Why "Baptist"?

[captain_solo]

Yes, at least in the U.S. Baptist churches are mostly influenced by Puritan (arguably mainline Reformation Theology) combined with the Holiness movement (All the lovely Finney, Keswick, Pop Culture goodness)

Thus you have a wide swath of theological influence, from highly reformed, systematic calvinist thought, to the let go and let gid heretical teachings of Palmer, Smith, et al.

I don't lump those groups in specifically with the anabaptists, Puritans were obviously less radical than a significant majority of the radical reformation which included many groups that were correctly labeled by The Church (little c catholic) as heretical. Denial of the trinity, denial of Jesus human nature, weird heresies about His blood, etc (sounds familiar these days because certain fundy camps have practically adopted variations of these)

Also due to the non-hierarchical structure, many of these have become regionally bound and there are so many different splinters that its tough to define exactly what is a baptist. I prefer the term baptistic - referring to the historical distinctives, rather than using a label that carries the denominational connotations with it. It is much clearer and more accurate to say I believe in this list of distinct doctrinal and practical teaching than to just say I am Baptist. It means many different things in different parts of the world.