The American Demagogues - Pt. 2: The "Texas Tornado" J. Frank Norris

The trajectory of American Protestantism in the twentieth century is often narrated through the lens of theological schisms—the Great Reversal, the Scopes Monkey Trial, and the retreat of conservative evangelicals into a subculture of separation. Yet, this narrative is incomplete without accounting for the volatile, gun-toting phenomenon of J. Frank Norris. Pastor of the First Baptist Church of Fort Worth, Texas, for over four decades, Norris was not merely a participant in the Fundamentalist-Modernist controversy; he was its most aggressive combatant, a man who fused the populist rage of the radio age with the frontier justice of the Texas range.