"In Catholic countries there is a very strong feeling of wanting to punish the church by leaving it."Quoted in a European article about Europeans choosing to de-baptize.
This reflects part of our Quebec culture too.
Church has a bad rap.
The church has become a symbol of power and politics in Quebec, though not so any more, it's stuck in people's psyche.
This new movement to get de-baptized is a sign of this (not sure how many have downloaded or purchased their certificate).
Personally, I think if someone's not following Jesus, and only got baptized as a child - maybe they're better off renouncing it - maybe that's a little rough - but at least acknowledge that it was only ceremonial.
Baptism is a personal decision to follow Jesus, making it public, and then living out your baptismal decision.
Here's another sign of why religion in it's negative form that can hurt faith rather than help it. Forcing someone, as young as a baby, to become a committed Christian, without a conscious commitment, can be harmful later on. I'm all for raising a child to understand and prayerfully choose to follow Jesus, but solidifying that choice on paper at 6 months old isn't what that choice reflects.
Here's a good thing from the post-reformers, Anabaptists (literally to baptize again), which when they came out of Catholicism, who strongly believed that even though someone was baptized as a baby, they should make that commitment public as an adult to demonstrate their inward and outward choice to follow Jesus. Let people consciously choose Jesus.
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