Christmas Eve arrives, signaling the first war-era holiday season with many families separated by hundreds of miles and a deep chasm of anxiety. It won’t be the last. In years to come, the fortunate families are the ones struggling with separation and anxiety, rather than grief and death. For now, though, home front family members…
Henry Holcombe Tucker, Mercer University professor and pastor at Bethesda Baptist Church in Greene County, approaches his congregation with a “if it comes to this” notification as the church meets in monthly conference. From the church’s minutes, as recorded by Clerk William A. Overton, a former Mercer student: The Pastor called the Conference, to which…
For a country whose Christian citizens are largely convinced is God’s chosen nation, the Confederacy is a study in contrasts. Baptists, like many other Christians in the southern nation, move fluidly from Christian nationalist rhetoric to lamentations concerning the un-Christian nature of soldiers serving in the Confederate army. So heathen are army ranks that Baptists…