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Posted on 01/17/2003 9:57:07 AM PST by meandog
Do Baptists Make Bad Presidents?
The Christian Conservative Magazine
By Peter Johnson
Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter and Warren G. Harding were all Baptists. And, according to presidential historians, each man and his administration had serious flaws.
Clinton, of course, had the Monica Lewinsky and Pardon scandals plus was subjected to a myriad of criticism over his handling of foreign affairs. Carter struggled through the Iranian hostage crisis, the OPEC oil embargo, and a spiraling inflation that sparked one of the nation’s greatest recessions. And Warren G. Harding was the lightening rod for the Teapot Dome scandal.
Yet, each of the men professed a profound religious footing in their collective Baptist upbringings. Both Carter and Harding were Baptist deacons and Sunday school teachers. Prior to politics, Harding even was among the journalists to run a Sunday section in his Marion, Ohio newspaper. Clinton was often photographed on the steps of Washington area churches on Sunday and often invited noted Baptist ministers such as the Rev. Billy Graham and Jesse Jackson to the White House for prayer breakfasts.
So, did each man’s religion play a part in historians’ criticism?
“It depends on how you look at it,” says the Rev. Johnny Lee McElroy a noted religion and presidential historian. “I do think that some of the tenets of the Baptist faith played a part in their decisions…but you can’t blame all their shortcomings on religion.”
Baptists, unlike other mainline Protestant faiths, are noted for their non-liturgical services. Most Sundays are devoted to prayer, hymns and sermons. There is little structure to a set program. And that was the same way that Clinton, Carter and Harding ran the White House.
According to official Baptist doctrine: "Baptists cherish and defend religious liberty, and deny the right of any secular or religious authority to impose a confession of faith upon a church or body of churches.
We honor the principles of soul competency and the priesthood of believers, affirming together both our liberty in Christ and our accountability to each other under the Word of God.
Baptist churches, associations, and general bodies have adopted confessions of faith as a witness to the world, and as instruments of doctrinal accountability. We are not embarrassed to state before the world that these are doctrines we hold precious and as essential to the Baptist tradition of faith and practice.
As a committee, we have been charged to address the "certain needs" of our own generation. In an age increasingly hostile to Christian truth, our challenge is to express the truth as revealed in Scripture, and to bear witness to Jesus Christ, who is "the Way, the Truth, and the Life."
The 1963 committee rightly sought to identify and affirm "certain definite doctrines that Baptists believe, cherish, and with which they have been and are now closely identified." Our living faith is established upon eternal truths. "Thus this generation of Baptists is in historic succession of intent and purpose as it endeavors to state for its time and theological climate those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us."
Other mainline Protestant churches follow a creed….
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No, those presidents just make bad Baptists.
More like Deist.
Having some Baptist roots, I can say that this article is stretching to make an argument that can't be made on the basis of his analysis. Baptists have as much of a set service as liturgical denominations, they just do it differently.
No argument here that Harding, Carter, and Clinton were low in the ranks, especially Clinton. I don't think you could accuse Carter of running a laid-back administration. He was accused of micro-managing, a very different style than Clinton.
One more thing. Licoln has never been identified as a Liberal Protestant, whatever that means. He is usually described as "unaffiliated."
All in all, I don't think the root cause of their failures can be blamed on their denomination. They were failures, but in different ways; there was no common aspect in which they made poor presidents.
Yes, "Dumb Baptist" and "unsaved Baptist" do make bad presidents
So was Ulysses Evertte McGill
What is a deist?
His step-mother, whom he credited with most of his upbringing, was Presbyterian I believe...
How many times have you seen him at church with his giant Bible since Monica and Impeachnment?
No, Southern democrats make bad Presidents
Do Baptists Make Bad Presidents?
YES,..........................................'They',....vote them 'in'.
I was raised as a S.B. and I couldn't agree more. I left the church in my teens because of the schizophrenic doctrine.
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