Читать книгу The Standard Manual for Baptist Churches - Edward T. Hiscox - Страница 7

[1] This and several of the following sections are consistent with the “Star Book on Baptist Church Polity,“ on the same topics.

[2] In some States the laws do not recognize the church, that being a spiritual body, but incorporate a society, as it is called, consisting of all persons of full age who attend and support the worship. This society has charge of the financial affairs of the church, holds and keeps in repair its property, and conducts its secular concerns. It elects a specified number of trustees, as provided for by law, who are the legal representatives of the corporation. The members of the society, and the trustees elected, may or may not be members of the church. This whole society arrangement is a relic of the old New England parish system of the standing order, and is inconsistent with the freedom of church action, and antagonistic to Baptist Church independence. It is anti-Baptistic and anti-Scriptural. A church should be allowed to manage its own affairs, both temporal and spiritual: and should be protected by law in doing so. The society system has been abrogated in most of the States.