RELIGOUS LIBERTY

Defending the Separation of Church and State

When the Baptist experiment in Rhode Island was begun, few other colonies were inclined to follow. the Puritans in New England, for example, were fearful that the loss of a state church would result in moral anarchy and theological chaos.

"...we dare not render homage to any earthly power which I and (other Baptists) are fully convinced belongs only to God." --Issac Backus, 1774

"Baptists wanted freedom from a state-enforced religion because they thought that the freedom of the human spirit was worth saving."Walter Shurden

"The chief impediment to religious liberty in our generation is the renewed effort to make of the United States a theocracy rather than the constitutional democracy the founders set in place"-- Edwin Gaustad, Baptist historian

A pdf version of this page is available here. This presentation of the Baptist Liberties is provided courtesy of Seattle First Baptist Church.