Debaptism

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Just heard the word for the first time today on the television. The Pope was speaking out against Italians who were getting "debaptised".

It seems a growing number of people are becoming "debaptised". It is all somewhat tongue in cheek but with a serious aim. The Secular Society in the UK have been providing certificates:

Link to Secular Society Debaptism

The certficate declares:
I ________ having been subjected to the Rite of Christian Baptism in infancy (before reaching an age of consent), hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out. In the name of human reason, I reject all its Creeds and all other such superstition in particular, the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed by Baptism of alleged ORIGINAL SIN, and the evil power of supposed demons. I wish to be excluded henceforth from enhanced claims of church membership numbers based on past baptismal statistics used, for example, for the purpose of securing legislative privilege.”

LOL, I've never been baptised so I guess I don't need to worry.

Sounds like the pope is desperate to own more souls...

I suppose this is Excommunication-EZ form?...

My kids were both baptised without their consent but I can't see them ever wanting to be unbaptised. We don't treat things that seriously.

For a start, we don't shove religion down their throat (although they do go to a Catholic school - more, in theory, to get a good moral grounding).

They're too unbearable in church, so we don't go - not that my wife and I ever really went before children anyway.

I talk to them about Jesus but I also talk to them about other deities too.

(ignore my spelling, religion is a personal thing - and spelling probably is too)

Allah, Buddha, Jehovah, Mohammed, Zeus (and friends), Osiris (and friends), Quetzalcoatl, Money, Special Interests, Jedi, the Internet and .... Science (and friends).

Baptism is a bit like an insurance policy but ultimately my kids are encouraged to explore within the limits of safety.

Next in line: un-circumcision.

ruveyn

I remember asking a guy that if god created everyone so perfect why did they have the foreskin and he said so they can have circumcison...

I kid you not, I asked him again and pointed out to him where his fallacy was and he still gave the same answere so that they could be circumcized.....

Proud to have made my own decisions about religion when I was old enough.

I was given a Catholic baptism as an infant. The certificate qualifies as a form of legal identification in the US so I kind of like it.

Hmm. Well, if you want to pay to do that. I do resent that the Church of England still says 'X million people in the UK are Christians' and is probably counting me as one of them. C of E is the state religion here, and probably most people over 40 in Britain were baptized C of E simply because it was 'normal' back when we were babies. But most of those probably won't enter a church ever again until they get carried in in a box. So if there were a way to legally de-register myself from it, I would - but I shouldn't have to pay to do so.

Anyway, some people will never accept it. My family insisted that I must still be C of E because I was christened, even when I'd been pagan for over twenty years. Again, back when I was christened it was more or less unheard of for anyone to change their religion when they grew up, so of course I must be incapable of doing so. This is despite the fact nobody in my family ever went or goes to church. Nuts.