Baptists have never been party to oppression of conscience. Our contention is not for more toleration, but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty. Toleration implies that someone falsely claims the right to tolerate. Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from people, while liberty is a gift from God.

It is the consistent and insistent contention of our Baptist people, always and everywhere, that religion must be forever voluntary and uncoerced. And that it is not the perogative of any power, whether civil or ecclesiastical, to compel anyone to conform to any religious creed of worship.