I started a series on the Book of Daniel yesterday at Fair Oaks Church. It’s called Cirque de l’xile—which means “Circus of the Exile.”
Daniel and his friends were young Jewish men in exile in Babylon.
His life is a demonstration of character born of conviction.
Here is a link to the audio of the message.
I’ve been doing some radio interviews recently—not as a host, but as a guest. Mostly about my book, but the conversations bounce around a bit. The other day a talk show host in Ocala, Florida asked me point blank:
“As a minister yourself, how do you keep from letting things go to your head like the Reverend J. Frank Norris seemed to?”
Of course, Norris is the subject of my book, THE SHOOTING SALVATIONIST—the story of how he shot and killed an unarmed critic in his church office and faced the Texas electric chair back in the 1920s.
It was a great question. I mumbled something about how God gave me a wife and three daughters who act as regular agents of humiliation. 
But seriously—PRIDE is the great sin of leadership in general and ministry, in particular.
I conduct a regular Friday morning men’s Bible study group at our church. We meet at 6:00 a.m. and it is called, appropriately, the RED EYE. We are looking at the life of King David right now and today we examined his youth and call to the throne.
Which means we talked about his predecessor—King Saul.
Curious fellow.
He had all the native skills and natural gifts of a leader. And he looked the part.
He even started out well.
But it didn’t last.
The pride bug bit him and he was infected for the rest of his life.
I am struck by the verse in I Samuel 15:
“So Samuel said, ‘When you were little in your own eyes, were you not head of the tribes of Israel? And did not the Lord anoint you king over Israel?’”
Little in your own eyes…
This thought is akin to the one written by the Apostle Paul in Romans chapter 12:
“ For I say, through the grace given to me, to everyone who is among you, not to think of himself more highly than he ought to think, but to think soberly, as God has dealt to each one a measure of faith.”
Destructive pride always begins in the mind and heart. When we start actually believing the great things people say about us in moments of success—we cease being little in our own eyes.
J. Frank Norris was not the first, nor the last, to get caught up in himself and the lust of ambition. It happens every day.
The key, I think, is to keep ourselves little in our own eyes 
.
The Shooting Salvationist—J. Frank Norris and the Murder Trial that Captivated America is a not just based on a true story—it is a very true story. And its been hiding in plain sight for more than 85 years. It’s about scandal, religion, power politics, and the media such as it was back in the 1920s. The decade known as The Jazz Age was also the beginning of America’s fascination with celebrity, whether of the famous or infamous type. And the Reverend J. Frank Norris of Fort Worth, Texas loomed for a time as a larger-than-life figure.
If you like the HBO series Boardwalk Empire—you’ll love The Shooting Salvationist.
If you could build a J. Frank Norris you’d need a little Billy Sunday, a measure of William Randolph Hearst, some P.T. Barnum, and at least a hint of Al Capone. This was no ordinary man of the cloth. His church of 10,000 was the nation’s first mega-church in and he used it was a base to work against vice and conspiracies he saw everywhere. But the preacher didn’t always play by the rules himself. Norris controlled a radio station, a tabloid newspaper and a valuable tract of land in downtown Fort Worth and regularly found things to fight about to stir up controversy as a method of attracting followers.
When the nation’s leading fundamentalist, William Jennings Bryan—a friend and colleague of Pastor Norris—died just days after the famous Scopes monkey trial in Tennessee, the Texas preacher was poised to become one of America’s most prominent and influential religious leaders.
But it all changed in a moment of violence one sweltering summer Saturday in July of 1926 when J. Frank Norris shot and killed an unarmed man in his church office. The famous preacher was indicted for murder and faced an appointment with “Sparky”—the electric chair owned and operated by the state of Texas.
It was a time when newspaper wire services and national retailers were unifying American popular culture as never before and Prohibition was the law of the land. And Norris’s murder trial was front-page news from coast to coast. Ultimately there was an epic courtroom drama pitting some of the era’s most famous lawyers.
Would the preacher beat the rap?
I have known about this story for quite some time, but about four years ago I decided to dig into it in earnest. Along the way, I gathered and indexed more than 6,000 pages of court records, news articles, and archived material in preparation for writing the narrative. I was thrilled when Bob Schieffer of CBS News agreed to write the foreword.
I hope you’ll pick up a copy of The Shooting Salvationist and that you’ll pass the word along to your friends!
[The following review is featured at BOOKLIST -- it is a "starred" review.]
After the 1925 death of William Jennings Bryan, the hugely popular politician and anti-evolution campaigner, one man seemed poised to step into his shoes, Fort Worth fundamentalist preacher J. Frank Norris, whose fire-breathing sermons and enthusiastic championing of the “common man” had made him famous across the U.S. But in 1926, his crusade was derailed when he was charged with the murder of a man who, Norris claimed, had threatened his life. This excellent book chronicles the court case that, even if it’s barely remembered today, captivated the nation, and it makes its central player as compelling and multilayered as any character from fiction. Stokes says the book “is not merely based on a true story—it is a true story.” All dialogue comes from documented sources and is presented verbatim. All events are based on the historical record. At a time when “creative“ nonfiction is becoming ever more prevalent, it’s refreshing to see a biographical work in which what you read is what actually happened and what is said is what was actually said. Engagingly written in an immediate, you-are-there style, the book is as compelling and surprising as any Grisham thriller. Top of the line.
— David Pitt
[The Advance Reader Copies (ARC's) of THE SHOOTING SALVATIONIST continue to bring interesting comments and reviews...here is one example--from the manager of a bookstore in Massachusetts. -- DRS]
“J. Frank Norris was the pastor of a ‘mega-church’ before the name itself existed. He was famous, and to many he was a righteous and inspiring hero. By others, however, he was thoroughly hated. His endless crusades frustrated both businessman and politicians in Fort Worth, TX.
Norris was also a publicity hound who was brash and abrasive. His enemies knew that he was a formidable foe.
On July 17, 1926, Norris shot and killed an unarmed man in the church office. David Stokes’s The Shooting Salvationist offers the complete story of the shooting, the criminal trial, and their aftermath Eighty-five years ago, this event captured the attention of the entire nation.
Modern readers will likewise be enthralled by David Stokes’s skillful presentation of this shocking crime. The story is simply incredible, yet every word is true. And you won’t put this book down until reach the end!” – Chris Rose, Andover Bookstore
