Infant baptism

I don’t believe baptism is anything but superstitious symbolism, so it’s no concern to me when or whether somebody gets baptized. You’d think that Baptists would care, though.

“Within Southern Baptist life, we have been on a steady march towards infant baptism, routinely baptizing children younger and younger in age,” [Midwestern Seminary President] Allen said.

A North American Mission Board task force on baptism and evangelism in 2014 found the only consistently growing age group in Southern Baptist Convention baptisms is 5 and under. Allen said the trend should prompt careful reflection and remind Southern Baptists of some of the dangers associated with baptizing young children.

“As a convictional Baptist, it is hard for me to admit this, but when we baptize children too young to grasp the gospel and, as a result, whose hearts haven’t been affected by it, it is more troubling than a sprinkling of an infant,” Allen said.

The Southern Baptists were once identified by three great distinctives:

1. The priesthood of the believer, which holds that the meaning of the Bible is accessible to all with prayer and diligent study, e.g., no Holy Man required to reach a correct understanding.

2. No baptism before the age of understanding.

3. Separation of Church and State.

What makes this interesting is that all three of these defining principles have been thrown out; practically, though the word is in their name, the Southern Baptists are not baptists at all.

• The priesthood of the believer was thrown away with this resolution, in 1988.

  [ … ]

  Be it further RESOLVED, That we affirm that this doctrine in no way gives license to misinterpret, explain away, demythologize, or extrapolate out elements of the supernatural from the Bible; and

  Be it further RESOLVED, That the doctrine of the priesthood of the believer in no way contradicts the biblical understanding of the role, responsibility, and authority of the pastor which is seen in the command to the local church in Hebrews 13:17, “Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account;” and …

  In other words, don’t disagree with your pastor.

• When the fastest-growing baptised faction is under-5s, it’s easy to know what’s going on: They have abandoned the historic requirement that only those who have reached the age of understanding be baptized in order to keep their numbers up.

• The abandonment of separation of church and state is manifest in the denomination’s political activism.

It is their club, and they can have any rules or customs they like, but it does no harm to note that the so-called “Conservative Resurgence” has resulted in a radical denomination that is neither conservative nor Baptist.