Whatever Became of Conscience?

Liberty of conscience used to be something that every Baptist held dear.

John Smyth, the historical founder of the Baptist movement, took exception to the church enforcing creeds. He believed that: "Christ only is the king and lawgiver of the church and conscience."

In 1608, Smyth and his church had to flee England for Holland to escape persecution. Four years later Thomas Helwys, a member of Smyth's congregation, led a group that returned to England to face it.

They founded the first Baptist church on English soil. Helwys then published England's first treatise calling for universal "freedom of conscience." Though it cost him his life, Helwys' convictions and the witness of his church exercised great influence on the mind of a young man who would emigrate to America.

When Roger Williams arrived in America, in 1631, he was offered the pastorate of the church in Boston. He declined because his, "conscience was persuaded against the national church." Williams was soon banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for holding the disharmonious conviction that those in authority "cannot without a spiritual rape force the consciences of all to one worship."

Williams went on to found the first Baptist church in America and the Colony of Rhode Island -- securing the first charter in the world that established "a free, full, and absolute liberty of conscience."

By the 1770's, Baptists churches had sprung up throughout the colonies and were welcome in none except Rhode Island. Particularly unwelcome were their refusals to pay taxes to support state churches on the grounds that "it implies an acknowledgement that the civil power has a right to set one religious sect up above another . . . [and] emboldens people to judge the liberty of other men's consciences."

Colonial governments dealt harshly with Baptists until the necessity for enlisting soldiers to fight the British outweighed the need to collect taxes for religion.

For Baptists, the War for Independence and the battle for Liberty of Conscience were one and the same. That is why they refused to vote to ratify the Constitution until an amendment was added to secure "liberty of conscience." As John Leland explained to George Washington in a letter written on behalf of Virginia Baptists:

When the Constitution first made its appearance in Virginia, we, as a society, had unusual strugglings of mind, fearing that the liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life, was not sufficiently secured. Perhaps our jealousies were heightened by the usage we received in Virginia under regal government, when mobs, fines, bonds and prisons were our frequent repast.

"Liberty of conscience, dearer to us than property or life" and opposition to judging "the liberty of other men’s consciences." Those were convictions that used to distinguish Baptists from other Christians.

Baptists used to be sensitive to the still, small voice of God that speaks within the heart and reverberates through every aspect of your being. Too often, Baptists listen to other voices today -- voices that speak in our ears and reverberate through our seats by artificial amplification.

Baptists used to look for Jesus in the eye of everyone we faced. Today we look for sin in the face of everyone we eye.

Baptists used to be able to look at themselves through the eyes of others. Today we presume to look at others with the eyes of God.

When did Baptists lose touch with their heart and soul?

What distracted us from the voice within that judges us alone and no other?

Whatever became of conscience?