De-Baptism: Living in Denial

By Chuck Colson
6/4/2009

There’s a bizarre trend going on in Great Britain. Former church members are getting “de-baptized.” As Time magazine reports, “More than 100,000 former Christians have downloaded ‘certificates of de-baptism’ in a bid to publicly renounce the faith.”

Now, there have always been people who have walked away from their faith. But what’s behind this public display? And why are so many downloading an apostasy certificate?

Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society, has some theories about why his group’s idea has found unexpected popularity. He told Time that “churches have become so reactionary, so politically active that people actually want to make a protest against them now... They’re not just indifferent anymore. They’re actively hostile.”

Well, maybe. But the Church has always been active in public life, standing against wrongdoing in the culture. And there have always been people who resented that.

Sanderson also states that the “de-baptism” rite is meant to “mock the practice of baptizing infants too young to consent.” But again, infant baptism has long been a subject of debate within the Church. There’s nothing new about that either. the rest