Our little church held periodic revivals. For the benefit of those not blessed with a Southern Baptist upbringing, a revival is a series of nightly evangelical preaching services culminating with a baptismal service on Sunday for converts. There was a good bit of Hell-fire promised, so a quite a few errant souls joined up. Our small church had no baptistry, so baptism was conducted in a creek, exciting business for kids.
Dressed in old clothes, a stark contrast to usual his usual church garb, a stalwart deacon led the candidates to the preacher waiting in waist-deep water. After a few words and a prayer, the preacher dipped the candidates for baptism backwards in the murky water, then raised them up a moment later, gasping, sputtering, and cleansed of sin. It must have been quite a workout for the preacher and an unnerving experience for the baptized. Seeing the redeemed folk led from the water with their clingy garments served as a pretty good anatomy lesson for us kids, as well. Afterwards, the crowd quickly dispersed, out of concern for the soaked.
I chafed, all through the prayers and scripture, awaiting the creek side baptism, anticipating an outing with a picnic and swimming. Verily, there was no swimming for us, only baptism for the redeemed. Though Mother had warned me not to expect such a party, I’d thought perhaps I could engineer the opportunity to fall in the creek, resulting in a swim, after all. Lo, it didn’t happen with the death grip Mother had on me and Billy. My major impression of the day was disappointment.
My brother Billy and Cousin Evil Larry took the opportunity to put all they’d learned in practice the next morning. Our cat had hidden away a litter of kittens, but apparently not well enough. Billy and Evil Larry rounded up those sinful kitties and went to work on redeeming their mewing, little souls. After dunking them in the repeatedly in the water trough, a couple of them straight to Heaven, assuming the baptism worked. Mother caught the boys and saved the rest. I guess she just wasn’t into religion.
Baptism here on earth is sputtering enough without the one the kitties received by way of heaven. 😀 😀 Poor things.
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It was sad.
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Reblogged this on Nutsrok.
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There are some good, soul-inspiring passages in the Bible to inspire people to give to charity also That’s a shame about the kittens. I can imagine how your mother felt Good memoir piece. .— Suzanne
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Thanks. Mother was just sick about it!
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Maybe not sinful, but I’ve known a few cats who were evil.😈 Sad for the innocents, though. Must have been heartbreaking for your mom.
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and the poor mama cat.
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Nothing like a little promise of some Hell-Fire and brimstone to get some repentant Church-goers.
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worked on me
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Lol…I can imagine 🙂
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Oh no…. my God! The pure kitties… 😢
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The boys had no idea. Mother was sick.
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I bet!
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Religious ceremonies like this are so hard to comprehend as kids! I remember how strange and unnerving my own baptism was when I made the life-altering decision to “give my life to Christ” at the well-informed age of 5. Like you said, much hell fire was promised.
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And what horrible sins did you need forgiveness for at 5
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Too much imagination probably haha
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Me, too!
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I tried to think of a reason why the post repeats twice, wondering if it was self reviving or the baptism included a three dunking requirement, but I guess it was just a case of WordPress working in mysterious ways its wonders to perform. Lovely story and you can’t read it often enough!
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thx. will check
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Oh, the poor little kitties. Apart from that, the baptisms sounded fun!
Linda, I think the text has duplicated. It is showing twice on here.
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Thanks. Will check.
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