Staff Articles
Brian Kaylor serves as
Communications Specialist for the
Baptist General Convention of
Missouri and has worked for the BGCM
since May of 2003. He is currently a
doctoral student in Communication at
the University of Missouri, where he
also teaches undergraduate
communication courses.
Kaylor has a B.A. in Communication
and Christian Ministry from Southwest
Baptist University and an M.A. in
Communication from the University of
Missouri. He also completed one year
towards an M.Div. at Midwestern
Theological Seminary. He previously
served as pastor of Union Mound Baptist
Church and worked for Mountain Country
Ministries of Tri-County Baptist
Association. He and his wife, Jennifer,
were married in June of 2004. Kaylor has
won several awards for editorial and
academic writing, including some from
the Baptist Communicators Association
and the National Communication
Association.
Send an email to Brian Kaylor: bkaylor@baptistgcm.org
Hard Cases - Tuesday, August 31, 2010
It is often said that "hard cases make bad law." Yet, it could also be said that hard cases provide the true test as to whether or not we actually follow our laws and principles. For several weeks now, a proposed Islamic center in New York City has sparked a lot of media attention. Many politicians and commentators seem to believe that freedom of religion rights for Muslims do not exist until miles away from the Ground Zero site. However, if we truly believe in religious liberty, then we must support such rights for all. To do otherwise is to ignore the wisdom of early American leaders like James Madison, Thomas Jefferson, and John Leland. These men fought for religious liberty rights. Among those championing the cause were Baptists, who were a persecuted religious minority group at the time. Madison strongly believed the nation must provide for "the freedom of religious opinion & worship" for "every sect." More importantly, Madison wrote in a letter to Jefferson that the U.S. Constitution "opened a door for Jews Turks & infidels." Madison's view of freedoms for Turks - a term in that time for Muslims - should serve as an important lesson for today's religious and political leaders.
Last year, I attended the first national Muslim-Baptist dialogue in Boston. One of the Muslim speakers noted that Baptists "contributed tremendously in this debate" and led "this struggle of separation of church and state." He then urged Baptists to help teach the importance of religious liberty to Muslims, because they "need to understand how [Baptists] were able to define the role of religion in a democracy." Although inspiring at the time, his comments should challenge us all even more today. We need to capture that spirit of loving our neighbors and working toward peace, and we need to recommit to standing strong for religious liberty for all. We cannot claim to be for religious liberty (and thus claim to follow our Baptist heritage), if we only support our freedoms. It is in hard cases involving the rights of others where we learn if we truly believe something (Jesus made a similar point in Luke 14:12-14). Sadly, it seems many Baptists are proving they do not actually believe in religious liberty. Let us not be among those who shirk away.
