Baptists in the United States

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As of 2014, approximately 15.3% of Americans identified as

Protestants in the United States
. Divisions among Baptists have resulted in numerous Baptist bodies, some with long histories and others more recently organized. There are also many Baptists operating independently or practicing their faith in entirely independent congregations.

English Baptists migrated to the American colonies during the seventeenth century. Baptist theological reflection informed how the colonists understood their presence in the New World, especially in

National Baptist Convention and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.[8]

History

See also: History of Baptists in Alabama and History of Baptists in Kentucky

17th century

Baptists appeared in the

Calvinist orthodoxy, which said Grace was available only to the predestined
"elect".

Rhode Island and Providence Plantations

In 1636 Roger Williams founded the First Baptist Church in America in Providence, Rhode Island. It remains the first and oldest congregation in the United States. The meeting house dates from 1775

College of William and Mary).[10]

Early controversies

Beginning in Providence in 1636–1637, Roger Williams founded a colony in which religion and citizenship were separated. This same principle was continued in the first charter of 1644 and affirmed by the newly created colonial government in 1647. This principle was explicitly affirmed in the Charter of 1663 which John Clarke wrote and secured. Rhode Island and Providence Plantations was regarded by the neighboring colonies with undisguised horror, and Massachusetts Bay, Plymouth, and Connecticut spent the next 100 years trying to dismember the "heretic" colony. The other colonies passed laws to outlaw Baptists and Quakers, leading to the hanging of four Quakers in Massachusetts. When

theocratic society. Dunster exiled himself in 1654 and moved to nearby Plymouth Colony, where he died in 1658.[11]

18th century

The First African Baptist Church of Savannah is one of the oldest Black Baptist congregations in the United States.

The First African Baptist Church of Savannah, Georgia was founded in 1774.[12]

Before the American Revolution about 494 Baptist congregations existed in the United States.[13] That number had risen to 1152 U.S. Baptist congregations by 1795.[14]

Revolutionary Virginia

See also: Religion in early Virginia

Isaac (1974) analyzes the rise of the Baptist Church in Virginia, with emphasis on evangelicalism and social life. There was a sharp contrast between the austerity of the plain-living Baptists and the opulence of the Anglican planters, who controlled local government. Baptist church discipline, mistaken by the gentry for radicalism, served to ameliorate disorder. The struggle for religious toleration erupted and played out during the American Revolution, as the Baptists worked to disestablish the Anglican church.[15] Beeman (1978) explores the conflict in one Virginia locality, showing that as population became more dense, the county court and the Anglican Church increased their authority. The Baptists protested vigorously; the resulting social disorder resulted chiefly from the ruling gentry's disregard of public need.[need quotation to verify] The vitality of the religious opposition made the conflict between 'evangelical' and 'gentry' styles a bitter one.[16] Kroll-Smith (1984) suggests the strength of the evangelical movement's organization determined its ability to mobilize power outside the conventional authority structure.[17]

In 1793, the Virginia Baptist General Committee, composed of representatives from Baptist institutions from across Virginia, passed a resolution that slavery was not a moral or religious issue and thus decisions surrounding slavery should be left up to politicians.[6]

Slavery in Baptist churches

Woodcutting depicting the slave rebellion led by Nat Turner.
An 1831 slave rebellion was led by Nat Turner, a Baptist preacher operating out of a hush harbor.

In the 1770s, White Baptists went on conversion missions in the Southern United States as a part of the period known as a

Nat Turner, a Baptist preacher in his community.[18]

19th century

Missionary organizations

The

Siam in 1833, India in 1840, China in 1842, Japan in 1872 and Philippines in 1900.[21]

Slavery and "racial" segregation

See also: Racial segregation of churches in the United States

In 19th century Virginia, slaves applying for membership in Baptist churches were required to get written approval from their master to join a congregation. Once they were a part of the congregation Black members would have separate Black deacons who oversaw them.[6]

The Baptist churches in America, like the country, split in two over the issue of slavery in the United States.

In 1840, the Board of Managers of the Baptist General Convention for Foreign Missions repeated that the slavery question, which it never mentions by name, is not relevant to their work. It already speaks of the question of "the continuance of Christian fellowship between northern and southern churches."[22]

In 1841, at the annual meeting in Baltimore, "leading ministers and members of the Denomination had signed a document repudiating the course of anti-slavery Baptists, and pronouncing the disfellowship of slaveholders an innovation unsanctioned by the usages of the denomination."[23] There was set up an American Baptist Free Mission Society in 1842, whose founding President was Cyrus Pitt Grosvenor.

Struggling to gain a foothold in the South, after the American Revolution, the next generation of Southern Baptist preachers accommodated themselves to the leadership of Southern society. Rather than challenging the gentry on slavery and urging manumission (as did the Quakers and Methodists), they began to interpret the Bible as supporting the practice of slavery and encouraged good paternalistic practices by slaveholders. They preached to slaves to accept their places and obey their masters. In the two decades after the Revolution during the Second Great Awakening, Baptist preachers abandoned their pleas that slaves be manumitted.

When the Alabama State Convention called on the Foreign Mission Board to explicitly allow slaveholders as missionaries, the board responded:[24]

If...any one should offer himself as a missionary, having slaves, and should insist on retaining them as his property, we could not appoint him. One thing is certain, we can never be a party to any arrangement which would imply approbation of slavery.

— Foreign Mission Board, in Albert Henry Newman, A History of the Baptist Churches in the United States, page 447

In Baptist churches in both free and slaveholding states during this period, people of color were required to sit in a segregated "negro pew" regardless of whether they were members of the church, were licensed ministers, or even were invited into the pews of other white churchgoers.[25]

Southern Baptist Convention

Main article: Southern Baptist Convention

The Home Mission Society gave a statement saying that a person could not be a missionary and keep his slaves as property. This caused the Home Mission Society to separate northern and southern divisions. In 1845, the Southern Baptist Convention split from mainline Baptists over the issue of whether slaveholders should be allowed to be appointed as missionaries.[7]

In 1872, Henry Tupper of the Southern Baptist Convention's

Foreign Mission Board appointed Edmonia Moon for missionary service. She was the first woman to receive this honor.[26] In 1888, the Woman's Missionary Union was instituted. Women were recognized and encouraged to form missionary circles and children's bands in churches and Sunday Schools.[27]

Formation of the Black Baptist convention

See also: Black church

During Reconstruction, policies and practices such as literacy tests, poll taxes, and racial violence lead to the continued disenfranchisement of freed slaves in the South.[28] According to author Evelyn Brooks Higginbotham, it was this lack of political power and other liberties which led the Black church to become a source of community, education, economic power, leadership, and development in post Civil War America.[28]

In 1895, the

National Baptist Convention, USA was formed.[28]

20th century

Growth of the Black Baptist convention

Service in Ebenezer Baptist Church located in Atlanta, Georgia, with President Biden speaking, in 2023.

In 1906, the National Baptist Convention, USA had 2,261,607 members, representing 61.4% of all Black churchgoers in the country.[28] By 1916, that number had grown to 2,938,579, a membership larger than either the Northern or Southern Baptist conventions had at the time.[28] According to a census published by the Baptist World Alliance in 2023, it self-reported a total of 21,145 churches and 8,415,100 members,[29] although the Association of Religion Data Archives reported a membership of 1,567,741 in 2020.[2]

Organization

Though each Baptist church is autonomous, Baptists have traditionally organized into associations of like-minded churches for mutual edification, consultation, and ministerial support.[30][31] The constituency of these associations is based on geographical and doctrinal criteria. Many such associations of Baptist churches have developed in the United States since Baptists first came to the continent.

Until the early 19th century these Baptist associations tended to center on a local or regional area where the constituent churches could conveniently meet. However, beginning with the spread of the Philadelphia Baptist Association beyond its original bounds and the rise of the modern missions movement, Baptists began to move towards developing national associations.

The first national association was the Triennial Convention, founded in the early 19th century, which met every three years. The Triennial Convention was a loose organization with the purpose of raising funds for various independent benevolent, educational and mission societies.

Over the years, other nationwide Baptist associations have originated as divisions from these two major groups. There are a few smaller associations that have never identified with any of the national organizations, as well as many Independent Baptist churches that are not part of any organization, local or national.

Practices and Beliefs

Further information: Baptists and Baptists in the history of separation of church and state
First Baptist Church of Glenarden located in Upper Marlboro, Maryland, affiliated with Converge.

In the United States, there are some Baptist groups that support and actively attempt to maintain the separation of church and state. At least 14 Baptist bodies, including the

Baptist Joint Committee argues that prayer is most pleasing to God when offered voluntarily, not when the government compels its observance.[32]

Major Baptist denominations in the U.S.

See also: List of Baptist denominations
Baptist Denomination in the United States
Convention Denomination Members Churches Founding Year
Mainline Alliance of Baptists (formerly Southern Baptist Alliance) 65,000 127 1987[33]
Evangelical American Baptist Association 100,000 1,644 1924[34]
Mainline American Baptist Churches USA (ABCUSA) (formerly Northern Baptist Convention, American Baptist Convention) 1,145,647 5,057[35] 1845[36]
Evangelical Confessional Baptist Association (formerly Association of Reformed Baptists in America)
Mainline Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists
Independent Baptist Baptist Bible Fellowship International 110,000 4,000 1950[37]
Baptist Missionary Association of America (formerly North American Baptist Association) 137,909 1,272 1950[38]
Central Baptist Association 3297 35[36]
Christian Unity Baptist Association 345 5 1901[39]
Evangelical Venture Church Network (formerly the Conservative Baptist Association of America) 200,000 1,200 1947[40]
Continental Baptist Churches
Evangelical
Converge
(formerly Baptist General Conference, Swedish Baptist Church in America, Swedish Baptist Conference) 		147,500 1,071 1852[41]
Mainline Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) 1800 1991[36]
Enterprise Association of Regular Baptists 4,700 58 1894[36]
Full Gospel Baptist Church Fellowship
Fundamental Baptist Fellowship Association
Fundamental Baptist Fellowship of America
 600 1967[36]
General Association of Baptists (formerly Duck River and Kindred Associations) 10,672 102 1826[36]
General Association of General Baptists 61,040 1,154 1820[42]
Evangelical General Association of Regular Baptist Churches 132,700 1,321 1922[43]
General Conference of the Evangelical Baptist Church, Inc.
(formerly Church of the Full Gospel, Inc.) 		2,200 31 1935[44]
General Six-Principle Baptists 175 7 1653[45]
Independent Baptist Church of America 25 2 1927[46]
Independent Baptist Fellowship International 540 1984[36]
Independent Baptist Fellowship of North America 250 0 1990[36]
Independent Free Will Baptist 22,000 295[36]
Institutional Missionary Baptist Conference of America
Interstate & Foreign Landmark Missionary Baptist Association
Landmark Baptists
Liberty Baptist Fellowship 100[47]
Evangelical National Association of Free Will Baptists 185,798 2,369[48] 1935[36]
Historically Black
National Baptist Convention of America, Inc.
 1,700,000 6,716 1880[36]
Historically Black
National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc.
 5,197,512 10,358[49] 1915[36]
Evangelical National Baptist Evangelical Life and Soul Saving Assembly of the U.S.A. 57,674 264 1920[50]
Historically Black National Missionary Baptist Convention of America 2,500,000[51] 701[36] 1988[51]
Historically Black National Primitive Baptist Convention (formerly Colored Primitive Baptist Church)[36] 600,000 1,565 1907[52]
New Testament Association of Independent Baptist Churches 104 1965[36]
Evangelical North American Baptist Conference (formerly General Conference of German Baptist Churches in North America)[36] 47,150 272 1843[53]
Old-Line Primitive Baptists
Old Missionary Baptist 16,289 73[36]
Old Regular Baptist
 15,000 326 1892[36]
Original Free Will Baptist Convention 33,066 236 1961[36]
Pentecostal Free Will Baptist Church 150 1959[54]
Primitive Baptist Universalists
Primitive Baptists 72,000 1,000[55] 1827[36]
Historically Black Progressive National Baptist Convention 1,010,000 1,500 1961[56]
Progressive Primitive Baptists
Reformed Baptist
 8,000 200 1967[36]
Regular Baptist
 17,186 266 1854[57]
Separate Baptist
Separate Baptists in Christ 10,000 101[36] 1912[58]
Evangelical
Seventh Day Baptist General Conference
 6,300 97 1801[59]
Evangelical Southern Baptist Convention 16,136,044 45,727 1845[60]
Southwide Baptist Fellowship 1,847 912 1956[36]
Sovereign Grace Baptists
 4,000 350[61] 1980[36]
Strict Baptists
 3[36]
Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists 201 16[62]
Historically Black United American Free Will Baptist Church 100,000 836[63] 1901[36]
Historically Black United American Free Will Baptist Conference 35[36] 1968[64]
United Baptist 63,641 586 1786[65]
World Baptist Fellowship 945 1932[36]

In addition, there are many Independent Baptist churches not aligned with any group.

National Baptist organizations

See also:
List of conventions affiliated with the National Baptist Convention

Evangelical Baptist Conventions

According to the Pew Research Center's 2014 Religious Landscape Study, 9.2% of Americans belong to

Conservative Baptist Association of America (less than 0.3%), the Free Will Convention (less than 0.3%), the General Assembly of Regular Baptists (less than 0.3%), and other evangelical conventions (1%).[1] In 2006, the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) was the largest non-Catholic denomination in the United States.[66]

Historically Black Baptist churches

See also: Black church and Religion of Black Americans

Before the American Civil War, most black American Baptists were, with some notable exceptions, members of the same churches as the whites (though often relegated to a segregated status within the church). After the war they left the white churches to start separate churches and associations.

Today there are several historically African-American groups in the United States, including the

National Baptist Convention of America
, and others. A good number of African-American Baptist churches are dually aligned with a traditionally African American group and the ABCUSA, the Southern Baptist Convention, or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

According to a Pew Research survey conducted in 2014, 4% of Americans belong to historically Black Baptist congregations, including the

National Baptist Convention (1.4%), the Progressive Convention (0.3%), the Missionary Convention (0.3%), Independent Conventions (less than 0.3%), and other historically Black conventions (1.8%).[1]

Mainline Baptist Conventions

According to a 2014 Pew Research survey, 2.1% of Americans belonged to Mainline Baptist congregations. These include the American Baptist Convention (1.5%) and other mainline Baptist conventions (0.6%).[1]

Independent (non-aligned) Baptist churches

Main article: Independent Baptist

Independent Baptist churches are completely independent of any association or group, though they usually maintain some sort of fellowship with like-minded churches. They share the traditional Baptist doctrinal distinctives, but they adhere to what they see as a Biblical principle of churches' individuality.

Independent Baptists believe that this approach to ministry leaves pastors and people in the church free to work as a local ministry, instead of national work, which, in their view, can be less efficient.

Independent Baptists are strictly Biblicist in their theology, adhering to the traditional Baptist understanding of the Bible and of faith. The same doctrinal variations that exist within (or between) the Baptist associations exist among Independent Baptists.

Baptist educational institutions

Main article: List of Baptist colleges and universities in the United States
Baylor University in Waco, Texas, affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Since the founding of Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island in 1764, Baptists have founded various institutions around the United States to assist congregants in Biblical literacy and to train clergy educated in the Bible and the original Biblical languages. Some of these schools such as Brown University and Bates College eventually became secularized, but others have maintained close bonds with their original founding groups and goals.[67] In 2006, the International Association of Baptist Colleges and Universities was founded.[68] In 2023, it had 42 member universities in the United States.[69]

Demographics

In a study published in 2014, using data from The National Survey of American Life: Coping with Stress in the 21st Century (NSAL), 49.08% of African American respondents identified as Baptist.[70] In a 2001 ABC News/Beliefnet poll, 48% of Black Americans and 13% of White Americans identified as Baptist.[71]

2014 Racial Demographics[1]
White Black Latino Asian Other
Evangelical 85% 4% 5% 1% 5%
Mainline 76% 8% 9% 1% 6%
Historically Black <1% 98% 2% <1% <1%
2014 Age Demographics[1]
18-29 30-49 50-64 65+
Evangelical 15% 30% 31% 24%
Mainline 24% 29% 29% 19%
Historically Black 18% 33% 32% 16%
2014 Gender Demographics[1]
Female Male
Evangelical 52% 48%
Mainline 56% 44%
Historically Black 61% 39%
2014 Education Demographics[1]
High School or Less Some College College Degree Graduate Degree
Evangelical 48% 34% 12% 6%
Mainline 59% 28% 9% 4%
Historically Black 57% 30% 9% 5%

Baptist image in United States

See also: Baptist successionism and Landmarkism

According to a 2003 survey, at least half of Americans have a negative view of the Baptist faith.[72]

To avoid being mistakenly associated with fundamentalist groups, many moderate Baptist churches have adopted names such as "Community Church" or "Community Chapel" that leave out the denomination's name. This fits into a general trend by church planters from many denominations to de-accentuate their denomination's name.[72]

Many independent Baptist congregations are staunch fundamentalists, regarding all Baptist associations as too liberal for them to join.[73] Many of these congregations have a history of employing evangelism techniques that critics consider too extreme and abrasive for modern American culture.

Criticism of Baptist churches

Racism and lack of diversity

Racial diversity and attitudes towards race tend to vary by congregation as Baptist churches tend to only be loosely associated with one another. However a 1999 study concluded only 8% of Christian churches had no single race making up more than 80% of the congregation. This same year, a study on Southern Baptist churches concluded that the mean Simpson's Diversity Index for race in the Southern Baptists Church was 0.098, with 0 being perfect homogeneity and 1 being complete evenness. It was also concluded that the average Southern Baptist church had more than 90% non-Hispanic White members. However, the 22.6% of Southern Baptist churches that employed small groups had greater diversity than those that did not.[74] A 1998 case study found that theologically liberal congregations were no more likely than their conservative counterparts to foster racial diversity, but that instead placing emphasis on local growth, community mindsets, and inclusivity impacted the ability of Baptist churches to attract a multiracial congregation.[75]

See also

Bibliography

  • Harrison, Paul M. Authority and Power in the Free Church Tradition: A Social Case Study of the American Baptist Convention Princeton University Press, 1959.
  • Heyrman, Christine Leigh. Southern Cross: The Beginnings of the Bible Belt (1997).
  • Isaac, Rhy. "Evangelical Revolt: The Nature of the Baptists' Challenge to the Traditional Order in Virginia, 1765 to 1775," William and Mary Quarterly, 31 (July 1974), 345–68. in JSTOR
  • Johnson, Charles A. The Frontier Camp Meeting: Religion's Harvest Time (1955) online edition
  • Kidd, Thomas S. and Barry Hankins. Baptists in America: A History (2015)
  • Leonard, Bill J. Baptist Ways: A History (2003), comprehensive international history
  • Leonard, Bill J. Baptists in America. (2005), general survey and history by leading Southern Baptist
  • Leonard, Bill J. "Independent Baptists: from Sectarian Minority to 'Moral Majority'". Church History. Volume: 56. Issue: 4. 1987. pp 504+. online edition
  • Najar, Monica. Evangelizing the South: A Social History of Church and State in Early America (2008). 252 pp.
  • Pestana, Carla Gardina. Quakers and Baptists in Colonial Massachusetts (2004) excerpt and text search
  • Rawlyk, George. Champions of the Truth: Fundamentalism, Modernism, and the Maritime Baptists (1990), on Baptists in Canada.
  • Spain, Rufus. At Ease in Zion: Social History of Southern Baptists, 1865-1900 (1967)
  • Spangler, Jewel L. "Becoming Baptists: Conversion in Colonial and Early National Virginia" Journal of Southern History. Volume: 67. Issue: 2. 2001. pp 243+ online edition
  • Stringer, Phil. The Faithful Baptist Witness, Landmark Baptist Press, 1998.
  • Torbet, Robert G. A History of the Baptists, Judson Press, 1950.
  • Underwood, A. C. A History of the English Baptists. London: Kingsgate Press, 1947.
  • Wills, Gregory A. Democratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, and Church Discipline in the Baptist South, 1785–1900, (1997) online edition

Black Baptists

  • Gavins; Raymond. The Perils and Prospects of Southern Black Leadership: Gordon Blaine Hancock, 1884–1970 Duke University Press, 1977.
  • Harvey, Paul. Redeeming the South: Religious Cultures and Racial Identities among Southern Baptists, 1865–1925 University of North Carolina Press, 1997. online edition
  • Pitts, Walter F. Old Ship of Zion: The Afro-Baptist Ritual in the African Diaspora Oxford University Press, 1996.

Primary sources

  • McBeth, H. Leon, (ed.) A Sourcebook for Baptist Heritage (1990), primary sources for Baptist history.
  • McGlothlin, W. J. (ed.) Baptist Confessions of Faith. Philadelphia: The American Baptist Publication Society, 1911.
  • Underhill, Edward Bean (ed.). Confessions of Faith and Other Documents of the Baptist Churches of England in the 17th century. London: The Hanserd Knollys Society, 1854.

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  58. ^ "Separate Baptists in Christ, General Association of| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  59. ^ "Seventh Day Baptist General Conference of the United States and Canada| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  60. ^ "Southern Baptist Convention| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  61. ^ "Sovereign Grace Believers| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  62. ^ "Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  63. ^ "United American Free Will Baptist Church| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  64. ^ "The UAFWBC Story". United American Free Will Baptist General Conference. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  65. ^ "United Baptists| Religious Groups | The Association of Religion Data Archives". thearda.com. Retrieved 2020-11-17.
  66. ^ BGAV: The Right Choice, Part 2 Archived December 30, 2006, at the Wayback Machine
  67. ^ "Brown: A Timeline". www.brown.edu. Retrieved 2020-10-22.
  68. ^ William H. Brackney, Congregation and Campus: Baptists in Higher Education, Mercer University Press, US, 2008, p. 43
  69. ^ "Uniting Baptist Higher Education". IABCU. 2017-01-18. Retrieved 2023-05-09.
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  71. ^ Langer, Gary (July 18, 2001). "Poll: Most Americans Say They're Christian". ABCNEWS/Beliefnet. Retrieved October 8, 2020.
  72. ^ a b Stetzer, Ed: "Planting Churches in a Post-Modern Age", page 235. Broadman and Holman Publishers, 2003.
  73. ^ On Faith: Guest Voices: Falwell: Independent, Fundamentalist and Pragmatic
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