BAPTISTS TRANSFORMING LIFE AND SOCIETY
By William Epps

On July 28 during the Baptist World Alliance Annual Gathering, approximately 160 persons gathered in the
Schouwburg Auditorium to hear a presentation on “Baptists and Transformation” by William Brackney, the Millard
R. Cherry Distinguished Professor of Christian Theology and Ethics at the Acadia Divinity College and Acadia
University of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, Canada. The presentation included illustrative reflections of the transformation
Baptists have had theologically, socially and politically, and concluded with a citation of the factors that lead Baptists
to be transformational and the challenges ahead for Baptists as transformers.
THEOLOGICAL TRANSFORMATION
Brackney reminded the audience that “the central doctrine of Baptist theological identity is ecclesiology, or the
doctrine of the church.” The Puritan and Separatist movements of the 1590s and early 1600s began to question
the English ecclesiastical paradigm, uniting around personal and confessions of faith and covenants by the
congregations themselves. John Smyth and Thomas Helwys were cited for their seminal contributions asserting
liberty in matters of personal/congregational theology. “Baptist congregations came to value one’s personal narrative
or testimony of redemption in one’s life as well as the work of God in transforming one’s life,” said Brackney. Baptists
were committed to evangelical Christianity, preaching the gospel and inviting sinners to receive Christ.
Arguably the most impressive piece of Baptist theological transformation came in the work of Walter
Rauschenbusch, which is chronicled in his book, A Theology of Social Gospel. His influence on the civil rights
movement in the United States and South Africa, in the crusade for a national health care program in Canada
and in the anti-poverty programs later adopted by evangelicals and ecumenists alike attest to the transformational
character Baptists have had on theology. “Transformed personally,” said Brackney, “Walter tackled problems of
greed in the accumulation of industrial capital. He strove for the imposition of working standards for women and
children, and the recognition and rights of women. He introduced a new doctrine of humanity, a new understanding
of sinfulness that amounted to structural evil in institutions, and a broader definition of salvation that included the
social context.”
SOCIAL TRANSFORMATION
Baptist history is replete with instances of changes in attitudes, practices, status, recognition, roles and
empowerment of minorities and women not to mention the “architectural achievements of Baptists are a visual
statement of unique form of inverse social transformation,” said Brackney.
Brackney took the listeners on an excursion through time when, from humble beginnings as refugees in Holland,
Baptists returned to England and founded churches not only in London, but also in Bristol, Manchester, Leeds,
Birmingham and Nottingham.
American Baptists have also proven to be social transformers, even from the early days in Jamestown, when
they were considered as outcasts. Brackney explained:
As Baptists entered the stage of American history, they were largely landless, beset by currency inflation,
shut out of community oligarchies, and political offices, most of whom were at the bottom of the social
ladder, bondservants, Indians, Negroes, women and young persons. The establishment of the College of
Rhode Island (later Brown University) in the mid-eighteenth century by Philadelphia region Baptists brought
instant national attention to the respectability of the emerging denomination as they joined the leading
colonial religious establishments in providing higher education in pre-revolutionary America.
Baptists became shopkeepers and landholders and built sturdy meetinghouses and maintained church
cemeteries in the Pennsylvania Colony. In the eighteenth century in the Carolinas, Baptists became plantation
owners, managers, lawyers, clergy and shopkeepers. They were among leading citizens who began and endowed
schools and colleges.
No other group accents the social transformation of Baptists better than the black Baptist population. Arriving in
the colonies as slaves in 1619, they learned to read, memorize scripture, worship, care for each other, and maintain
family structure and personal dignity. Black congregations became centers of education and development.
Baptists as social transformers holds for other countries as well. Baptists figured significantly in transforming
India through the work of a missionary named John E. Clough and his wife. Furthermore, an Australian woman,
Ellen Arnold, appointed by the Australian Baptist Missionary Society, established congregations, opened medical
clinics, and established schools in what is now Bangladesh.
Perhaps the most notable example of social transformation is the contribution of Baptists in the abolition of
slavery. British Baptists were leaders in encouraging the end to the slave trade. As hostility grew in the Baptist
community of America, Baptists of Northern states took the position in the mission societies that no slaveholder
should be appointed a Baptist missionary, which led to the formation of the Southern Baptist Convention in 1845.
16 BAPTIST WORLD MAGAZINE
Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32