From USA Today:
A mother is angry about a trip led by the head football coach at Breckinridge County High School which took about 20 players on a school bus late last month to his church, where nearly half of them — including her son — were baptized.
Michelle Ammons said her 16-year-old son was baptized without her knowledge and consent, and she is upset that a public school bus was used to take players to a church service — and that the school district's superintendent was there and did not object.
[Coach] Mooney, contacted by phone, said school district officials instructed him not to comment.
But Superintendent Janet Meeks, who is a member of the church and witnessed the baptisms, said she thinks the trip was proper because attendance was not required, and another coach paid for the gas.
4 comments:
This story got hundreds of comments on the Courier-Journal website.
My concern, as a pastor, is not so much about the coach and his taking the team to a revival, as it is about instantaneous conversions, immediate baptisms, and no incorporation into a community of faith. I see here that old but erroneous assumption that getting people stirred up and then baptized puts them in right relationship with God. It is a whole lot more complex than that.
Wow, brutal on so many levels.
Pretty bad when you cant complain to the superintendent since the superintendent was in on the whole thing and thinks its perfectly normal to allow baptisms without parent consent! I hope Janet Meeks loses her job over this but this being Kentucky, she probably wont.
I am all for religious conviction, but this instance strikes me fishy. These students were clearly influenced by pressure from adults (who were supposed to be acting as role models) to accept something they may not have done otherwise. I do not belive their decisions to be babtized came from the heart as a sign of devoting themselves to Jesus, but from pressure from those they looked up to. This situation puts me in the mind of cult characteristics, which is scary. There are better ways to increase the membership of a chuch community.I agree with PreachOn's comments whole-heartedly.
Post a Comment