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19th Century Baptists

As the discussion in regard to slavery became acute, there arose the differences which resulted in the three conventions — Northern, Southern, and National. The northern churches, Baptist as well as others, were strongly antislavery; the southern churches, Baptist as well as others, were, if not always proslavery, certainly not antislavery. A crisis was reached when the question was raised whether the General Missionary Convention (called also the Triennial Convention because it met once in three years) would appoint as a missionary a person who owned slaves. To this a very decided negative was returned.

The impression in the Southern states was that the foreign mission society of the denomination, which had its headquarters in Boston, was so thoroughly antislavery that it would not accept a slaveholder as a missionary. A letter addressed direct to that organization by the Alabama State Convention, asking for information, brought a courteous reply to the effect that while the board refused to recognize the claim of anyone, slaveholder or nonslaveholder, to appointment, "one thing was certain, they could never be a party to any arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery."

This decision led to formal withdrawal of the various Southern state conventions and auxiliary foreign mission societies, and the organization at Augusta, Ga., in May, 1845, of the Southern Baptist Convention. About 300 churches were represented by delegates from Maryland, Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, and Kentucky, the largest number of Baptist churches in the South at that period being in Virginia. In all the discussions and in the final act of organization, there was very little bitterness, the prevalent conviction being that those of kindred thought would work more effectively together, and that, in view of the sharp differences between the two sections, it was wiser that separate organizations should exist. The purpose of the Southern Baptist Convention, whose was to do for the southern Baptist churches just what the general convention had hitherto done for the entire Baptist denomination. It was not a new denomination; simply a new organization for the direction of the missionary and general evangelistic work of the churches of the Southern states. In doctrine the Southern Baptist churches were in general more strictly Calvinistic.

As late as the early 20th Century, the typical Baptist was an advocate of the complete separation of church and state. He protests against the union of the two, against all unholy alliances of church and state, as being fraught with evil. He was opposed to a state-church. Many English Baptists fought in Cromwell's army because they believed that his triumph would bring about the complete separation of church and state. Roger Williams was the foremost 'advocate of the complete separation of church and state in history. This Baptist principle of the complete separation of church and state seems now to be advancing to universal triumph.

The typical Baptist of that time was an advocate of absolute liberty of conscience. He believeed that religion was a personal concern, a matter between the individual man and God. He regarded as an enormity any attempt to force the conscience or to constrain men by outward penalties to this or to that form of religious belief. Persecution may make men hypocrites, but true Christians never, he said. For true religion consisted in the inward persuasion of the mind. The Baptist believed that a man's conscience was responsible to God alone. He denieed the right of any man or body of men to exercise lordship over another man's conscience, to compel him in matters of religion. He maintained that all the power of the civil government relateed only to men's civil interests, and that civil magistrates had no right to interfere with the Church.

Religion was not a matter to be regulated and managed by civil rulers. The Baptist, likewise, denieed the right of conferences, synods, bishops or any other ecclesiastical body to legislate for the churches. He, therefore, contended for the fullest freedom to all to worship God according to the dictates of their own conscience. What he demanded was not toleration, which implieed the right to punish, but magnanimously withheld it; it was perfect freedom which denieed that right. The Baptists had been the pioneers in the assertion of the doctrine of religious liberty, both in England and in America. They claimed that they had never persecuted. It was Roger Williams who first brought the principle of liberty of conscience prominently before the English-speaking world, and who was largely instrumental in securing its wide acceptance. The doctrine of liberty of conscience was one of the fundamental Baptist principles.

The typical Baptist was an ardent advocate of the principle of democracy. The form of government of Baptist churches was democratic. Each church governed itself by the will of a majority of its members. All church-members had the same rights and privileges. Women had the same rights as men. The pastor has no ruling authority. The pastor, like all other officers of the congregation, was chosen by the vote of the church, and holds his position only so long as seems good to the church.

On the other hand, the typical English Baptist as well as the typical American Baptist was initially a defender of civil liberty. Roger Williams deserves the gratitude of all lovers of civil liberty as the founder of the colony of Rhode Island. Many English Baptists fought in Cromwell's army because they believed that his victory would be the triumph of liberty. When the War of the Revolution broke out in America, liberty had no friends more genuine and more decided than the American Baptists. During the entire struggle for American independence, the Baptists were distinguished by their firm, consistent, and persevering patriotism. Those of Virginia and of the entire South entered into the struggle with the utmost decision and zeal, believing that civil liberty was a condition of religious liberty. Indeed, no other kind of Christian has ever been more impatient of dominion, be it civil or ecclesiastical dominion, than the typical Baptist.