Dr. George W. Truett

D.  D. Tidwell, 33
Reprinted from The Texas 
Grand Lodge Magazine, 
March 1960

This biographical sketch of Dr. George W. Truett, a great Southern
Baptist leader who was also a Mason, notes his many contributions
to Freemasonry and the Southern Baptists.

        The fame of the late Dr. George W. Truett as a gifted
preacher and pastor is securely established. The fact that he was a
Mason is not so well known, partially due to the fact that his busy
ministry left little time for active participation in strictly
Masonic affairs and further to his own reticence as to personal
matters. His ardent devotion to the Fraternity and its principles
can be best set forth in his own words as he addressed the Grand
Lodge of Texas in 1940; "From my earliest recollection, about my
father's knee, who was a Mason, and hearing him and fellow Masons
talk, I imbibed the impression in early childhood that the Masonic
Fraternity is one of the most helpfully mediating and conserving
organizations among men, and I have never wavered from that
childhood impression, but it has stood steadfastly with me through
the busy and vast hurrying years."     r

        "A man has a strong heart," he continued, "if he is not
touched with a strange sense of awe when he goes into a Masonic
Lodge and observes its furniture, notably the Bible right in the
center of that Lodge, and the square and compasses. When one calls
to mind this furniture in the local Masonic Lodge, he is reminded
at once that an institution of strategic and commanding importance
is in his community, and when one calls to mind the vast array of
great men linked with this institution, his appreciat t be greatly
magnified."

        The man who spoke these words was for forty-seven years
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. During those
years, the membership grew from 75 to 7,804, the largest church
then among Southern Baptists. Pat M. Neff, president of Baylor
University, introduced him to the Grand Lodge as "Baylor
University's most gifted son; he is the first citizen of the State
of Texas; he is the best known and most loved religious leader
today in the world, this fine exemplar of all the virtues and
beauti asonry."

        George Truett was born in the mountains of North Carolina
on May 6, 1867. He was a school teacher at the age of eighteen and
became the founder and principal of the Hiawassee Academy in North
Georgia. While attending the Georgia Baptist Convention he was
unexpectedly asked to speak on the education of mountain youth. He
was momentarily abashed and silent, but as he thought of mountain
boys and girls his fright vanished. Dr. J. B. Hawthorne, pastor of
the First Baptist Church of Atlanta, later said t ver in all my
life has my soul been more deeply stirred by any speaker than it
was that day at Marietta by that boy out of the mountains. My heart
burned within me and I could not keep back the tears."

        A wealthy layman offered to pay Truett's expenses through
Mercer University. But divine providence intervened, the Truett
family moved to Whitewright, Texas, and George followed in the
summer of 1889. The Whitewright Baptist Church was so impressed
with this young man that they called for his ordination in the fall
of 1890. He at first protested, then hesitated and after deep
soul-searching consented.     r

        Baylor University was then staggering under a burdening
debt. Dr. B. H. Carroll, pastor of the First Baptist Church of Waco
and a member of Waco Lodge No. 92, A\F\& A\ M\, was commissioned to
find someone to raise the indebtedness. The pastor at Whitewright
wrote Dr. Carroll concerning young Truett, stating "there is one
thing I know about George W. Truett-wherever he speaks, the people
do what he asks them to do." The result was that George Truett went
forth to raise what many thought was an insurm e debt. In
twenty-three months the Baylor debt was paid and young Truett
enrolled as a student. He became pastor of a small Waco church and
received his A. B. degree in 1897. Meanwhile, he had married Miss
Josephine Jenkins, daughter of Judge W. H. Jenkins, Baylor trustee
and one of Waco's leading citizens. In September 1897, he became
pastor of the First Baptist Church of Dallas, where he remained
until his death on July 7, 1944.

        Dr. Truett was a man of striking appearance. He was large
and well proportioned and possessed a marvelous speaking voice. His
voice was one of vibrant richness and he enunciated clearly and
distinctly. Speaking in flawless English, his messages dealt with
the timeless verities of the Gospel. People of all ranks and
stations heard him gladly. Morgan Blake, sports writer and special
correspondent of The Atlanta Journal, after hearing Dr. Truett in
the last revival he conducted, summed up the typical r to his
sermons. "I go from a Truett meeting with mingled emotions-a
feeling of great pride that I am a Christian, and also thoroughly
ashamed of myself that I am not a better one."

        Dr. Truett aspired only to be a preacher. Baylor University
sought him as president. Famous churches in America and abroad
wanted him as pastor, but he refused to leave Dallas. His church
generously shared him and he was widely used in revivals and large
religious gatherings. For thirty-seven summers he was the preacher
at the annual Cowboy Camp Meetings in the Davis Mountains of West
Texas. He served as president of the Southern Baptist Convention
from 1927-1929 and of the Baptist World Alliance fr -1939. George
W. Truett was an ardent advocate of religious liberty. On May 20,
1920, he spoke on the steps of the Capitol in Washington, DC, to
more than 15,000 people, including members of Congress, the Supreme
Court, and officials and dignitaries of our own and foreign
countries. It was a joint session of the Baptists of the North and
South and his subject was "Baptists and Religious Liberty." He
declared "that it is the natural and fundamental and indefeasible
right of every human to worship God or not ding to the dictates of
his conscience, and, as long as he does not infringe upon the
rights of others, he is to be held accountable alone to God for all
religious beliefs and practices. Our contention is not for mere
toleration, but for absolute liberty. Toleration implies that
somebody falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a
concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of
expediency, while liberty is a gift from God."

        Dr. Truett again stressed the great principle of religious
liberty in his presidential address at the sixth congress of the
Baptist World Alliance at Atlanta, Georgia, in 1939. This has been
called his "most dramatic and far-reaching message," delivered to a
congregation of 30,000 on the verge of the outbreak of World War
II. On that occasion, he stated: "It follows therefore, logically
and inevitably, that every man has the right to worship God
according to the dictates of his own conscience; and t man, nor set
of men, no government, religious or civil, has the right to dictate
how a person may worship God, and to punish him if he does not
worship that way. The right of private judgement is the crown jewel
of humanity. And for any person or institution to dare to come
between the soul and God is blasphemous impertinence and defamation
of the crown rights of the Son of God . . . . What a frightful
chapter has been written, the world around, by disr egard of this
lofty principle of freedom of conscience and its inevitable
corollary, the separation of church and state."

        Dr. George W. Truett received the first Three Degrees of
Freemasonry in Dallas Lodge No. 760, A\F\ & A\M\; the Entered
Apprentice on July 2, 1918; the Fellow Craft on July 30, 1920, and
the Master Mason on October 1, 1920. He received the 4th to 32nd
Degrees of the Scottish Rite at Dallas on April 25, 26, 28, and 29,
1921. At the completion of the Thirty-second Degree he was
requested to address the class. A prominent Dallas Mason, recalling
the masterful and moving address, recently stated, "I have heard
such a message fall from the lips of man as Dr. Truett gave that
day."     s



Donavon D. Tidwell was a distinguished professor of the Bible and
Greek at Houston, Texas, Baptist College, and became chairman of
its Division of Christianity. He served as President of the
Southwestern Baptist Bible Teacher Association and wrote a book
entitled Baptist and Freemasonry. In Masonry, he was Grand Orator
of the Grand Lodge of Texas as well as a District Deputy and a
Fellow of the Texas Lodge of Research. He became a 32 Mason in
1952, K\C\C\H\ in 1957, an Inspector General Honorary, 33, in
1967, and passed away in 1982 in Waco, Texas.

