|
|
Politics:
- Abraham Lincoln - 16th President of the United States (raised Baptist)
- Andrew Johnson - 17th U.S. President (raised Baptist)
- Warren G. Harding - 29th U.S. President
- Harry S. Truman - 33rd U.S. President
- Jimmy Carter - 39th U.S. President (former Southern Baptist)
- William Jefferson Clinton - 42nd U.S. President (Bill Clinton was officially rebuked by SBC)
- Alexander I - Russian Czar, 1777-1825. (claimed as a "closet" Baptist)
- Olusegun Obasanjo - president of Nigeria (since 1999); previously a career soldier and military ruler, before winning election
- Richard M. Johnson - Vice-President under Pres. Van Buren
- Nelson A. Rockefeller - Vice-President to Pres. Ford
- Al Gore - Vice-President to Pres. Clinton (former Southern Baptist)
- Strom Thurmond - Senator from South Carolina. Oldest senator in office
- Jesse Helms - Conservative senator from North Carolina (1973-2003)
- Newt Gingrich - former Speaker of the House (U.S. House of Rep.)
- Trent Lott - U.S. Senate Majority Leader until 2002, when he was ousted from leadership under the spectre of racism
- Shirley Chisholm - (1924-2005) first black woman elected to U.S. House of Representatives
- Tom DeLay - Republican congressman from Texas; former House Majority Leader
- Fred Harris - U.S. seantor; historian; Indian rights advocate
- Bill Moyers - former Baptist preacher and White House press secretary
- Sam Rayburn - Speaker of the House (1940-61)
- Dick Gephardt - Richard Andrew Gephardt was an influential U.S. Representative from Missouri (1977-2004)
- Gary Condit - U.S. Representative from California; suspected of murdering intern Chandra Levy
- Gary Bauer - conservative politician; past president of the Family Research Council; ran unsuccessfully for the Republican Party nomination for U.S. President in 2000
- Mel Carnahan - (1934-2000) Governor of Missouri (1993-2000, Democrat); died in a plane crash during campaign for the U.S. Senate, and defeated John Ashcroft posthumously
- Asa Hutchinson - Under Secretary for Border and Transportation Security with the Department of Homeland Security until January 2005
- Lester Maddox - politician, nightclub owner
- DeForest Soaries - minister, politician, author, and public advocate from New Jersey; chairman of the federal Election Assistance Commission
- Alexander Mackenzie - Prime Minister of Canada (1873-1878)
- Tommy Douglas - Canadian politician; eighth Premier of Saskatchewan from 1944 to 1961; led the first socialist government in North America and introduced universal public medicare to Canada
- Deborah Wheelehan - 1996 Republican candidate for U.S. House of Representatives in Missouri's 3rd District (former Southern Baptist)
Famous Baptist Religious Figures
- John Smith [John Smyth] - founder of organized Baptist churches (in England)
- John Bunyan - seventeenth century author, wrote The Pilgrim's Progress (1678)
- Roger Williams - disciple of Baptist founder John Smith; founded first U.S. Baptist church and colony - in Rhode Island
- Billy Graham - prominent American evangelist (congregational home is a Baptist church, but Graham was embraced by Protestants generally; he repudiated many Southern Baptist teachings & practices)
- Charles Spurgeon - Charles Haddon Spurgeon was an influential 19th Century British preacher
- Alexander Campbell - Left Baptists and became founder of the Churches of Christ (Stone-Campbell Restoration movement)
- Pat Robertson - popular religious broadcaster
- Rev. Jerry Falwell - popular American Evangelical leader
- Oswald Chambers - preacher whose scandal led to popular devotional book My Utmost for His Highest
- Charles Stanley - paster; served 2 terms as president of Southern Baptist Convention; founder of In Touch Ministries
- William Miller - a Baptist in New York whose predictions that Christ would come in 1843 or 1844 were the precursor to Adventism
- Kathryn Kuhlman - popular minister and faith healer
- Alexander Maclaren - (1826-1910) Baptist preacher, author of "Expositions of Holy Scriptures"
- Fred Phelps - preacher and anti-homosexual/anti-LDS activist from Topeka, Kansas
- Kent Hovind - prominent promotor of Creation Science and Young Earth Creationist known as "Dr. Dino"; founder of founder of Creation Science Evangelism; offered a never-collected $250,000 to anyone who could prove evolution "is the only possible way," that the Universe and life arose
- John Ankerberg - controversial of "The John Ankerberg Show", frequently accused of being a bigot and a hate-monger who attacks religious minorities in the name of Evangelical apologetics and questionable Biblical interpretations
- David Pawson - popular British preacher, religious author; pastor of Guildford Baptist Church (Milmead Centre), which he led to become the biggest Baptist congregation in Britain; left in 1979 to engage in itinerant worldwide ministry
- Chuck Swindoll - pastor, host of "Insight for Living" religious radio show; author of many books, incl. Are Fundamentalists Legalists and The Grace Awakening; known for telling followers to destroy any occult-like items they own
- Lottie Moon - Southern Baptist missionary to China
- Kirby Hensley - founder of the Universal Life Church (former Baptist)
- Elihu Palmer - former Baptist preacher who tried to organize Deism and wrote an influential Deist articles of faith: "Principles of Nature" (1801)
Law:
- Charles E. Hughes - was Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court
- Clarence Thomas - 2nd black Supreme Court justice. (former Baptist, now Catholic)
- Hugo Black - Hugo L. Black was a U.S. Supreme Court justice from 1937 to 1971; noted for his "literal" interpretation of U.S. Constitution
- Howell E. Jackson - U.S. Supreme Court justice
- Roy Moore - former chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court who refused to follow an order to remove a display of the Ten Commandments from his court
Crime:
- Charles Colson - Watergate operative, Nixon administration insider; Chuck Colson became a popular "born-again" speaker and author after his release from prison
- Harry Longabaugh: "The Sundance Kid" - famous train and bank robber in the Old West
- Bernard Ebbers - Canadian-born businessman; Bernie Ebbers was co-founder and CEO of telecom company WorldCom; convicted in 2005 of fraud in the largest accounting scandal in U.S. history
- Susan McDougal - served 18 months in prison for refusing to cooporate with special prosecutor Kenneth Starr in Whitewater Scandal during Pres. Clinton administration
- Thomas Piper - serial killer, Baptist church leader
Business and Philanthropy:
- John D. Rockefeller - American industrialist
- John D. MacArthur - philanthropist who established the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, which funds the MacArthur Fellowships
- Marian Wright Edelman - founder of Children's Defense Fund
- Bonnie G. Hill - black woman who serves on the boards of several Fortune 500 companies; member of California Governor Pete Wilson's cabinet; Director of U.S. Office of Consumer Affairs under 1st Pres. Bush
Science:
- Govard Bidloo - published the first large scale anatomical atlas since Vesalius' De humani corporis fabrica
- Cornelius Drebbel - engineer, alchemist in 1500s (Anabaptist)
- Thomas Newcomen - Inventor of the early, pre-Watt, steam engine; erected the first successful one in 1712.
Art:
- Norris Church Mailer - painter best known as the wife of celebrated American novelist, author Norman Mailer
Activists:
- Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. - civil rights leader
- Rev. Jesse Jackson - black activist; founder of the Rainbow Coalition; ran for U.S. President; widely regarded as an important leader of African-Americans, yet he is a controversial and widely disliked figure, seen by many as an adulterous, racist, divisive opportunist
- Pat Matrisciana - conservative activist; producer of video documentary The Clinton Chronicles (about scandals and conspiracies); leader of Creative Ministries; leader of Citizens for Honest Government; publisher of newsletter Citizen's Intelligence Digest
- Kweisi Mfume - CEO of the NAACP; former congressman
- Will Campbell - white colleague of Martin Luther King in the Civil Rights movement; opposed Southern Baptist support of the KKK
- Renee Olson - lecturer; certified by Southern Baptist Convention in anti-Mormon polemics, before converting to become a Latter-day Saint
- Oscar "Zeta" Acosta - author, attorney, politician, Chicano activist; best known as "Dr. Gonzo", Hunter S. Thompson's sidekick in Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas (former Baptist, former Baptist minister)
- Cornel West - prominent, controversial black studies scholar; professor of Religion and African-American Studies at Harvard, then Princeton, etc.; had small role in the two Matrix sequels
Sports and Athletics:
- Payne Stewart - golfer; died in a plane accident on Oct. 25, 1999
- Jonathan Edwards - British Olympic triple jumper
- Maury Wills - professional baseball player
- Johnny Oates - professional baseball player (cathcher) and later manager of Major League teams Orioles and Rangers
- Jim Brown - professional football player; in College Football Hall of Fame and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame; professional actor (lapsed)
- Reggie White - professional football player and ordained Baptist minister
- Mark Richt - professional player and coach
- Joe Frazier - boxer, blues singer
- Jay Yelas - championship fisherman
Music:
- Carrie Underwood - singer, winner of competition on Season 4 of popular FOX television series American Idol
- Ruben Studdard - singer (winner of American Idol 2nd season)
- Clay Aiken - singer, immensely popular 2nd place runner-up in Season 2 of FOX television series American Idol
- Glen Campbell - country music singer
- Roy Orbison - country music singer
- Marian Anderson - influential black singer
- Johnny Cash - singer
- Skeeter Davis - country music singer
- Kris Kristofferson - country music singer
- David Ruffin - singer with The Temptations
- Pebbles - R&B singer; founder of Savvy record label (real name: Perri Alette McKissack)
- Louis Armstrong - trumpeter, vocalist, conductor
- Donna Summer - singer, songwriter
- Ralph Stanley - bluegrass musician
- Mahalia Jackson - Gospel singer
- George Jones - country singer; nicknamed The Possum; "Why Baby Why" was his first top-five hit in 1955
- Blackie Lawless - singer, guitarist; formed "Killer Kane Band" with Arthur Kane (former New York Doll); later formed the band W.A.S.P., whose albums included The Crimson Idol
- Chuck Berry - rock and roll pioneer
- Sam Cooke - rock and roll legend
- Bill Haley - rock and roll star
- Buddy Holly - rock and roll legend
- Hank Williams Sr. - country music singer
- Gene Autry - TV's famous singing cowboy (lapsed Baptist, convert to Christian Science)
- Diana Ross - singer
- Rita Coolidge - singer
- Gladys Knight - famed singer who sang with the "Pips" (former Baptist, now a Latter-day Saint)
- Whitney Houston - singer
- Queen Latifah - singer, actress
- Jessica Simpson - pop singer
- Al Green - musician
- Britney Spears - pop singer
- Aaron Carter - pop singer; brother of Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys
- Otis Redding - soul singer (famous for "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and other classics)
- Rick Wakeman - member of 1970s rock group "Yes"
- Aretha Franklin - classic soul singer
- Ashlee Simpson - singer
- David Ball - country music singer (son of a Baptist preacher)
- Jeremy Castle - Oklahoma country music singer
Journalism:
- Aminah Assilmi - broadcast journalist; director of the International Union of Muslim Women
- Marshall Frady - journalist; author of Wallace, an esposé of Democratic Alabama governor George Wallace; chief correspondent for ABC News Close Up (1979-86)
- Terry Mattingly - nationally prominent syndicated religion journalist (former Southern Baptist; now Eastern Orthodox)
- Liz Smith - nationally syndicated gossip columnist (former Southern Baptist)
Literature:
- John Grisham - best-selling author of legal thrillers, including The Pelican Brief; The Firm and The Client
- Tim LaHaye - author of immensely popular "Left Behind" Evangelical science fiction/fantasy novels
- Ossie Davis - author, playwright
- Nikki Giovanni - poet
- Christopher J. Priest - influential comic book writer
- Hazel Brannon Smith - first woman to win Pulitzer Prize for editorial writing
- Robert Don Hughes - science fiction writer; author of The Fallen and Eternity Game
- Carolivia Herron - author of Nappy Hair (convert to Judaism)
- Octavia Butler - science fiction writer; winner of Hugo, Nebula awards for "Bloodchild" and "Speech Sounds" (former Baptist)
- Robert Heinlein - considered one of the greatest science fiction authors ever; author of Stranger in a Strange Land; Starship Troopers; many more (former Baptist)
- Ray Bradbury - science fiction writer; author of Something Wicked This Way Comes; Fahrenheit 451; The Illustrated Man; many more (former Baptist)
- Gene Roddenberry - TV writer, producer; creator of Star Trek (former Baptist)
Film and Television:
- Ava Gardner - actress, movie star
- Kevin Costner - actor, movie star
- Fred Berry - actor best known as "Rerun" on the TV comedy What's Happening!!
- Peter Duel - (1940-1971) actor; Alias Smith and Jones, etc.
- Ruth Warrick - (1915-2005) actress best known as "Phoebe Tyler" on soap opera All My Children
- Victor Wong - (1927-2001) Chinese-American character actor
- Anita Bryant - entertainer, politician
- Chuck Norris - actor ("Walker, Texas Ranger")
- DeForest Kelley - actor; played "Dr. McCoy" on Star Trek (raised Baptist; son of a Baptist minister)
- Bette Davis - movie star (mostly lapsed Baptist/Episcopalian family background)
- Warren Beatty - actor, movie star, Academy Award-winning director (lapsed)
- Eddie Murphy - actor, comedian
- Ron Shelton - director / screenwriter / filmmaker: Bull Durham; Tin Cup; etc. (former Baptist)
- Charles MacArthur - American playwright and screenwriter; best known for The Front Page
- Dwayne Walker - director / screenwriter / filmmaker (Bible Madness, etc.)
- Ron Ormond - director / screenwriter / filmmaker; If Footmen Tire You, What Will Horses Do? (1971), The Burning Hell (1974), etc.
Martyrs:
- Vanya Moiseyev - Russian soldier, religious martyr
- Arthur "J.R." Warren Jr. - gay Baptist church usher beaten to death in Grant Town, West Virginia in July 2000
- John Birch - (1918-1945) American intelligence officer and Baptist missionary in World War II; killed by supporters of the Communist Party of China
Some additional U.S. Senators who were Baptists:
Chuck Grassley - from Iowa
Estes Kefauver - from Tennessee (1949-63)
Gordon Humphrey - from New Hampshire (1979-90)
J. Bennett Johnston - from Louisiana (1972-97)
Lindsey Graham - from South Carolina
Mitch McConnell - from Kentucky (1985-)
Robert Byrd - West Virginia (a leading Democrat; former Ku Klux Klan member)
Jean Carnahan - from Missouri (2001-2002)
Thad Cochran - from Mississippi
Tom Coburn - from Oklahoma (2005-)
Wendell H. Ford - from Kentucky (1974-99)
Some additional U.S. Representatives who were Baptists:
Mike Conaway - Texas
Mike Sodrel - Indiana 9th
Adam Clayton Powell - New York 22nd
Al Green - Texas 9th (2005-)
Alan Mollohan - West Virginia 1st
Albert Wynn - Maryland 4th
Bill Jenkins - Tennessee 1st
Bill Thomas - California 22nd
Brad Carson - Oklahoma 2nd
Carrie P. Meek - Florida 17th (1993-2003)
Chaka Fattah - Pennsylvania 2nd
Charles Taylor - North Carolina 11th (1991-)
Chet Edwards - Texas 11th
Chip Pickering - Mississippi 3rd
Claude Pepper - Florida (1963-89)
Corrine Brown - Florida 3rd
Dana Rohrabacher - California 46th (1989-)
Danny Davis - Illinois 7th
David Phelps - Illinois 19th (1999-2002)
David Price - North Carolina 4th
Donald Manzullo - Illinois 16th
Donald Payne - New Jersey 10th
Duncan Hunter - California 52nd
Earl Hilliard - Alabama 7th (1993-2003)
Eddie Bernice Johnson - Texas 30th
Edolphus Towns - New York 10th
Edward L. Schrock - Virginia 2nd
Elijah Cummings - Maryland 7th
Frank Ballance - North Carolina 1st (2003-04)
Frank Lucas - Oklahoma 3rd
Gresham Barrett - South Carolina 3rd
Gwen Moore - Wisconsin 4th (2005-)
Hal Rogers - Kentucky 5th
Henry Bonilla - Texas 23rd
Henry Brown - South Carolina 1st
J. C. Watts - Oklahoma 4th (1995-2001)
J. D. Hayworth - Arizona 5th
Jesse Martin Combs - Texas 2nd (1945-53)
John Barrow - Georgia 12th (2005-)
John Boozman - Arkansas 3rd
John Conyers - Michigan 14th
John Hostettler - Indiana 8th (1994-)
John Lewis - Georgia 5th
Juanita Millender-McDonald - California 37th
Lincoln Davis - Tennessee 4th
Louie Gohmert - Texas 1st (2005-)
Lynn Westmoreland - Georgia 8th (2005-)
Major Owens - New York 11th
Max Burns - Georgia 12th
Max Sandlin - Texas 1st (1997-2005)
Mel Reynolds - Illinois 2nd (1993-95)
Mike Conaway - Texas 11th (2005-)
Mike Rogers - Alabama 3rd
Nathan Deal - Georgia 10th
Randy Forbes - Virginia 4th
Rodney Alexander - Louisiana 5th
Roger Wicker - Mississippi 1st
Ron Lewis - Kentucky 2nd
Roy Blunt - Missouri 7th (1997-)
Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. - Georgia 2nd
Spencer Bachus - Alabama 6th
Steny Hoyer - Maryland 5th
Stephanie Tubbs Jones - Ohio 11th
Steve Pearce - New Mexico 2nd
Terry Everett - Alabama 2nd
Trent Franks - Arizona 2nd
Virgil Goode - Virginia 5th (1997-)
William H. Gray - Pennsylvania 2nd (1979-91)
William J. B. Dorn - South Carolina 3rd (1947-74)
William Jefferson - Louisiana 2nd
Zach Wamp - Tennessee 3rd
Some additional U.S. Governors who were Baptists:
Ben Hooper - Tennessee (1911-1915)
Harold Stassen - Minnesota (1939-1943)
Brad Henry - Oklahoma
Ernie Fletcher - Kentucky
Gary Locke - Washington (1997-2005)
George Busbee - Georgia (1975-83)
Lester Maddox - Georgia (1967-71)
Matt Blunt - Missouri (2005-)
Mike Huckabee - Arkansas
Robert Riley - Alabama
Ronnie Musgrove - Mississippi (2000-04)
Sonny Perdue - Georgia
Additional Baptists:
The following additional Baptists religious leaders (preachers/pastors/theologians) are listed in Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baptists): William Carey; Harvey Cox; Stanley Grenz; Jack Hyles; Adoniram Judson; Kenneth Scott Latourette; John Leland; F. B. Meyer [Frederick Brotherton Meyer]; John R. Rice; Lee Roberson; Rick Warren; Amos Cooper Dayton, James Robinson Graves; Albert Mohler; John Piper; Vic Pollard; Bailey E. Smith.
From http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Baptists (12 August 2005) Adrian Rogers; Arlin Horton; Brian Connor; Charles H. Kraft; Charley Eugene Johns; Constance Cumbey; George Dawson; Gory Guerrero; Harry Emerson Fosdick; Howard Thurman; James Petigru Boyce; Jamie Lynn Spears; Joe Simpson; John Chilembwe; John Gill; John L. Dagg; Joshua Marshman; Martin Luther King, Sr.; Michael P. Farris; R. Albert Mohler, Jr.; Robert James; Scott Walker; Tony Campolo
People Who Were Not Baptists:
- David Lloyd George was a British prime minister who advocated disestablishment of the Church of England. His grandfather David Lloyd was a Baptist minister. For a time after his father's death, David Lloyd George after his mother lived with his uncle, Richard Lloyd, who was a Baptist minister. But British Prime Minister David Lloyd George was not a Baptist; he was a Disciple of Christ: a member of the "Church of Christ (Disciples of Christ)," the Stone-Campbell religious body.