The Bible Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, founded in 1851 and tasked with printing bibles for Southern Baptist mission agencies, has fallen upon difficult times. Having been headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee, the fall of that city in February 1862 and subsequent closing of physical operations has taken a toll on the organization.
Despite the growing body of Christian literature produced in the South for Confederate soldiers, the board plays a supporting role at best. The work of the board in recent months has been that of helping sending colporters, or Christian literature distributors, among the army camps.
Regular meetings of the board’s directors, however, have continued. Today the last such meeting occurs, and the activity of the Bible Board effectively ceases thereafter. The closing of the board is formalized the following month, when the Southern Baptist Convention, meeting in Augusta, Georgia, votes to abolish the agency. Churches wishing to contribute to the work of publishing bibles are requested to send contributions to either the foreign or domestic mission boards of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Thus some of the same slaveholding Southern Baptist leaders who birthed the Southern Baptist Convention in defense of African slavery, now lead the way in shutting down a hallmark agency of the convention that has become a victim of the war to preserve the riches of slaveowners. The cessation of the SBC’s Bible Board is one more indication that the war is not going well for the Confederate States of America and the white Christians of the South who champion the slaveholding nation.
Source: “The Bible Board” William Cathcart, Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists, Vol. 1, 1880, p. 1085-1086 (link)
