Church Crisis? Thousands Getting "De-Baptized"
It is not uncommon for people to leave their church for one reason or another, but now the exodus is becoming official by people going to great lengths to be "de-baptized," and this has church officials very concerned.
The Voice of America reports Catholic and Protestant officials in Europe, where this seems to be happening the most, are in crisis mode.
VOA writes:
There are no official statistics, but experts and activists count the numbers of those seeking de-baptism in the tens of thousands, and websites offering informal "de-baptism" certificates have mushroomed.
Most people blame it on priest sex scandals.
"I think what sparked the real desire of people to leave the church, particularly the Catholic church, were the huge child-abuse scandals that revolted so many people [that] they no longer wanted to be associated with it," said Terry Sanderson, head of the National Secular Society in Britain. "That's when people started to leave in large numbers."
His society has an unofficial "de-baptism certificate" on its website -- it has been downloaded more than 100,000 times.
"It was a joke to begin with, but now it has taken on a new significance because there are so many people who are anxious to leave the church that they are actually taking it seriously now, and they want some way to make their break with the church formal," he says. "Often the church won't acknowledge their desire to leave.
In Germany, people don't have to go on a website to announce their split -- they can just opt of paying state church taxes. A record 181,000 Catholics did that in 2011.
"They are thinking about leaving the church and there might be one special event, like the pedophilia crisis, like a [conservative] announcement by the pope, and then they decide now is the time to go," said Christian Weisner, a spokesman for the international grassroots We Are Church movement.
Sign up for the OV Daily Newsletter
OV Social
I always thought once you stopped showing up and sending money, that was that.
When I was a catholic school boy, I was taught the purpose of confirmation was to re-affirm your baptism. It would seem a "de-confirmation" process would be more appropriate.
When people vote with their feet, the church gets the message. The only place the catholic church is actively growing is in third world countries. Everyone else with centuries of history has had enough. The french revolution was just the beginning of the church's downfall in Europe. In the US, the church is simply out of step.
The gallup poll shows the trends:
http://www.gallup.com/poll/1690/religion.aspx
In 2011, the greatest number of people responded that they do not believe in god - 7%. Also, the most number of people did not identify with any religion whatsoever - 16%. In fact, only 75% identified as any form of christian, including unaffiliated. Ten years ago, the number of people identifying as christian was 82% and the number not identifying as not identifying with any religion was only 10%.
The trends are clear. As people realize they don't need to belong to a particular religion, more people are being honest about faith issues rather than defaulting to what is socially acceptable. There is a huge shift among this generation's children. As the baby boomers die off, religious participation will crash.
People leave the church because they realize it is bullshit. The pedophilia just makes it more apparent.
Everything I do, I do it for you.
How do you de-baptise someone - dunk them into a tank of air?
That's a good question. It does sound kind of funny, de-baptise. It seems like another religious ritual. I have seen that their are descriptions of such ceremonies on the web, but it seems silly to me.
Although, to be fair, the catholic church keeps a person on the rolls and lists you as being catholic unless you submit official paper work asking to be removed. It makes me wonder how inflated their membership claims are when people that are truly atheist and haven't been in a church for decades are still listed as being "of the faith".
If freedom means anything, it is the liberty to tell others what they do not want to hear.
A good blog always comes-up with new and exciting information and while reading I have feel that this blog is really have all those quality that qualify a blog to be a good one
Testking 70-681 Testking 000-153 Testking 70-643 Testking 199-01 Testking 312-50v7 Testking JN0-660 Testking 70-668 Testking 70-450