Baptists Beware of Protestant Privilege

As early defenders of religious liberty for all, Baptists today should celebrate religious pluralism even as Protestant privilege wanes in American culture, Baptist historian Bill Leonard said June 22 at a luncheon in Fort Worth, Texas, during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly.

Leonard, a professor of church history and Baptist studies at Wake Forest Divinity School, reminded members of the Religious Liberty Council, a member body of the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, that Roger Williams, founder of the first Baptist church on American soil, established Providence, R.I., as a “shelter for persons distressed for conscience.”