prayer. Both open and closed groups ranked doctrine, discipleship, prayer, and worship as the most essential characteristics of a growing Sunday school. Of the eleven identified Sunday school and church growth characteristics, only four growth characteristics produced correlation coefficients ( r ) that demonstrated any level of significance: leadership, evangelism, fellowship, and discipleship. For most churches surveyed, there was a positive correlation between leadership within the Sunday school and an increased number of baptisms. Overall, there was a general decrease in average weekly worship attendance as the degree of significance in evangelism increased. There was a general increase in adult Sunday school enrollment as the perceived significance of fellowship decreased; as well as a negative correlation between fellowship and worship attendance; as the average weekly worship attendance increased as the perceived significance of fellowship decreased. Regarding the growth factor discipleship, there was a negative correlation between discipleship and the average weekly worship attendance as recorded by the research. / This item is only available to students and faculty of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. If you are not associated with SBTS, this dissertation may be purchased from <a href="http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb">http://disexpress.umi.com/dxweb</a> or downloaded through ProQuest's Dissertation and Theses database if your institution subscribes to that service.

When the federation of the thirteen English colonies into the United States of America was finally achieved in 1776, powerful influences had made it certain that this new nation would have religious freedom and that it would not maintain an established church. Among those influences was the influence of an overwhelming number of settlers known as Ulster Scots, or Scotch-Irish, who emigrated into the colonies from Northern Ireland between the years 1720 and 1775. They came as dissenters from the Established Church in northern Ireland and remained dissenters from the Established Church as they found it where they settled along the frontiers of the Southern Colonies of Virginia, North and South Carolina. From 1720, the year these Ulstermen emigrated to the colonies in any appreciable numbers, until 1775 at the outbreak of hostilities between the colonies and England, they exerted a significant influence upon the achievement of religious liberty. Although the Ulster Scots were the most widely distributed of immigrants except those from England, being found in all thirteen colonies at the time of the Revolution, their influence in achieving religious freedom was most effective in the Southern Colonies where their numbers were most effective in the Southern Colonies where their numbers were five times as large as in the north. The development of religious liberty in colonial America has been determined to have had its impetus in three factors. First, the large and influential number of sects in the colonies; second, the liberal philosophy of sects in the colonies; second, the liberal philosophy of the 18th century with its relationalistic temper coupled with a fervent evangelical zeal that is reflected in the revivalistic movement of the Great Awakening across the middle of the 18th century; and thirdly, the ecclesiastical and political influence and interference of England. The Ulster Scots were directly concerned with the first and second factors. The third factor, however, does not relate itself to them primarily because they were situated on the western frontier of the Southern Colonies and not directly connected with any major commercial interests which developed such a display of emotion as was to be found in such centers of commerce as Boston and Philadelphia. The effort on the part of some colonials to prevent the appointment of a resident Bishop of the Anglican Church in the colonies does not appear to have made much impression on the Ulster Scots in the Southern Colonies, as the opponents to such a move were confined principally to the New England and to a lesser extent in the Middle Colonies. Opposition in the Southern Colonies to the appointment of a resident Bishop was found among the Anglican planters who had, for all intents and purposes, control of the Establishment through the vestries and did not wish to lose it. Because the Ulster Scots were the largest group among the sects dissenting from the Establishment who settled in the Southern Colonies their influence was proportionately greater in the achievement of religious liberty in these colonies than any other. But equal in importance with their numerical strength was the site of their settlements in the Southern Colonies. Prevented largely from setting in the more well-established tidewater area of the colonies of Virginia and South Carolina, they were forced to push westward into what was called the back country, or the frontier settlements were initiated by the emigration of these Ulster Scots from the colony of Pennsylvania who came down the eastern and western valleys of the mountain range which extends across the western flank of the Southern Colonies. There, in the isolation of the wilderness, their influence for the achievement of religious liberty exerted itself along with other dessenters from the Establishment so as to hasten the disestablishment of the Anglican church in the Southern colonies at the outbreak of the revolution, and usher in religious liberty.

One facet of the problem of state rights within the Confederacy is revealed through a study of the relations between President Davis and the war governors. As a means of investigating those relationships this study considers their attempts to solve several major problems. This work seeks to discover the degree of co-operation which existed between the President and governors and to establish what effect this co-operation or lack of it had on the failure of the states to support many important central government policies. It also seeks to determine what influence those relationships had on the outcome of the war.

"The three objectives of this study are to present a biographical sketch of William Thomas Person, to comment on the techniques used in his short stories, particularly those which have been reprinted in collections for young people, to summarize his seven novels published to date, and to report critical reactions to them. Very little biographical data concerning Tom Person is available in print. To supplement the information in Who's Who Monthly Supplement, in Mrs. Person's scrapbook, and on book jackets, this writer contacted the Person family, a profitable experience both from the standpoint of information obtained and from the personal satisfaction of knowing fine people. Friends of the Persons also were most helpful in furnishing further details about the family. Letters from a plantation owner, a lawyer, a newspaper columnist, an educator, and other interesting friends included pertinent biographical and critical data. The biographical section treats Person's early years, his literary apprenticeship as a writer of short stories, his family, his friends, and his work"--Introduction. / Typescript. / "August, 1960." / "Submitted to the Graduate School of Florida State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts." / Advisor: Sarah Rebecca Reed, Professor Directing Paper. / Includes bibliographical references (leaves 54-58).