SOCIAL CONSCIENCE AND POLITICAL POWER AMONG NINETEENTH-CENTURY ENGLISH BAPTISTS

Abstract

During the nineteenth century, the forces of industrialization and rapid
population growth greatly transformed England, and the Baptist
denomination in that country experienced extraordinary changes as well.
As the denomination increased rapidly in size and as political
enfranchisement was extended to include men of the middle and
working classes, Baptists were transformed from a disadvantaged
outsider minority into a significant political faction within national
political life. As they surveyed the increasingly desperate conditions of
urban poverty from their new-found position of influence, Baptists
became increasingly concerned for the material as well as spiritual well-
being of the poor. Most Baptists came to believe that education and
temperance were two of the most important and effective mechanisms
for improving the condition of the poor in England. The dominant
force behind the Baptist decision to emphasize these social causes was
the principle of self-improvement. But if self-improvement was the
guiding principle behind the development of the Baptist social
conscience, that of church/state separation shaped their attitude towards
legislation aimed at social problems. Ironically, this commitment to
keeping the state from meddling with the church or infringing upon
individuals’ freedom of conscience caused Baptists in the 1870s to
oppose the Liberal government’s attempts to confront the social
problems that had become such a concern of English Baptists.