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Swimming Pool Baptism


slickcat79

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Baptism in my Pentecostal upbringing was full immersion or it didn't count. I only knew of one church that had their own baptism tank, everyone else waited until summer for the baptisms in lakes, rivers, or the ocean. While I did see a few people get formally dressed for the occasion, everyone else put on the baptism gown and wore very casual clothes underneath, usually a bathing suit or t-shirt and shorts/light skirt. Baptism at such a young age would have been very unusual our us; the minister of my childhood wouldn't even do one until at least age 13, because something about having reached the 'age of reason' if I recall correctly. I'm glad we had to wait because I totally would have done it at age 7, but by the time I was 13 I was moving towards un-belief and ultimately was never baptized.

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I was baptized in a lake. Ha, I was told to wear a bathing suit. Well, that was two years ago and worked out well since I was having doubts then and eventually began to describe myself as more agnostic.

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Full immersion is very important to these Christians, so a sprinkling wouldn't have the same symbolism to them. Growing up the way I did, I guess I'd see just sprinkling because you don't want to use a swimming pool as getting too hung up on the location of the baptism, instead of the symbol behind it. Different branches of Christianity just have different priorities when it comes to baptism. For example, if Mormons have even a toe pop out of the water during their baptism, they have to redo it, but Evangelicals don't usually get that picky about total immersion.

That's true about Mormon baptisms, where if a toe or even the jumpsuit or long dress pops out of the water, they have to do it again. I thought it was a bit funny, but one Mormon baptism I saw where the person doing the baptism wanted to make sure he only had to do it once, so he really pushed the person hard into the font. While this did happen in southern California where many full immersion baptisms are done in the ocean, it was also in the middle of winter when it can be chilly, and with the font with a clear front, it's easy to make sure that the person is fully immersed.

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I actually have a funny baptism story in my family that involves this topic. My great-great aunt was brought up in the Methodist church, and as such, she was only baptized with a minister making the sign of the cross with holy water on her forehead. She became a young woman and married a Baptist pastor, who told her that only her forehead would go to heaven! As such, we have a beautiful picture of her receiving a full immersion baptism on our wall!

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my gmother's Baptist church had what looked like a dunking booth behind the pulpit.It used to scare me bc I always imagined ppl's heads being head down in it,gasping for air.As a child, I thought pastor's must not have any sympathy when dunking for sins.

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Orthodox baptisms are full immersion, 3 dunks in a row. For adults one of the most common vessels is a large horse trough. :D

When we converted (me, husband, 3 small children) in 1999 the parish we were in had what I guess was a really big horse trough - round, about 3 ft. deep and 5-6 ft. across. It sat in one of the two vestibules at the entrance of the church (old Methodist church building). We wore normal street clothes then changed into dry clothes and our baptismal robes afterwards.

Orthodox baptisms are often done in open bodies of water. Some of them are seriously hardcore; you'll see pictures of people being baptized in Russia on Theophany (January 6/19) in a lake where they have chopped away the ice to make a place to dunk them. No lie.

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My church background is Lutheran of the "a handful of water on the infant's head"-tradition, so my experiences with swimming pool, baptistry, lake, tub, etc-baptisms are pretty limited and mainly internet based, but for some reason I find that the basin of water can be almost anything without detracting from the "holines" of the occasion, while it really irkes me when people aren't formally dressed in some way either in "sunday best" or a baptismal gown.

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Baptism in my Pentecostal upbringing was full immersion or it didn't count. I only knew of one church that had their own baptism tank, everyone else waited until summer for the baptisms in lakes, rivers, or the ocean. While I did see a few people get formally dressed for the occasion, everyone else put on the baptism gown and wore very casual clothes underneath, usually a bathing suit or t-shirt and shorts/light skirt. Baptism at such a young age would have been very unusual our us; the minister of my childhood wouldn't even do one until at least age 13, because something about having reached the 'age of reason' if I recall correctly. I'm glad we had to wait because I totally would have done it at age 7, but by the time I was 13 I was moving towards un-belief and ultimately was never baptized.

Yeah, it seems like if you have to have a full immersion and don't have facilities in the church, that's the way to do it. Why not use it as an opportunity to be part of god's creation? Especially in this instance as they'd already waited a year and a half-no reason not to wait until summer.

Agree about the age as well. It's weird because Sarah specifically describes how they're against infant baptism because the baby doesn't understand about Jesus...but somehow a 4yo does? :?

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Yeah, it seems like if you have to have a full immersion and don't have facilities in the church, that's the way to do it. Why not use it as an opportunity to be part of god's creation? Especially in this instance as they'd already waited a year and a half-no reason not to wait until summer.

Agree about the age as well. It's weird because Sarah specifically describes how they're against infant baptism because the baby doesn't understand about Jesus...but somehow a 4yo does? :?

I guess because they are old enough to talk and say that they believe in God, they think they understand, even if they are just parroting their parents thoughts and if you told them that it rains because angels are peeing they would believe it too. They know that if they say "I love God" that their parents will praise them and be proud of them, and they keep on doing it so their parents are happy.

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No snark from me on this.

My religions calls for not just full immersion (specially constructed pool or natural body of water), but for doing it in your birthday suit. Yes, skinny dipping as a religious commandment - strange but true.

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Orthodox baptisms are full immersion, 3 dunks in a row. For adults one of the most common vessels is a large horse trough. :D

When we converted (me, husband, 3 small children) in 1999 the parish we were in had what I guess was a really big horse trough - round, about 3 ft. deep and 5-6 ft. across. It sat in one of the two vestibules at the entrance of the church (old Methodist church building). We wore normal street clothes then changed into dry clothes and our baptismal robes afterwards.

Orthodox baptisms are often done in open bodies of water. Some of them are seriously hardcore; you'll see pictures of people being baptized in Russia on Theophany (January 6/19) in a lake where they have chopped away the ice to make a place to dunk them. No lie.

Our baptism snark absolutely writes itself! We also have a horse trough for adult baptisms, and our priest has joked that any Orthodox priest worth his collar knows the location of every Feed&Seed in the state.

Sometimes non Orthodox are shocked that we baptize babies naked. No diaper, nothing. Modesty is really not a concept we apply to infants. ;)

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If you told them that it rains because angels are peeing they would believe it too.

It's probably Friday night bevvying to blame, Jellybeans, but your angel peeing comment made me giggle like a 10 year-old!

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So up thread there was some mention of baptisms in the Jordan river. I looked at pictures of the area online and saw they had built things like steps, railings, etc to make things safer and more organized. I also noticed crowds of people getting baptized. So how does all that work over there? Do church groups make a "reservation" and everyone gets baptized during their trip by their pastor, or do people just show up and get McBaptized by someone they've never met? Baptisms are supposed to be personal and meaningful, but judging from the pictures, they really don't look that way. Am I just being a big 'ol cynic?

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They have info on getting baptisms here:

yardenit.com/visit/services-facilities/

Afterwards, you can purchase a DVD of your baptism experience. Feel free to stop at their Biblical-themed restaurant and gift shop!

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So up thread there was some mention of baptisms in the Jordan river. I looked at pictures of the area online and saw they had built things like steps, railings, etc to make things safer and more organized. I also noticed crowds of people getting baptized. So how does all that work over there? Do church groups make a "reservation" and everyone gets baptized during their trip by their pastor, or do people just show up and get McBaptized by someone they've never met? Baptisms are supposed to be personal and meaningful, but judging from the pictures, they really don't look that way. Am I just being a big 'ol cynic?

my pastor has baptized in the Jordan river,but idk if there is anyone there that does it if your own pastor can't.also the duggars did the baptism thing in the Jordan.The huge river rats they were afraid of were the funniest.I doubt they would ever hurt anyone,they're just big n ugly.the vid is on youtube of their Israel trip.

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OH fer feck sake. Sarah the Irish fundie nutjob!

The reason she probably did it in the local swimming pool is because apart from the Irish sea there would be no other options :lol: :lol:

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Our baptism snark absolutely writes itself! We also have a horse trough for adult baptisms, and our priest has joked that any Orthodox priest worth his collar knows the location of every Feed&Seed in the state.

Sometimes non Orthodox are shocked that we baptize babies naked. No diaper, nothing. Modesty is really not a concept we apply to infants. ;)

I know, right? My youngest daughter was the only one baptized as an infant and though she is thankful she cannot remember it (six months old, we did it on Holy Saturday so her baptism day anniversary would be the same as ours), she is still mortified that she was buck nekkid. :lol: My other kids were 5, 3 and 1. The one who was 1yo does not remember, the boys do though, in one word. "COLD."

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One of the parishoners at my church owns a pool company. He installed a baptismal pool for free. We offer to let other churches use it for their baptisms.

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My ex-husband and I grew up in the same church denomination but each of our respective congregations had very different ideas about how one should perform a baptism. The only agreed upon stipulation was that it must be full-immersion.

I was baptized in a chlorinated pool that belonged to a member of our church. My dad baptized me because he was a minister at the time. I wore shorts and a t-shirt and my dad was wearing khakis and a t-shirt. We both changed into dry clothing afterward.

My ex-husband, whose father was (and still is) a licensed minister, was baptized in a natural body of water. They believe pools are not good enough. Also, the water should be running water, like in a river, but a lake or pond will do if you have no river. And you must wear your best. This means the minister and the person being baptized are wearing their church clothes.

Either way seems equally silly to me now, as a completely heathen atheist. I can't believe he and I actually had arguments over baptisms. I have a feeling it may come up again soon, too, because our three children are all nearing the ages when most kids in that denomination get baptized. He's still very much religious and I expect he'll start talking it up to them pretty soon.

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Didn't PP baptise in their swimming pool for a while? Seems like I remember that.

Yup, he did for several years. There are videos on youtube of him baptizing in the Anderson family pool.

I was raised Catholic, some parishes did perform full immersion baptisms on adults. My cousin's wife was baptized into the Catholic Church a few years ago and she was given the option of having a full immersion baptism, but she didn't take it.

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The issue with Lina's swimming pool mikvah is that a dip in the mikvah is supposed to be done entirely naked, which is a bit difficult to do modestly at a public pool during regular hours.

that and mikveh water is supposed to running water, not chlorinated pool water.

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The fundy-lite church I attended didn't have its own baptismal font, so we had to use another church's. And I forgot to bring a change of clothes, so I had to ride home in my wet ones(IIRC, I wore jeans and a T-shirt). :embarrassed:

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that and mikveh water is supposed to running water, not chlorinated pool water.

I just had a ridiculous mental image of her streaking through the local YMCA and leaping into the lazy river.

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Typically LDS / Mormon baptisms take place in the chapel in specially constructed fonts. When I was growing up I heard about swimming pool baptisms, but those only took place in "other" churches or in the "3rd world" LDS chapels where they weren't blessed with a font yet.

But I did attend a swimming pool baptism in Canada. We weren't allowed to swim in the pool beforehand (I don't know whether they blessed the water or drained it and refilled it up again just for the baptism or what) and honestly, anything church related both annoyed me and made me bored even when I was a kid, but thankfully we were allowed to use the pool afterwards. I remember there was a slide :)

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