Baptist Sunday School Lessons

[jmcrae]

Hi, what kind of things were taught in Baptist sunday schools in the 20th cen? Did they teach anti Catholic things? The reason I ask is my grandmother attend their sunday school, and she makes lots of anti Catholic remarks.She always said she developed her faith there , looks like she was taught alot more as well. Id like to see if these things were and still are taught? If they were how could you ever hold your head up high, going to a church like that? I dont blaim any baptists on this forum, I blaim those in my town and baptists of the past!!

I remember that a friend of mine who attended a Baptist Sunday School seemed to be “learning” a lot of very weird stuff, not only about Catholics but also about the form of Protestantism that I practiced, as well. All of it was negative, and in the tone of “we are so much better than they are; they should become like us.” He kept trying to convert me, because my religion was “too much like the Catholic Church.” (It wasn’t even close, actually - we practiced infant baptism, but as far as I know, that was the only similarity, back then - later on, in the early 1980s, we got into the liturgical calendar, and started putting coloured stoles on our members of clergy, but back when I was a kid, we were still doing the Psalms and the Books of Genesis and Exodus, followed by the works of St. Paul, with maybe a couple chapters of the Gospel of John thrown in at Easter time, and about half a chapter from the Gospel of Luke at Christmas, and our clergy wore nothing but black, with red stripes for those who hadn’t completed their doctoral degrees yet. The sermons also lasted about 40 minutes, and we always sang all 25 verses of every hymn and anthem.)

By contrast, the Sunday School that I attended didn’t mention other faiths very much at all, other than to mention that our denomination had been founded by a coalition of Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists. Nobody went into much detail about what (if any) differences there were between them - the emphasis was on the common ground between them, and on being faithful disciples of Jesus Christ.

We also had a lot of stories about some kid named Jimmy who was always getting lost, or crying about something, or getting into fights with his friends, or lying to his Mom, and then being asked to solve his problems for him.

 

[Tyuiop411]

jmcrae, What denomination of Protestantism were you a part of when you were younger? Because a coalition of Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists is certainly an interesting mix.

 

[valentino]

Is this based on your own experience or a study? If it’s a study, I’d like to read it.

It’s not my experience. Do you get around the internet?

Jim Dandy

Its from reading the history of the Church and the history of our world.Dark ages,middle ages,to the present.not long past in our society for instance,in the 30’s and 40’s there was alot more dissention between Catholilcs and protestants.Catholics were not suppose to associate with protestants(we werre taught this in school and by our parents)they were a bad influence to us and the non christians had very extreme views against Catholicm.non christians in general almost hated Catholics.THE klu klus klan in the 20’s was a big organizations and they were constantly demonizing Catholics.It wasn’t until 60 that we elected a Catholic president.So you can see how most people have tempered their views toward Catholicm.Im much older than you and probably read more on the subject.

 

[valentino]

Every time I “infiltrate” a protestant bible study, someone manages to work in an anti-Catholic comment. The anti-Catholicism is rampant here on the west coast. It is almost always in the form of extemporaneous, off the page comments, delivered to “make an application” for the hearers or to “drive a point home.” When I was a second grader I remember vividly my bible club leader driving me home one day, and telling me that I was not saved because I was Catholic.

WHen I attended a mission trip at 17 with the local baptist church, everything was good, I could even evangelize with the use of “tracts,” but was addressed by a leader, “Why do you Catholics WORSHIP Mary?” I didn’t know the definition of WORSHIP at 17, so I didn’t know how to answer.

it seems rampant to you but you didn’t live in the 20’s,30,or 4o’s.there was a sort of general hatred against Catholics and much more openly preached than today.

 

[jmcrae]

jmcrae, What denomination of Protestantism were you a part of when you were younger? Because a coalition of Presbyterians, Methodists, and Congregationalists is certainly an interesting mix.

It’s the United Church of Canada - and its history would definitely be a very good study on what happens when diverse Christians come together and try to agree on “essentials” in some kind of way that can actually work for everyone in practice.

TIP: it’s not really working very well …

 

[MSSheBear]

I was raised a liberal Baptist and other than a few comments about how the Catholic Church invented all these rituals I don’t recall there being any overt anti-Catholic comments. This was in the 1960’s.

My parents did repeat nonstop a bunch of anti-Catholic nonsense about Constantine introducing pagan practices into the Church and the Vatican hiding early documents from non-Catholics, and so forth. They went to Baptist Sunday Schools in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

My fundamentalist Baptist former employer rarely makes an anti-Catholic comment and she is even willing to concede some Catholics may actually be Christians. This she does reluctantly and with great hesitation.

So I imagine the level of anti-Catholicism has a lot to do with the local church and what era the Sunday School was in.

 

[graceandglory]

it seems rampant to you but you didn’t live in the 20’s,30,or 4o’s.there was a sort of general hatred against Catholics and much more openly preached than today.

I am aware of that now. I’m sure these are children, or kids of children of that era who are talking that way.

 

[Tyuiop411]

I was raised a liberal Baptist and other than a few comments about how the Catholic Church invented all these rituals I don’t recall there being any overt anti-Catholic comments. This was in the 1960’s.

My parents did repeat nonstop a bunch of anti-Catholic nonsense about Constantine introducing pagan practices into the Church and the Vatican hiding early documents from non-Catholics, and so forth. They went to Baptist Sunday Schools in the 1930’s and 1940’s.

My fundamentalist Baptist former employer rarely makes an anti-Catholic comment and she is even willing to concede some Catholics may actually be Christians. This she does reluctantly and with great hesitation.

So I imagine the level of anti-Catholicism has a lot to do with the local church and what era the Sunday School was in.

That’s been my experience as well. I bet the reason why most of the rural congregations are anti-Catholic is because the position of pastor is usually passed down in the family. When the son becomes old enough to preach his father retires and the son becomes pastor thus passing the role of pastor to the likely anti-Catholic son.

 

[GeorgeTheWild]

I don’t qualify “we believe this and not that” type of teaching as anti-Catholic. What I do qualify as anti-Catholic is when it’s phrased like so “we believe this, and those Catholics/Romanists/Papist believe this and they’re plain wrong”.

Many Catholics (as well as protestants of course) on this forum should remember that this is a two edged sword. Catholics shouldn’t complain about others being “anti-Catholic” if they’re not willing to be “anti-Baptist” or “anti-Protestant” themselves. There’s enough hate in this world as it is without brothers and sisters in Christ turning towards each other, no matter the imperfectness of our communion in your eyes.

As for the teachings of the Baptist churches, Catholics would do well to remember that the structure of Baptist churches is completely different. Baptist churches are almost always congregationalist in nature. This means that the responsibility for defining doctrine lies with the congregation and not the convention or association they are a member of. What this means is that specific teachings, do not have to be standard across any set of Baptist churches, even within a convention or association. We mainly gather in conventions or associations for missions work.

What this means is that anti-Catholic teachings can, and do occur in some churches. However, I would doubt that this occurred in anything but a minority of churches.

Also, there’s already a really long thread similar to this on the forums: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=521499

 

[Cat]

Many Catholics (as well as protestants of course) on this forum should remember that this is a two edged sword. Catholics shouldn’t complain about others being “anti-Catholic” if they’re not willing to be “anti-Baptist” or “anti-Protestant” themselves. There’s enough hate in this world as it is without brothers and sisters in Christ turning towards each other, no matter the imperfectness of our communion in your eyes.

I agree with this.

Lately I have been running into quite a few threads on CAF in which there is anti-Protestant rhetoric. The word “heretic” is being tossed around, a word that does not build any bridges between people and usually ends up antagonizing people and driving them away. And there seems to be a lot of “Thank God we are not like those ignorant Protestants!” thinking.

This is NOT what the Catechism teaches. Catholics are supposed to engage in dialogue with non-Catholic Christians, and always try to leave doors open for more communication. And of course, we are to practice Christian charity.

It is possible to disagree without being disagreeable. And as someone else pointed out, it is possible to be Protestant without being anti-Catholic.

It is also extremely, vitally important that Catholics always keep in mind that it is impossible to make any generalizations about Protestants because each denomination is different, and even within denominations, there are differences. This is especially true of Baptists. But what I’m seeing is that Catholics are criticizing these differences, while forgetting that among Catholics, there are differences in the parishes. The differences are not with theology, but with practices, especially in the OF Mass–that’s what most of the threads on CAF are about, it seems!

We need to be careful not to sound hypocritical. Many of the differences between Protestant denominations are more in various practice rather than theology, although there are definitely differences in theology. But sometimes, the differences in theology are quite trivial, and it’s unfair of Catholics to insist that these differences are significant.

Finally, I think it’s so important to try to look at real Protestant Christians and their works. There are Protestant Christians who put Catholic Christians to SHAME! These good Protestant Christians live anonymous lives of humility and are constantly doing good works for the glory of God and out of agape love for all mankind.

Rather than attacking these Christians because of their lack of Catholicism, we would be better to work hard to bring them into the Catholic Church. That will not be accomplished by anti-Protestantism, but by being Christ-like.

 

[drywall]

What’s the difference between a Regular Baptist and the other 250+ denominations of Baptists?

What’s the name of your community’s founder and when was it founded?

Thanks.

Jim Dandy

Regular Baptist were not founded by any one person but by a group of people guided by the Holy spirit, one of which was William Rogers.

I do not know of any such 250+ denominations of Baptist

 

[Kaylisette]

I attended an independent, fundamental, Baptist, non-denominational church for several years and was involved in their programs. One of the first sermons I heard was about the Mystery of Babylon and how awful the Catholic church was. The outreach pastor was a former Catholic so people encouraged me to talk with him since I had almost joined the Church before attending the IFB one. Pope John Paul II’s death was a launching pad for the Sunday morning service. The lead pastor preached against Catholic beliefs.

In the Sunday school class for new Christians, a deacon held up a How to Witness to Catholic tract. Many of the SS classes were focused on refuting both Catholic and Protestant beliefs. The children’s class wasn’t what I would call anti-Catholic but they were taught about believer’s baptism and were encouraged to witness to Catholics. One poor teen returned from her Catholic grandmother’s funeral. In front of her class, her fellow church member and teacher expressed her condolences for her grandmother dying as a Catholic. These teachings were from sincere people, but sadly it indoctrinates a lot of people into being very reluctant to think a practicing Catholiccould be “saved”.

These things all happened in the past six or seven years at a large and influential church in our area. The new pastor is more open to distant fellowship with Calvinist Protestants and I don’t think he would preach/teach as blatantly anti-Catholic. He is somewhat less devoted to BJU. But the former pastor is still a lead pastor at another church and still holds the same views.

There are several Baptist churches in our area, and some are very different in their views. The one I went to is representative only of a small group of fundamentalists that separate from Protestants. Again, they are nice and sincere but hard to talk with if you are Catholic since they automatically assume Catholics are unsaved and worshipping Mary. They, not the Catholics, put up the wall.

 

[Tyuiop411]

Many Catholics (as well as protestants of course) on this forum should remember that this is a two edged sword. Catholics shouldn’t complain about others being “anti-Catholic” if they’re not willing to be “anti-Baptist” or “anti-Protestant” themselves. There’s enough hate in this world as it is without brothers and sisters in Christ turning towards each other, no matter the imperfectness of our communion in your eyes.

As for the teachings of the Baptist churches, Catholics would do well to remember that the structure of Baptist churches is completely different. Baptist churches are almost always congregationalist in nature. This means that the responsibility for defining doctrine lies with the congregation and not the convention or association they are a member of. What this means is that specific teachings, do not have to be standard across any set of Baptist churches, even within a convention or association. We mainly gather in conventions or associations for missions work.

What this means is that anti-Catholic teachings can, and do occur in some churches. However, I would doubt that this occurred in anything but a minority of churches.

Also, there’s already a really long thread similar to this on the forums: forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=521499

I don’t think all or even most Baptist churches are anti-Catholic. But anti-Catholicism is more prevalent in Baptist churches then in the other more mainline Protestant denominations. Since I live in the South I think thats its likely a regional attitude that just hasn’t died, but I do think the fact that most of these congregations are rural has something to do with it as well. Since I have not seen the same attitude in urban Baptists congregations.

 

[wmscott]

Sit in any one of these “Sunday Schools” and announce that you are seriously thinking of converting to Catholicism and watch what happens. Do you seriously think there won’t be those there doing and saying any and everything they can to prevent this.

I heard all of the anti-Catholic stuff many times over in Sunday school and from the pulpit in my former days as a southern Baptist. But that was in a galaxy far, far away a long, long time ago.

 

[TemplarJPN]

Growing up I heard Anti-Catholic rhetoric all the time in the church i went to. Ofcourse it was backwoods Southern Baptist in the hills of West Virginia. It was completely off the wall things too such as “Catholics worship the devil disguised as the Virgin Mary” and “Catholics are cannibals because they think they are eating Jesus” and one of the funnier and yet sad things i heard was “Catholics ritualistically get drunk during something they call a Mass” Obviously this had no affect on me because i converted to Catholicism and I haven’t stepped foot in a protestant “church” in close to 6 or 7 years although everyone in my family in protestant and my father is a Baptist minister. Although when I got married everyone in my family came, I was very impressed by them. They said the ceramony was “weird” though i’m sure thats better than what they were really thinking.

Pax Christi,

TemplarJPN :knight2:

 

[Philena]

I attend a Baptist Bible class every Sunday night in order to evangelize and set the record straight on what Catholics really believe. Of course I try to do it in the most charitable way possible because I am, after all, in their church.

They are wonderful and loving people who really take the Gospel seriously. They just have some misinterpretations.

Half of the class are praying for my conversion to Baptist beliefs, but the other half accepts me as a fellow Christian. I think I’m making some progress.

 

[valentino]

Regular Baptist were not founded by any one person but by a group of people guided by the Holy spirit, one of which was William Rogers.

I do not know of any such 250+ denominations of Baptist

Its true that he may have been guided by the HS and maybe someday people like him will be further guided to accept Catholism.Who knows what the future may bring?

 

[drywall]

Its true that he may have been guided by the HS and maybe someday people like him will be further guided to accept Catholism.Who knows what the future may bring?

William Rogers lived over three hundred years ago. Not likely he would be catholic now

 

[Jim_Dandy]

Regular Baptist were not founded by any one person but by a group of people guided by the Holy spirit, one of which was William Rogers.

I do not know of any such 250+ denominations of Baptist

But you do know that there are many, many denominations of Baptists – right?

I used to have a list of the Baptist denominations worldwide, but I lost it in a computer crash. Counting each Independent Baptist as a denomination, which it is, there are many more than 250. Even one denomination is a repudiation of Christ’s prayer in John 17, or of Paul’s admonitions for unity. Here’s wiki’s incomplete list:

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Baptist_sub-denominations

You didn’t say when your denom was founded? Is it this one?

Primitive Baptists — a number of Primitive Baptist churches and associations, especially in the Midwest, use the name “Regular Baptist” instead of, or in addition to the name “Primitive Baptist”.

or this one?

Old Regular Baptists — a primarily Appalachian group of churches achieving separate status late in the 19th century.

or this one?

*Regular Baptists — found in 5 local associations; much like the Old Regular Baptists, and located in the same region, but more open to changes in worship and lifestyle. Churches have allowed notated hymnals, Sunday Schools, revivals and even instrumental music.

Three associations, mostly in North Carolina, are in correspondence — Little River, Little Valley and Mountain Union (708 members in 15 churches in 1999). Two others are in isolated areas and not connected to the first three — East Washington in Arkansas (1560 members in 10 churches in 1999) and Enterprise in Ohio, Kentucky and bordering areas (4288 members in 63 churches in 1999). *

Regular, Old Regular, Primitive and Union Baptists maintain the rite of feet washing, while the GARBC & ARBC do not.

or none of the above?

I don’t think you mean the General Association of Regular Baptists?

All Protestant denominations claim that their founder(s) were guided by the much maligned Holy Spirit. He is accused of contradicting Himself several thousand times!

Jim Dandy

 

[Jim_Dandy]

Its true that he may have been guided by the HS and maybe someday people like him will be further guided to accept Catholism.Who knows what the future may bring?

Do you really think the Holy Spirit – the Spirit of Truth – would tell the Apostles and their disciples that baptism is a sign of regeneration, of being born again, and tell William Rogers and friends centuries later that baptism is merely symbolic?

uh uh.

Jim Dandy