I’m Just a Baptist Who Cannot Not Say, “No!”

In the beginning, the elohim created skies and earth.

Welcome back.  I pray you are well.  I hope the following entry makes you smile and gives a thought to carry you throughout your day. 

Sometimes it is fun to write about Baptists. 

We are a funny denomination with a funny name.  We began well, but lately, with few exceptions, we have looked pretty foolish. 

Many of us are still mired in superstitions like young earth creationism.  Many of us rely on lousy hermeneutics that ignores the modern academic Biblical studies that have been going on in universities for over a century, now.  Many of us obstinately cling to an un-Baptist-like devotion to the conventional wisdom of the 19^th century.

There has been some times when Baptists stood apart from other denominations.  I am thinking when we said, “No,” and it was a brave thing to do. 

“Is the Sermon on the Mount symbolic and too impossible attempt?”

“No.”

 “Should I go to war?

“No.”

“Should I kill?”

“No.”

“Should I coerce anyone to believe what I believe or should anyone coerce me?”

“No.”

“Can an association of churches tell my church what to do?”

“No.”

“Can any government ever force me to pray their prayer, read their scripture, or worship according to their church?”

“Hell no!”

I remain a Baptist because by saying “no” to intolerance and repression, I am saying “yes” to religious liberty.  I believe in the separation of church and state, the freedom of conscience, and the competency of the soul.  Ours is a rich history of defying civil authorities who are killing us.   And you thought the puritans were persecuted?

  

It is troubling today to see Baptists argue against the separation of church and state.  They claim that the phrase “separation of church and state” is not in the Bill of Rights. 

That phrase comes to us from Thomas Jefferson who used it when he replied to the letter he received from the Danbury Baptists in Connecticut.  The congregation had expressed their fear to Jefferson that the federal government might grow into a religious tyrant.  

President Kennedy was speaking to a group of Southern Baptists in 1960 when he said that he believed in the absolute separation of church and state.  Back then, Southern Baptists feared the Pope would be ruling the United States. 

Now that the SBC has so much political influence, I doubt they would want to hear our current president avow absolute separation of church and state.

Ironically, these Baptists today who believe that the separation of church and state is a myth do believe in “separation of powers.”  This phrase is not found in the U.S. Constitution. 

Imagine if our president suddenly declared every American has the right to make his or her own moonshine.  Imagine if he gave an executive order declaring all Americans must learn the art of distilling in federally funded schools.

Lord have mercy!  My Baptist brothers and sisters would gnash their teeth over his egregious violation of the separation of powers.  They would hate hearing that the phrase is not in the U.S. Constitution so it is not constitutional.

Incidentally, we Baptists traditionally believe in the trinity, a word not found in the Bible.

            Blessings…