By Cody J. Sanders
One thing our Baptist heritage teaches us is that sometimes heretics make the best Christians (or at least good Baptists). So it’s not surprising to hear that Baptists are still being named as heretical for being at odds with the proper and acceptable beliefs and practices of a larger majority. But another thing we glean from our heritage is the assurance that Baptists have never been overly concerned with the opinion of the majority.
Our earliest Baptist forebears, John Smyth and Thomas Helwys, were certainly heretics in their day. Smyth led a small group of English Separatists away from the long-held Anglican practice of infant baptism and to the practice of believer’s baptism. Of course, this band of radicals had to flee to the Netherlands in order to safely practice their faith. Helwys was imprisoned upon his return to England because he had the audacity to send the king a copy of his book defending the Baptist ideal of religious liberty. He died in prison.
In America, the heretical Baptist par excellence was Roger Williams. He continued to challenge his fellow Christians in the colonies with the radical concept of the separation of church and state. After infuriating the state church, Williams was banished from his home in Boston, moved to Plymouth, and then — still unrepentant of his heretical ways — he was kicked out of Massachusetts altogether. In a day when the theological power structures supported the idea that colonists could simply take land from Native Americans, Williams insisted that this practice was fundamentally unjust. He eventually bought land from the Native Americans to found Providence. After Williams declared his respect for the religion of Native Americans, even his Baptist family began to look at him differently.
While banishment to Amsterdam or Rhode Island doesn’t sound like much of a punishment today, there are a number of Baptists who still experience their own brand of exile for holding beliefs that a majority has deemed heretical. One only needs to keep up with Baptist news to know that Baptist “heretics” are alive and well.
One thing is for sure: We need to repent. The question is, “From what are we to repent?” Looking back over the history of Baptists, I’m not sure if it is the small minority of radical “heretics” who are most in need of repentance. Perhaps the onus for repentance most often rests with those who so quickly invoke the banishment of “heretics.” For it is these large, majority groups who support the often-unjust status quo by exiling those who dare to disagree.
The majority group upheld the power of the state church by banishing heretical Baptists to Amsterdam and Providence. The majority used their theological voices to bolster the king’s right to rule over the hearts of women and men — imprisoning the heretical Helwys. The majority theological opinion allowed land to be stolen from the Native Americans and sent Williams into the wilderness. And the majority continues to champion heterosexual patriarchal power structures that keep women from serving as pastors and gay and lesbian folks from the full embrace of the church. For challenging these oppressive structures and tenets, Baptists have long been named “heretics” and expelled from the good graces of their fellow Christians — and even their fellow Baptist brothers and sisters.
I hope that our heretical heritage strengthens the resolve of Baptist congregations who oppose oppressive power structures and take the unpopular theological stance of siding with those who are harmed by the theologies of the powerful majority. I also hope that other congregations will rise to stand in solidarity with those who continue to join the ranks of Smyth, Helwys and Williams and are banished from denominations and associations for their radical practices of faith. And maybe our heretical heritage will eventually elicit the repentance of those who hold to a play-it-safe theological mentality that strives to drive out the heretics from among us and cling to the status quo.
So, if our ongoing Baptist heritage has anything to teach us in this time and place, it is this: From the vantage point of the future, “heretics” look oddly similar to prophets. Perhaps the “heretics” are the best Baptists among us.