Comments on: Baptism

By: xJane

xJane — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 17:33:09 +0000

Wren: you are correct (I must have been thinking “accept Jesus” b/c it took me three re-readings of the paragraph to realize the mistake). I shall change it

Mark: I had read that, too, which is kinda funny to me. Although, I guess it makes sense: no matter how much you want to ~~except~~ accept Jesus, Satan has to be formally removed first.

By: Mark

Mark — Sat, 01 Mar 2008 15:43:29 +0000

Your post made me think of the Catholic rite of baptisam. Did you know that he prayer that the priest recites during this rite is the same prayer that is recited during an exorcisam? True, the belief is that until the child is baptized the devil may possess the child. Interesting isn’t it.

By: Samuel Skinner

Samuel Skinner — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 23:36:06 +0000

Never baptised- my parents have two religious backrounds, but they were essentially atheists. The bright side is I got to sets of holidays.

Welcoming atheists… we can give cookies. I mean it is in the motto “join us- we have cookies!” Aside from that I can’t imagine a deconversion ceremony- the downside of lacking a belief is you don’t have a common belief. Maybe there could be a ceremony for antitheists, but I can’t imagine that going over well.

By: wren

wren — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 00:13:22 +0000

I was baptized as a baby. I couldn’t even tell you what church. I was confirmed as a Lutheran in 8th grade after 2 years of midweek classes memorizing Martin Luther’s interpretation of the apostles creed and why astrology, tarot cards, and the Catholics are wrong and the triune God is the only right way. Oh yeah, and memorizing a lot of uplifting verses like “The wages of sin is DEATH” (cue the ominous music). I don’t remember anyone asking me if I wanted to be confirmed. It was just expected.

At 25 I was baptized lds, I told no one in my family for at least a year or so. Actually, I’m not sure if I ever told them I was baptised. It was at least a year before I told them I was a member, anyway. So I knew no one there except the missionaries. A member of the bishopric welcomed me. Probably the best ‘welcoming’ thing was the new member discussions.

Personally, I don’t know about kids becoming official members of churches. I side with the Anabaptists like the Mennonites and Amish. It was definitely a conscious choice as an adult.

PS, I think you meant to use the word “except” instead of “accept” in the second paragraph… changes the meaning entirely!

By: Lessie

Lessie — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 22:12:20 +0000

I was eight when I was baptized. I remember going to see my bishop so he could interview me (although the only question I remember him asking is what does baptism do and I said wash away my sins). I was nervous about getting baptized (I think more because of the big crowd of spectators than anything). I remember crying a lot about it and my mom asking me “Don’t you want to get baptized?” and me thinking “I don’t know” but I said yes anyway. I was baptized in February, and the water heater at church went out or something and so the water was really cold in the font. There were also two other children being baptized that night and I remember the other girl and I doing a thing we called “the funky chicken” cause we were so cold. The little boy that was baptized had to go under three times because his feet kept floating out of the water. I also remember feeling a little guilty that I didn’t have any life changing revelations (and lying about feeling all warm and fuzzy when I received the Holy Ghost–okay, so maybe I lied more often than I thought as a child). I remember I received my first journal and set of scriptures for a gift commemorating the occasion. Not very complex, but I was only eight, so things weren’t overly complex for me yet.