Thread by @danieleleven32

Just this week a friend sent me an article by Albert Mohler, "Why I am a Baptist"

Overall the article is fine (I am myself a Baptist, after all), but this one paragraph is trash, intended to frame an utterly shameful act as something praiseworthy:

The SBC formed as a split out of existing missions organizations (the Baptist Convention for Missionary Purposes, founded 1814, and the American Baptist Home Missionary Society, founded 1832)

They “did not leave their first meeting without establishing mission boards” bc they had just all left the existing boards bc they wouldn’t appoint slave-holders as missionaries.

In order to facilitate that, they had to form their own. That's literally all they were doing

They didn’t establish a theological seminary, because there already were several Baptist seminaries in existence, not least Newton Theological Institution, (founded in 1825), same with a multitude of publishing houses

Mohler: "Getting first things first among the Baptists means preaching the gospel for the conversion of sinners"

Ummm, Baptists had been doing that for centuries. No, "First things first" for the SBC meant slaveholding

Go ahead and read it for yourself:

media2.sbhla.org.s3.amazonaws.com/annuals/SBC_An…

The thing is, Mohler actually could have made his point so much better, had he refrained himself from glorifying the SBC -- the Triennial Convention was established in 1814, and Newton (the first Baptist seminary) a decade later in 1825.

The story of the Convention and Newton, and the relation of Baptist theological education and missions is a fascinating and instructive story, and worth reflecting on -- but you would completely miss even a reference to it from Mohler's paragraph

/end rant (maybe)

One more footnote, from @SBTS own "Report on Slavery and Racism in the History of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary" (p. 9) #SBC

"They vindicated their separation from northern Baptists on the premise that slaveholding was morally legitimate."

…ts-wordpress-uploads.s3.amazonaws.com/sbts/uploads/2…

If you're interested in exploring more of the "scandalously neglected"* field of Northern Baptists, check out @MattCShrader; here's a couple articles to get started:

Irah Chase (1793–1864): mattshrader.com/2021/08/13/ira…

The Baptist Everywhere Man: mattshrader.com/2022/04/18/the…

* Mark Noll

Let me also take this opportunity to recommend one of the best primary sources on Baptists and slavery:

Foss and Mathews, _Facts for Baptist Churches_

published by the American Baptist Free Mission Society (1850)

("FREE" being the key word here)

books.google.com/books?id=iMY8A…