When one hears the word Baptist, one may think only of Southern Baptists, currently the largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. with a reported 16 million members. There are many varieties of Baptists, however. We were not Southern Baptists; we looked down on them as being liberal for their lack of attention to things that deeply mattered, such as not using tobacco or alcohol. We were the GARBC—the General Association of Regular Baptist Conference, the Garbs, as we called ourselves. Or, as a college friend explained, the Grand Army of Rebellious Baptists. The conference was founded in 1932, an age of fundamentalist heyday following the Scopes “monkey trial” in 1925. The GARBC was an offshoot of the Northern Baptist Convention, which had become too liberal for them. The GARBs were against denominational central control, thus the Association in the name. They were also opposed to “modernism,” and on the side of William Jennings Bryant, the lawyer who lost the Scopes case on teaching evolution in public schools. (John Scopes taught evolution; doing so was against the law in Tennessee, which was why it went to trial.) The GARBC was for separation from the world, quoting “Come out from among them and be separate.” They were also for “solid Bible teaching and preaching,” missions, and evangelism. The GARBS have their own colleges, mission societies, camps, and a press churning out a monthly magazine along with materials for Sunday School and Vacation Bible School. Nobody owned them exactly; they were also independent, but annually “approved” by the governing board, the Council of Eighteen. Some organizations have voluntarily left the group, which was perceived as being too narrow. Others have been voted out as being too liberal or associating with those who were. Don’t feel bad if you’ve never heard of the GARBC. At its height in 1984, it had 1,603 churches. That number has shrunk. My home church and my college are no longer in the group. Nor am I. By the way: The book pictured, on Psalm 23, was written by one of the founders of the GARBC. I remember hearing his chapel series on this book.
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Baptist GirlI was a conservative Baptist girl who grew up to become a career Christian, working first in a Baptist school and then in a Baptist college. For about three decades, it was very good until it wasn’t, and I had to leave. But the Baptists formed me. This is my homage to the good times and good people of the world I left, finally, at forty-three, when I became an Episcopalian. These are my memories; others might disagree with my recollections. So be it. Archives
January 2024
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