Did you see "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" There's a wonderful depiction of a river baptism included. Alison Krauss sang Down to the River to Pray while the baptisms took place.
Posted on 06/04/2004 6:44:42 AM PDT by Ligeia
Edited on 07/20/2004 11:51:53 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
RICHMOND, Va. - Free-speech advocates warned Thursday they will file a federal lawsuit if officials at a public park block a baptism planned for this weekend in the Rappahannock River.
Kent Willis, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Virginia, said he has prepared a temporary restraining order against the park if officials try to interfere with an Episcopal pastor's plans to hold a baptism there on Sunday.
(Excerpt) Read more at timesdispatch.com ...
Think "state park" rather than "amusement park".
This place has trees, picnic tables and grills, and a softball field, pretty much.
The Baptist minister who was thrown out said he selected the particular spot because there were a lot of shade trees for the witnesses to stand under. It doesn't sound at all like an obtrusive spectacle to me. And the Episcopal pastor says he has used this place for baptisms dozens of times. The parkies must have discovered the Baptist minister by pure dumb luck.
I just don't know why this should bother anyone any more than seeing people fishing, swimming, or throwing a stick to a dog in the river.
This is no more offensive than seeing two or three Christians studying the bible at a coffee shop. It's done all the time.
It's sad, but true - you can read the Manifesto of the Communist Party in a coffee shop in a large northeastern city and no one thinks anything about it. If you read the Bible in a that same coffee shop, you are likely to be labeled a freak. We need your prayers.
A baptism is when someone makes public thier private commitment. I see nothing wrong doing this in public. It is not a sideshow, it is not grandstanding. It is someone displaying, publicly, that they have given their life to Jesus. And we're talking about a public park, not a water park.
I would hope you are saying that in jest.!!
It is neither your, nor my business if someone wants to proclaim their faith publicly.
Used to see a baptism at the junction of the Thornton and Hazel rivers every now and again. I don't know if it was immersion though -- sometimes the Thornton ran pretty shallow. ;-D
I was once severely inconvenienced by a total immersion baptism ceremony.
We were skinny dipping. All, and I mean all our clothes were on the river bank, when about thirty cars come pulling up on the opposite riverbank. Still not sure whether it was Baptist or A.M.E. But, they all waded on into the water. We never had a chance to get to our clothes. We had the good sense to float down around the bend. There we found a cardboard box and "convinced" one guys younger brother to get into it, and go get our clothes. He looked sort of like the guy in a barrel after a bad night at poker.
We still laugh about that Sunday afternoon when we get together.
So are you saying it was the public display of his faith that got Jesus Crucified? I guess you are saying he should have shutup.?
Who are you, and what have you done with RaceBannon?
Thank you! :)
My concern was the apparent act of defiance, to demand that the park submit to the Church, not that i was saying that public profession of faith was wrong, I was under the impression this was a different park than what hellinahandcart explained, I thought this was like a 6-Flags.
To me, to do it at a place like 6-Flags would be a grandstand maneuver, not a Holy, Savred event for a believer to publically proclaim their faith.
Plus, you guys in the south are old fashioned! And, the water is a lot warmer! We wouldn't think of doing that stuff up here until after Memorial day anyways! :)
And for th life of me, I NEVER heard of any river Baptism up here at all, not once! We do it at the Churches that have baptismals! Else ANY spot in the river would be nice, not some park.
I was concerned it was an in-your-face act, to force people to see what you are doing, not an act of doing it because it is an act of obedience to God's word.
Of course, what may be true here, is that Churches were Baptising people in that spot for over a century, and because so many people came there, the state decided to make it a park...
I have seen the state make a park out of a swimming hole up here, maybe the state made a park out of a local swimming hole that was also used by the Churches for Baptisms.
Someone asked, Do Churches wait 6 months before they Baptise someone?
That is a good idea sometimes, to see if the person is genuinely saved, to watch them to see if their conversion is genuine, otherwise, you would be baptising someone who was never regenerated. You would be misleading them and the church as to what you were doing and making a mockery of the event.
We'd have to wait until July up here.
Did you see "O Brother, Where Art Thou?" There's a wonderful depiction of a river baptism included. Alison Krauss sang Down to the River to Pray while the baptisms took place.
I think it depends on the church. In the Episcopal Church, adult baptisms are usually performed during the Easter Vigil (though mine wasn't), and the candidates have spent some time studying before then. This man in the story who's getting baptized, is mentally handicapped, and there may not have been time to prepare him for Easter. Or there may be another reason (this pastor apparently likes river baptisms a lot, and it's usually still cold at Easter).
Uh, then I guess John the Baptist was wrong, too?
Where in the world did John the Baptist baptise people? I don't understand folks who think the only natural place for a baptism is in a 6' x 6' cement pond in a church.
Where is "up here?" (just curious) Ronald Reagan was baptized in a river (I think it was a river, but it could have been a lake.) in Illinois.
I'm not sure I understand the concept of waiting to see if someone is saved.
Some churches wait to see if the person actually shows fruit.
Some count that as a desire to learn the Bible, how their appearance changes, their talk, how they describe things
People who were into a drug lifestyle will still use drug terms when they get straight, but people who get saved will feel remorse over the associations, the manner of dress, the music they listen to, the things that make them talkative.
Fruit is hard to see, but if a person seems to have undergone no transformation at all yet claims to be saved, there is a reason to doubt. Like aperson who says they got saaved but continues to go to bars or pick up women or use foullanguage, even after being reminded this is all wrong
In this day and age, Christian maturity takes a lot longer because ofthe things around us that control us, that affect our thinking.
Some churches wait to see if the person actually shows fruit.
Some count that as a desire to learn the Bible, how their appearance changes, their talk, how they describe things
People who were into a drug lifestyle will still use drug terms when they get straight, but people who get saved will feel remorse over the associations, the manner of dress, the music they listen to, the things that make them talkative.
Fruit is hard to see, but if a person seems to have undergone no transformation at all yet claims to be saved, there is a reason to doubt. Like aperson who says they got saaved but continues to go to bars or pick up women or use foullanguage, even after being reminded this is all wrong
In this day and age, Christian maturity takes a lot longer because ofthe things around us that control us, that affect our thinking.
Was it a park or was it a river?
That was the issue I took part with, please read closer to what I typed.
I don't understand what the minister is waiting for. Does the Bible tell believers/repenters that there is a six month waiting period on baptism?
Acts 19
4Paul said, "John's baptism was a baptism of repentance. He told the people to believe in the one coming after him, that is, in Jesus." 5 On hearing this, they were baptized into[1] the name of the Lord Jesus.
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