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Atheist de-baptism
by StuartJanuary 13th, 2011
5 Comments
Some atheists in Europe are formally renouncing their faith through a process they call “de-baptism.” In effect they write to the parish where they were baptized and asked that their name be blotted out from the book of life, also known as the Baptismal Register.
There is actually an organization that exists solely to encourage and facilitate such renunciations called, the Apostasy Association.
Of course, this is nothing new and follows the trend for US atheists to be “offically de-baptized” in a ritual using a hair dryer.
Sad and remarkable that atheists should go to all of this effort.
Posted by Stuart James
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5 Comments
Not necessary either. However, I think you need to draw a distinction between unbelievers, nonbelievers and disbelievers.
These groups tend to be of disbelievers. Its a subtle but important difference.
I agree with that distinction Gordon. Disbelievers tend to be more pro-active!
I used to spend a lot of time dialoguing with atheists.
Not to justify it – they’re wrong to do this – but from their perspective, it’s a lot like a coming-out-of-the-closet for a homosexual.
Think about it the other way around – when you became a Christian, didn’t you denounce what you formerly were? It’s a line in the sand for something they strongly believe in – just like baptism.
Again, not to justify it or imply that it is OK. It’s not right, but I get why they would do it.
Also, the distinction you want to draw between non, un, and dis-believers is valid, but not all atheists can be called dis-believers. In fact most aren’t. Many woudln’t say they KNOW there is no god, they simply say they have no reason to believe ther IS a god. Also, not all atheists are as antagonistic as we would like to believe. I think most probably are – at least the more immature ones that haven’t had a chance to “grow in their faith” yet – but not all. And then you’ve got the Dawkins types that are well versed and still antagonistic.
But then we have our “pieces of work” too.
Just FYI.
By the way, I am a conservative Christian and have been my whole life. I’m just interested in the dynamic of atheism and how they can fail to see what we see so clearly. It was a very interesting experience.
I went and looked at de-baptism videos on youtube last night. It’s obvious they are making a mockery of us. It’s really really sad to actually watch people making such a horiffic decision to walk away from faith.
That is another atheistic topic that I find very interesting – the dynamic of people losing their faith. A lot of times it’s just kids who “believed because they had to” who finally “found their freedom” when they left home. But sometimes it’s a more wretching, painful transformation for someone who once really believed in Jesus to finally come to the conclusion that there really is no God. The transformation from worshipper to mocker is very frightening for the once-believing soul in the process of losing their faith.
Probably the most surprising thing I found was the freedom de-converts find away from Christ. We Cristians look at salvation as walking out of bondage into freedom. And the de-convert experiences exactly the opposite when they leave – they leave the bondage of Christianity for the freedom of atheism.
To quote Keith Green, “My brothers, something is terribly wrong here.”
How can it be that there is more freedom outside the faith than there is within it. Not everywhere, of course, but is the tenor of American Christianity one of “freedom in Christ” as we see it, or does it really come off as religious to-dos and bondage whose shackles some can hardly wait to shake off – just something else that needs to be done this week.