List of Baptists


This list of Baptists covers those who were members of Baptist churches or raised in such. It does not imply that all were practicing Baptists or remained so all their lives. As an article of faith, Baptists baptize believers after conversion, not infants.
Abbreviations of countries: Australia ; Brazil ; Burma ; Canada ; China ; Rep. of Congo ; Rep. of Congo ; England ; India ; Isle of Man ; Jamaica ; Japan ; New Zealand ; Puerto Rico ; Romania ; Scotland ; Sri Lanka, Ceylon ; Ukraine ; United States and previous colonies

Athletes

Authors and journalists

Criminals

  • Edgar Ray Killen, sawmill operator, part-time Baptist minister, American Ku Klux Klan kleagle, directed murders of James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner
  • Jesse James, outlaw, son of a Baptist minister, Confederate soldier
  • Harry Longabaugh, "The Sundance Kid", train robber and outlaw

Entertainers, movie and television personalities

Industrialists and business leaders

Jurists

Politicians

Preachers and theologians

Others

Fictional Baptists

Film

Music

  • "Preachin Blues" contains the lines
  • "Cowboys Days" contains the lines
  • "Guilty" contains the lines
  • "Lonely Lubbock Lights", a singer at the Broken Spoke reveals that a love interest is the daughter of a Baptist minister who is keeping them apart.
  • "Southern Baptist Heartbreak" contains the lines
  • "Uneasy Rider", a hippie is stranded in a bar in the deep South and the locals start making trouble when the fast-thinking hippie accuses one of the locals of being a spy sent to infiltrate the Ku Klux Klan. The local replies that he's a "faithful follower of Brother John Birch and a member of Antioch Baptist Church."

Literature

Television

  • Designing Women, Julia Sugarbaker, presumably Suzanne Sugarbaker and Charlene Frazier. Specifically, Charlene reveals that she is a "First Baptist" in the episode "Oh Suzanna". In the episode "How Great Thou Art" Charlene quits her church when she discovers her pastor is opposed to the ordination of women, which was her dream at one time. Mary Jo Shively briefly dates Julia's minister.
  • Sanford And Son, Fred Sanford's former sister-in-law, Aunt Esther is a devout Baptist who often annoys Fred with her constant bible-thumping.
  • The Jeffersons, George Jefferson is revealed to be a Baptist during the third season in "The Christmas Wedding" episode where his son Lionel weds Jenny Willis. The wedding is held up because George wants a Baptist minister to conduct the service while the Willises want a minister of their denomination. Jenny and Lionel quickly marry when a minister, is going door-to-door with a group of carolers.
  • Gimme a Break!, Nell Harper is the daughter of a Baptist minister.
  • Golden Girls, Blanche Deveraux is a Southern Baptist
  • The Grady Nutt Show, Rev. Grady Williams, a minister in a short-lived sitcom on NBC who balances family and ministry as he does in the pilot episode where he must preach the funeral of a disliked man while coming to terms with teenage daughter's dating.
  • LA Law, Jane Halliday, fundamentalist Baptist and attorney, alumna of Bob Jones University. Introduced to the series in the eighth season premiere, when she revealed she intended to remain a virgin until her wedding night.
  • The Waltons, almost all principal characters were Baptists or attended the Baptist church. In the fourth-season episode "The Sermon", Rev. Matthew Fordwick asks John Boy to deliver a sermon while he goes on honeymoon. In the fifth-season episode "The Baptism", John Walton, Sr. refuses to attend a tent revival or be baptized.
  • Young Sheldon, young Sheldon Cooper, raised a Baptist, lacks a belief in God. In the 2019 episode "Albert Einstein and the Story of Another Mary", he considers converting to Judaism to emulate famous scientists like Albert Einstein, but abandons this, telling his parents he will remain "the atheist Baptist you know and love."