Baptist Pastors Adopt Protest At Conference Meeting
The Paducah SunThe West Kentucky Baptist Pastor's Conference meeting at Mayfield, Ky., Monday morning, April 8, 1946, adopted the following resolutions:Inasmuch as it is commonly reported among us that some of our pastors and churches are encouraging the good women of our churches in conducting prayer meetings and other public services in mixed assemblies of our churches which is plainly and clearly forbidden in the scriptures (1 Corinthians 14:34 and 1 Timothy 2:8-15;)
And a further and even more dangerous practice of pulpit affiliation between some of our Baptist pastors and the pastors and ministers of other denominations, to the extent that men who are heretical in belief and practices of the time-honored faith of our Baptist people have been brought to preach in our pulpits, which practice is also an open violation of the Holy Scriptures which say, "If there come any unto you, and bring not this doctrine, receive him not into your house, neither bid him God speed: for he that biddeth him God speed is partaker of his evil deeds." - 2 Jno. 10, 11;
We therefore, in love of the truth offer these resolutions of protest, urging our brethren to desist from such practices, and "earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered to the saints." Jude 3.
Respectfully submitted,
L. W. CARLIN,
L. I. KINGSTON,
GALEN HARGROVE,
Committee.
[From The Paducah Sun, Wednesday Apr 10, 1946, p. 12.]____________________ The West Kentucky Baptist Pastor's Conference was a monthly gathering of pastors that met from 1932 up through the 1960s. This resolution was placed in The Paducah Sun newspaper on April 10, 1946, and shows how doctrinally conservative Kentucky Baptist pastors used to be. It is interesting to note that although the conference included virtually all of the Baptist pastors in the Jackson Purchase, this resolution passed unanimously.
The background to this resolution can be seen in the March 11, 1946 minutes which read, "Motion carried that this body accept the confession of Bro. Parrish and give him the right hand of fellowship after he asked forgiveness for having a preacher of another faith to fill his pulpit." A.M. Parrish was then the pastor of the Immanuel Baptist Church in Paducah.
The three men who formed the committee which authored this resolution were key Baptist leaders in west Kentucky. When Mid-Continent Baptist Bible College was formed in 1949, L.W. Carlin taught the first class. In the early 1930s, L.I. Kingston planted the Antioch Baptist Church in Detroit, the second Southern Baptist church ever started in Michigan. Galen Hargrove pastored the Milburn Baptist Church.
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[Submitted by Ben Stratton. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]
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