James M. Dunn and Soul Freedom

A self-described "Texas-bred, Spirit-led, Bible-teaching, revival-preaching, recovering Southern Baptist," James Milton Dunn, over the last fifty years, has been the most aggressive Baptist proponent for religious liberty in the United States. Soul freedom-voluntary uncoerced faith and an unfettered individual conscience before God-is the basis of his understanding of church-state separation and the historic Baptist basis of religious liberty. Through his ministry as a pastor, ethicist, and activist, James Dunn developed a distinctly Baptist approach to politics, showing fellow Baptists how to apply their Christianity in the public square on social and church-state issues in a manner consistent with the historic Baptist commitment to freedom. This ethic of political engagement promoted by Dunn was motivated by a loving concern for others and a commitment to the common good.