Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

Church, where he served until his retirement in 1952.”* Along with pastoral work, he also taught for some years in two colleges. By that time the church in Philadelphia had gradually become more and more inclusive. As noted by a visitor from Latvia, “There is a rather large number of independently thinking spirits among members of the church in Philadelphia, and the attitude of the church toward them is very tolerant.’’* Daugmanis himself before the war expressed interest in travelling to Russia in the spring of 1939 to attend lectures at Moscow University and collect materials for his book on pedagogical methods in the USSR.” Available sources contain no evidence that this trip was undertaken. We learn about Daugmanis’ views *” “No Liepajas’, Kristigd Balss, no. 17 (1924), pp. 346-347. * J. Daugmanis, “LatvieSu bégla véstule’, Drauga Vésts, no. 39 (1945), pp. 12-13. ® Péteris BuSmanis, “Ko stradnieki sagaida no kristigam draudzém’, Ausma (September 1942), p. 8. ” Péteris BuSmanis, “Cézars un Kristus’, Drauga Balss, no. 15 (1920), p. 214. 71 “No Filadelfijas’, Kristiga Balss, no. 12 (1931), p. 256. ” “No Filadelfijas”, Kristigd Balss, no. 13 (1932), p. 197. 7? Voldemars Freimanis, “Janis Daugmanis’, Kristigd Balss; no. 12 (1952), p. 151. 74 V7. Mirnieks, “Amerika. Celojuma piezimes’, Kristigd Balss, no. 21 (1925), p. 587. °K, Griibe, “Seminarista vasaras brivlaiks Amerika’, Kristigd Balss, no. 22 (1938), p. 409. 114 primarily from Ausma [Dawn],”° a periodical which he edited. Oppo- site views were presented by Drauga Vésts [A Friend’s Message], edited by Carlos Gruber, who then was pastor of the New York Latvian Baptist Church.” Gruber later wrote about that conflict: Several of our Latvian Baptist seminary students, because of modernism, have drifted away from the basic Baptist beliefs. [...] Through our magazine, Drauga Vésts, we fought for the great fundamental principles and conservative belief in the Bible [...] After I graduated from Southwestern Baptist Semi- nary, while pastoring the Latvian Baptist Church, I attended Union Theological Seminary for two years. I became well acquainted with liberalism in theology at that time. Fosdick was one of those professors, a wonderful person, but totally liberal in his theology.” The position taken by Ausma met with angry responses also from the secular side of the Latvian community. Alfréds Bilmanis, Ambassador of Latvia in the USA,” circulated an open letter to Daugmanis. In response, Daugmanis wrote that he had sided neither with Latvian nationalists nor communists, because he wanted to promote cooperation between various political camps. Similarly, he stated that evaluation of the role of the USSR should be left open until the future showed what would happen.*° Daugmanis sermons reveal him as a critic of parliamentary democra- cies of their time. He reminds his readers that dictatorships in Germany and Italy grew out of democracy,"'