Scandalous words to impugn another person are like a two-edged sword. They cut to the very marrow of the intended victim. Such has been the practice of would-be scholars in attacking the legacy of J. Frank Norris.
In scannning the internet, I ran across on a Baptist Theology website, a statement by the President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Paige Patterson, who refered to Norris as a rabble rouser. This kind of loose rethoric does nothing but cloud the issues which at best are made difficult to keep in proper focus. Is Brooks Morris a rabble, who was the prestigious conductor of the Fort Worth Sympthony Orchestra? Was Bob Wood Edmondson a rabble, who authored the English textbook for the State of Texas? These two people were prominent figures in the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth and followers of J. Frank Norris.
The dictionary defines rabble as a mob of contemptuous low class of people. I could write volumns on the lives of people who were influenced by the ministry of J. Frank Norris. I leave it to the response of multitudes who by no stretch of the imagination could be classified as rabble. In the absence of honest research, the real J. Frank Norris will never surface.
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