“Sir Great Heart” of Texas Baptists

“Sir Great Heart” of Texas Baptists

The wagon creaked slowly, trundling its way through an East Texas pine forest in the summer of 1859. Overhead, the towering trees swayed in the light breeze and provided dappling shade from the oppressive sun. The twenty- six year-old, Tennessee-born-pastor, Robert Cooke Buckner (1833-1919), did not mind the heat. He and his soul-mate wife, Vienna, and their two little girls, were headed west in search of a drier, healthier climate, with all of the family’s worldly possessions and hopes packed in that small wagon.
 
Settling in Paris, Robert regained his strength and became pastor of the Baptist Church there. His reputation for evangelistic fervor, church planting, a missionary spirit, organizing Sunday Schools, and erecting church buildings throughout North Texas grew quickly. He demonstrated such leadership gifts that Baptists in the state invited him to shoulder convention-wide responsibilities, which Buckner did with deep joy and commitment for the next sixty years.
 
Given the name “Sir Great Heart” by Texas Baptists, Robert Cooke Buckner was a remarkable man among many outstanding statesmen between the years 1850 to 1920. As a pastor, philanthropist, denominationalist, newspaper editor, businessman, social reformer, and “Father” to thousands of orphans, Buckner’s work stands apart from the rest in both volume and kind. What Buckner so uniquely pioneered in Baptist life was the practice of organized social reform.
 
The work of Buckner on behalf of children is perhaps his best-known contribution to humankind (Buckner Orphans’ Home is now the 143-year old non-profit, Buckner International). Throughout the state, he became widely respected for his hard work on behalf of Baptists. As he traveled, he witnessed the plight of hundreds of children and elderly persons, orphaned by war, disease, and the economics of Reconstruction. These scenes of abject human need seared his heart, compelling him to respond. Buckner could not ignore the growing members who cried for help. It was at this point that he began to call for the organization of a Deacon’s Convention for the eventual purpose of caring for the helpless.
 
In his newspaper, Texas Baptists, he published articles in 1876 aimed at cultivating state-wide interest in meeting needs of persons with deep needs. He emphasized the inseparable nature of the love of God and the duty to help one’s fellow man:
“Money may be separated from religion, but religion can never be separated from money…There is but one kind of pure religion in the world, and that is: ‘To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction and to keep oneself unspotted from the world…’ Religion is piety and liberality--the heart given to God; the hand to man. What avails the offering of the lips when the light is withheld from the altar?” [1]
 
In these articles, Buckner challenged deacons to find practical avenues of Christian service in their daily lives. The first references to his dream to establish an orphanage were published in the 1876 issues of The Texas Baptist. This plan was realized the next year when the orphanage was chartered with R. C. Buckner as General Superintendent. The first children were admitted to a rented cottage home with caring house-parents in 1879, and land was purchased in Dallas and a log cabin constructed in 1881. The Home was then open to care for more children.
 
By 1900, the Buckner Home in Dallas had been Home to many thousands of children, and more than 650 children lived there in a thriving “City of Children” each year. In addition, Robert Cooke built a row of cottages for elderly persons who had no place to live their later years, and the children and elderly became special friends – like grandparents and grandchildren to each other.
 
This, however, is not the end of the story. Under Buckner’s direction, Texas Baptists did more together than they ever thought possible. They also came to support child welfare, improved prison conditions, better race relationships, innovations in education (including women’s theological education), homes for the elderly, a Texas Baptist hospital system, restoration programs for former prostitutes, and humane societies for animal cruelty-prevention. In fact, Buckner initiated ten categories of social reform in which Texas Baptists became actively engaged.
 
Buckner served as president of the Texas Baptists for twenty consecutive years, becoming a respected national voice for the wounded and powerless that led to significant assignments, including a White House appointment to the Conference on Children and elected positions with the National Conference on Corrections and Charities.
 
His legacy today to all of us is immeasurable. Grounded in Scripture, and building bridges of respect across sectarian and denominational lines, the reconciling work of ministering “to the least of these” is holistic and transformational. “Sir Great Heart” showed us how to impact society - with hearts, hands, and minds intentionally trained to apply the whole Gospel to the whole world.

-Karen O'Dell Bullock
 [1]The Texas Baptist, 28 September 1876. The text quoted here is James 1:27, the foundational verse for Buckner’s life and ministry.
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