Albert Wardin, a respected Baptist historian, uses the term “twelve Baptist tribes” to develop distinguishing categories of Baptist groups in the United States. For example, he puts the GARBC under a tribe called “Fundamental (Northern).” Other categories are “Ecumenical Mainline,” “Conservative Evangelical (Northern),” “Landmark,” “General/Free Will,” “Primitive,” “Neo-Calvinist,” and so on. Wardin’s write-ups of the various Baptist categories are interesting in themselves, to say nothing about his summaries of the Baptist groups within each
category.
