Baptists and Our Own Hypocrisy

From to the Baptist Joint Committee

So let's just be clear ... 100 years ago, Baptists were fearful of Catholics using tax payer money to educate public school children by paying for religious instruction off campus, and also fearful of tax payer money funding Catholic community projects, even those that were being used for public good. Thus, the Blaine Amendments were passed in most states. Now, Baptists are wanting to do away with those amendments because it is blocking tax payer money from supporting our causes. Hmmmm. Hypocrite much?

If one group can use tax payer money for their religious causes, another group can do the same thing tomorrow. Thankfully the Baptist Joint Committee is calling out the hypocrisy. This is why I support this great organization financially ... it is also why the Southern Baptist Convention stopped supporting the BJC years ago. SMH.

Georgia Is Being Governed By Demetrius The Silversmith

Georgia Is Being Governed By Demetrius The Silversmith


This is so very, very sad. And terribly misinformed about Baptist history, our nation's laws, and our founding.

The US constitution guarantees that no faith will get a Most Favored Status from government, even if it is our own. We Baptists were the persecuted minority at the nation's founding and it is we that were told the Word of God was against us and our beliefs were not scriptural. It was the Established Churches that claimed they rightly interpreted the text and should be given special favor over the heretical Baptists. Our nation and stae are not governed by the Bible or any religious text but by the US Constitution. As far as I can tell, no church has been shuttered; no one has been denied access to a house of worship of any faith, even our own; and all public businesses have to be held to the same public accommodation laws that may not refuse service to anyone for any reason, =unless= they are LGBT, a non-protected class in our state. No pastor has ever been forced to marry anyone with whom he/she didn't want to; and no church has ever been forced to host a ceremony it didn't want to host. Now that is not the same for =BUSINESSES= since all =BUSINESSES= are held to the same standard of law. 

GA is not governed by the Bible, or more aptly one narrow interpretation of a select few passages. We are a nation of laws that protect everyone and makes sure everyone is treated the same in the public arena. If we don't make sure other interpretations of faith are protected in the public arena, then one day another religious group can force THEIR religious interpretation onto us in the business arena ... you know, kinda back to where we Baptists started in England, Boston, Virginia, etc., when we were refused service in businesses, or buying/renting property, or getting services from state employees, and the government sanctioned that discrimination because the majority faith said we were not true Christians.

An analogy of Demetrius is not the proper one in this case. Maybe it should have been the Pharisee standing outside the party Jesus was, saying: "Why does Jesus even associate with those sinners?"