White supremacist J.B. Stoner died April 23 at a nursing home in the northwest Georgia town of LaFayette (no French pronunciation necessary) near where he was born. Stoner’s 81-year lifespan was mostly marked by his raw, passionate call for racial segregation.

His hate-filled diatribes toward blacks and Jews often came in the name of Jesus. He identified himself as “a soldier of Christ.”

My family roots run deep in the scenic valley at the foot of Lookout Mountain where Stoner began and ended his life. Two stark images come to mind when I think of Stoner — a lawyer, political candidate and convicted church bomber.

His television commercials during a 1974 bid for lieutenant governor of Georgia carried clear disclaimers by station managers. With a Confederate battle emblem as a backdrop and a small Confederate flag in his breast pocket, Stoner used some of the harshest and most offensive language to denounce blacks as inferior and Jews as dangerous.

Even ardent segregationists like Georgia Gov. Lester Maddox considered Stoner too extreme and avoided being closely identified with him. But not everyone found Stoner’s unvarnished rhetoric and isolationist ideas unacceptable.

He received 73,000 votes in that contest — many of them from my home county next to his. And many, therefore, would have come from the good Baptists and other strongly professing Christians who dominate the region.

When he entered the race for lieutenant governor again in 1990, his statewide vote total dropped to 31,000 or 3 percent — a hopeful sign that racial attitudes were changing.

Honesty compels me to note that Stoner was not alone in his views, but he spoke them more openly and passionately than others. But his theories of racial superiority and his use of racial epithets were more common than I like to admit.

Unlike many others who changed their views gradually and eventually admitted their faulty thinking on racial equality, Stoner went to his grave without any such public acknowledgment or apology.

A second image comes from when I moved to the Atlanta suburb of Marietta, Ga., in the early ‘80s. Driving near the Marietta town square I noticed a single-story brick house with a small sign. It could have easily been missed. But the lightening bolt and “NSRP” lettering caught my attention.

It finally dawned on me that this ranch-style house surrounded by various medical facilities was Stoner’s National States Rights Party headquarters. Stoner was serving a prison sentence in Alabama at the time for his participation in the 1958 bombing of Bethel Baptist Church in Birmingham.

Since reading of his death, my reflections on Stoner’s life and message have brought a mixture of feelings. On one hand, there is gratification in seeing the slowly changing sentiments about racial equality among so many persons over the past few decades.

However, my very strong sense is that much more redemptive work needs to be done. Pointing to those with overtly racially offensive personalities like Stoner as the problem would be easy. But, again, honesty compels me to look within.

 

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A suggestion for July 3

Attention worship planners, Sunday school teachers and other church leaders. Has your church celebrated the freedom to worship and be informed lately?

The First Freedoms Project (a partnership between Associated Baptist Press, Baptist Joint Committee on Religious Liberty and Baptists Today and cooperating churches) encourages you to focus attention Sunday, July 3 on the vital freedoms guaranteed in the First Amendment to the Constitution.

Support for historic freedoms cannot be taken for granted. A much-discussed survey of 100,000 high school students by the Knight Foundation is sobering. At best, most students were ambivalent about these crucial and hard-earned freedoms.

Columnist Angela Tuck of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution calls the First Amendment a “powerhouse” that promises religious freedom, freedom of the press and free speech. The First Freedoms Project is an effort to encourage churches to highlight these freedoms annually and to support the ongoing work of three Baptist organizations whose work is solely focused on freedom issues.

Under the theme, “Free to Worship, Free to Know,” a variety of excellent resources are available at www.firstfreedoms.com to assist you. These include a sermon by Dr. George Mason, a hymn by David Burroughs, a special recording by Ken Medema, numerous litanies, illustrations, lessons, a bulletin insert and more.

(Editor’s note: Please customize your First Freedoms Celebration to fit your schedule. July 3 is just a suggested date because of Independence Day weekend. Seventh Day Baptists might focus on July 2 or another Sabbath.)