Since the onset of Christianity, Christians have been seen building large places of worship. They have imposed cathedrals that have dominated the architectural profiles, which have filled the economies of cities in the medieval European era and spread worldwide due to globalization (Sorrells, 2020). The Baptist church is also part of the protestants congregation, which has spread across the globe. However, the Baptist church has undergone a commodification that has affected its believers in various ways. Commodification can be described as the process or action of converting an idea, product, or service for commercial purposes (Young & Markham, 2019). The commodification of the Baptist church commenced way before the civil rights movements, which would later influence its spread across the United States and beyond. The Baptist church has emerged as a popular religious culture across the media, which has transformed over the years, with the members portraying various beliefs, and values.
Media Representations
Some of the Baptist church members believe that there was an unbroken succession in the times of Jesus Christ and John the Baptist. During the 16th century, the church was formulated as part of the Protestants who opposed the Roman Church doctrine followed by the Catholics (Applegate & Cohen, 2017). Some people also agree that the church was an English-speaking denomination associated with Puritanism and term the church as one of the systems of congregationalism. There are two clusters in the Baptist church widely known as the General and Particular Baptists. This has created discussions on which group precisely adheres to the doctrine. Particular Baptists follow various teachings of a precise penance that Jesus Christ died for only a few. They are also sturdily linked with the overhaul of doctrines of Calvinism that John Calvin formulated. On the other hand, General Baptists hold the principle of a universal penance in that Jesus Christ died for all individuals and not only for a few individuals.
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Beliefs and Values
The two categories of Baptist members were notable due to differences emanating from churchmanship associated with their facts of foundation. With the General Baptists, their beliefs and values emerged as a result of the English Separatists. However, the Particular Baptists possessed their beliefs on the foundation in the non-Separatist independence. This scenario created more divisions in the Baptist church with differing ideologies. However, the non-Separatists and Separatists were considered Congregationalists. The two had a mutual share of similar convictions concerning the governance and nature of their religion. Subsequently, they alleged that Christianity was to be well-organized, conferring to the design of the New Testament cathedrals. However, this meant that the cathedrals would be self-sufficient entities that would be composed of only believers.
The commodification of the church escalated with the differences in the attitude concerning the Church of England. Additionally, the Separatists conformed to the belief that the Church was an untrue church and should break away from its doctrines. However, the non-Separatists were more preserved in their attitude and pursued maintaining a unifying bond with all the Christians (Trihastutie, 2019). They supposed that it was essential to detach from the parish cathedrals' corrupt activities and alleged that this was taken for a fissure of Christian aid to decline all systems of fellowship and communication. However, with many non-Separatists withdrawing and developing a devotion of their own and find various challenges, they would not go beyond in proclaiming that the parish cathedrals were bereft of a factual church's inscriptions.
Globalization
Particular Baptists represented the main enduring Baptist tradition, but General Baptists became the foremost to be internationally recognized. The General Baptists would later seek asylum in the Netherlands, with a group led by John Smyth, a Cambridge graduate, while a different group was led by John Robinson and moved to Leiden. It was not until the query of baptism arose in the definition of church membership that Smyth and convince his congregation. Smyth of the Separatists believed that all churches that adhered to the apostolic doctrine would have their members considered saints. This meant that baptism was supposed only to be restricted to only the followers. Smyth would later meet the Mennonite community in Amsterdam, who questioned him on baptism (Hayami, 2018). After deliberations with the community, Smyth would later recommend a union with the Mennonite community.
The Particular Baptists would later abide by the non-Separatists doctrine that Henry Jacob initiated. Jacob was from Southwark. His members would later withdraw due to the poor leadership portrayed by John Spilsbury, forming the first-ever Particular Baptist Church (Masenya & Malesela, 2018). However, Baptist ministers won many believers from around the world. The utmost gains were from the Particular Baptists with their counterparts, anguishing from defections to the then-popular culture of the Quakers. Subsequently, the Particular Baptists moved away into and became hyper and defensive Calvinism culture that swept across Europe.
Conclusion
When religion turns into a commodity, it is competitively sold in the economy. This process is referred to as commodification. The Baptist church has, over the years, evolved due to the different reasons mentioned in the paper. Commodification can be described as transforming or changing something into a product for various commercial purposes. The commodification of the Baptist church culture commenced long ago with a conflict between the Particular and the General Baptists. The Baptist church members remain divided as it spreads across the world. Religion should not be a commodity to be sold or controlled. Various religious groups use history and beliefs as the dominating factors to outsell their doctrines. The economy turns into a battleground where the majority will always win.
References
Applegate, M., & Cohen, J. (2017). Communicating graphically. Cultural Politics , 13 (1), 81-100. https://doi.org/10.1215/17432197-3755204
Hayami, Y. (2018). Karen culture of evangelism and early Baptist mission in nineteenth century Burma. Social Sciences and Missions , 31 (3-4), 251-283. https://doi.org/10.1163/18748945-03103006
Masenya, M., & Malesela, M. (2018). Church breakaways as a prototype of commercialisation and commodification of religion in the pentecostal church movement in South Africa: Considering curricula offerings for pastors. STJ | Stellenbosch Theological Journal , 4 (2). https://doi.org/10.17570/stj.2018.v4n2.a29
Sorrells, K. (2020). Social justice, diversity, and intercultural–global citizenship education in the global context. The Routledge Handbook of Language and Intercultural Communication , 258-394. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003036210-29
Trihastutie, N. (2019). American televangelical frames: Religiosity, spirituality, and commodification. Lire Journal (Journal of Linguistics and Literature) , 3 (2), 91-106. https://doi.org/10.33019/lire.v3i2.53
Young, M., & Markham, F. (2019). Tourism, capital, and the commodification of place. Progress in Human Geography , 44 (2), 276-296. https://doi.org/10.1177/0309132519826679
