Innocent child being traumatized by introduction into religious cult? Check.
Demonic looking religious leader gleefully frightening baby and thereby making them easier to indoctrinate into faith system which promises protection and ultimate salvation? Check.
Barbaric ritual to which I would NEVER subject a child I loved? Double Check!
Not only demonic and scary, but think about what's IN that water after you dunk a kid in diapers. My church does immersion too, but only when an adult decides they want that. We don't even sprinkle babies or toddlers. They cannot make that kind of decision, and it is not up the a parent to make it for them. Church of the Brethren: for peace and adult believers.
ReplyDeleteThe water must be an incubator for all sorts of diseases after diaper dunks like that. This is a disgusting practice.
DeleteOMFG!
DeleteWow! Sarah Palins Bro! Evil personified!
It's just so weird, but we humans love us some rituals. And an excuse to party and get gifts. Funny, I was baptized and communionized and confirmed... and got money gifts from friends and relatives..which my parents used for themselves. The money was supposed to be for me in an account - that s what the gift givers intended. Its another form of grifting in many families.
ReplyDeleteSo primitive!!! What the hell is to be gained by this experience? How does this bring the baby closer to God? Why do parents allow this to continue? The priest really looks like he's having the time of his life! This is exactly why I am agnostic.
ReplyDeleteThe Baptist church still "dunks." A baby should not be put through this and does not have any idea what is going on!
DeleteThat's just flat put child abuse. I've only ever been to Catholic baptisms, and they are nothing like this. The shamans just pour a little jesus juice over the kid's head.
ReplyDeleteLook! The mom is horrified!
DeleteShe looks like she wants to grab her kid and run!
I much prefer to see a baptism where the baby is dressed in its long white gown and the priest/minister simply blesses its head with oil and water. Grabbing a baby like that and dunking it like a donut is just plain creepy.
ReplyDeleteBeaglemom
absolutely!
DeleteThen there is the bris. . . . .
ReplyDeleteA bris is just a circumcision which is commonly done in many cultures for religious and health reasons. The Jews call the man who performs the bris a mohel and it is a pretty straightforward and civilized procedure. It really cannot be compared to the dunking.
DeleteThat's from the Franken and Davis show for you youngsters.
DeleteDunked or sliced? So hard to choose. One person's culture is so often society's barbarism.
DeleteWhat religion is that? Baptisms I've been to (Catholic church, of which I'm no longer a member!) just run the water over their heads of the baby where it doesn't contact the face. I don't like the looks of the method in the photo. Torture to the baby!
ReplyDeleteIt is done by Baptists.
DeleteThe Baptist churches that I went to and exposed my children to do NOT do this. I was a Southern Baptist but as I tell everyone, I grew out of it. I am agnostic now, but I have never been to a church that did this.
DeleteI've never seen a baptism like that, and I've seen a few. That's horrible.
ReplyDeleteHey! That "priest" looks oddly familiar. Wait, don't tell me....ah yes! Is that Creepy Chuck's brother?
ReplyDeleteReligiosity and Views of Homosexuality
ReplyDeleteThere is a strong relationship between a country’s religiosity and opinions about homosexuality. There is far less acceptance of homosexuality in countries where religion is central to people’s lives – measured by whether they consider religion to be very important, whether they believe it is necessary to believe in God in order to be moral, and whether they pray at least once a day.
http://www.pewglobal.org/2013/06/04/the-global-divide-on-homosexuality/
I don't care what people believe as long as they don't try to impose it on me. But we know that's not the case with most religions as they believe in proselytizing. I don't go around trying to covert people to being atheist or agnostic. It's basically what I say to people that try to convert me, including my mother.
DeleteThat's to symbolically erase "original sin", whatever that is. The one that I never understood was circumcision. "If you REALLY love me, have your son's gentials mutilated as a sign of our 'covenant'"
ReplyDeleteLeave that decision up to the child when they reach the age of consent. If it ain't broke, don't fix it.
As I understand it, it is MUCH less of an ordeal to circumcize a male infant than an adult man. Remember, though controversial through the ages, there are purported health benefits to circumcision. As to whether or not it is mutilation, that is debatable depending upon your religious and scientific beliefs.
DeleteOMG, my first thought was "That's Dick Cheney!" And he looks like he's waterboarding the kid!
ReplyDeleteTom, in FL
its really scary...dont like...
ReplyDeleteI am wondering what the horrified young mother expected to happen. Did she not ask the priest beforehand? Nonetheless, this is total BS: an infant's soul is pure. BTW, how come the church so easily forgets these children when they become adolescents in crisis? I have to say I am totally confused with this dunking, the priest's apparent glee and the mother's shock. Could someone out there enlighten me?
ReplyDelete