One poster wrote:

In a way it seems quite ironic that we would have Baptists defending the placing of a flag on the coffin in a Christian funeral.

Another responded:

No more ironic, perhaps, than Baptists defending the rights of atheists not to believe.

The first replied:

I'm not sure if that was meant to be entirely tongue-in-cheek or not. But defending the rights of athiests not to believe is indeed one of the things Baptist have stood for. Our historic commitment to freedom of religion has meant that, in order to defend our own right to hold a non-conformist minority faith position, we assert the right of everyone to be free from having any religious position imposed upon them. That includes defending the right of people to put their faith in the non-existence of God. We don't defend non-belief, but we do defend the right to it. That would be a classic Baptist stance, so I don't see the irony you're pointing to. Or is the electronic medium hiding the inflection of a joke?