The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-01-06
IN PROPOSITION TO Alb FREE
RAPTTSTS

2
10 anything the conventions and
apaPds do are denied the privilege
Qf either stating or defending their
Nosition in Organized Baptist pa
Ners, two associations in Southeast
Georgia and joint session of their
executive committees have requested
Mr. Watson to open the columns of
The Jeffersonian to them for an
nouncements; also have requested
the writer to present the proposition
to the Free or Independent Baptists
of the State and the South.
Mr. Watson has successfully pre-
Sented the other side of the question
and shown why hundreds of thou
sands of as good Baptists as the
country contains Use to support
mission work as conducted by
the Southern Baptist Convention.
They simply refuse to contribute mis-
sion funds to educate the heather
world in everything from scientific
farming to butterfly dancing under
the guise of doing mission work.
Protests have been of no avail.
Something must be done or real mis-
sion work, as it is commanded in
INC 1oiUtO3 10 5O1uS W Sun0Ts we
must get the rotten apples out and
save the barrel and the good apples.
Unless the Independent Baptist
churches take hold of their own work
and manage it, they will either have
to quit doing mission work at all or
continue to support a system which
demands their money and then slaps
them in the face when they ask for
information. Mr.. Watson's expo,
sures have turned the machine topsy-
turvy. 1 have known these things
twenty years and done my best to
get the truth to Baptists, but have
been denied a hearing in the Baptist
press in Georgia, and I have known
tbs" years that the truth was being
suppressed This is Romanish. [
offered The Christian Index adver-
Using rates to publish the truth
eighteen years ago, and it refused.
But thank God, Mr.. Watson had the
courage and the manhood to tell it
and face the ecclesiastical masters Of
whole brood of hierarchies from
Rome all the way to Georgia.
In the West, where I have been
living for the past six years, the
Baptists have practically overthrown
the machine and taken charge of
their own work. In Arkansas, out
of forty-two associations only nine
support the convention and board
system, and they have organized
State associations in which the mes
sengers of the churches go straight
to the State meetings just as the
local associations, and so control
their own work completely. They
have such State associations in Ar
kansas, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri,
Mississippi, and are moving to or
ganiZe them in all the States. Then,
too, they have a General association
for the whole country which has har-
monized Baptist mission work with
Baptist principles and liberties.
I am advised that there are eight
associations in Georgia and several
in Alabama which have withdrawn
from the convention, and I have nu-
merous letters since my return to
Georgia asking what can be done to
preserve our mission work from in
novations and harmonic our people.
I have suggested, after counsel
with good men, that we have some
correspondence and mass meetings in
the State-say four, or one in each
quarter of the State, and then a
central meeting, for counsel and dis
cussion. We can go over the facts
as they are in these meetings and
then formulate a definite PROPOSE
ton for submission to the churches