[Apologetics] USA Today: Rite of baptism trickles away

Fri Apr 14 03:19:55 EDT 2006

I'm all for what you say, Art.  I know that when I dumb-down my classes,
only dummies start taking them.  The thinkers are not interested in a
watered-down class, only the lazy and the dummies.  When I make the class
harder, then the motivated people start coming and the lazy and dummies drop
out.  It is the exact same thing with the Church.  If we water it down, then
(surprise!) the only people in the pews are watered-down Catholics!  If we
make Catholicism mean something, then the watered-down Catholics become
Methodists and the on-fire Methodists become Catholic.

The question is: where do we get bishops who can draw a line in the sand?
There's doesn't seem to be anybody around.

-----Original Message-----
From: apologetics-admin at gathman.org [mailto:apologetics-admin at gathman.org]On
Behalf Of Art Kelly
Sent: Friday, April 14, 2006 2:19 AM
To: Apologetics Group; Jim Murphy; Michele Allen
Subject: [Apologetics] USA Today: Rite of baptism trickles away

This article in USA Today claims that baptisms are
declining in mainstream Protestant, fundamentalist
Protestant, and--get this!--Catholic Churches.

The article states that, while membership in the
Catholic Church has greatly increased, baptisms have
not.

Rite of baptism trickles away
Updated 4/12/2006 9:38 PM ET
By Cathy Lynn Grossman, USA TODAY

Every month there's a cheering, weeping,
air-horn-tooting celebration at First Assembly of God
in North Little Rock, when the Rev. Rod Loy immerses
new believers in the baptismal tank.

"This is a sign that someone understands the ideas of
sin and Christ's sacrifice and willfully chooses to be
a lifelong follower of Jesus," says the pastor. "So we
celebrate it big."

For believers, baptism is modeled on their savior, who
the Bible says waded into the water to consecrate
himself to God.

They may be sprinkled, washed from a flowing pitcher
or immersed, as faith rituals vary. But all forms
point to beliefs: rebirth in faith, salvation from
sin, acceptance of God's promises and charges.

For parents who bring a baby before their church,
baptism is a pledge of their faith, a shield against
evil, a wrapping of communal arms around a defenseless
soul.

For Christians of all denominations, "even if they
never darkened the door of a church any other time in
their life ... there's a tendency to hold onto this
life-cycle marker," says the Rev. Paul Sullins, a
sociologist at Catholic University in Washington, D.C.

Yet, this Easter, the holy day of resurrection,
statistics find Americans slowly drifting away from
the ancient baptismal ritual.

The Catholic Church has more than doubled in size in
the past half-century, but its rate of infant baptism
steadily has fallen, Sullins says.

Methodists and Lutherans have seen both baptisms and
their membership numbers slide for years.

Even Loy's denomination, the Assemblies of God, which
has had a boom in membership since 1980, saw its
annual baptism numbers peak in 1997, then inch
downward.

The Southern Baptist Convention has seen a
half-century decline in baptisms and stalled growth in
membership.

The full article is at
http://www.usatoday.com/news/religion/2006-04-12-baptism-trend_x.htm

I would seriously question the methodology for
determining the growth in Catholic Church membership.
Based on the number registered in parishes?
Self-identified persons in polls? Or what?

My own take is that, for Catholics, parents who do not
have their children baptized are NOT really Catholics
and should NOT be counted as Catholics.

As an aside, beware of polls that purport to show what
Catholics think about an issue. Unless the persons
claiming to be Catholics are then screened (How often
do you go to Church?), answers can be very deceptive.

I may ask my pastor and a couple of other priests if
they think there has been any decline in baptisms. I
doubt it, but if there have been, it is because the
Church has sometimes failed to "lay down the law"
regarding what it takes to be a Catholic.

Without relating this to baptism specifically, I
wonder if, in the past few decades, the Catholic
Church has become too much of "a big tent."
Interestingly, just before he become Pope, Cardinal
Ratzinger expressed the view that the Church needs to
get SMALLER.

Perhaps the Church will start to "draw a line in the
sand," and make it clear that, while all are welcome,
anyone who wishes to be a Catholic must believe a, b,
and c; may not believe c, d, and e; must do f, g, and
h; and may not do i, j, and k.

Those who don't want to meet the requirements for
being a Catholic should try another religion.

To a large degree, they already have.

Coming up on Easter, both Catholic and Protestant
churches will see a TREMENDOUS number of persons who
come to services who do not normally attend.

The good news is they still come AT LEAST once or
twice a year. They haven't totally lost their faith.
The bad news is that they ONLY come once or twice a
year. Whatever part of their faith they still have is
very nominal.

These Easter Catholics and Protestants are not
practicing their faiths and, for polling purposes,
should not be counted as members of the denominations
to which they still identify.

I'm certainly not advocating a Church of Christian
superstars. In come ways, the Church can be thought of
as a spiritual hospital, helping people to overcome
sin and obtain spiritual health.

But to obtain salvation, a person must WANT to take up
their cross and follow Jesus.

As far as I can tell, the decline in weekly attendance
of mainstream Protestant denominations which are
Christian Lite (you know what I mean) is NO LESS than
the declines in fundamentalist (hard shell)
Protestants and Catholics (who are, to some degree, in
the middle).

So, any theory that goes, "Well, maybe we can get them
back if we soft peddle our doctrines on (fill in the
blank)" does NOT appear to work.

Maybe there's a place for some Protestant churches
which advertise, "Open doors and open minds." On
second thought, what good is a Christian church that
ignores the plain words of the Bible?

I'd like to think Catholic churches would actually
stand strongly for immutable doctrines and not be so
afraid of offending anyone.

Art

  ART KELLY, ATM-S
  13524 Brightfield Lane
  Herndon, Virginia 20171-3360
  (703) 904-3763 home
  (703) 396-6956 work
  arthurkelly at yahoo.com
  art.kelly at cox.net
  ArtK135 at Netscape.net

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