100000 secular Britons seek debaptism
AFP
March 31, 2009
This is not a great falling away that is occurring all at once in England, this is Atheists on the move showing their muscle and teeth in England. We have chronicled that Churches in England and the rest of the EU are empty and have been empty for years. As they have become largely symbolic and are attended these days mostly by the young and by the elderly. What is growing in the vacuum that Christians have caused, is Atheism. Liberalism, Homosexuality, and Muslimism. We could call these the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, seeking the destruction and fall of westernized civilization. Is it any surprise here that all four of these groups are Anti-Christ, Anti-God, Anti-bible, Anti-Church, and Anti-Christian? Within the last week we posted an article showing that in the EU Atheists are seeking to remove all signs of religion (Christianity) from businesses and from the work place in privately own companies. Demonstrating the lengths that these people will go through to stamp out the church and Christianity. In this article threats are made to even reach into the home as Baptism is declared to be child abuse.

LONDON (AFP) – More than 100,000 Britons have recently downloaded "certificates of de-baptism" from the Internet to renounce their Christian faith.

The initiative launched by a group called the National Secular Society (NSS) follows atheist campaigns here and elsewhere, including a London bus poster which triggered protests by proclaiming "There's probably no God."

"We now produce a certificate on parchment and we have sold 1,500 units at three pounds (4.35 dollars, 3.20 euros) a pop," said NSS president Terry Sanderson, 58.

John Hunt, a 58-year-old from London and one of the first to try to be "de-baptised," held that he was too young to make any decision when he was christened at five months old.

The male nurse said he approached the Church of England to ask it to remove his name. "They said they had sought legal advice and that I should place an announcement in the London Gazette," said Hunt, referring to one of the official journals of record of the British government.

So that's what he did -- his notice of renouncement was published in the Gazette in May 2008 and other Britons have followed suit.

Michael Evans, 66, branded baptising children as "a form of child abuse" -- and said that when he complained to the church where he was christened he was told to contact the European Court of Human Rights.

The Church of England said its official position was not to amend its records. "Renouncing baptism is a matter between the individual and God," a Church spokesman told AFP.

"We are not a 'membership' church, and do not keep a running total of the number of baptised people in the Church of England, and such totals do not feature in the statistics that we regularly publish," he added.

De-baptism organisers say the initiative is a response to what they see as increasing stridency from churches -- the latest last week when Pope Benedict XVI stirred global controversy on a trip to AIDS-ravaged Africa by saying condom use could further spread of the disease. (This is a statement from organized homosexuals)

"The Catholic Church is so politically active at the moment that I think that is where the hostility is coming from," said Sanderson. "In Catholic countries there is a very strong feeling of wanting to punish the church by leaving it."

In Britain, where government figures say nearly 72 percent of the population list themselves as Christian, Sanderson feels this "hostility" is fuelling the de-baptism movement. (Hostility from Atheists, Liberals, Homosexuals, against Christians and the Church’s right to exist, not vise versa.)

Theologian Paul Murray at Durham University disagrees. "That is not my experience," he said, but concedes that change is in the air. (One would hope that someone senses, sees or feels something here, the question is what do these theologians offer to reverse the ever growing number of their enemies and their ever growing powers to litigate and persecute Christians and the Church?)

"We are in an interesting climate where Catholicism and other belief systems have moved into the public, pluralist arena, alongside secularists," he said.

De-baptism movements have already sprung up in other countries.

In Spain, the high court ruled in favour of a man from Valencia, Manuel Blat, saying that under data protection laws he could have the record of his baptism erased, according to a report in the International Herald Tribune.

Similarly, the Italian Union of Rationalists and Agnostics (UAAR) won a legal battle over the right to file for de-baptism in 2002, according to media reports. The group's website carries a "de-baptism" form to facilitate matters.

According to UAAR secretary Raffaele Carcano, more than 60,000 of these forms have been downloaded in the past four years and continue to be downloaded at a rate of about 2,000 per month. Another 1,000 were downloaded in one day when the group held its first national de-baptism day last October 25.

Elsewhere, an Argentinian secularist movement is running a "Collective Apostasy" campaign, using the slogan "Not in my name" (No en mi nombre).

Sanderson hopes rulings in other European countries will pave the way for legal action in Britain, since European Union directives require a level of parity among member states' legislation.

"That would be a good precedent for us to say to the British Information Commissioner: Come on, what's your excuse?" said Sanderson.

The bus-side posters that hit London in January sported the message: "There's probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life."

The scheme was in response to pro-Christian adverts on buses directing passers-by to a website warning those who did not accept Jesus would suffer for eternity in hell. (This is not very effective either. Nothing can replace boots in the field being individual and personal lights showing forth the Glory and Majesty of Jesus Christ)

Comedy writer Ariane Sherine, mastermind of the British bus campaign that saw a copycat version in Barcelona and other cities, said she backs the "de-baptism" movement but insisted the two initiatives were separate.

Sanderson meanwhile remains resolute. "The fact that people are willing to pay for the parchments shows how seriously they are taking them," he said. (Rather it is a show piece, a prop to demonstrate their activism, as opposed to any real worry about being baptized as an infant. It shows a recognition of God, the Church, and Christianity, and that their darkened souls can not abide the least vestige of their existence in their lives to be able to have “Fun” and that be definition would be Wicca, Pantheism, Secular Humanism, Atheism, or Hedonism in its many forms. This demonstrates once again how great a threat they view Christianity and the Church as. Even though the Church today is by enlarge a hollow and empty large rotten old tree stump,)