Forest-Pine:
I wonder, these independent Baptists, are they really Baptist? It sounds more like an Amish type theology and mentality. Any one know the fine lines between conservative Protestant religions?
Amish? Good heavens, no. The Amish are much gentler. Mind you, there are conservative Mennonites who have been influenced by the fundamentalist Baptists. And old Menno himself could use pretty rough language (he said of the Lutherans: “They sing, ‘The chains are broken and we are free,’ while the smell of beer and wine issues from their drunken mouths and noses,” but then he lived in the 16th century when hard words were cheap). But no, I wouldn’t say fundamentalist Baptists have much to do with Mennonites or Amish.
They’re an amalgam of the following traditions, laid on top of each other:
- The original Calvinistic Baptists, radical separatist Puritans as I described in an earlier post;
- A Revolutionary-era explosion of individualistic religion that benefited the Baptists greatly and gave them a particularly aggressive edge as the champions of ordinary believers getting plain truths out of their Bibles. (See Nathan Hatch’s wonderful book The Democratization of American Christianity.)
- 19th-century revivalism with its emphasis on individual choice and its exaltation of experience and emotion.
- Southern nationalism–resentment of the industrialized, liberal, triumphant North, leading to a very “in-your-face,” militant defense of whatever you believe; a kind of holy chip on the shoulder that sanctifies all sorts of resentments;
- Early 20th-century fundamentalism–fear and suspicion of the liberals who took over most of the major Protestant denominations in that era; the sense of being a small remnant that has preserved the truth.
This leads to an aggressive anti-intellectualism (they aren’t going to let anyone tell them what they can believe), and a generally belligerent attitude that is identified with holiness, because it is seen as defending the faith. They also have a strong sense of humor that usually takes the form of rather nasty gibes at people they disagree with or disapprove of or simply who are different in some way.
All of these things are present among the Southern Baptists too. The independent Baptists are just far more extreme. They also tend to be much more emotional in their worship, and on the whole they make more demands of believers–in my experience they’re much more open to talk of holiness and much less likely to think that you can sin flagrantly and still be a Christian. In fact, they often criticize the Southern Baptists precisely for that lax attitude. In that sense they’re closer to the Reformed–many of the ones I’ve known, at least, really do think that if you are truly born again you will lead a holy life.
So they have a lot of virtues. Their preaching is often very interesting–I’ve heard some great allegorical interpretations from Independent Baptist preachers. But there’s almost always this hard, rough edge, which they glorify as something good and holy.
In Christ,
Edwin
