Several items in this week’s North Carolina Baptists’ Biblical Recorder offer perspective on Southern Baptist views of the nearly one-year old war. The extent of white Southern Baptist hatred of U. S. President Abraham Lincoln is evident: The Church bells of the Southern cities are rapidly going to the foundry to be converted into cannon.…
Baptists of the South are conflicted about their own faith heritage of church state separation. They have enthusiastically embraced a Confederate Constitution that, much unlike the secular United States Constitution, invokes “the favor and guidance of Almighty God” upon the Confederate States of America. At the same time, Southern Baptist leaders have equated the Confederacy…
The Battle of Shiloh occurs near a small log church in western Tennessee. The primary fighting will last until the morrow. The church building, destroyed shortly after the battle, is Shiloh United Methodist Church. Some references indicate that a Baptist congregation also utilizes the building. Indeed, Protestant denominations frequently share buildings in the rural South.…