True Baptists believe in freedom of conscience for all, with no government involvement for or against one's relationship to God. In today's must-read, Louisville pastor Joe Phelps reminds Courier-Journal readers that the kind of Baptist about to descend on his city for the annual SBC Convention aren't the only kind, nor the traditional kind.
[W]ith a recent SBC vice-president saying in an interview that he prays for the death of President Obama, it is timely to recite the old adage, "No Baptist speaks for another." I don't speak for them, and they surely don't speak for me.
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[T]his year is the 400th anniversary of the birth of the Baptist movement within the Christian faith, which seems a fitting time to reflect on "old-time Baptists" and to celebrate the contribution of Baptists to the global religious landscape; namely, our advocacy for uncoerced faith grounded in the right of conscience and the inevitability of dissent from either the government or any religious hierarchy.
Read the whole thing, and know that there are plenty of us old-time Baptists still advocating for our heritage of soul freedom and the separation of church and state, beliefs that continue to challenge the status quo, and that are as relevant and necessary today as they ever have been.
