Brownsville herald. [volume] (Brownsville, Tex.) 1910-current, 1923-07-23
BAPTISTS SEEK
EQUAL RIGHTS
FOR ALL PEOPLE
Absolute Religious Liberty is
Necessary for Universal
Happiness, Peace and Pro.
sress, Speaker Says
(By The Associated Press)

STOCKHOLM, July 23.-Baptists Of
the world not on1 seek absolute relg-
ious liberty for themselves but an equal
right for all other believers and non
believers to worship God according to
the dictates of their conscience or re-
fuse to worship God at all, DIR. T.. Y.
Mullins of Louisville, KY. president Of
the Southern Bsptist Theological Sem
mary and Of the Southern Baptist
Convention, told the Baptist World Al
lance this afternoon in an address on
The Baptist Conception Of Religious
Liberty" Baptists were instrumental in
securing guarantees for full religious
liberty in the American Constitution
and Baptists have flourished there us
nowhere else on the globe, and they are
now lending their influence in an ef.
for 10 induce governments. bith civil
and ecclesiastical. to permit the largest
possible liberty on the part of all in
dividuals in their approach to God, the
speaker said.
Religious liberty rests upon mans
original creation in the image of God"
Or. Mullins began. land man as per-
SON created in Gods image. free and
spiritual. competent to deal directly
with God, with an upward look, an
endless discomfort with the finite and
temporal, a passionate yearning for the
infinite and eternal; man. endowed with
aconscicnce ringing in the soul like an
alarm bell araist wrong doing; man,
with = will of his own which he can
misuse and bring into moral ruin, but
which he can surrender to God; man.
with an intellect hungering for infin.
ite truth and eternally discontented;
man with a heart which no earthly OBJ
ject can satisfy; man. self-willed and
sinful and then penitent and believ-
ing. redeemed by the power Of Jesus
Christ. Redeemer and Lord; man, crea-
ted in the divine image. with the wit
ness OF the spirit IN his soul, telling him
Of his eternal destiny; man. as a child
Of God seeking to walk worthily Of
his calling. and heir Of all the ages
this II the..bsing and these--ths- reiig-
ious cndowments which demand that
great boon which we call religious lib
erty."
Declaring that religious liberty ex-
cludes certain things and implies GER
tain other things, DR.. Mullins said that
IL excluded all state authority in re-
lieion. the principle of liberation in re-
ligion, as where the state puts its pow
er and prestige behind one form Of re-
ligion and merely tolerates others, the
right Of the state to impose taxes for
the support of one form of religion
against the conscience Of the people;
the imposition Of religious creeds by
ecclesiastical authority. centralized &C.
Il n.
ators and the sacramento power Of sal
vation. and infant baptism; while
among other things which religious lib
erty implies the speaker mentioned the
right Of direct access to God on the
part Of every individual, the right to
search for truth in. religion. the right
Of free utterance and propagation Of
the truth, the right of equal privilege
in the church for all believers, the
right Of free association and organiza-
tion for religious purposes. and the
right Of men to demand Of govern
ments under which they live protec-
tion in the free exercise Of their re-
li9ion.
Setting forth some Of the duties
which are imposed by religious liberty
Or. Mullins enumerated that the
searching for and discovering the
truth, that Of sacrificing for the truth,
that Of loyalty to the state. and high
est Of duties. loyalty to Jesus
Christ Mot license. self-will or hu-
man will, but Gods will as revealed in
Jesus Christ is the goal Of history and
Of religious liberty, the speaker said.
"There is no danger in this religious
liberty centered and anchored in Jesus
Christ"