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Famous Baptists

Tuesday, August 28, 2007

This should turn into a series of posts, highlighting famous figures in history and present time from different religious denominations. I thought it'd be interesting....hopefully some of you will think the same.

Famous Baptists:

Abraham Lincoln - 16th President of the United States (raised Baptist)
Harry S. Truman - 33rd U.S. President
Jimmy Carter - 39th U.S. President (former Southern Baptist)
William Jefferson Clinton - 42nd U.S. President (Bill Clinton was officially rebuked by SBC)
Strom Thurmond - Senator from South Carolina. Oldest senator in office

Billy Graham - prominent American evangelist (congregational home is a Baptist church, but Graham was embraced by Protestants generally; he repudiated many Southern Baptist teachings & practices)
Pat Robertson - popular religious broadcaster
Rev. Jerry Falwell - popular American Evangelical leader

Harry Longabaugh: (The Sundance Kid) - famous train and bank robber in the Old West
Thomas Piper - serial killer, Baptist church leader

John D. Rockefeller - American industrialist

Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. - civil rights leader

Payne Stewart - golfer; died in a plane accident on Oct. 25, 1999
Johnny Oates - professional baseball player (cathcher) and later manager of Major League teams Orioles and Rangers
Jim Brown - professional football player; in College Football Hall of Fame and the Lacrosse Hall of Fame; professional actor (lapsed)
Reggie White - professional football player and ordained Baptist minister
Joe Frazier - boxer, blues singer

Carrie Underwood - singer, winner of competition on Season 4 of popular FOX television series American Idol
Ruben Studdard - singer (winner of American Idol 2nd season)
Clay Aiken - singer, immensely popular 2nd place runner-up in Season 2 of FOX television series American Idol
Glen Campbell - country music singer
Roy Orbison - country music singer
Johnny Cash - singer
Kris Kristofferson - country music singer
Louis Armstrong - trumpeter, vocalist, conductor
Mahalia Jackson - Gospel singer
George Jones - country singer; nicknamed The Possum; "Why Baby Why" was his first top-five hit in 1955
Chuck Berry - rock and roll pioneer
Sam Cooke - rock and roll legend
Buddy Holly - rock and roll legend
Hank Williams, Sr. - country music singer
Gene Autry - TV's famous singing cowboy (lapsed Baptist, convert to Christian Science)
Diana Ross - singer
Gladys Knight - famed singer who sang with the "Pips" (former Baptist, now a Latter-day Saint)
Queen Latifah - singer, actress
Al Green - musician
Otis Redding - soul singer (famous for "Sitting on the Dock of the Bay" and other classics)
Aretha Franklin - classic soul singer

John Grisham - best-selling author of legal thrillers, including The Pelican Brief; The Firm and The Client
Tim LaHaye - author of immensely popular "Left Behind" Evangelical science fiction/fantasy novels
Gene Roddenberry - TV writer, producer; creator of Star Trek (former Baptist)

Kevin Costner - actor, movie star
Chuck Norris - actor ("Walker, Texas Ranger")
DeForest Kelley - actor; played "Dr. McCoy" on Star Trek (raised Baptist; son of a Baptist minister)
Bette Davis - movie star (mostly lapsed Baptist/Episcopalian family background)
Warren Beatty- actor, movie star, Academy Award-winning director (lapsed)
Eddie Murphy - actor, comedian

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