Baptists in America: A History

by Thomas S. Kidd

the American Baptist Churches in the United States, denominational control has remained in the hands of moderates and liberals, and their official positions on church-state issues continue to be separationist. Independent fundamentalist Baptists, while less active politically, usually side with the accommodationists, but some, like the Baptist Bible Fellowship, have no central bureaucracy capable of issuing official statements. Black Baptists, who are often conservative on social issues such as abortion and gay rights, can be either separationist or accommodationist on church-state issues. AS IS THE case within American religion generally, Baptists do not stand together against other groups on political and cultural issues. Rather, conservative and fundamentalist Baptists find themselves holding church-state positions in common with conservatives in other denominations and even with conservative Catholics. Meanwhile, moderate and liberal Baptists generally hold positions in common with moderates and liberals from non-Baptist denominations. Religion is still one of the strongest predictors of political behavior and attitudes toward the wider culture. But the key variable is not the name of the denomination but whether the group, congregation, or individual identifies as theologically conservative, moderate, or liberal within those groups.