Sunday, August 12, 2012

Baptizing Muslims in India

The recent St Francis Magazine (8:4, Aug 2012) has an interview between the issue editor and a veteran missionary to Muslims in India which is quite interesting. One of the questions is about how they do baptisms for new converts. Here is the question and answer:

10) Tell me about baptisms--when you baptize new believers, who does thebaptism? What sort of confession of faith do they make? Who is present?Where and how often do these take place? What does baptism mean forthem as best you can discern? 

Most of the baptisms are done by our main man although some have been done by the 19 leaders. A few have been done by me. Almost always, two people are doing the baptism. It is always done with a group of ten or more. Although the people should already know the facts, we teach about baptism once again, emphasizing faith. Their confession is that they are only trusting in Jesus for their salvation. If anyone is wearing a charm, he or she must take it off. There are about three baptism events a year; each one is planned and postponed many times before it actually happens (it’s India).
Anyway, download the issue if you want to read more. What do you think about the idea of doing group baptisms of ten or more? Why do you suppose they would have this rule? And how about making people take off their charms? Is that getting rid of superstition, or is it denying the traditions of people's culture?

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