If You Deny Me . . .

Things could be worse. We could live in England.

Although our nation’s zeitgeist is growing more anti-Christian, we have yet to embrace the apostasy of our British brethren. So blasphemous are recent trends in England that Britons better pray that God saves more than just the Queen.

Not long ago posters appeared on London buses claiming, “There’s probably no God. So stop worrying and enjoy your life”. Now the National Secular Society (NSS) is issuing online certificates for Christians who want to de-baptize themselves.

(http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.ae71a038e9b3b47af4f0e9eac9598fd8.2b1&show_article=1) More than 100,000 people have reportedly downloaded the certificate, and according to NSS President Terry Sanderson the organization has already sold 1,500 of the documents at $4.35 apiece.

Some disavow their Christian baptism to protest a perceived increase in Roman Catholic political activism. Others argue that baptism was forced on them as young children and, thus, was not of their own choice. One individual even went so far as to label baptism a form of child abuse. NSS President Sanderson believes this push to de-baptize is a reaction to the “hostility” emanating from the 72% of Brits who define themselves as Christians–an odd accusation considering the rabid political correctness dominating British culture.

Similar de-baptizing efforts have emerged in Spain and Italy. According to a report in the International Herald Tribune, the Spanish high court ruled “in favor of a man from Valencia, Manuel Blat, saying that under data protection laws he could have the record of his baptism erased.” In Italy, “the Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics (UAAR) won a legal battle over the right to file for de-baptism in 2002". UAAR secretary Raffaele Carcano asserts that “more than 60,000 of these forms have been downloaded in the past four years and continue to be downloaded at a rate of about 2,000 per month.”

There is little doubt this de-baptizing crusade will find its way to our shores. Let’s just hope that when it arrives Americans remember Christ’s warning:

“But he that shall deny me before men, I will also deny him before my Father who is in heaven.” (Matthew 10:33)


Donald Tremblay