L. Nelson Bell

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L. Nelson Bell
Medical missionary to China
Born
Lemuel Nelson Bell

July 30, 1894
Longdale, Virginia, U.S.
DiedAugust 2, 1973(1973-08-02) (aged 79)
Montreat, North Carolina, U.S.
SpouseVirginia Myers Leftwich
Children5, including Ruth

Lemuel Nelson Bell (July 30, 1894 – August 2, 1973)[1] was a medical missionary in China and the father-in-law of famous evangelist Billy Graham. Few people had more influence on Billy Graham than Bell.[2]

Life and work

Bell was born in

Qingjiangpu, Jiangsu Province, 300 miles north of Shanghai. They had five children: Rosa, Ruth
, Lemuel, Virginia, and Clayton.

Bell kept a busy schedule as surgical chief and administrative superintendent at the hospital. Although the hospital had a pastor on staff, Bell made the healing of souls a priority in his work, gently explaining the Gospel to his patients.[3] He never minimized the importance of addressing the spiritual needs of the people as well as their physical needs.

The Bells returned to the United States before Pearl Harbor in 1941 and retired in Montreat, North Carolina, across the street from their daughter Ruth and Billy Graham.

In 1942, Bell founded The Southern Presbyterian Journal, a publication which championed conservative Presbyterianism within the denomination that had sent Bell and his family to China as missionaries.[4]

From 1942 to 1966, the Southern Presbyterian Journal also championed racial segregation. Historian Kenneth Taylor [5] describes this segregationist stance:

"Paternalistic Journalers professed to love African Americans and to want only the best for them. Integration, the writers insisted, was cruel, and segregation was kind. Thus, social separation was consistent with the Golden Rule, 'to do unto others as you want others to do unto you.' In 1947 Bell wrote without irony that he was 'ashamed at the intolerance, the discrimination, and the humiliations which have been heaped on them [blacks] by the white race' while he defended segregation. … Segregation was kind and Christian."

After Bell's death, and the subsequent founding of the

WORLD Magazine.[4]

Bell was also the one who suggested to Billy Graham the idea of the periodical that would eventually be named

Freedoms Foundation at Valley Forge, Pennsylvania for articles and editorials.[8]

Nelson Bell died in Montreat, North Carolina.[1]

Bell's biography is entitled, "A Foreign Devil in China: The Story of Dr. L. Nelson Bell," by

John Charles Pollock.[9]

References

  1. ^
    ISBN 0-313-26788-X
    .
  2. ^ The Billy Graham Museum; Wheaton, Illinois
  3. ^ Decision Today – Special Commemorative Issue – Ruth Bell Graham, 2007, p.6
  4. ^ a b Belz, Joel (16 July 2011). "We're moving". WORLD Magazine. 26 (14): 3. Retrieved 10 May 2012.
  5. ^ Tayor, Ken (25 August 2007). "The Spirituality of the Church Segregation, The Presbyterian Journal, and the Origins of the Presbyterian Church in America". Reformed Perspectives Magazine. 34 (34): 3.
  6. ISBN 0-06-063387-5
  7. ISBN 978-0-8262-2042-4
  8. ^ Papers of Lemuel Nelson Bell – Collection 318
  9. ^ Pollock, John Charles. A Foreign Devil in China: The Story of Dr. L. Nelson Bell. (World Wide Publications.)

External links

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