Women pastors, immigration enforcement, antisemitism: 5 proposed SBC resolutions to watch
1. The birth of the United States and Baptists’ contribution to religious freedom
A resolution “On the 250th Anniversary of the United States and the Baptist Contribution to Religious Liberty” discusses the nation’s founding and details Baptist contributions to the principles of religious liberty.
“Baptist leaders such as Isaac Backus, John Leland, and others played a vital role in advocating for religious liberty, contributing to the development and eventual adoption of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution, which guarantees the free exercise of religion and prohibits the establishment of a state church,” the resolution states.
“Baptists have historically affirmed that religious liberty is not merely a political principle (such as a ‘wall of separation’) but a biblical conviction rooted in the teaching that every individual is accountable to God and must be free to respond to Him without coercion from the state.”
The resolution calls on SBC messengers to “give thanks to Almighty God for his providential hand in the founding and sustaining of the United States of America over the past 250 years” and “honor the legacy of Baptist forebears who courageously contended for religious liberty and helped secure the freedoms enshrined in the First Amendment.”
The resolution also calls on the SBC to “reaffirm our historic Baptist commitment to religious liberty for all people, recognizing it as a God-given right grounded in the dignity of every human being made in the image of God.”
