Everey Pastor's Baptismal Nightmare

Has it occurred to anyone that the fault here lies not with the boy, but with the church. IMO Churches are baptising young people too soon. Historically the age at which candidates were baptised has fallen over the past 100 years or so, prior to that most churches would not baptise anyone under the age of 21!

 

I think it's the parents whooping and clapping. I'm not sure, but something tells me they knew the boy had been planning to do this, and they were waiting to see him to it.

love,

Sopranette

 

I am around a lot of boys that age since I substitute teach, and everyone of them is different.

It is entirely possible that he just has an exuberant personality and was spontaneously acting out of sheer joy.

Other explanations already given in this thread could also apply.

The closest thing I have ever seen was at a baptism I attended in England. It was held at the town indoor swimming pool and was quite a lengthy and wonderful affair with singing, Scripture readings, prayer, testimony from some of the people being baptized, clapping and saying amen as the people came up out of the water.
One of the people, a young man in his twenties, after he came up from being baptized, swam the length of the pool and back, apparently for joy.
No one seemed to remark about it or imply there was anything amiss.

 

As your message implies, we just don't know all the details of the situation. All we know is that the pastor thought it wrong, that people in the congregation thought it funny, and that somebody thought it right to publicise the whole thing by putting it on the web. Imagine an unbeliever seing it on the web (or indeed actually attending the service - perhaps an unsaved relation of the boy); would it be clear to them that this jumping back into the baptistry was merely an expression of joy?

 

I think it's hilarious that someone else's kid did that.