DeBaptismal Certificate

Still smarting over having been dunked in a church baptismal tub at age 12? Indignant that a congregation still claims you as a believer based on baptismal records? Wishing you could formally renounce a religion that was imposed on you as a helpless babe in swaddling clothes? The Freedom From Religion Foundation has the answer: a genuine ā€œDeBaptismal Certificate.ā€

The certificate bears the tongue-in-cheek saying of 19th century freethinker Robert G. Ingersoll: ā€œWith soap, baptism is a good thing.ā€

The certificate reads: ā€œI, having been subjected to a Christian baptism before reaching an age of consent, or having submitted to baptism before embracing freethought and reason, hereby officially renounce that primitive rite and the Church that imposed it. I categorically reject the creeds, dogmas, and superstitions of my former religion, particularly the pernicious doctrines of ā€˜Original Sinā€™ and damnation. I further denounce as an affront and defamation to humanity the false and demeaning belief that any baby is born with ā€˜Original Sinā€™ and must be cleansed of it by baptism. From this day forward, I wish to be excluded from any claims of religious affiliation or membership based on baptismal records.ā€

Thereā€™s room for the debaptizedā€™s name, signature and date of debaptism ā€œin the Year of No Lord.ā€ The certificate is signed by Dan Barker, a former ordained minister who is now co-president of the Freedom From Religion Foundation. The motto at the bottom reads, ā€œFreedom depends upon freethinkers.ā€

ā€œWith a majority of Foundation members growing up in religious homes,ā€ noted Annie Laurie Gaylor, Foundation co-president, ā€œwe know there are a lot of freethinkers out there who wish they could be debaptized.ā€ Annie Laurie, by the way, is one of the lucky 18% of FFRF members who grew up in a freethinking home and was spared baptism by water, fire or Sunday school.

“Although our DeBaptismal Certificate has some light touches, we think itā€™s time to spur some serious public debate over the meaning of baptism,ā€ Gaylor added. ā€œWe would like to remind the public that people have been killed, schisms fostered and ā€˜holyā€™ wars sparked over debates on when to baptize and how to ā€˜sprinkleā€™ babies. Childhoods and peace of mind are still being blighted today by ignorant and vicious sermons promising  hell and damnation as a punishment for not being baptized.

ā€œIt should be utterly repugnant to people of conscience to tarnish newborns with the idea of ā€˜original sinā€™ or to subject any child or young person to this primitive ritual.ā€

 

Freedom From Religion Foundation