TomVols wrote:
> No offense, BWSmith, but am I the only one who sees something really, really wrong about this? The idea that you have the freedom to believe almost anything and yet still be a Baptist, or worse still be a Christian seems anathema to me. Am I totally off base here?
No, you are totally on-base. Soul freedom is both the best and worst thing about being a Baptist.
Our instinct as Christians is to think like the Catholics; in which there is one set of orthodox truth that is prepetuated and enforced by the universal church.
Unfortunately, our legacy as Baptists lies in escape from persecution. Soul freedom is the acknowledgement that it isn't as simple as that. The only way to remove tyranny is to grant an umbrella to a wide spectrum of opinion.
No one has a copyright on the term "Baptist", nor should anyone seek a copyright on it. We are held together by a rope of sand under the statistical assumption that those left/right wing extremists will change their label before remaining "extreme Baptists".
My question has more to do with determining at what point it becomes silly to refer to oneself as a "Baptist" on the left end of the spectrum.