One of the things that always impressed me about t...

2006-06-24T05:37:00.000-05:00

One of the things that always impressed me about the early Baptist defense of liberty of conscience for EVERYONE is that they clearly defended it for people they did not like! It's easy for contemporary liberals who are universalists or who have strong interfaith theologies to defend the consciences of others--others seen as "respected others.

Likewise, it is easy for those with exclusionary theologies that draw strong lines between the "saved" and the "damned" (and presume to know who's who as well as God) to deny the Baptist heritage of liberty of conscience and fall back on the Medieval Thomist notion that "error has no rights."

But what is impressive is that the early Baptists clearly disliked many people whose consciences they were willing to defend ANYWAY! John Leland defended the religious liberty of Witches--in an age which did not see "Wiccans" as a harmless-if-weird minority religion, but as demon-empowered tools of evil who could do real harm to their neighbors!

Likewise, when Roger Williams defends the consciences of "Jews, Turks, and Pagans," he's talking about people he clearly dislikes. Richard Overton, John Clarke, Thomas Helwys, could say the same things. Helwys defended the conscience of "papists," not the nicest term in the world for Catholics! "Turks" was a slur-word for Muslims! But it is well worth remembering that Muslim consciences were defended by these early Baptists--along with pagans (probably Native Americans). And they did not see such rigorous defense of liberty of conscience as in any way in tension with evangelism because true evangelism can only use persuasion and not coercion!

O for that "Old Time Religion."

Comments on Mainstream Baptist: Nash Reaffirms Baptist Conscience

One of the things that always impressed me about t...