Marching On: The Conquest Campaign of Texas Baptists Page: 3
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George W. Truett H. L. Kokernot L. R. Scarborough T. L. Holcomb J. M. Dawson
The Challenge of the Present CrisisEDUCATIONAL affairs of Texas Bap-
tists are in something of a crisis. The
crisis has been long prepared by increasing
indebtedness over a period of years, by
growing competition from state and private
institutions which are better equipped, and
apparently by a prevalent demand for
a change of policy from widely distributed
and numerous small institutions to cen-
trally located and fewer, more strongly
endowed schools. It has been suddenly
precipitated by the action of the Wichita
Falls Convention in appointing an educa-
tional survey committee with rumored
consolidation and relocation affecting every
school from the least to the greatest.
But the first question to be confronted
by any group of people facing a hazardous
situation, is whether the crisis is to be
met as a challenge to strength or as an
occasion of despair. When news came
to the little band of Texans assembled at
Washington on the Brazos, March 6, 1836,
that the Alamo had been surrounded by an
overwhelming Mexican army bent upon
annihilating all before it, the first thought
was to disband the Convention and hurry
away. Then it was that Sam Houston in
the supreme speech of his life rallied the
delegates to the prime task of instituting
an organized directing government which
would save them from being a mere mob
of outlaws while he would hasten to
the summoning of such forces as were
possible among the undrilled and scattered
pioneersmen. Once at least while con-
stantly, drearily retreating before Santa
Anna's menacing army over a distance of
hundreds of miles, Houston was sorely
tempted to forsake the exacting demandsof civilized life and flee to his loved wilder-
ness of irresponsibility. But only for a
moment. Against what seemed insuper-
able odds, he resolved that the crisis should
be a challenge to his utmost strength
instead of an occasion of despair. San
Jacinto was the result-with the glorious
rising of the Lone Star Republic. The
darkest hours always yield humanity's best.
So in the present crisis in Texas Baptist
affairs we are challenged. First, we are
challenged to hold to our unified, organized
life as a people in order that we may not
break up into little contending sectional
groups animated by localisms. The out-
working of our great problem will be
solved best by a single directing agency
rather than by selfish strife of many small
units.
We are challenged, therefore, resolutely
to go forward in the retirement of our
debts. Some of these debts are now
clamantly pressing; local trustees carry the
galling burden of them. The solution of
the problem of possible consolidation and
relocation may become far easier if these
obligations are met. The payment of them
could in no way impair the fortunes of our
beloved denomination but rather greatly
increase its assets. If this larger, more
unselfish view does not appeal to the
individual donor, then under the terms of
the Conquest Campaign he has the privi-
lege of designating his gift where he
wishes it to go. The alternatives confront
us: either to stick together in an effort at
finding what is reasonable and right, or to
deny consideration and drift toward death.
In either event we must pay our debts.
So why not with strength?
Page Three
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Conquest Campaign of Texas. Marching On: The Conquest Campaign of Texas Baptists, pamphlet, 1927~; (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth253209/m1/3/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.