Posted: 5/30/03
Heritage: Dissenters maintain 'good company'
By Ken Camp
Texas Baptist Communications
BELTON–Baptists are a dissenting people who have been hated for their dissent–sometimes even by fellow Baptists who found their views disturbingly close to New Testament teachings.
That's what happened to William Henry Brisbane, who went from supporting Southern slaveholders to advocating abolition, according to his great-great grandson Wallace Alcorn.
Alcorn, a Baptist educator from Austin, Minn., told his ancestor's story in his award-winning sermon, “Dissenting Baptists: The Glory of a Hated People.”
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He received the top award in the annual Baptist Heritage Preaching Contest and preached the sermon for the annual Baptist History & Heritage Society.
Brisbane became the most hated man in Beaufort County, S.C., for the sake of the gospel, Alcorn said.
“For turning from a pro-slavery position to anti-slavery activities; for selling and then freeing his own field slaves; for freeing his domestic slaves; for becoming a nationally known and strongly influential abolitionist; and for aiding fugitive slaves to escape the country through the underground railroad–for all this he was hated as a traitor to the South,” Alcorn said.
That meant Brisbane was in the long line and “good company” of deeply despised dissenting Baptists, he noted.
“Baptists–if not necessarily by theological definition then at least by historical description–are dissenters, and being hated has been part of our glorious heritage,” Alcorn said.
In addition to recognizing Alcorn for his prize-winning sermon, the Baptist History & Heritage Society also presented its Distinguished Service Award for outstanding contributions to Baptist history to Bill Reynolds of Fort Worth.
Reynolds is distinguished professor of church music emeritus at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, former director of church music at the Baptist Sunday School Board, and a prolific historian of gospel songs.
Others honored at the historical society's meeting included Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and Bill Pinson, executive director emeritus of the BGCT. They received the society's officer's award for their commitment to historic Baptist principles, history and heritage.
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