Northbound Texan

Rich and rare is the religious fare served up each & every Sunday in Detroit. From his suburban Charity Crucifixion Tower Father Coughlin broadcasts to the nation. In the Episcopal Cathedral Bishop Herman Page holds forth ably. Methodist residents of what they call the "Fourth City" know that Rev. Merton Stacher ("Mert") Rice of mammoth Metropolitan Methodist Church has twice declined a bishopric. Likewise nationally known in their respective churches are Presbyterian Joseph Anderson Vance, Quaker Morton C. Pearson, Rabbi Leo M. Franklin. Congregationalists Charles Haven Myers and Warren Wheeler Pickett, Disciple of Christ Edgar De Witt Jones.

In any big city such a group of churchmen fraternize, lunch together, extend a friendly hand to a newcomer and, if he is a Protestant, welcome him into the local Federation of Churches. Lately a newcomer appeared in Detroit. But in all Christian charity many a Detroiter of the cloth found it hard to welcome him sincerely. He was Rev. John Franklyn Norris, loud Texas Baptist who reached fame eight years ago when he was indicted, tried and acquitted of murder. Last week it seemed likely that Baptist Norris would take a Detroit pulpit, settle there for good.

Born in Alabama 57 years ago, J. Frank Norris, like many another Southern divine, began preaching early, at 16. In 1908 he went to Fort Worth's First Baptist Church where he has remained ever since. Grimmest of grim Fundamentalists, he orates against Evolution, denounces the Roman Catholic Church, flays the "liquor crowd," excoriates birth control and divorce, thunders against bridge, cigarets, the cinema. The fact that in 1926 he shot and killed one D. E. Chipps, friend of Fort Worth's mayor whom Pastor Norris was then denouncing, did not bother the Baptists of First Church. Pastor Norris said he shot (four times) in self-defense because he thought Chipps was armed. A trial jury believed him.

Twice in a decade First Church burned down. Indicted for arson the first time, Fundamentalist Norris blamed the "liquor crowd," was acquitted. After the second fire, in 1929, he raised money for a big new church in downtown Fort Worth. First Baptist Church now claims 10,000 members or enough to make it the nation's biggest white congregation.*

Preacher Norris's recent crusades--against horse-racing, local gambling and Repeal--have failed to excite anyone in Fort Worth outside his own following. A typical Norris stunt was his public baptism last summer of the small son of the late Outlaw Charles ("Pretty Boy") Floyd (TIME, June 25). Lately he went to Detroit as "supply" pastor to Temple Baptist Church, a militant Fundamentalist congregation of 2,500. The Temple Baptists liked J. Frank Norris, voted 257-to-156 to issue him a call. Last week he announced "conditional" acceptance. The conditions he named suggested that the Texas Baptist viewed the Detroit call as a step up, not down. Fundamentalist Norris told the Detroiters he would take the pulpit if they would campaign for new members, build a skyscraper to house Temple Baptist Church. He told them he would sell his $500,000 radio station in Fort Worth, begin broadcasting from Detroit. Last week, after hearing him preach on "Detroit Spends a Million Dollars for New Year's Liquor" and "Who in Detroit Is Going to Hell," they were thinking it over.

*Biggest U.S. church is the Abyssinian Bapstist (Negro) with 15,000 members in New York's Harlem.

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