Thomas Helwys Highlighted at BWA

Teun Van der Leer, rector of the Dutch Baptist Seminary, highlighted the work of Thomas Helwys in a speech at a recent meeting of the Baptist World Alliance. As Robert Parham of Ethics Daily reports, here's some of what he had to say:

Van der Leer recalled the prophetic courage of Thomas Helwys, a Baptist founder, to change his thinking and to challenge the tradition of the Church of England by advocating for religious freedom.

"One century even before the Enlightenment, almost two centuries before the French Revolution, more than three centuries before the Declaration of Human Rights, he pleaded for the right of freedom of consciousness for 'heretics, Jews, Turks and them of the Romish religion.' Although totally disagreeing with them, he stood for their rights to be wrong," said van der Leer.