This is the name of a layman revolt against the stand of Kentucky Baptists for Bible and Baptist baptism and against alien baptism. They announce that one hundred laymen were present at its organization in Louisville, December 29, 1936.They charge that the General Association of Kentucky Baptists "set itself up as an ecclesiastical hierarchy;" that means in plain language that the Baptist preachers of Kentucky who have stood against the alien immersion of the Georgetown President are a bunch of self-appointed bosses. May God give it to the Baptist Churches of Kentucky to answer in unmistakable terms this unfounded charge.
Mr. McChesney of Frankfort, who presided, said: "Each local Baptist church is a sovereign body, with no human agency higher up to tell us what to do." He is right in statement but wholly wrong in application. The independence of each local church, we love and will defend even to death. But the question here is one of a revolt against the Baptist Churches of Kentucky. Thrice, in Henderson, in Ashland, and in Paducah, Kentucky Baptists have spoken.
He has thrown out the challenge. Let us take it up. I suggest, as I thought to do recently at Paducah, that a referendum on this Sherwood affair be taken by the individual churches of Kentucky.
Before the meeting in Louisville next fall, let each church speak its mind, and then we shall know. We open our columns to every brother who would like to write his opinion on this matter. If you have a better plan than the suggested referendum, let us have it. Make it brief and pointed (Address: 2627 Jackson, Paducah, Ky.) They insinuate that the General Association is composed of preachers only and that on their own authority. Note two grievous mistakes: that is a slander against all the good Baptist laymen who attend; no preacher is a messenger unless appointed by his church or district association. The real insult is against the churches and associations who sent these preachers.
The promise to circulate "a printed statement of grievances and intentions." Let them tell us how many of these one hundred laymen had authority from their own church to take this stand; also, how many Baptist Churches of Kentucky were represented by this one hundred.
=========== [From West Kentucky Baptist School Voice, Murray, Kentucky, Volume 5, April, 1937, p. 4. Document from Boyce Digital Library, SBTS Archives. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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