Baptist piano player turned priest writes history of Alabama Episcopalians (Spiritual Journey)

Greg Garrison | By Greg Garrison |
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on February 26, 2014 at 1:32 PM, updated February 26, 2014 at 1:48 PM


Barry Vaughn crop.jpgThe Rev. J. Barry Vaughn preaches at a church in Hoover. (Photo by Jon Anderson/ 

In his early teens, J. Barry Vaughn played piano at Sunday morning worship services at First Baptist Church of Hayden.

"I'm very grateful for my Baptist upbringing," said Vaughn, now an Episcopal priest.

Growing up Southern Baptist in Blount County north of Birmingham, there was little to suggest that Vaughn would one day write an authoritative history of the Episcopal Church in Alabama.

But that's what happened.

Vaughn's book, "Bishops, Bourbons and Big Mules: A History of the Episcopal Church in Alabama," was recently released by the University of Alabama Press as part of its Religion and American Culture series.

It gives an overview of how the Episcopal Church served the plantation owners of the South, embraced slavery, mostly defended segregation and failed to build colleges or hospitals in the state, unlike Baptists, Methodists and Catholics.

"It is filled with tough love and deserved analysis and criticism of Episcopalians, filling an important gap in our present understanding of the state's complex religious history, and the analysis is sharp and largely supported by the evidence," writes historian Wayne Flynt.

"The author offers a frank and thoughtful treatment of the church's attitudes toward slavery and racism which just might lead to repentance and healing," writes Episcopal Church Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori.

Vaughn attended his last two years of high school at the new Alabama School of Fine Arts, graduating in 1974, then went off to Harvard University. The son of an iron worker and school principal got a divinity degree from Yale University, then a Ph.D. from the University of St. Andrews in Scotland, where he studied 17th Century English church history. He wrote a dissertation on English Baptists.

He was ordained an Episcopal priest in Alabama in 1993.

Barry Vaughn crop.jpgJ. Barry Vaughn (UA Press) 

"I had always felt drawn to the Episcopal Church," Vaughn said. He served as rector of St. Stephen's Episcopal Church in Eutaw, then at churches in San Francisco and Philadelphia, before returning to Birmingham. He served as rector of St. Alban's Episcopal Church from 2007-2012, when he did the bulk of the writing on "Bishops, Bourbons, and Big Mules." He also taught history classes at Samford University and the University of Alabama, at both the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa campuses.

Vaughn, 58, finished the book in the fall of 2012 and turned it in to editors at the University of Alabama Press. A year ago, he got a call to be rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Las Vegas.

Being in Nevada means he might not get the face-to-face criticism that could come from turning up some of the uglier parts of the history of Episcopalians in Alabama.

"Once you start digging, you find out all the bad stuff," Vaughn said. "I dug up a lot of things that aren't very complimentary to the church. I was a little apprehensive about that chapter (on the civil rights era)."

While Vaughn highlights some of the Episcopalians who stood bravely for civil rights, it was an exception and not the rule.

"We were slow to realize the significance of the civil rights movement and somewhat reluctant to support it," Vaughn said. "There are plenty of exceptions to that. Most people went about their daily business. A few went out and put their reputations and lives on the line."

Leaders of the Episcopal Church in Alabama were vocal in their belief that slavery was a benign institution. "Its members tended to be disproportionaately slaveowners," Vaughn said. "They believed there wasn't any discrepancy between the Christian message and slave ownership. They didn't see any conflict at all. They were blinded by their financial self-interests."

One of the towering but controversial figures in Alabama's church history was Bishop C.C.J. Carpenter, who was scolded by both the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in "Letter from Birmingham Jail" and by Episcopal seminarian Jonathan Myrick Daniels, who took part in marches in Selma in 1965 and was killed in Hayneville protecting a black girl from a shotgun blast. Daniels defied Carpenter, coming to Alabama in spite of Carpenter's warning to outside agitators. Daniels and other Episcopal seminarians picketed Carpenter House, the diocesan headquarters in Birmingham, and wrote that "The Carpenter of Birmingham must not be allowed to forever deny the Carpenter of Nazareth," in a harsh letter to Carpenter.

"I think Carpenter was a great bishop in many ways," Vaughn said. "He's remembered as a kindly, warm grandfatherly figure. He increased membership; he increased the budget. He just didn't get it though when it came to the civil rights movement."

Vaughn said the Episcopal Church needs to be forthright and honest about its role in slavery and segregation.
"That's mostly a weakness of the church, but it's also a strength," he said. "We have this ministry that's traditionally it's been to the wealthy and powerful. How can we use that to reach the less affluent and preach to God's kingdom?"

The book's title refers to the bishops who govern the church, but also to the "Bourbons," a name given to planters after the Civil War. They were likened to France's royal class that survived the revolution of 1789 and returned to power after the defeat of Napoleon. In 1934, Alabama Gov. Bibb Graves called Alabama's industrial barons "the Big Mules."

The planters and the Big Mules disproportionately attended Episcopal churches.

"I don't think we're attracting as many of that class as we used to," Vaughn said. "We're not as much the church of the Bourbons and Big Mules as we used to be. The watershed was World War II. Soldiers came out of the war and went to college on the GI Bill. They become upper-middle class people. They don't necessarily switch to the Episcopal Church."

Churches that previously thrived with less educated congregations, such as Pentecostals, charismatics and other evangelical denominations, had an influx of college-educated members.

Bishops, bourbons nice cover.jpg 

"Those churches now have wealthier, more affluent congregations," Vaughn said. "Pentecostals and charismatics now have members more means. They have more doctors and lawyers in their congregations. That was not as true before World War II. Everybody knows now there is a lot more competition in the religion marketplace."

Vaughn said one of the most disheartening points of the history of Alabama Episcopalians has been the dearth of institutions built by a wealthy denomination that could have helped the citizenry, Vaughn said.

"Although the Episcopal Church is the church of the affluent and powerful, it has not done all that it could to help the people of Alabama," Vaughn said. "I think we could have done more to build the institutions of Alabama. The Presbyterians built Stillman, a college for black students in Tuscaloosa. The Baptists, Methodists and Catholics built colleges and hospitals. The Episcopalians did not put their energies in that direction. As a denomination, we did not do all that we could to improve the quality of life in Alabama."

After writing the history of Alabama Episcopalians, Vaughn emerged optimistic about the future. "We have to do a lot more to get our message out," Vaughn said. "We have a wonderful church and a wonderful message to proclaim."
