Contemporary Issues in Baptism: Three Articles

Same Sex Marriage and Infant Baptism

A controversy has erupted in the Diocese of Central Florida over an apparent request by the dean of the cathedral to postpone the infant baptism of a same sex couple. This led to Facebook and blog postings, general outrage and immediate calls for charges under Title IV. All this before the facts were known.

Given the lack of knowledge of all the relevant facts in this instance it is not appropriate for reasonable people to comment on this particular case, let alone encourage legal proceedings founded on ignorance of the facts. We will not address this case here. However, the question of baptizing infants of same sex couples raises theological issues deserving comment. Keep reading

Also see
Church refused baptism for son of gay Christian couple

The second article provides the back story to the first article.

Baptizing children & regenerate church membership

Associated Baptist Press recently reported that Rodney Kennedy, pastor of First Baptist Church in Dayton, Ohio, sprinkled an infant. The event was newsworthy because, by definition, a Baptist church does not baptize infants. To practice the latter is to forfeit being the former. Or at least it used to.

The article read as a congratulatory piece, as though it was one small step for a church, but one giant leap forward for Baptists everywhere -- no doubt a leap away from draconian biblical and confessional markers of Baptist identity.

But one need not look to a CBF Baptist church to find believer's baptism being renegotiated. At least a few conservative Baptist churches have adopted -- or have flirted with adopting -- some form of dual baptism. Keep reading

If clergy of the Church of England are sprinkling infants, they are not complying with the rubrics of the Book of Common Prayer, which direct that the infant should be immersed in the water at his baptism or the water should be poured over him if poor health does not permit his immersion. Only Methodists and Presbyterians have historically practiced sprinkling.

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