BishopAccountability.org
	Colorado Springs Dad Claims Son Was Bullied into Baptism By Miranda K. Bacon Examiner May 6, 2009 http://www.examiner.com/x-274-Denver-Crime-Examiner~y2009m5d6-Colorado-Springs-dad-claims-son-was-bullied-into-baptism A Colorado Springs man is upset because he claims his 17-year-old son was baptized at a local church without his permission. The boy told his father he’d been invited to the Baptist church by someone he met while walking home from school, and two Sundays ago was baptized before he know what was happening to him, reports said this week. The boy says he was told to put on a robe, then, “Saw one little boy get baptized but I didn’t know he was taking me to get baptized.” The boy’s father, upon learning of the surreptitious “saving,” called the church and when his calls weren’t returned, went to the church with a reporter. The reporter was asked to leave, but a church pastor spoke with the man and his son, claiming he believed the boy to be 18 years old. The church has reportedly twice before been accused of baptizing children without their parents’ permission in 1993 and 1997. The church lost a civil suit in 1997. Religion, or faith is a highly personal choice that in no way requires a parent or guardian’s consent. That being said, I don’t think such a decision should be forced on a child, with or without his parents’ knowledge. In my opinion, children are exposed to religion far too young and are therefore brainwashed into a belief system before they are old enough to make up their minds for themselves – leaving them to blindly believe a faith they have never seen beyond, or to renounce said faith later in life if they grow to disagree with it. I think what happened to this boy isn’t completely uncommon, but I disagree with the situation for a very different reason. I understand that boy’s father is his legal guardian, but the consent we should be worried about in this case is the boy’s. He’s old enough to say “yes” or “no” to things. But if he didn’t completely understand he was to be baptized, could he really have consented? And if he didn’t understand what was happening to him, does the baptism even count? Now, I’ll come clean here that I am not familiar with any religion (I only understand the extreme basics of most of them) but I was under the impression that a baptism only counts if the person being baptized “accepts the Lord into his heart.” And In the case of babies, don’t the parents have to promise to raise the child with the faith of the church? If neither happened, shouldn’t the baptism be null and void? Either way, I think it’s a pretty sorry situation if a church has taken to recruiting minors off of the street into their ranks to bost membership. I know times are tough and Americans’ faith in religion is waning, but children can’t have that much allowance to tithe, can they?
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