W. A. Criswell

==Politics==
===Segregation===

Criswell was a former segregationist, and was critical of the U.S. Supreme Court decision in ''[[Brown v. Board of Education]]'' delivering "...a widely circulated sermon labeling activists for racial integration “a bunch of infidels, dying from the neck up,” [and] preaching that “the idea of the universal brotherhood and the fatherhood of God is a denial of everything in the Bible.”<ref>https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/interview-playboy-magazine-nearly-torpedoed-jimmy-carters-presidential-campaign-180975576/ "An Interview With ‘Playboy’ Magazine Nearly Torpedoed Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Campaign"</ref> Criswell also railed at federal intervention against [[de jure]] southern segregation.<ref name="Freeman">{{cite journal |last=Freeman |first=Curtis |date=2007 |title="Never Had I Been So Blind": W. A. Criswell's "Change" on Racial Segregation |url=http://jsr.fsu.edu/Volume10/Freeman.pdf |journal=Journal of Southern Religion |volume=10 |pages=1–12 |access-date=October 9, 2015}}</ref>

In 1956 he made an address denouncing forced integration to a [[South Carolina]] evangelism conference, and a day later to the [[South Carolina General Assembly|South Carolina legislature]].<ref name="Freeman" /> In it, he was particularly critical of the [[National Council of Churches]] and the [[National Association for the Advancement of Colored People]], calling on his co-religionists to resist these "two-by scantling, good-for-nothing fellows who are trying to upset all of the things that we love as good old Southern people and as good old Southern Baptists"<ref name="Freeman" /> and referring to the intimidation of "those East Texans  ... [such] that they dare not pronounce the word ''chigger'' any longer. It has to be ''cheegro''."<ref name="Freeman" />

Taken aback by negative reactions to his remarks in the press, Criswell did not publicly address the issue again for over a decade, claiming he was "a pastor, not a politician." However, upon his 1968 election as president of the Southern Baptist Convention and the SBC's endorsement of racial equality and desegregation, Criswell announced to the press, "Every Southern Baptist in the land should support the spirit of that statement. We Southern Baptists have definitely turned away from racism, from segregation, from anything and everything that speaks of a separation of people in the body of Christ." Criswell's first sermon after his election as SBC president in 1968 was titled "The Church of the Open Door," emphasizing that his church already had many non-white members and was open to all regardless of race. He asserted publicly, "I don't think that segregation could have been or was at any time intelligently, seriously supported by the Bible.<ref name="StandProm">{{cite book |title= Standing on the Promises: The Autobiography of W. A. Criswell|last= Criswell|first= W. A.|author-link= W. A. Criswell|year= 1990|publisher= Word Publishing|location= Dallas, Texas|isbn= 0-8499-0843-4|pages= 202–204, 216–217}}</ref>
<blockquote>"Never in my life did I believe in separating people on the basis of skin pigmentation.  Racism was, is, and always will be an abomination in the eyes of God, and should be in the eyes of God's people.  And where we who call the name of Christ have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to racism in any form, we have sinned and need to beg God's forgiveness."<ref>{{cite book |last=Criswell |first=W. A. |date=1990 |title=Standing on the Promises |publisher=Word Publishing |page=203 |isbn=0-8499-0843-4}}</ref></blockquote>

===Presidential elections===

In 1960 Criswell published an article attacking the appropriateness of Roman Catholics to serve as president, titled "Religious Freedom, the Church, the State, and Senator Kennedy."  The address, the text of which is available from the [[Kennedy Library]] archives,<ref>{{Cite web | url=http://www.jfklibrary.org/Asset-Viewer/Archives/JFKCAMP1960-1019-007.aspx |title = Religious literature: Criswell, Dr. W. A. &#124; JFK Library}}</ref> stoked the concern of some Protestants at the prospect of a Catholic President, to which the Senator in question ([[John F. Kennedy]]) responded in a speech in which he cast himself as the candidate of the [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic party]] rather than of the Catholic church, and committed himself to the [[separation of church and state]].<ref>{{Cite web | url=https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=16920600 |title = Transcript: JFK's Speech on His Religion|website = [[NPR]]}}</ref>  In 1976, Criswell supported the election of the [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] [[U.S. President]] [[Gerald Ford|Gerald R. Ford Jr.]], an [[Episcopal Church in the United States of America|Episcopalian]], rather than the Southern Baptist [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democratic]] nominee, former [[Georgia (U.S. state)|Georgia]] [[Governor]] [[Jimmy Carter]].

===Abortion===

Questioned in 1973 about the Supreme Court's decision in ''[[Roe v. Wade]]'' Criswell replied, "I have always felt that it was only after a child was born and had a life separate from its mother that it became an individual person, and it has always, therefore, seemed to me that what is best for the mother and for the future should be allowed."<ref name="Balmer2014">{{cite news |last1=Balmer |first1=Randall |author1-link=Randall Balmer |title=The Real Origins of the Religious Right |url=https://www.politico.com/magazine/story/2014/05/religious-right-real-origins-107133/ |access-date=29 May 2022 |work=[[Politico]] |date=May 27, 2014}}</ref> Criswell later became a staunch opponent of the procedure.<ref name="Balmer2014"/><ref>{{cite web|url=http://media.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/06-JUN-1996.PDF|title=SBC presidents urge Clinton: 'repent' of abortion ban veto}}</ref>