Jim Jones and the Peoples Temple

The most recent issue of the Stone-Campbell Journal includes an article by Kelly Tyrrell titled "Strange Bedfellows: Jim Jones and the Disciples of Christ."

Tyrrell tells the story of the Peoples Temple. It was a popular church in 1960s and 70s California with thousands of members. But when Jim Jones, the church's charismatic pastor, was placed under investigation, he convinced hundreds of church members to move with him to Guyana, South America. There in the jungle they established an enclave called Jonestown.

When concerned U.S. officials visited Jonestown, several in their entourage were shot and killed. Shortly after that, 918 residents of Jonestown died in a mass suicide orchestrated by Jones himself. The pastor convinced church members to drink a beverage laced with cyanide. More than 300 of the dead were children.

While the news media often identified Jones as the leader of a cult, they overlooked the fact that Peoples Temple was affiliated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) denomination. That's the point this article emphasizes. Tyrrell notes that the Stone-Campbell Restoration Movement has historically been characterized by independent, autonomous congregations. Only in the twentieth century did the most liberal branch of the movement, the Disciples of Christ, establish something of a denominational structure. However, even after doing that, the network of congregations was loose.

This was something Jim Jones had noticed. And he took advantage. On the one hand, connections to a recognized denomination would lend Peoples Temple status and credibility. How could someone be pegged as a cult leader when his church was in good standing with a major denomination? On the other hand, the Disciples of Christ was the denomination least likely to keep tabs on its member churches and their pastors. So affiliation with the Disciples was perfect for Jones: credibility without oversight.

Anyway, a few of the sources in this article could have been stronger. But aside from that, it's a fine piece that makes an overlooked point about Jones and his church.

David Lipscomb on the Roles of Christian Women, 1892

In October 1892, David Lipscomb set out to define what Churches of Christ should teach and practice regarding the roles of Christian women in church and society. He began by quoting New Testament passages restricting the activities of women in Christian assemblies (1 Corinthians 14:34-35 and 1 Timothy 2:11), and passages that call on Christian wives to submit to their husbands (Ephesians 5:22; Colossians 3:18; and 1 Peter 3:1-6). Lipscomb insisted that the teaching of these verses "does not degrade woman." He also insisted that, aside from contemporary influence to the contrary, the divine teaching must be obeyed. To see what can happen when women lead churches, one would need to look no further than the Congregationalists of New England who had drifted far from their staid Puritan past. Lipscomb concluded by referring to the Disciples' General Christian Missionary Convention, held that year in Nashville, where women had spoken from the stage in full assemblies. "That meeting," he said, "should be regarded a sin against God and an offense to the Christian womanhood of Nashville and of the South."[1]

Note

[1] David Lipscomb, "Woman and Her Work," Gospel Advocate 34 (October 13, 1892), 644.

Fracture and Division in the Stone-Campbell Movement

Judging by the views of David Lipscomb, long-time editor of the Gospel Advocate magazine, the ten-year period from 1897 to 1907 saw the Stone-Campbell Movement go from fractured to divided. In 1897, Lipscomb said there was “a radical and fundamental difference between the disciples of Christ and the society folks.” Society folks, he said, “desire to build up a strong and respectable denomination. To do it they rely on strong and moneyed societies, fine houses, fashionable music, and eloquent speeches, too often devoid of gospel truth.”[1]  A decade later, in 1907, Lipscomb was ready to declare that the Christian Church and the Churches of Christ were “distinct and separate” bodies.[2]

Notes

[1] David Lipscomb, "The Churches across the Mountains," Gospel Advocate 39 (January 7, 1897), 4.

[2] David Lipscomb, "The Church of Christ and the Disciples of Christ," Gospel Advocate 49 (July 18, 1907), 450.

Meta Chestnutt Sager Genealogy and Early Life

By her own account, Meta Chestnutt "was born on a plantation near Kinston" in "Lenoir County, North Carolina, September 8, 1863."[1] Her earliest experiences included being "taught the Bible around the fireside in a Christian home."[2] Wiley Nobles, her maternal grandfather, was a planter and physician who served as a preacher among the Disciples of Christ. He became acquainted with Alexander Campbell during his visit to North Carolina. Her mother, Almeda Nobles Chestnutt, was "a charter member" of the Bethel church, a Disciples congregation.[3] Eventually, every member of Meta's immediate family became a member of that church, her father "being the last of the family to come in."[4] Her father, Lemuel Allen Chestnutt, was a believer who had perhaps been immersed before he became a part of the Bethel church. Meta notes that he entered the church "having dropped his denominational name."[5] At the age of twelve, in August 1876, she was baptized by a "Dr. H. D. Harper" in Contentnea Creek, while those gathered on the shore sang "On Jordan's Stormy Banks I Stand."[6]

Notes

[1] Meta Chestnutt Sager, undated manuscript, Meta Chestnutt Sager Collection, box 3, folder 12.

[2] Meta Chestnutt Sager, "Funeral Arrangements written by Mrs. Meta Chestnutt Sager before Her Death," MCS Collection, box 3, folder 13.

[3] Ibid.

[4] Ibid.

[5] Ibid.

[6] Ibid.

Baptists and Disciples in North Carolina, 1840s-90s

Beginning in the late 1840s and culminating in the '70s, the Churches of Christ in North Carolina and certain leaders among liberal Baptist churches in the state set out to promote the unity of all believers through greater cooperation.[1] At the 1849 meeting of the Disciples held at Kinston that year, the delegates appointed John P. Dunn and Josephus Latham, both considered "irenic" ministers, to attend the next gathering of the Chowan Baptist Association. The same meeting of the Disciples was attended by Dr. S. J. Wheeler, a leader among the Baptists of the region. Wheeler announced plans for the opening of a Baptist girls' school. The news was welcomed by the Disciple delegates who recommended patronage of the school, offered to supply two trustees, and invited Wheeler to solicit support among Disciple congregations. In 1854, John T. Walsh, a Disciple itinerant minister, preached for many of the Baptist churches in the Chowan Association by their invitation. Yet nothing like complete merger ever occurred. Not all Baptist leaders favored these developments. Staff writers for the Biblical Recorder, an arm of the Baptists in North Carolina, published several articles criticizing the Disciples. Walsh fired back in the pages of his monthly magazine.[2]

The relationship between Disciples and Union Baptists in North Carolina presents a different picture. Between the late 1850s and early '90s, Disciple beliefs completely took over most Union Baptist congregations. In 1858, ten counties in eastern North Carolina were home to a total of fifty Union Baptist congregations with 4,300 members. By 1892, only thirteen of those churches survived with 442 members. The majority of the congregations and individuals lost by the Union Baptists had been absorbed by the Disciples.[3] And most of the Union Baptist ministers defected to the Disciples. Among them was Isaac L. Chestnutt, Meta's older brother.[4]

Notes

[1] Charles Crossfield Ware, North Carolina Disciples of Christ (St. Louis, MO: Christian Board of Publication, 1927), 98. Ware explains that at the time, members of these congregations were called Disciples of Christ, while congregations were called Churches of Christ.

[2] Ibid., 98-100.

[3] Ibid., 101-02.

[4] Ibid., 106.

Isaac Lamar Chestnutt (1851-1907), Part 1

In the records of the Disciples of Christ in North Carolina, Isaac Chestnutt appears for the first time among the delegates who attended the denomination's annual state convention in 1877, held that year at Salem. The "List of Preachers" indicates he was minister for the church at Johnson's Mills in Pitt County.[1] Chestnutt delivered the "Introductory discourse" to the assembled representatives on the first day of the convention, no small honor for a minister just twenty-six years old. Also, he was appointed to serve on a three-man committee that would report on "Lord'sday [sic] Schools" in the state.[2] The recommendation of his committee included the following: "We respectfully recommend to this Convention, the importance of urging upon our preachers the necessity of laying this matter before their respective congregations without delay, making the subject of Lord'sday Schools a specialty." The committee also recommended curricula by Isaac Errett in Cincinnati, and by the Transylvania Publishing Co. in Lexington, Kentucky, trusted sources among the Disciples.[3] 

The annual reports from the years 1877 to 1895, after which Isaac Chestnutt no longer appears, reveal a pattern of frequent moves. During the fifteen years from 1877 to 1892, he and his family moved six times, never staying with a congregation longer than about three years. They went from the church in Johnson's Mills to the church at Maple Cypress, and from there on to Kinston, Farmville, Snow Hill, New Berne, and back to Snow Hill again. Their life seems to have combined social prominence with a good measure of hardship.[4]

Notes

[1] Minutes of the Annual Convention of the Disciples of Christ in North Carolina, Held with the Church at Salem, Pitt County, N. C., October 11th, 12th, and 13th, 1877 (New-Berne, NC: N. S. Richardson, 1877), 2. Chestnutt's name is misspelled twice as "Chesnutt." 

[2] Ibid., 3, 6. The expression Lord'sday appears more than once in this document.

[3] Ibid., 6.

[4] See the various Minutes, sometimes called Proceedings, from the annual gatherings of North Carolina Disciples of Christ.

Protestant Dominance in 19th-Century America and Stone-Campbell Churches

During the nineteenth century, Americans could hardly fail to notice that although Protestant Christianity was officially non-established, it was the unofficially-established religion of the United States. Most American Jews and Roman Catholics simply tolerated its dominance.[1] The supremacy of Protestantism showed up at every turn. Buildings that belonged to Baptists, Congregationalists, Presbyterians, and Methodists could be seen on street corners in virtually every town in America. Members of these and other sizable Protestant groups, like Lutherans and Episcopalians, participated in countless inter-denominational and non-denominational voluntary associations. These included the American Bible Society (established in 1816), the American Sunday School Union (1824), and the Evangelical Alliance (formed in the U.S. in 1867). In addition, a wide variety of educational and journalistic institutions served to reinforce the cultural influence of Protestantism. For example, from the 1636 founding of Harvard, America's first college, until the late nineteenth century Protestant higher education was nearly synonymous with American higher education. Even state universities operated much like Protestant schools. Finally, extended networks of business owners, ministers, educators, government officials, and benefactors created a sort of Protestant fabric that covered the entire country.[2]

Nineteenth-century Christian Churches and Churches of Christ--congregations affiliated with of the Stone-Campbell Movement--were part of that tapestry. It is true that some of these churches were prone to a sectarian spirit, and that the strict independence of all those churches created a situation in which congregations were so autonomous the movement was nearly anonymous. Yet they still made up a part of American Protestantism.

Notes

[1] William R. Hutchison, Religious Pluralism in America: The Contentious History of a Founding Ideal (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2003), 59-60.

[2] Ibid., 61. See also W. C. Ringenberg, “Higher Education, Protestant,” in Dictionary of Christianity in America, ed. Daniel G. Reid (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1990), 530-32.

Christian Colleges and Disciple Division: Hereford and Lockney

To what degree were the Disciples of Christ distinguished from the Churches of Christ before the U.S. Census Bureau listed them separately beginning in 1906?

The historiography of two Christian colleges established in northwest Texas prior to the recognition of the split suggests that division predated the founding of these schools by a number of years. For example, in his 1955 book, The Story of Texas Schools, C. E. Evans identifies "Pan-Handle Christian College," sometimes called Hereford College, which began in 1902, as a Christian School, while Lockney Christian College, established in 1894, is listed as a Church of Christ School.[1]

Likewise, in his 2018 book, Higher Education in Texas, Charles R. Matthews, Chancellor Emeritus of the Texas State University System, places Hereford Christian College among schools established by the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), and Lockney Christian College among schools established by the Church of Christ.[2]

Although W. M. Stoker in his Pictorial History of Early Higher Education in the Texas Panhandle does not take up the history of the college at Lockney, he does refer to Hereford Christian College's affiliation with the Disciples of Christ.[3]

Scholars writing denominational history, as opposed to educational history, make exactly the same distinction. For example, in his book A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ, M. Norvel Young discusses Lockney Christian College, but not the college at Hereford.[4] In the same way, History of the Churches of Christ in Texas, 1824-1950, by Stephen Eckstein Jr., provides information about Lockney Christian College, but does not mention Hereford Christian College.[5]

By the same token, in Religion on the Texas Frontier, Carter Boren, who traces the history of the Disciples in the Lone Star State, offers a section titled "Panhandle Christian College, 1902-1911," but says nothing of the college at Lockney.[6] Again, in his book The Disciples Colleges: A History, D. Duane Cummins includes a table listing "Church of Christ Colleges" in one column and "Disciples Colleges" in another. He places "Lockney College" in the Church of Christ column and "Hereford-Panhandle Christian College" in the Disciples column.[7]

Of course, it is possible for later sources to simply project into the past a division that did not exist at the earlier time in question. But in this case, the overall evidence suggests that these two Christian colleges were typical of a division that had existed for some time. Beginning in the late-nineteenth century, some leaders and historians of the Restoration Movement in America insisted that the Civil War did not result in immediate division. In fact, they said, the coherence of the Disciples movement was remarkable. But it is much more likely that the radical autonomy of the congregations in the movement made it more difficult for observers to perceive division. Along this line, as early as 1965, Restoration historian Bill Humble concluded:

The Civil War . . . so shattered the sense of brotherhood between northern and southern Christians that they could never again be called 'one people' in any meaningful sense.  . . . What had happened was that two threads of alienation--sectional bitterness and antagonistic understandings of the restoration principle--had become tangled together and had shattered the Christians' oneness.[8]

Notes

[1] C. E. Evans, The Story of Texas Schools (Austin, TX: Steck Company, 1955), 352, 355.

[2] Charles R. Matthews, Higher Education in Texas: Its Beginnings to 1970 (Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2018), 87-90, 295, 297.

[3] W. M. Stoker, A Pictorial History of Early Higher Education in the Texas Panhandle (Canyon, TX: West Texas State University, 1976), 16.

[4] M. Norvel Young, A History of Colleges Established and Controlled by Members of the Churches of Christ (Kansas City, MO: Old Paths Book Club, 1949), 148-52.

[5] Stephen Daniel Eckstein Jr., History of the Churches of Christ in Texas, 1824-1950 (Austin, TX: Firm Foundation Publishing House, 1963), 166, 170, 209, 217, and 310.

[6] Carter E. Boren, Religion on the Texas Frontier (San Antonio, TX: Naylor Company, 1968), 250-51.

[7] D. Duane Cummins, The Disciples Colleges: A History (St. Louis: CBP Press, 1987), 84.

[8] B. J. Humble, "The Influence of the Civil War," Restoration Quarterly 8 (Fourth Quarter 1965), 246. Along this line, see also Jonathan Franklin Woodall, "The Post-Termination Rhetoric of the American Restoration Movement," PhD diss., University of Memphis, 2014.