Spring Break
Debaptism an insult, not defense of religious right
Matthew Albright, The Daily Reveille (LSU)
Issue date: 4/2/09 Section: Opinion
(UWIRE) For many Christians, baptism is one of the most sacred ceremonies in which a person can participate.
Baptism is a symbol of a person's acceptance of the faith, a way of publicly affirming their beliefs.
But for some, it's a mark of shame - a mark they want to erase from history.
England's National Secular Society is doing everything in its power to help its formerly faithful members do just that.
Atheist John Hunt is a pioneer in an emerging movement toward "debaptism" - a formal rejection of the creeds of baptism.
Hunt, a member of the NSS, has petitioned the local clergy of the Church of England to officially remove his name from their baptismal records.
Apparently Hunt, who broke his faith as a teenager, wants to remove any trace of affiliation he might have with an organization preaching what he now believes to be superstition.
The Church has so far refused to comply.
"You can't remove from the record something that actually happened," said the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, according to the BBC. "Whether we agree whether it should have happened or not is a different matter."
In Naines' view, whatever his current beliefs about God are, Hunt can't pretend his baptism never happened.
Hunt's petition is a part of the NSS's attempt at convincing the Church of England to develop an official procedure for annulling baptisms. So far, such a procedure has not been devised.
In response to the Church's hesitance, the NSS has begun issuing documents called "certificates of debaptism."
The documents are deliberately constructed as satire of church ceremonies, and the ceremonies intentionally look homemade and use faux ceremonial language.
Hunt's certificate reads, "I, John Geoffrey Hunt, having been subjected to the rite of Christian baptism in infancy ... hereby publicly revoke any implications of that rite. I reject all its creeds and other such superstitions, in particular the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin."
Baptism is a symbol of a person's acceptance of the faith, a way of publicly affirming their beliefs.
But for some, it's a mark of shame - a mark they want to erase from history.
England's National Secular Society is doing everything in its power to help its formerly faithful members do just that.
Atheist John Hunt is a pioneer in an emerging movement toward "debaptism" - a formal rejection of the creeds of baptism.
Hunt, a member of the NSS, has petitioned the local clergy of the Church of England to officially remove his name from their baptismal records.
Apparently Hunt, who broke his faith as a teenager, wants to remove any trace of affiliation he might have with an organization preaching what he now believes to be superstition.
The Church has so far refused to comply.
"You can't remove from the record something that actually happened," said the Right Reverend Nick Baines, Bishop of Croydon, according to the BBC. "Whether we agree whether it should have happened or not is a different matter."
In Naines' view, whatever his current beliefs about God are, Hunt can't pretend his baptism never happened.
Hunt's petition is a part of the NSS's attempt at convincing the Church of England to develop an official procedure for annulling baptisms. So far, such a procedure has not been devised.
In response to the Church's hesitance, the NSS has begun issuing documents called "certificates of debaptism."
The documents are deliberately constructed as satire of church ceremonies, and the ceremonies intentionally look homemade and use faux ceremonial language.
Hunt's certificate reads, "I, John Geoffrey Hunt, having been subjected to the rite of Christian baptism in infancy ... hereby publicly revoke any implications of that rite. I reject all its creeds and other such superstitions, in particular the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin."
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