Ever since he got back from his 25-day immersion in Russia (TIME, Aug. 26) garrulous, sandy-haired Louie D. Newton, president of the Southern Baptist Convention, had been sounding off to the press. Some of his Georgia neighbors thought he had come back sounding like a Red. To others he was just the same old Louie.
Last week, to hear Newton's full-dress "Report on Russia," a preponderantly female audience of 3,500 Georgians filed into Atlanta's Municipal Auditorium. On the sidewalk, two pickets, seedy representatives of "white supremacy," carried a crudely lettered banner denouncing Communism.
At the climax of his hometown address Baptist Newton reached for a high ¶of Christian optimism in calling upon his audience to pray for the conversion of ex-seminarian Joseph Stalin. "Think what it would mean to the world if this man—the most influential man on earth—should stand up and say that he had returned to the faith of his dear scrubwoman mother!"
Atlanta Baptists went home to think it over. But other Southerners' minds were already made up.
Neighborhood Talk. Wrote Baptist Parson J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth, Tex., long known as the "wild man of the Southern Baptist Church": "Since you have come out and endorsed Communistic Russia, the worst bunch of bandits in history, you should resign instantly . . . the presidency of the Southern Baptist Convention."
Said leading Baptist Dr. Frank Tripp of Montgomery, Ala.: "It should be stated that so far as the Southern Baptist Convention is concerned, Dr. Newton did not go to Russia as a representative of the Convention and is not authorized to speak as a representative of the Convention, but . . . has a perfect right to express himself as an individual."
On the other hand, Dr. James L. Baggott, top Atlanta Baptist, was more friendly. Declared he: "Dr. Newton represents the Southern Baptist Convention as president in his utterances more than any other man. I would say the Convention was ninety-nine and nine-tenths percent behind him."
Wrote Atlanta Constitution Editor Ralph McGill: "It is sensible to assume Dr. Newton was given full freedom to see what he wished and to preach what he wished. The Baptists have a head start on all non-Orthodox sects in Russia. Dr. Newton has done them a real service."
Clearest-headed comment of all came from the usually clear-headed Louisville Courier-Journal in an editorial titled "Dr. Newton Encounters Stalin on the Make." Excerpts: