Differences

I belong to a church that baptizes believers by total immersion. This means that the hundred gallon tub must be filled with water.

I was serving a small congregation in Texas so as pastor I was the one who took care of getting the baptistery ready. One Saturday I was busy in the full baptistery removing the little six legged critters that had fallen in over night. My nine year old daughter entered the church with one of her friends who was visiting us. The girl was from a family of Episcopalians and was use to babies being christened.

My daughter was showing her around and led her up to the baptistery and told her that this was the place where I baptized people. The young friend was dumbfounded. She climbed up on the bench and looked in at all the water and said, “Do you just throw the babies in there?”

We are often confused by religious practices of religions other than our own and this can lead to gross misunderstandings. It can even lead to violence if we do not take the time to try to understand one another and be tolerant of our differences.