WHEREAS, Several bills now pending in Congress, especially the Aiken bill, Senate No. 199.
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, That we urge our citizens to write their representatives in the Congress protesting against the sections of the Senate bills mentioned above which would authorize the appropriation of public funds to non-public or parochial schools.
RESOLUTION ON CENSUS OF RELIGIOUS BODIES
WHEREAS, The 1936 Census of Religious Bodies, due to a threat in the questionnaire sent out by our Census Bureau, did not properly represent evangelical groups, and
WHEREAS, The incorrect census has caused embarrassment to Southern Baptists, and has furnished misinformation to many interested in religious data, and
WHEREAS, The Census Bureau is taking a 1946 Census of Religious Bodies with a questionnaire that does not violate Baptist conscience;
THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED:
1. That we recommend to the churches that they cooperate with the Census Bureau in taking this census, and that an effort be made to reach every church.
2. That the request of the Census Bureau, after every effort has been made to reach each church, to accept the reports not received, as published in the 1947 Handbook, and
3. That a copy of these resolutions be forwarded to the Census Bureau of the Department of Commerce.
RESOLUTION ON AMENDING THE CONSTITUTION OF THE UNITED STATES
WHEREAS, Due to increasing tendencies on the part of state governments and the federal government to circumvent the article of the Constitution written by our founding fathers establishing a wall of separation between church and state, it now seems necessary to give further expression to the meaning of the constitutional barriers against the appropriation of money for and to be used by sectarian institutions, and
WHEREAS, An amendment to the Constitution for this purpose would not be directed for or against any particular faith or creed, but apply to all faiths and creeds alike as was the original intent of the First Amendment and is in keeping with our traditional precepts of the absolute separation of church and state, and would be for making more definite and distinct the intended meaning of the First Amendment to the Constitution of the United States, and
WHEREAS, There has been introduced into the House of Representatives of the Congress by Joseph R. Bryson, M. C., South Carolina, the House Joint Resolution, 187, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States providing that neither Congress nor any of the several States shall and any educational institution wholly or in part under sectarian control, and for other purposes.
THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, That we the Southern Baptist Convention do hereby endorse this proposed Constitutional Amendment to prohibit sectarian appropriations to non-public educational institutions and assert our willingness to go further and prohibit the use of public monies for private, non-tax supported institutions of any kind, and urge its immediate passage.