Describe how “The Seventy-Five Million Campaign” affected the Southern Baptist Convention.
The Seventy-Five Million Campaign was the Southern Baptist effort to raise $75 million for various Baptist causes during the five years spanning 1919-1924. It initially began to strengthen Baptist education, but evolved into a campaign to aid all Baptist causes. The SBC appointed a Campaign Commission was chaired by George Truett and was complimented by directors from each state, association, and local church. The commission then launched the most “intense campaign of publicity and promotion that Southern Baptists had ever known, with a campaign calendar.” The campaign was an early success with pledges exceeded the goal with a total of 92,630,923 being received which prompted SBC agencies to expand on borrowed money. The actual collection of the pledges proved difficult because the South experienced a recession due to drop in crop prices after World War I. Support also was affected by the notion that the funds were to be used for an Interchurch Fund which the South did not want to participate in.
The Southern Baptist Convention was affected negatively when Clinton Carnes, treasurer of Home Mission Board, who embezzled $909,461. The scandal affected the image of the SBC and the confidence of its members. The recession, the scandal, and the stock market crash of 1929 further exasperated the Baptists. In response, Southern Baptist had massive cuts in areas of missions, and education. McBeth expressed the dire state: “SBC and its entire assets could probably have been thrown into bankruptcy proceedings had the creditors desired.” The dire situation provided a target for fundamentalists to attack. As pastors pressured their congregations to pay their pledges, the embarrassment of the inability to pay fueled a fear to pledge that affects Baptist financial campaigns to