Your opinion of Baptists

[Tekania]

There's a "the Baptist Church" in America? I'm aware of Southern Baptists, Northern Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Evangelical Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, Landmark Baptists, Central Baptists, Sovereign Grace Baptists... and I know that I'm missing more on this list.... So which of these multitude of denominations is the "Baptist Church" denomination?

I honestly have no idea, so I just declare myself a regular Baptist, but the church I attend is just simply Baptist and not Southern Baptist. Then again, I live in the Deep South, so Baptist may just be a synonym for Southern Baptist down here.

What I've learned is "Baptist" in a church name is not something that can be trusts.... there are so many different forms, alliances and convensions of Baptist churches that walking into a church with "Baptist" in its name is a crap-shoot as far as what you could get inside. Covers everything from virtually the Unitarian Universalists to Fred Phelps.... the only common thread (unsurprisingly) is a tendency to practice credobaptism-only by immersion.

[Caninope]

I can't say I have much of one, knowing neither anything about that sect of Christianity nor any Baptists personally. I guess they probably like Jesus.

You know how we Christians tend to always try to convert people like you? Well the Baptists are the ones who are the least concerned about converting people and practically keep to themselves, yet their are one of the Christian groups who are persecuted the most. Perhaps it is because of our interference in politics.

What sort of Baptist are you?

Also, it's worth noting that Baptists are a highly fractured set of denominations. You're the mainline Baptists, the Southern Baptists (who are, ironically enough, a larger denomination than the mainline Baptists or "northern" Baptists), Primitive Baptists (who are opposed to the "missionary" work most other denominations do), General Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Separate Baptists, Independent Baptist, etc.

And to make this complicated, there's no formal way of defining each group. I call myself a Southern Baptist because I was born and raised as a Southern Baptist. That's about the only real requirement of membership. I could just as easily be another type of Baptist.

To confuse this even more, each church congregation is sovereign, as in Congregationalism. This means that each church congregation can determine its own beliefs. While this isn't as much of a problem in smaller and more ideologically homogenous sects like the Free Will Baptists, in Southern Baptists, you have differing views on Calvinism and Arminianism. Southern Baptists, as a whole, are controlled by Fundamentalists, but I feel that this is starting to change, and the Southern Baptist denomination will soon move to become more modernist, as it's break off conventions, the Alliance of Baptists and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have done.

None of this actually really precludes a church being evangelical or non-evangelical. It seems to me, that many of the Baptist Churches in my area growing up were indeed evangelical, and leaned fundamentalist (though not always). It should be noted that I myself lean Fundamentalist (agreeing with several tenets of the movement), but do not characterize myself as so because of some of differences I have with the movement.

[Nordengrund]

You know how we Christians tend to always try to convert people like you? Well the Baptists are the ones who are the least concerned about converting people and practically keep to themselves, yet their are one of the Christian groups who are persecuted the most. Perhaps it is because of our interference in politics.

What sort of Baptist are you?

Also, it's worth noting that Baptists are a highly fractured set of denominations. You're the mainline Baptists, the Southern Baptists (who are, ironically enough, a larger denomination than the mainline Baptists or "northern" Baptists), Primitive Baptists (who are opposed to the "missionary" work most other denominations do), General Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Separate Baptists, Independent Baptist, etc.

And to make this complicated, there's no formal way of defining each group. I call myself a Southern Baptist because I was born and raised as a Southern Baptist. That's about the only real requirement of membership. I could just as easily be another type of Baptist.

To confuse this even more, each church congregation is sovereign, as in Congregationalism. This means that each church congregation can determine its own beliefs. While this isn't as much of a problem in smaller and more ideologically homogenous sects like the Free Will Baptists, in Southern Baptists, you have differing views on Calvinism and Arminianism. Southern Baptists, as a whole, are controlled by Fundamentalists, but I feel that this is starting to change, and the Southern Baptist denomination will soon move to become more modernist, as it's break off conventions, the Alliance of Baptists and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have done.

None of this actually really precludes a church being evangelical or non-evangelical. It seems to me, that many of the Baptist Churches in my area growing up were indeed evangelical, and leaned fundamentalist (though not always). It should be noted that I myself lean Fundamentalist (agreeing with several tenets of the movement), but do not characterize myself as so because of some of differences I have with the movement.

I am a mainlined Baptist, but I live in the South. I have considered being a Southern Baptist, but they think it is a sin to drink alcohol. I do not think it is a sin to drink, but it is a sin to get wasted.

[Caninope]

Based on the ones I've actually interacted with in my lifetime, both here and in real life, quite negative. There was one that sent a bus around when I was a much younger kid (younger than 10), so I wound up going to it a couple of times. The Sunday School teachers were incredibly rude and would eat in front of us kids without offering us anything. Then there's the whole trying to restrict people like me to second- or third-class citizenship (though they're hardly alone in that).

You've interacted with me, though.

[Kushtor]

Loud, annoying, and detrimental to society.

[Caninope]

In my assessment of the protestant spectrum, Baptists were more crazy than the Lutherans, Methodists, and Presbyterians, but less crazy than Pentecostals.

Baptists themselves can be different depending on sects, are you a "let's sing 20 songs about Jesus" Baptist or a "women who wear denim jeans will go to hell" Baptist?

Baptists are every where on the spectrum.

Some of them are Episcopalian liberal, while others are WBC.

[United Marxist Nations]

I can't say I have much of one, knowing neither anything about that sect of Christianity nor any Baptists personally. I guess they probably like Jesus.

You know how we Christians tend to always try to convert people like you? Well the Baptists are the ones who are the least concerned about converting people and practically keep to themselves, yet their are one of the Christian groups who are persecuted the most. Perhaps it is because of our interference in politics.

You are definatly not talking about Southern Baptists, they are anti-science extremists, and they always show up at my doorstep trying to convert me to christianity.

[Milks Empire]

Based on the ones I've actually interacted with in my lifetime, both here and in real life, quite negative. There was one that sent a bus around when I was a much younger kid (younger than 10), so I wound up going to it a couple of times. The Sunday School teachers were incredibly rude and would eat in front of us kids without offering us anything. Then there's the whole trying to restrict people like me to second- or third-class citizenship (though they're hardly alone in that).

You've interacted with me, though.

I never knew you were a Baptist.

[Caninope]

I also feel that it's very relevant to point out the Fundamentalism is not the same as Evangelicalism.

[Des-Bal]

I'm sure just like any group there's the good and bad but from personal experience I can say I've never met one I liked.

[The Nuclear Fist]

What beliefs actually set the baptists apart from other Christian denominations?

[East Armandia]

I grew up Catholic and am now Atheist, yet my opinion has remained unchanged. In North Carolina, my home state, Baptists run rampant. They continually as a group are the most close-minded, conservative, literal, and fundamentalist sect out there. Please remember, I'm only using generalizations, but generalizations are there for a reason.

[Caninope]

What sort of Baptist are you?

Also, it's worth noting that Baptists are a highly fractured set of denominations. You're the mainline Baptists, the Southern Baptists (who are, ironically enough, a larger denomination than the mainline Baptists or "northern" Baptists), Primitive Baptists (who are opposed to the "missionary" work most other denominations do), General Baptists, Free Will Baptists, Separate Baptists, Independent Baptist, etc.

And to make this complicated, there's no formal way of defining each group. I call myself a Southern Baptist because I was born and raised as a Southern Baptist. That's about the only real requirement of membership. I could just as easily be another type of Baptist.

To confuse this even more, each church congregation is sovereign, as in Congregationalism. This means that each church congregation can determine its own beliefs. While this isn't as much of a problem in smaller and more ideologically homogenous sects like the Free Will Baptists, in Southern Baptists, you have differing views on Calvinism and Arminianism. Southern Baptists, as a whole, are controlled by Fundamentalists, but I feel that this is starting to change, and the Southern Baptist denomination will soon move to become more modernist, as it's break off conventions, the Alliance of Baptists and Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have done.

None of this actually really precludes a church being evangelical or non-evangelical. It seems to me, that many of the Baptist Churches in my area growing up were indeed evangelical, and leaned fundamentalist (though not always). It should be noted that I myself lean Fundamentalist (agreeing with several tenets of the movement), but do not characterize myself as so because of some of differences I have with the movement.

I am a mainlined Baptist, but I live in the South. I have considered being a Southern Baptist, but they think it is a sin to drink alcohol. I do not think it is a sin to drink, but it is a sin to get wasted.

Wrong. Growing up in a Southern Baptist church, with a Southern Baptist family (the denomination goes back in the family back to the start), I never heard that it is sinful to drink alcohol.

I heard that it was wrong to drink it, but not sinful per se. I heard it was sinful to get drunk (gluttony), but not to drink. I most heard it was wrong to drink (not sinful- do not confuse the two), because my parents are both teetotalers and my dad was a cop and had seen first hand what drinking had done (especially while driving). In a small town that was heavily Methodist and Southern Baptist, we have problems with drugs and those seem to come from families that have moved here. The kids that are from here tend to drink (alcohol seems to be rampant at the local high school).

It's possible that some local Southern Baptist congregations have said that- but all the same, it seems to me that local Southern Baptist congregations (at least one the area) probably doesn't say that. There is no "creed" or set of beliefs in Southern Baptism.

[Caninope]

Historically I admire baptists due to their commitment to a separation of church and state. They learned first hand what happens when religion and government intermingle during colonial America at the hands of the Anglican church.

Today when I think of baptists I can only think of southern baptists, who seem to be traitors to their forefathers by trying to use the government to enforce their religious views. Indeed, every single negative stereotype I have about American Christians is embodied in southern baptists.

I do know that there are other baptist denominations not associated with southern baptists, and that the church split during the civil war. Perhaps the ancestors of the northern baptists still exist, and are simply much quieter than their southern cousins so they get less attention.

Stop confusing Southern Baptists with Fundamentalists.

A lot of us evangelical Southern Baptists take offense to this view. Please, and thank you.

[Franco-Philia]

I live in a state with one of the highest percentages of Southern Baptists in the country and my county is one of the most religious counties in said state. It's...horrible. They regularly protest schools, reading lists, and ANYTHING that disagrees with them. All the local papers and organizations cater to their ridiculous ideologies and they openly mock liberal, nonbelievers, and other denominations. There was a big scandal here when some Baptist teachers starting telling Catholic students they were going to burn in hell. The biggest Baptist church around here shut down two of its food ministries because they thought "dirty, illegal Mexicans are abusing it!" They're all tea party conservatives and they spend FAR more money on fighting evolution, putting the ten commandments up in public buildings and spitting on liberals than actually helping the poor because (as many of them I know personally would put it) "they're just lazy and pathetic...God likes a working man!"

It does not surprise me that my county and my state has one of the most deplorable education records in the country and the Baptist-run schools around here are regularly investigated for not meeting standards and hiring abominable teachers.

Baptists in America have got to be just one of the worst denominations of Christianity out there.

[Caninope]

There's a "the Baptist Church" in America? I'm aware of Southern Baptists, Northern Baptists, Primitive Baptists, Reformed Baptists, Evangelical Baptists, Free-Will Baptists, Landmark Baptists, Central Baptists, Sovereign Grace Baptists... and I know that I'm missing more on this list.... So which of these multitude of denominations is the "Baptist Church" denomination?

I honestly have no idea, so I just declare myself a regular Baptist, but the church I attend is just simply Baptist and not Southern Baptist. Then again, I live in the Deep South, so Baptist may just be a synonym for Southern Baptist down here.

It probably is, honestly. If you get materials in Sunday School or preaching, check to see if they are from a Southern Baptist Convention, either national or state.

Also, there is no such thing as just "Baptist". There are tons of different sects, and because of the lack of creeds, you might not find ideological consistency within each sect. My recommendation for you is just to find a good Baptist church you like, and associate by that. If they're Southern Baptist (most churches will just call themselves Baptist if they're Southern Baptist in my experience), then you're Southern Baptist. That's about it.

Also, Regular Baptist has a specific meaning associated with it.

[Caninope]

I honestly have no idea, so I just declare myself a regular Baptist, but the church I attend is just simply Baptist and not Southern Baptist. Then again, I live in the Deep South, so Baptist may just be a synonym for Southern Baptist down here.

What I've learned is "Baptist" in a church name is not something that can be trusts.... there are so many different forms, alliances and convensions of Baptist churches that walking into a church with "Baptist" in its name is a crap-shoot as far as what you could get inside. Covers everything from virtually the Unitarian Universalists to Fred Phelps.... the only common thread (unsurprisingly) is a tendency to practice credobaptism-only by immersion.

And a congregationalist polity.

But that's implied by what you just said.

[Caninope]

You know how we Christians tend to always try to convert people like you? Well the Baptists are the ones who are the least concerned about converting people and practically keep to themselves, yet their are one of the Christian groups who are persecuted the most. Perhaps it is because of our interference in politics.

You are definatly not talking about Southern Baptists, they are anti-science extremists, and they always show up at my doorstep trying to convert me to christianity.

Dear Lord.

I, and a lot of other Southern Baptists, am most certainly not an anti-science extremist.

[Caninope]

You've interacted with me, though.

I never knew you were a Baptist.

Why is this so surprising?

Me and NK have the long running joke of me being the Southern Baptist Pope.

[Caninope]

What beliefs actually set the baptists apart from other Christian denominations?

Very little. Baptists have no set creed.

The only thing notable about Baptists are that the practice baptism of the believer (rather than in the infancy), each congregation is sovereign (shared with Congregationalists), and that we generally don't practice many rites. We only practice 2 or 3 (some churches still perform foot washings, but most Baptist churches don't), but this isn't absolute as I think there's one small Baptist denomination that performs 7 or so.

[Des-Bal]

Dear Lord.

I, and a lot of other Southern Baptists, am most certainly not an anti-science extremist.

It doesn't matter, Southern Baptist is a denomination that means there's an official stance.

[Caninope]

I grew up Catholic and am now Atheist, yet my opinion has remained unchanged. In North Carolina, my home state, Baptists run rampant. They continually as a group are the most close-minded, conservative, literal, and fundamentalist sect out there. Please remember, I'm only using generalizations, but generalizations are there for a reason.

Baptists have no set beliefs, so please take your generalizations and go.

[Raeyh]

Baptists are always portrayed as the fire and brimstone Protestants.

I have no clue if that's actually true or not.

[Genivaria]

"Thou shall not lie with mankind, as with womankind. It is an abomination." (Leviticus 18:22)

Got it, doggy for my male lovers and cowgirl for my female lovers. Thank you, Yahweh, for accommodating my bisexuality.

Win and AQ'd.

[Milks Empire]

I never knew you were a Baptist.

Why is this so surprising?
Me and NK have the long running joke of me being the Southern Baptist Pope.

So that's what that means.