The annual Alabama Baptist State Convention continues today in Marion. Expressing concern about the availability of Bibles and other Christian literature to Confederate soldiers, delegates take up a collection of $219.75 to distribute Bibles, books and tracts among soldiers. They then pass a resolution:
The Baptist General Convention having organized a system of Colportage by which Testaments and suitable books and tracts are being published and distributed among the soldiers of the Confederate States; and having at its last annual meeting passed a series of resolutions soliciting the co-operation of the Baptists throughout the South. Therefore,
Resolved, 1st. That we warmly sympathise with this enterprise, and will earnestly co-operate with our Virginia brethren.
2. Resolved, That we affectionately recommend the Baptist Churches throughout this State, to make immediate and liberal collections, for the further prosecution of this most important work.
3. Resolved, That, believing it highly desirable that the Baptist family throughout the Confederate States should unite in this movement, we earnestly commend the resolutions of the Virginia Baptists to the favorable consideration of the denomination in the several States of the Confederacy.
4. Resolved, That, in the judgment of this Body, it is desirable to concentrate the entire work of the denomination in the Confederate States, with respect to publishing and circulating Bibles, Tracts and other works, under one general management and superintendence.
This resolution is put forth in the context of the rapid development of southern efforts to publish and distribute Bibles and other literature. Publishing houses in both Tennessee and Virginia at this time are struggling to raise funding to meet the needs of Confederate soldiers, with Virginia the more established and having an upper hand. Based on the widespread concern among Baptists of the South for the publishing of Bibles for soldiers, a belief seemingly existed that few soldiers carried scripture with them when marching off to war. Southern Baptists hope to remedy this problem in the army assembled to protect God’s chosen Southern nation.
Source: Alabama Baptist State Convention Minutes, 1861 (link)
