Nitty gritty of Furman Bicentennial History

    in January 1992 I had an article published in the Christian century about the fundamentalist threat in the southern Baptist convention, bringing their Crusade to the state conventions, and a focus of that article was the threat to Furman.   as it turned out four months later in May of that year there was a special called convention in Columbia, where Furman overwhelmingly won  a decision to let it go to no longer be in under the control of the southern Baptist convention of South Carolina A a lot of it was because the turmoil and the expected legal fees were damaging the budget of the South Carolina convention so they decided to let Furman go earlier. There had been a recommendation by a committee of the convention to let it go, but to a

 fundamentalist Chip Campsen likely encouraged by trustee Focky Purvis and 1972 FU Grad Mike Hamlet of the North Spartanburg BC  force the issue into a vote,. In  July of that year in Alabama. I was on a three person panel statewide television live call in program About the threat of the fundamental is bringing their Crusade to the state conventions and what it would mean for Sam ford given a Furman experience in other schools middle of March.

    The new bicentennial history of Furman was released in March 2026. It’s a 450 page  coffee table edition with the cost of about $70 but it’s well worth it especially for graduates. You may want to share a copy or if there are several in a church get the church library they devote 25 pages to the assault on Furman and the drama is real. Even after forty years the drama of Furman's disentanglement from the SCSBC. After the fact it still will have you on your edge, It will ll have you on the edge of your seat. It spotlights in particular three attorneys, Neil Rabon , Lindsey Smith, and Larry Estridge, who came to the forefront to help Furman Doctor John John’s the president in those days even had an office in the administration building at Furman for Neil Rabon to help keep track on things as he went across the state trying to build a support for Furman and then keep an ear on things. They all said it was the most significant thing they did in their careers .

There is a page devoted to the Billy Graham Crusade of 1966 that came to Greenville and at that time the president of Furman Gordon Blackwell, who was a Baptist minister son was on advisory committee LD Johnson, the chaplain a very progressive voice shared the committee and the Furman singers were active in the music that week But by four years later, 1970 when Billy Graham had Nixon at the Crusade in Knoxville Tennessee, just a few months after can’t state most folks Furman came to have a different opinion or have reservations about Graham and then the great Furman graduate Marshall FRADY his biography of Graham in 1979 pretty much sealed the deal for from folks in the Furman community who follow Graham and A That it came out, said that Billy Graham behind the scenes was enthusiastic and support of the fundamentalist takeover of the southern Baptist convention,   There is a picture in the Bicentennial History of Nixon, Strom Thurmond , SC Gov Jimmy Byrnes and Charles Daniel taken in 1961 taken in the Daniel mansion which became the Furman Presidents Home in 1966. Mr. Daniel's name is on the Furman Chapel and Dining Hall and his niece Minor Mickel was the first woman trustee chair at Furman. She presided over the break with SC Baptists. Her daughter Minor Mickel Shaw or Little Minor, is with the Duke endowment and remains great friend of Furman.

 

 Rocky Purvis was chief among the fundamentalists who attempted to sabotage  who, and inveighled  himself onto the trustee board there was a point, which shot that chaplain Jim Pitts told me that he and the chair that trustee at the time Tom Harness of the Pepsi fortune in upstate South Carolina down to Union South Carolina to see Rocky to where he was a preacher to ask him to to call the dogs off, but he wouldn’t do it. His brother Paul in 1992 was the president of the student government association at Furman. Their father was a graduate Furman back in the 50s and he was a fundamentalist of the worst order at one time was on the part of the trustees of the foreign mission board, and there was a video documentary of their inquisition of Delana O’Brien the head of the WU and he was just ridiculous sleep backwards, and yeah, true believer in the fundamental is staying in that carried over to his sons in fact Rocky in 1987 or so as a student at Southeastern seminary when Randall Lolley was president met off campus with the so-called peace committee met with Jerry vines and Jim DeLoach to trash, lolly and lolly resigned. He was a friend of my father‘s later the chair of Present of the university of North Carolina system bill Friday. He was popular for a Friday weekend show in North Carolina public television told Cecil Sherman the pastor the first Baptist Church Asheville, who led the fight against the fundamentalist from the get-go, told him that the most significant thing that happened in the whole decade of the 80s in North Carolina Was the ouster  of Randall lolly at Southeastern seminary because the fundamentalist who were network with Jesse Helms knew that if they could take over that seminary, they could get into the heads of the next generation of Baptist preachers in the southeast and in every precinct and every town and Beeene them towards what we now know is the base of a Donald Trump and the MAGA movement with Christian nationalism so Friday knew then The implications of what was at steak with Furman and you have Rocky Purvis who was the c

    Unknown to Friday was aan episode at Furman in the early seventies. Textile magnate Forger Milliken attempted to plae Gary North on the Furman faculty. North was a key leader in the Council for National Policy which included Payul Pressler and Helms and Paige Pattersion and almost any right winger in the country of note. Tom Edsall in 1986 a few days after the SBC national convocation in Atlanta reported every pfresidnet of the SBC takeover since Adrian Rogers was on the Committee for sonservative values whose chair was the finance chair of the Tenn Republican party. American Coalition for traditional Values

enter of both episodes and he should be named and known along with Mike Hamlet at North Spartanburg and a fellowship camp who was a graduate, Furman and athlete and a political right wing or so all that is part of the  Hypocritically enough, Campsen enrolled his niece Brooke Mosteller at Furman and she became a Mis South Carolina. Here  father was a preacjer and her mother Cyndi the sister of Chip Campsen,

     I at one point, I had a conversation with Larry Estridge, who passed away about 10 years ago He was a road scholar nominee in the late 60s at Furman and veteran of the Vietnam war he was raised in rock Hill in the Jim Delo‘s church and Deloach as I said, was worked with Rocky Purvis and Jerry vines to asked the lotus classmate lollies, then hooked up with Ed Young at the first Baptist Church Columbia and went with young in the 80s to the second Baptist Church in Houston, Texas, and in that Cabal was the force for fundamentalism that continues to play out Larry estrogen I talked about having a conversation, but he passed before that happened so going deeper in the weeds with the 25 pages that the bicentennial spotlights it is a story for sure and I am glad that it is part of This bicentennial that covers everything you can imagine that happen at Furman from the athletics programs to John Crabtree Shakespeare course to Vernon Burton, becoming a lifelong friend of the mentor of Martin Luther King when he came when Chaplin Pitts had him on campus in 69 so find a copy have your church get a copy read the book 

     Toy Crawford was once offered the presidency of Furman but remained on the Harvard Faculty. Al Moher holds Crawford up as one of the early wayward academics who moved Southern Baptists off course in the Mohler view. And Professor Gezork in the forties at Furman became another champion of the ideals of individual consicnec e and the priesthood of the believer which conflatess into a mindest for liberal arts education.  

   Also see for bigger contest my easily googled piece at good faith media, Remembering Good Baptists of the 20th Century:     W.A. Criswell doesnt speak for me