God's rascal

by Barry Hankins

Colorful and outrageous, influential yet despicable, J. Frank Norris was a preacher, newspaper publisher, political activist, and all-around subject of controversy. One of the most despised men in traditional Southern Baptist circles, he was also the man most responsible for bringing hard-edged fundamentalism to the South. The life of this religious rapscallion makes 1990s televangelists seem like naughty toddlers. In God's Rascal, Barry Hankins traces Norris, the "Texas. Cyclone," from his boyhood in small-town Texas to his death in 1952. Along the way Norris pastored two of the largest churches in America simultaneously, one in Fort Worth and the other in Detroit, together comprising 25,000 members. Among other escapades, he once shot and killed a man in his church office and was accused of burning down his own church for insurance money. Despite such scandals, Norris was a man of considerable public influence who traveled the world, Corresponded with congressmen, and attended the in