Baptists
The Baptists are a denomination of Protestant Christians holding a distinctive belief with regard to baptism — adults are baptized by total immersion in the water — and by the autonomy of their own congregation. Baptism is the right of purification by water. The ceremony of baptism regenerates, freeing a person from sin and making him part of the church.
The Baptists — once nicknamed the Anabaptists — trace their origins to the English church established in Amsterdam by John Smyth (1554–1612). They were recognized as dissenters from the Anglican Church. Smyth baptized first himself, then the others. In 1611, certain members of this congregation returned to London and established a church there under Thomas Helwys.
America's first Baptist church was established in Providence, Rhode Island, with the help of Roger Williams, who founded the city of Providence. Williams (1603–1683) was a minister of the Church of England who, because of his separatist views, fled to America in search of religious freedom. In time, this theologian was notable more for his religious tolerance than his alignment with one church.
Baptists were instrumental in the fight for religious freedom in England and the United States. Their convictions about the liberty of the individual played a role in securing the adoption of the “no religious test” clause in the U.S. Constitution and the guarantees embodied in the First Amendment. “God is too large to be housed under one roof,” said Roger Williams.
He became a minister in Salem, Massachusetts, where he upset the civil authorities who subsequently banished him. Williams then bought land from the Narragansett Indians. Other colonists joined him, and together they set up one of the first settlements in the country established on the principle of complete religious freedom. Eventually, through extensive missionary work, the Baptist church spread throughout the world.
Baptists are well known as evangelists. The Association of Baptists for World Evangelism (ABWE) was founded in August 1927 in the home of Marguerite Doane in Rhode Island. In keeping with the Baptist philosophy of independence, the ABWE states that it is an independent Baptist mission agency with a missionary presence in over forty-five countries.
The Baptist churches operate democratically because they believe every other form of church government infringes on their beliefs. Individual members have an equal right to voice their convictions and to vote according to their consciences when the congregation makes decisions.
Baptists see the Old and New Testaments as their final authority; the Bible is, they say, to be interpreted responsibly. Of the edicts they embrace, pluralism of race, ethnicity, and gender, and the acknowledgment that there are individual differences of conviction and theology feature strongly. However, they are opposed to homosexuality and are firmly antiabortion.
