[May 1, 2012] Register Now for the 2012 BH&HS Conference

Bruce Gourley — Tue, 01 May 2012 15:24:32 +0000

The 2012 Baptist History & Heritage Society Conference is June 7-9. If you’ve not registered yet, we encourage you to do so now.

The theme is “Baptists and Theology.”

Keynote speakers are:

Bill Leonard (Wake Forest University, pictured)

Glenn Jonas (Campbell University)

Fisher Humphrys (Retired, Beeson Divinity School)

Conference program information

Conference Registration

Breakout sessions and paper titles

Hotel Information (ask for $75 BH&HS rate)

[April 5, 2012] The History of Baptists and Easter

Bruce Gourley — Fri, 06 Apr 2012 00:45:26 +0000

Stephen Douglas Wilson, dean emeritus and chair of the social studies/history department of Mid-Continent University in Mayfield, Kentucky, has written an excellent, brief article about how Southern Baptists have historically perceived Easter. While American [Northern] Baptists embraced Easter a bit earlier than did their Southern counterparts, Baptists at large in America are relatively new converts to celebrating the holiday.

From Wilson’s article:

“Southern Baptists originally did not attach much significance to Easter. This was much the same regarding Christmas (see “Southern Baptists have not always embraced Christmas ” in Baptist Press, Dec. 23, 2011).

Both days were not recognized as a special day of worship in any of the historic Baptist confessions; allusions to them were rare in Baptist history volumes before the 20th century; and both holidays possessed an association with worldliness, and even paganism, in the minds of many Baptist ministers. Even as late as 1903, a writer for the North Carolina state Baptist paper, the Biblical Recorder, wrote an anti-Easter article that stated that “Baptists do not keep this day” (March 18, 1903).”

Read the rest of the article.