Why you can't be a baptist and agree with Donald Trump on Muslims

Although I am a baptist minister I have not always been a baptist. And I am fairly sure that within our baptist churches today the majority of people would not see themselves primarily as baptists - by which I mean - if they were to move house they would look for a good local church - whether that be baptist or not. Their choice would probably be based on things like theological stance on certain issues, style of worship, quality of preaching and provision for children - but these things can be found in a whole range of 'type' of church.

By the same score I am fairly sure that there will be many people within our baptist churches who know very little baptist history. When I moved to take up a teaching post in Essex I started attending a baptist church because their notice board said they had a mid week badminton club - my choice had nothing to do four hundred years of history.

But sometimes it is good to remember that history, and to remember those things that were central to the first baptist congregations - those things that marked them out as being different. Because those things - some people might speak of 'our baptist DNA' - should shape the way we think and act today.

You have probably heard or read Donald Trump's recent comments about a ban on Muslims entering the United States. Amongst supporters of this rallying call there are unfortunately those who would claim to be within the baptist fold. 

Here's a great article written by Steven Holmes on why such a stance is un-baptist.