3.1 sending the light: the organizing of texas baptist women  (Page 6/11)

The early- to mid-1880s were watershed years for other aspects of Texas Baptist life. Many of those who had led the denomination through its formative stages had died, and new leaders of broader vision and less sectional prejudice came to the front. Improved communication and transportation enlarged horizons and emphasized the ineffectiveness of rivalry and duplication in achieving religious goals. At least one Baptist historian, Robert A. Baker, recognized these directions as part of a national trend toward "unification into an orderly system." See Baker, p. 148. Annual meetings of the SBC held in Jefferson in 1874 and in Waco in 1883 put the southern spotlight on Texas as a strong factor in the denomination's future. The volunteering of the first Texans to the foreign mission field, E. H. Quillen and W. B. and Anne Luther Bagby, as well as the founding of Buckner Orphan Home in Dallas, gave Baptists all over the state goals commensurate with their desire to forego pettiness and close ranks.

The result of these societal shifts was a unification of Texas Baptist forces. It was first proposed by the General Association to the State Convention in 1883, but the Convention did not respond positively until 1885, when consolidation offered a solution to their problems with the two Baylors at Independence. Because there had been several years of deliberation and "spadework," the committees from these principal state bodies moved rapidly to join their efforts; however, J. M. Carroll, again an eyewitness, reported that negotiations did not always go smoothly: "Few, if any secured all they wanted, and some secured probably nothing as they really wanted it." Carroll, p. 648.

In the "Christian compromise" that was effected, the five state organizations disbanded and formed a single body named "The Baptist General Convention of Texas." This state body was subdivided into smaller geographical units called "associations." Besides promoting statewide missions, the Baptist General Convention of Texas accepted responsibility for the denomination's other cooperative efforts--colleges, Sunday schools, and women's groups. Baylor University and Waco University were united at Waco as a coeducational institution under the Baylor name, and Baylor Female College was moved to Belton. The Sunday school conventions had already consolidated in 1885, and the women's groups came together as Baptist Women Mission Workers. Because the papers were privately owned and distinctly rivals, negotiations on their future were handled separately and not completed as successfully as those pertaining to the conventions and schools. Hayden ultimately purchased Link's paper and retained Link briefly as co-editor of the Texas Baptist and Herald , located in Dallas.

In a Baylor thesis completed in 1930, Oscar T. Smith stated that the greatest social adjustment made by Baptists in Texas was that of emphasizing cooperation rather than individualism, making "an internal adaptation to meet an external social situation." Oscar T. Smith, "Texas Baptists and Social Adjustments," Thesis Baylor University 1930, p. 20. The external situation that these late-nineteenth-century Baptists confronted was the complex economic order and subsequent ordering of society that was based on a national transportation and communication network and was characterized by specialization and bureaucratic organization. Entering that mainstream meant altering conceptions of individualism and autonomy that were the backbone of Baptist tradition. The transformation could not have been made without an outstanding group of leaders placing their weight and influence in the direction of the cultural thrust, structuring the denomination's institutions to serve new functions, and proposing goals worthy of change. Even with these difficult conditions met, the fledgling Baptist General Convention of Texas (hereafter, abbreviated BGCT) faced constant controversy in its first fifteen years of existence.