I've heard the Baptists credited with fighting for the separation of Church and State while the Constitution was being considered.

I've heard Baptists from some place called "Westboro" say some shocking things.

I've even been a Baptist myself. In fact, my first response when asked what variety of Christian I am is always "Baptist," even though "(ana)baptismatic" would be more accurate.

But I'd never heard this one before:

When the Rev. Martin Luther King was murdered, Jackson dipped his hands in King's blood and wiped them down the front of his shirt. Later, Jackson appeared on television and spoke to the Chicago City Council wearing the shirt. There are different interpretations of this gesture - including that Jackson was doing the Baptist thing and trying to absorb power from the slain leader's blood - but Mrs. Loretta Scott King didn't speak to Jackson for years.

That's Kathleen Parker (author of Save the Males) on The Corner, from a post responding to the recent Jesse Jackson/anti-Obama controversy.

Does anybody have any idea what she's talking about when she says, "doing the Baptist thing and trying to absorb power from the slain leader's blood"? I remember no such "power absorption" rituals from my time as a member of a Baptist congregation. I don't even remember any doctrinal points that would lead any Baptist to think you could absorb someone's power, much less through their blood.

And if Baptists did have such rituals -- involving blood -- should they be allowed to practice them? When does a creepy religious practice become legitimately bannable (sp?) in our Separation-of-Church-and-State system?