The Baptists' Arrest

It was March 13, 1774 when John Waller of nearby Spotsylvania County was arrested along with John Shackleford, Robert Ware and Ivison Lewis for preaching without license and jailed in Essex County. The very building where their pleas were heard became the nave of what was Centennial Baptist Church in 1875, later to be renamed in memory of long-time pastor Frank Brown Beale.

Beale Memorial Baptist Church was my father's last full-time pastorate from 1967 to 1978.  The county seat, Tappahannock was the town where I attended high school.

That snippet of history is meant to trigger more a sense of irony than anything else.  The town and parish in which I was first and most positively exposed to Episcopal ways had once imprisoned men who were my father's predecessors.  Indeed the person who brought charges against these men was the rector of what became St. John's parish!

I'm still grateful for how my life has turned; not simply away from Baptist ways but into a larger frame that honors even the irony and reaches back to include the stories of those early struggles for freedom of conscience and expression that gave us our Declaration of Independence, Constitution and Bill of Rights. 

I'm writing this month about those moments where church and state are the principle "actors," maybe call them elements or props for that drama of personal freedom, moral anchoring and consensual authority.  These elements are at play again.

I have an interpretation of the First Amendment that takes these histories of John Smith, Patrick Henry, and John Waller to heart.  I'm not advocating for theocracy in the USA.  I'm not one of those who wants to claim that this nation was founded on Christian principles.  I'm just as sure my "list" of approved teachers for Biblical Content in Public Schools is missing most of those who have advocated for this dreadful Georgia legislation.  I'm not sure even I should be on my own list!

But I think it matters that our faith has always been mixed into the story of what freedom means and how best to insure that freedom for our citizens, immigrants and (yes, even) "illegals."  Without a doubt other concerns get in mixed in as well.  Things like the color of our skin or our first language or sexual orientation or our economic circumstances.

Freedom isn't easy and it doesn't get easier when the imbalance of power gets added to the math.  How fair or just was it for the Rev. Alexander Cruden to call for the arrest of Waller and his colleagues? The use of power is easy to see but where's the freedom in that?

I'm NOT thinking to call for anyone's arrest nor am I intending to get myself arrested but I am asking for your understanding as I struggle with those elements of church and state.  Right now my struggle has me asking these questions:

How easy is it to hide behind those "personal freedom" parts of our faith?  Think "me and Jesus" or "everybody has a right to their own opinion."

What is the moral anchor of the U.S.A. in this century?  Is it "the economy?"  Is it "the way things used to be?" Is it fundamentalistic protestantism? Is it NIMBY? (Not In My BackYard)

What is more or less consensual about our current practice of governance in this constitutional republic form of democracy?  How does gerrymandering -- no matter who started it -- prevent consent?

Our church is not a courthouse but it is where these elements are at play, again.  Let's pray,

". . . And finally, teach our people to rely on your strength and to accept their responsibilities to their fellow citizens, that they may elect trustworthy leaders and make wise decisions for the well-being of our society; that we may serve you faithfully in our generation and honor your holy Name. For yours is the kingdom, O Lord, and you are exalted as head above all. Amen. (BCP, 822)