WHEREAS, Our Baptist churches have developed on the basis of an emphasis on the voluntary personal response to the inner compulsion of the Holy Spirit leading men to faith in Jesus Christ, and
WHEREAS, History has demonstrated often and in numerous and large areas of the world that religious persuasion or coercion by the use of political power engenders antagonistic attitudes toward the churches and the Christian message,
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:
(1) That we reaffirm our devotion to the voluntary principle of religious commitment;
(2) That we declare anew our devotion to the principle of religious liberty for all people everywhere;
(3) That we urge the agencies and the churches throughout this Convention by both word and example to make known our Baptist aversion to any effort to use the administrative, legislative, or judicial powers of government to lay the weight of a feather upon the conscience of any man in the realm of religion by privilege or penalty.