I was raised wholly without religious input from my parents, winding up in a Baptist bible study in my neighborhood by chance - that’s where the boys were when I was 12! Though I attended Baptist services from then on for several years, I wasn’t baptised. I’ve never been baptised, actually, for various reasons that are all important to me but would bore you, I’m sure.
My guy was raised Catholic and assumes people to have been baptised unless he finds out otherwise. To him it’s a natural progession when you have kids to getting them baptised (or consecrated however the family’s religion). He assumed I was baptised until we had a premarital counseling session a few weeks back and I was asked by the priest and replied in the negative.
Are you baptised? Do you think those around you are if they haven’t explicitly told you otherwise?
I’m 37 and I think less people in my generation are baptised than the previous ones. Your input is greatly appreciated!
Note - not looking for opinions on baptism itself.
My folks are Catholic, but never had me baptized (despite making me go to Sunday school tell I was in HS). Their reasoning was that I could choose for myself when I got old enough (and also, methinks, it was a bit of rebellion against my more traditionally Catholic grandfolks).
I got baptised when I was a tot in the Methodist church. They don’t make new members re-baptise or anything when they join but the confirmation class, made up mostly of 12 and 13 year olds, has an entire Sunday service devoted to their public confirmation and baptism. The families get the choice of immersion (which is really just dumping a whole pitcher on the kid’s head) or sprinkling. There may be one other kind I’m not recalling.
Personally, I don’t think about whether or not others were baptised. It’s not something that enters my head when I meet people.
Remember the episode of All in the Family where Archie gets his grandson baptized without telling Gloria or Mike? That’s what happened with me when I was 1 or 2, except that it was by the couple next door who were babysitting me.
Unlike the TV show, my parents weren’t upset. They’ve always been vary laid-back about religion, and saw it more as the neighbors (who we’ve always been very close with) welcoming me as one of the family.
Now 30, I was baptised at a few months old. Every baby in my family was baptised, regardless of what religion their parents were. My dad was baptised when I was, and my mom’s folks considered his parents rather lax for not having it done when he was a child, so there was a sense that they’d mistakenly “forgotten” to do it rather than deliberately chosen not to. And my parents had friends that were church elders in various Christian churches (3 different denominations, I think) and they all baptised members, though not all at infancy. So like your boyfriend, I too grew up with the assumption that if you were Christian, you were at some point baptised.
I was seventeen before I realized there were Christian sects that don’t baptise. The subject came up amongst friends at school and I was astonished to learn that one of my friends had never been, even though her family attended church more often than mine did.
As I understand it, most Christian denominations practice baptism; most people in America are Christian; therefore most people here have probably been baptised. For the same reason, I assume that most people I know have been baptised ( not that I ever thought about it until this thread ). I’ve no idea if I was baptized as a child.
I’m atheist but was baptised at 11 in a 19th-century American protestant sect-- was involved in religion from 9-13, as part of post-separation parental psychological warfare campaign. I don’t suspect MOST people are baptised, unless you count getting tossed off the diving board at swim class.
By the way, baptism at 11, full-immersion style in a funny outfit, with the entire congregation cheering you on, as you’re told that now, oh boy, you can go to Hell if you’re bad because you’re old enough to know right and wrong (and you’re not quite convinced of that fact), is pretty fucking scary. Catholics get it easy.
I was baptised, (by my great uncle in fact, when I was a couple months old) but my son isn’t because I don’t really practice anymore and I don’t like the closest one I can get to.
Honestly, I don’t really think about whether others are baptised or not. As a kid in school, I pretty much assumed everyone was (a fairly accurate assumption since I went to the only Catholic school in a small town) and now it just… doesn’t occur to me. This is the first time I’ve thought about it!
I’ve been baptised (twice!), and haven’t really given thought to whether or not everyone else is. We’ve got a large Catholic population though, so most people probably are.
Baptism always makes me think of the old movie Life With Father (a family favorite) in which the wife is utterly horrified to find out that her husband has not been baptized. “How can we be married if you’ve not been bap-tized?!” is a little catch phrase we use in ZipperLand…
Anyway, I assume if people’s parents are religious in any way, they’re baptized.
I was baptized when I was 8 yo. I was raised non-denom and my parents let me choose when I wanted to be baptized. Suburban Plankton was in 2nd grade when he was baptized. His family is not Catholic, but he went to Catholic school and chose to be baptized at that time. His parents let him. He also received First Holy Communion at that time. When our son was born, neither of us was practicing any religion. We didn’t have him baptized. When he was 5 we started attending Catholic church and I converted. We though about having our son baptized, but decided that since we were both allowed to choose when we wanted to be baptized, we would let our son. He decided that last year when he was 7½, and also received First Holy Communion at that time.
I would say most people are not baptized. I would say most Christians are.
I was also raised without religious input, and no one in my family has been baptized. I have no idea if I know anyone who has been baptized; it’s never come up. I don’t think I know anyone who goes to church. If they do, they’ve never mentioned it. I would think that most christians have been baptized, but not most people. It wouldn’t occur to me to ask anyone.
I was baptized in the Catholic church when I was 6 weeks old. My husband was never baptized, nor was our daughter. We figure that when/if she wants to be baptized, it’ll be all up to her. We won’t shove any religion on her. It has to be her own decision.
We’re not a religious family so I wasn’t baptized. I think my oldest sister was, but that was just to please my grandmother. Come to think of it, another sister and a brother might be baptized, they grew up mostly with their Mom. None of us are really church-goers now in any case.
-Lil
I’m from Spain. Baptism there is such a given that… now they’re having civil baptisms! TAER
My parish has received several immigrants into the Church; nobody is surprised to meet someone from Eastern Europe or China who is not baptized, but the few times it was someone from Latin America, it was indeed surprising. We assume that someone is baptised or not based on where they’re from.
Smartass answer: Does swimming in Lake Galilee and in the Jordan River count?
Not-so-smartass answer: Since you didn’t address your question specifically to Christians, I’d have to say I suspect that an overwhelming majority of the planet’s population has not been baptized.
