1861 Circular Letter, Campbell County Association, Kentucky
Wrapping up their three-day meeting at the Baptist church in Flagspring, Kentucky’s Campbell County Association of Baptists issues a circular letter to be distributed to member congregations. As voiced in the circular letter, the subject of the war is heavy on the hearts of the delegates as they lament the disunion of the nation. Kentucky’s status as a border state with mixed loyalties is evident in the anguished feelings of delegates.
“Might it be said that the nineteenth century has prostituted the purity of the gospel to so base a purpose as arming brother against brother? Or if this must, in truth, be acknowledged, shall it be that the elements of the Campbell County Association must carry out the same intolerant spirit? God forbid! If Christian love and fellowship were as the spirit of the gospel would have them, this could never be: yet the fellowship of churches (not in this Association) has been entirely destroyed by the introduction of political issues …. how fearful the ground upon which any brother stands, if he feels in his heart a rising hatred towards a brother whose greatest fault may be honestly differing upon the politics of the day.”
Read the entire minutes of the meeting of the Campbell County Association of Baptists (a copy of the manuscript is also on the Baptist History Homepage website).
