[Apologetics] USA Today: Rite of baptism trickles away

Fri Apr 14 13:41:34 EDT 2006

Marty,

Thanks for your great comments! 

The comparison to watering down the content of classes
in school is a tremendous way of understanding the
problem and the solution.

Art

--- Marty Rothwell <martyr225 at cox.net> wrote:

> 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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  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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