Book Reviews
“Some books are to be tasted, others swallowed.” Francis Bacon (d. 1626)
Church State Matters: Fighting for Religious Liberty in Our Nation’s Capital
J. Brent Walker, Macon, GA: Mercer University Press, 2008, $28.
Reviewed by Aubrey H. Ducker, Jr., Orlando , FL.
Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof. So reads the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. There are four other clauses covering freedom of speech, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and the right to petition, but the first sixteen words establish forever our right to be Baptists, Catholics, Lutherans, Quakers, Mormons, Hindus, Buddhists, Wiccans, atheists, or more importantly, not.
Why would you care about the Separation of Church and State? Because you are a Baptist! When Thomas Jefferson wrote tothe Danbury Connecticut Baptist Association affirming the First Amendment as “building a wall of separation between church and state,” he was simply citing the first Baptist in America , Roger Williams, who coined the phrase “wall of separation between the garden of the church and the wilderness of the world.” Jefferson, certainly no Baptist but a deist who believed Jesus was a great philosopher, insisted his tombstone bear witness to his drafting the State of Virginia’s Freedom of Religion Statute. He knew, as any who would observe history knows, a failure to separate God from country produces the King as God’s Representative on Earth, the Spanish Inquisition, the Salem Witch Trials, and more recently, the Taliban in Afghanistan .
While the United States of America espouses a shining example of religious freedom in the world, such freedom is only possible when guaranteed against government intrusion into religion. Such guarantee is largely due to the effort of Baptists like Roger Williams; Thomas Leland; George W. Truett; James Dunn, and now Brent Walker.
Who is Brent Walker? Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee in Washington, D.C., lawyer, minister, and amiable host and guide of any truly complete trip to Washington D.C. He goes by many titles,but most importantly, friend: friend of Baptists; friend of the First Amendment, and friend of the Court when he files briefs in the United States Supreme Court on issues of Church and State.
Brent Walkers latest book details American History through its intermingling with Baptist History and the uniquely Baptist ideal of a Free Church in a Free Society. You can receive the same history lessons by reading scores of books, letters, treatises and sermons, but Walker boils it all down to 253 pages of previously published articles and in some cases unpublished sermons leaving the reader educated, entertained, and proud. The book educates the reader on our “First Freedom,” as it remembers past controversies and personalities. Walkeralso shares sermons delivered on this important topic.
Read this book if you care about the Baptist heritage of religious freedom, the founding of the United States , or the meaning of the First Amendment. The book is available through booksellers, but it also may be acquired by donating $50 to the important work of the Baptist Joint Committee.
