Baptist Influence on the Republic of Texas

Earlier today, I posted the Declaration of Rights from the 1836 Constitution of the Republic of Texas on one of my other blogs, Dixie Historical Society. The following is one of seventeen Rights outlined at the end of the Texas Constitution.

Third. No preference shall be given by law to any religious denomination or mode of worship over another, but every person shall be permitted to worship God according to the dictates of his own conscience.

What makes this so interesting to me, is that this statement is clearly influenced by Baptist thought. Historically, Baptists have been the only religious group that have stood firmly in favor of complete and unabridged religious liberty and tolerance. The phrase, "the dictates of his own conscience", is one often used by Baptists, along with "Liberty of conscience". I began wondering what kind of an influence did Baptists have on the early settlement of Texas?

After doing some digging, I found my answers.

According to the Texas Almanac, Baptists were some of the first to evangelize Texas. Baptists began arriving in Texas shortly after Stephen Austin's call for colonists.

In 1820, Baptist preacher Joseph Bays camped on the American side of Sabine River with other colonists. Bays quickly began doing the typical Baptists thing - making a general nuisance of himself by getting the Gospel out. Bays ventured into the Spanish territory to preach, and was ordered out by the authorities. About three years later, he was arrested in San Felipe for preaching the Gospel, but escaped from his captors while being taken to San Antonio for trial. Sneaky Baptist.

The first recorded Baptist church in Texas was organized in Bastrop County in1834. There may have been more, but keep in mind, their churches were technically illegal in Texas at this point in time.

Baptists brought Sunday Schools to Texas very early on, the first of which were organized in 1829. One was organized by T. J. Pilgrim at San Felipe (the same place where a few years earlier Joseph Bays was arrested for preaching), and another was organized by New York Baptists at Matagorda.

Baptists would continue to have an influence in Texas throughout the Lone Star Republic years, and beyond. But it is clear that their efforts had an influence early on, particularly when it came to religious liberty.

Swampfox