According to the dictionary, Lutherans belong to Lutheranism.
Catholics belong to Catholicism.
Episcopalians, Episcopalianism.
A search in one online dictionary for “Baptismism” turned up the definition for “Baptist.” However, searching at http://www.dictionary.com and in other dictionaries didn’t turn up any answers on “Baptismism.” And admittedly, “Baptismism” is awkward, anyway. The only definitions for baptism (capitalized or not) don’t seem to apply to the group.
So what do Baptists belong to? I’ve seen various references to “Baptists,” the “Southern Baptist faith,” the “Baptist Church.” Is this just a matter of someone answering their own question again, or is there a legitimate term that covers the group as a whole?
“Not only had he been reelected three times and been named Minority Leader… but his wife was pregnant, too.”
I was raised a Baptist and we never called ourselves anything but Baptists. Never heard an “ism” word for Baptists as a group - of course we have “baptism” meaning the total immersion of the person when baptizing. We don’t need an ism - we’re unique :rolleyes: (BTW - I’m not one of them southern Baptist, hell and brimstone kind…but then I don’t practice any organized religion anymore.)
Saying your “Baptist” is only a little less specific than saying you are “Protestant” or “Christian”.
Baptists can belong to many different denominations that all use the word “Baptist” in it and all basically believe in the same thing.
The largest group in the US is called the Southern Baptist Convention. There are also the National Baptist Convention of America, the National Baptist Convention, USA, Inc. (two predominantly African-American churches), and the American Baptist Churches in the U.S.A.
The Canadian group is the Baptist Federation of Canada.
The common thread of all these religions is the belief that baptism is for adults who make an affirmation of their faith. They disagree on a lot of other matters.
The difference is that most other denominations have a heirarchial establishment which the church is part of… Baptist churches have a “Buck the system” mentality, and are HIGHLY individualistic.
Personally, the term “Good Old Boy Non-thinker-ism” seems acceptable.
Doug, you beat me to the post on that old joke. Actually, Southern Baptists broke with Northern Baptists over whether slavery was sanctioned by scripture (this rift was only recently healed.) nonetheless, the more liberal/humanist strains of the Baptist religion have come from the South: witness M.L. King, Jimmy Carter & Bill Moyers.
Another suprise about the Baptist relgion came to me from reading Elmer Gantry (okay, not the most scholarly cite), in that the Baptists do not hold with infant damnation. I know this becuase my mother’s mother converted from the Baptist relgion to Roman Catholicism to marry my grandfather; so we grew up a papal outpost in Baptist country. however, my brother converted back to the Baptists, then left it in turn for an even stricter creed that strongly opposes abortion: but not for the usual “= murder” of his first two religions; but because his new religion says that unbaptised fetuses go straight to Hell. And not “Hell-lite,” but to the same torments as Hilter and Stalin! His explanation: “hey, I don’t make the rules.”
Also, I understand that the Baptists originally started as a sect called the Anabaptists, during the turmoil of the Reformation - turmoil enough to convince them that the Second Coming was at hand (cite: The End of the World by Otto Freidrich). In this they were much like the Branch Davidians, and also like their counterparts in Waco, they were indulged in their doomsday beliefs by the authorities who besieged and slaughtered them. The direct offshoots of the Anabaptists are the Mennonites and the Amish, who still garner abuse to this day (cite: the BBQ Pit of this board)