Viewing a single comment thread. View all comments

ScratchMoore t1_j9z8c4b wrote

You can’t just pop in and get baptized on a random Sunday. You need to go through an entire curriculum and indoctrination and classes and pay fees and get approval and a whole litany of other things.

−1

Major_Bother8416 t1_ja02hl6 wrote

That’s absurd. There’s no baptism fee. And if there is, you should leave that church.

The reason they require a class is because most people don’t understand the theology behind baptism. Many people want to dunk their children because they think it’s hell insurance. As long as I make sure my baby is baptized, I’m covered, even though I have no intention of raising them in the faith. What church should condone that?

And yes, they keep paperwork. You get a baptism certificate and the church keeps records because that community of faith is promising to help raise the child. Those records get used by historians hundreds of years later sometimes.

I’m not saying there aren’t churches that operate like businesses. And there have certainly been con-artist pastors, but it’s not fair to assume most churches are making people jump through hoops for no reason.

3

ScratchMoore t1_ja0ate4 wrote

Like I said in another comment, they can call it a fee or alms for the poor or a donation or whatever. There is an expectation of some sort of payment.

It’s like tipping. There is no rule forcing you to leave your server a tip, but if you go out to eat, you always leave a tip. Same in this case.

0

helpfulpittsburgh t1_j9zc9tj wrote

Indoctrination? Pay fees? Huh?

1

ScratchMoore t1_j9zg71o wrote

Churches don’t do that for free. That will cost some amount of money. And they don’t allow anyone to just randomly get baptized. They’ll need to go to classes and get indoctrinated into their specific religion and vouch for their sincerity about being baptized and all that.

−2

helpfulpittsburgh t1_j9zgilp wrote

The point was you are probably already indoctrinated if you’re asking to be baptized, and I cannot think of a Christian church that charges a fee for baptism. There may be a tradition of making a donation to the church if you can afford it, but there’s not a fee.

1

ScratchMoore t1_j9zib6g wrote

Fee, donation, alms, whatever. It’s all the same thing. There may not be a set cost, but there is definitely an expectation of a donation. Just like eating out. Nobody is forced to tip, but in reality you have to tip.

Also, OP mentions not regularly attending a Christian church. There’s no specifics. If they were raised Baptist, I have to venture a guess that they would have to accept the teachings of the Lutheran or Catholic dogmas and be indoctrinated into a specific denomination before getting baptized.

0

hiomiojo t1_j9zqtix wrote

Crazy. Can’t imagine John the Baptist needed all that. But that’s the sad part of the state of the church today. Control, and fees, and paperwork.

0

ScratchMoore t1_j9zr9nm wrote

Money and control. You basically just summed up organized religion in a nutshell haha

0

creaky__sampson t1_ja07wbj wrote

You’re doing yourself a disservice by having a pessimistic view of religion. Consider the prosperity we experience by living in an ordered society. The order is enabled by laws that are rooted in religious tradition. Are modern religious institutions perfect? Absolutely not. To say that they are only about money and control is childish.

1

ScratchMoore t1_ja0bnwk wrote

I come by my pessimistic views of religion honestly. Also, I never said money and control were the ONLY things organized religions were about.

0