BaptistBoard Post leaves me speechless...

[Matt the Medic]

I'm not sure if this is the exact forum to post this in, but it is mainly in regards to CSS. I dare not comment on the error and sole ludicrousity of this paragraph in a thread discussing the 1st Amendment:

"Many believe the Baptists are primarily responsible for the First Amendment. It is a point of law that Congress shall make no law regarding the establishement of religion. They also believe it is a RIGHT and good law to have in the books and that the law should be enforced.

(For the record, so do I.)

They believe it to be a right and good law because of how they read the Gospel.

In otherwords, despite all the talk about how morality cannot be legislated, they really want Christian morality to be the law of this nation and enforceable by the state (that's what I mean by sword)."

(link to thread) (http://www.baptistboard.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/18/2646/2.html)

Where is the jaw-drop smiley when you need one?

[Styrofoam]

The first amendment OBVIOUSLY exists to protect Christianity from the Evil Atheist Conspiracy establishing some backwards looney religion! :rolleyes:

[simian]

The Baptists and Catholics have traditionally been very strong supporters of Chruch/State Separation. Mainly because they were minority denominations for a very long time and victoms of State Churches (note: Catholicism was the state religion of MD until it was very appearant they were going to lose the majority - If memory serves, that is when MD became a secular state).

Simian

[Toto]

The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (http://www.bjcpa.org/) (which recently changed its name to the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty), is very good on church state separation, virtually indistinguishable in its positions from AU except for "under God" in the Pledge.

Baptists were in the forefront of CSS issues until the Southern Baptist Convention was taken over (http://www.txbc.org/1998Journals/May98/May98SignificanceOfFund.htm) by fundamentalist theocrats.

From here (http://www.abpnews.com/news/news_detail.cfm?NEWS_ID=262) on the name change: Opening the board's meeting with a devotional message, Falls Church, Va., pastor Jim Baucom told BJC leaders that many Baptists don't understand or appreciate the concept of church-state separation anymore. Therefore, Baucom said, the organization needs to focus its public message more on advocacy for religious freedom -- and then note that such freedom is underpinned by the separation of church and state.

"It is religious freedom that we need to begin preaching, not church-state separation…. It is the job of our forebears that we need to begin doing again," Baucom said. "This is what Baptist life is all about -- that we believe that we have a God that we love because we choose to love him, not because we are coerced to love him. And any union between church and state leads to coercion."

There are a number of comments on Southern Baptists and CSS in this web page: A Christian looks at the Religious Right (http://www.livingston.net/wilkyjr/)

[Colorado Infidel]

Without a doubt, the Baptist Board contains some of the worst of the nutcases. I occasionally ready their posts just to remind me what fundamentalism is all about at its worse. I have noticed 2 or 3 rational people out of that bunch, but everytime they post, they are attacked by those who KNOW what God wants.

[fromtheright]

CI,

You know, another thing has struck me in the last few years. With the exception of very isolated instances here, I have long been treated here with more respect than at BB, where I am no doubt more ideologically, and certainly theologically (a term I'm sure most of you probably smile at--"theo" and "logic"- :) ), attuned. There are a few there who will leap to question one's fastness to one's principles if there is the slightest deviation; as you said, those who KNOW what God wants.

[Mallow o' the Marsh]

The little gem that follows right after is what caught my eye:

I don't see that God has given any of His creatures any right to worship any other than Him alone.

Only in the right worship of God is true freedom...that includes a proper respect for and adherence to His Law.

[Matt the Medic]

The little gem that follows right after is what caught my eye:

Hell that's like saying a train is free to travel wherever the engineer pleases...as long as it stays on the track.

[Buffman]

The Baptists and Catholics have traditionally been very strong supporters of Chruch/State Separation. Mainly because they were minority denominations for a very long time and victoms of State Churches (note: Catholicism was the state religion of MD until it was very appearant they were going to lose the majority - If memory serves, that is when MD became a secular state).

Simian

http://www.usahistory.info/southern/Maryland.html

[Toto]

The Baptists and Catholics have traditionally been very strong supporters of Chruch/State Separation. Mainly because they were minority denominations for a very long time and victoms of State Churches (note: Catholicism was the state religion of MD until it was very appearant they were going to lose the majority - If memory serves, that is when MD became a secular state).

Simian
http://www.usahistory.info/southern/Maryland.html

Maryland was never a "secular" state. I went to public school in Maryland, and we learned how glorious our state was for its religious liberty, but that liberty only extended to Catholics (since the founder was a Catholic) and Protestants.