Truth and reconciliation have served as a way for Canada and the US to account for the historical wrongs of past generations, an approach that promises future generations will get an unfiltered understanding of the persecution and the marginalization of different peoples on the North American continent. Those stories detail the challenge and struggle to overcome those moral failings, with one exception—there is rarely reference to the architect type of thinking that likely influenced much of that change—Baptist thinking. Some of the most significant societal shifts across North America have been driven by Baptists changemakers whose names are likely to ring a bell, even if the thinking that brought about those transformational changes does not.
Women’s suffrage, access to healthcare, and civil rights for Black Americans, all three of those movements were heavily influenced by early Baptist thinking, including their leaders Lucy Randolph Mason, Tommy Douglas, and Martin Luther King. The average person is unlikely to be familiar with the Baptist upbringings of those changemakers and how Baptist thinking laid the groundwork necessary for the shift in societal thinking to take place across North America. The average person is even less likely to be familiar with “social responsibility” being an idea with roots tracing back to the Baptist’s Social Gospel, predating the development of modern socialism or communism, and influencing historical greats like the names mentioned above.
What Makes the Baptist Church Different from Other Christian Churches?
What makes the Baptist Church different from other Christian churches is that they are a free church structure, reformational, founded on the Word rather than tradition, and with the purpose to understand the Word. “Free church structure” refers to Baptist Churches being independent of each other and how no Baptist Church has authority over another. “Reformational” refers to sharing core principles with Protestant Reformation but differing from Protestant denominations because of their practice including believers’ baptism, church governance, and their commitment to keeping separate church and state. And being based on “the Word” refers to the commitment to a biblical authority over any historical or church traditions.
Where people often get Baptists mixed up with Protestants stems from the “Protestant” label being applied to Christians who were neither Catholic nor Eastern Orthodox. Additionally, Baptists did not come out of the Roman Catholic Church and their roots trace back to Anabaptists, as far back as the 16th century. Although it is believed that Baptist roots stretch back even further, the Holy War crusades saw Baptists viewed as heretics and many original scriptures, writings, and historical records were confiscated and destroyed as Baptists were persecuted by both Catholics and Protestants.
The founding figures of the Baptist movement are John Smyth (1570-1612) and Thomas Helwys (1575-1616), whose study of scripture led them to believe that the Word had a different meaning than churches were preaching, deviating from the ancient church and outside the intended purpose of the Word. Their biggest issue with how the Word was being enacted stemmed from the Holy War crusades and the persecution of religious minorities, thus requiring the separation of church and state to preserve religious liberty. Escaping Europe and moving to the US was only slightly better, as Baptists would not be killed outright but would be expelled from the colonies.
In the 17th century, most American colonies continued to be hostile toward Baptists, and the expelling of Roger Williams from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his Baptist beliefs resulted in the founding of the First Baptist Church in America at a separate colony (Providence, Rhode Island, 1963). After establishing the church, Williams continued to advocate for religious freedom and the separation of church and state. About 100 years later, settlers from New England who moved to Swansea, Nova Scotia, founded Canada’s first Baptist Church (1763). Eventually key Baptist principles, including religious liberty and a secular society, found their way into public policymaking by the Founding Fathers of both the US (1776) and Canada (1867) as key constitutional rights and went on to influence different civil rights and labour-related movements.
Ideas Of Social Responsibility from The Social Gospel
One of the most overlooked influences on today’s Canadian and American society is the Baptist teachings surrounding the “Social Gospel” and how it has influenced individuals considered to be among the greatest changemakers and thought leaders of their time. The story behind the “Social Gospel”, one of the most influential pieces of thought leadership across North America, begins with Walter Rauschenbusch (1861-1918), a second-generation American born to parents that emigrated from Germany, who pursued an education in theology and wrote three books on the Social Gospel and social responsibility (Christianity and the Social Crisis, Christianizing the Social Order, A Theology for the Social Gospel). That thinking and writing about social responsibility contributed to transformational changes across society that would take place decades after Rauschenbusch’s passing—arguably making him one of the most influential figures (though least known) on the North American continent.
Unlike most teenagers born in America, Rauschenbusch completed high school in Germany, and was considered a rebellious youth until his late teen years. Upon returning to the US, Rauschenbusch would get a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Rochester, then a Bachelor of Divinity from the Rochester Theological Seminary of American Baptist Churches. At some point, Rauschenbusch began to think about the role that the human experience played in the journey of life, an integral part of his theological studies, before disagreeing with the mainstream thinking of his time, thinking that he saw as being ignorant to human sensitivities.
Over the years, Rauschenbusch began to view Christianity beyond the limitations and pitfalls of the church and for it to be possible to make the necessary societal corrections with future-focused thinking—a focus on addressing the “sins” of social and political order. Other theologians levied harsh criticism toward Rauschenbusch, claiming he was diluting the gospel’s message of individual salvation by focusing on societal reforms, outside the traditional boundaries of churches. For Rauschenbusch, however, his time spent in New York City, and serving a struggling congregation in Hell’s Kitchen, further strengthened his views on the interconnectedness of faith and social justice and provided a first-hand look at how systemic inequalities were hurting society’s most marginalized members and leading him to believe that the church had a responsibility to address such sins.
As a Baptist Minister and seminary professor, Rauschenbusch came to see how the institutions of human society were flawed and guilty of oppression – no different than people. This realization stemmed from how those institutions interacted with different members of society on the basis of race and religion. Rauschenbusch’s writings would go on to detail how the idea of redemption was one that extended to institutions and other systems and not just individual souls, and how faith and social action were inseparable. These views on how to achievement the betterment of society would go on to get adopted by countless other theologians, civil rights leaders, changemakers, and thought leaders.
The Social Gospel, as it was preached by Rauschenbusch, did not allow for the uncoupling of religion and social life, the disregarding of the reconstructive powers of life and social relations and institutions, and instead taught that power to bring forth positive changes across society was limitless. It applied Christian ethics to social problems such as poverty, inequality, and a lack of labor rights, and focused on transforming society to reflect the Christian ideals of justice and love. It viewed sin through a “social lens”, different from how most of the then-theologians viewed the challenges that were plaguing society, including religious bigotry, graft and political power, and corruption of justice. However, it also demanded that the church be involved in working to address those societal ills, advocating for systemic changes to alleviate suffering and promote fairness.
Today’s Canadian and American societies would be well-served by getting familiar with the Social Gospels, a necessary first step to deconstruct the idea that social supports and safety nets are the result of left-leaning political ideologies. The Social Gospel only sought to infuse morality into the social structures of the time, never advocating for state control, and with a goal to make up for the lack of supports in an industrialized and advancing society. Despite this, Baptist changemakers and thought leaders who followed the Social Gospel, as preached by Rauschenbusch, were routinely viewed as being hard-left Communists and disliked for their willingness to get involved in civil rights and labor-related issues. But their persistence and continued involvement eventually paid off and brought about transformational changes related to women rights, black rights, minimum wage, and access to healthcare.
Ottawa’s First Baptist Church Predates Confederation
What makes the First Baptist Church in Ottawa one of the more interesting landmarks is that it is one of the few churches in Ottawa that predates Confederation (1857), with the cornerstone of the Church having been laid by then-Prime Minister, Alexander Mackenzie. The Church’s involvement on societal issues mirrored the Social Gospel ethos of Rauschenbusch, living out faith through action, with strong social justice involvement related to poverty alleviation, social exclusion, and refugee resettlement.
The First Baptist Church’s Minister, Reverand John C. Perkin, found some time for a one-on-one discussion, a chat that touched on his path to becoming a Minister, some key moments that shaped some of his thinking, and his thoughts on the faith, communication, connection, and positive leadership. To begin, Rev. Perkin arrived in Canada at the age of 7, after his family left England, and he was strongly influenced by the example his father set, a Baptist who had a strong academic background. As a young boy, Rev. Perkin described experiencing early success with school, earning a Bachelor’s of Arts in history by the age of 19, then earning Bachelor and Graduate degrees at universities in Nova Scotia, Ontario, and England. Rev. Perkin’s educational journey featured stops at multiple universities and included studying different schools of thought, including history, education, philosophy, international relations, and public policy, and culminated with a Master of Divinity. However, before becoming a Minister, Rev. Perkin spent three decades working as a university professor in New Brunswick, at times serving as a Chaplain and Dean of Students, focusing on all non-academic matters.
One of the most moving moments of the discussion resulted from a question about influential figures, of which there were three that stood out from his teen years in Nova Scotia. The first was a retired Minister with a PhD, the second was a Professor with a PhD, and the third was a church custodian who only had a 3rd grade education. The church custodian would end up attending Rev. Perkin’s elementary school graduation, and later confessed how he was living his life’s dreams through Rev. Perkin, and how Rev. Perkin had embodied what he had aspired for himself before stopping school at the third-grade level.
From that experience, Rev. Perkin described how that moment also provided him with the realization of the power of self-belief and how a person could captivate, motivate, and shift the thinking of others by giving maximum effort with everything one did and with the results that followed from such an effort. Other realizations that would follow related to the power of values, virtues, and vocation. In short, “It’s not who you are, but how you’ll live. Not what you’re going to be, but who’ll be and how you’ll do it.” Because there was something contagious about a person aspiring towards a higher standard of living that resonated with people and that allowed them to experience their “best self” through that person.
Another interesting aspect of how the First Baptist Church engaged with its congregation stemmed from a newsletter started by Rev. Perkin, Through Stained Glass. The newsletter aimed to provide faith perspectives and epistle with weekly themes, understanding that self-realization could occur through writing, and how words and structure were important. If done right, language had the power to draw people in, and a good story was capable of reaching the heart and mind: the starting point for all transformations.
When it came to delivering the Word, Rev. Perkin explained how the key pillars of the Baptist Church are rooted in education, knowledge, and communication. Preaching is arguably the most important aspect, and that there is a strong emphasis on being able to connect it with identity, meaning, and purpose. He noted the Bible contains many different literary styles from poetry, allegory, parable, proverb, as well as historical narratives and doctrinal teachings, which Ministers look to connect with ongoing events in society. Rev. Perkin suggested that this would be better understood by attending a Sunday Mass to experience the delivery of the Word through a Baptist lens.
Attending Sunday mass provided a unique look into the delivery of the Word, which began with a simple acknowledgement that all was not right in our world, that the little things in life were the ones that helped achieve purpose and make for a wonderful difference, that, although the little things started small, they still required strength and courage and an inextinguishable hope, and that those small things could turn out to be life changing. He acknowledged that humanity was fragile but that it was faith, and not fear, that should shape us, and the importance of responding to challenges and refusing cynicism and hopelessness. By the end of the Sunday mass, it seemed unlikely that someone could leave the church and lack direction after Rev. Perkin’s delivery of the Word and how he connected it to the real world.
A Concluding Thought.
Perhaps the two biggest takeaways from getting familiar with the Baptist Church and the Social Gospels stem from the role they played in driving positive and transformational changes across North American continent. First, the Baptist faith was rooted in faith-based leadership of emphasizing social responsibility, community-building, and ethical engagement with the world. Second, how the impact of that faith-based leadership provided by the Baptist Church was a driving force for changemakers and thought leaders whose actions have contributed to Canada and the US becoming what they are today. Two places where people across all lines of difference recognize that they have a social responsibility to one another and where the same rights and liberties are afforded to all.
