Eastern European Baptist History: New Perspectives, 2007

s a “man who loved the truth’, *° In 1932 there were six Latvian Baptist churches in the USA, three of which had their own prayer houses. Latvijas baptistu draudzu savienibas un arzemju latviesu baptistu draudzu 1932. gada parskats (Riga: LBDS, n.d.), p. 31. “6 “Filadelfijas latvieSu baptistu draudzes sanaksmju protokolu gramata” (unpublished min- utes from the Philadelphia Latvian Baptist Church, 1907), pp. 194-195. The author thanks Dr Janis Plostnieks for providing a copy of these pages. *” The newspaper Amerikas Latvietis was published from 1901 to 1905. Data about the years of publication for this and other periodicals have been taken from the bibliographical index Latvian Periodicals: Latviesu periodika, 1768-1919 (Riga: Fundamentala bibliotéka, 1977), vol. 1; Latviesu periodika, 1920-1940 (Riga: Zinatne, 1988), vol. 3, part 1; Latviesu periodika, 1940-1945 (Riga: Latvijas Akadémiska bibliotéka, 1995), vol. 4. *® Fricis Huns was the first pastor (1900-1903) of the Philadelphia Latvian Baptist Church. * V. RauSenbusSs, “Vai kristigais var ari but socialists?’, Amerikas Latvietis, no. 3 (1903), pp. 32-33; no. 4, pp. 40-43; no. 5, pp. 50-52; no. 6, pp. 62-64. * J. Neibuks served the Philadelphia church until 1909, when Janis Kvietins was elected in his place (Ol]gerts Cakars (ed), Teici to Kungu: Amerikas Latviesu Baptistu Apvienibas 50. gadu jubilejas izdevums ((USA]: ALBA, 2000), pp. 106-207). After Philadelphia, Neibuks served as pastor in Boston until 1913, when he retired. He died in 1914. J. Kvietin$, “Janis Neibuks’, Avots, no. 11 (1914), p. 87. ‘1 “Véstule no Amerikas’, Evangélists, no. 1 (1910), p. 2. 2 “Véstule no Amerikas’, p. 1. 111 and the period following his ministry was painted in dark colours. Certainly more conservative members had reasons to complain, because church life developed in a direction to which they were not accustomed. For example, youth of the church discussed issues such as the direction of world history in the optimistic manner of the “Social Gospel”.*’ In 1916, the American Latvian Baptist Literary Society (ALBLS) was established, led by pastor Janis Blumbergs.** It published Drauga Balss [A Friend's Voice], which positioned itself as a progressive newspaper standing alongside workers.” The journal was governed by the conviction that “this age will not be led by political chauvinism or religious fanaticism. Education should come to the aid of politics and universal, liberal religion’. The leading figure in this publication was pastor Péteris BuSmanis, but others served as editors as well, such as pastor Janis Birznieks.* News about socialist influence among Latvians in America quickly reached Latvia. Secular newspapers wrote that even “part of the Baptists in America support the Bolsheviks’.** The conference of Latvian Baptist churches that took place in Priekule in 1920 passed a resolution to ask their co-believers in the United States to use their influence