Another concerned parent explained that she felt her child’s baptism resulted in the undoing of a baptism that had previously taken place at their church, while someone else was upset that they missed witnessing their child get baptized.
A comment left on Ray’s post warned: “It is not always The Spirit but emotions that are working,” implying emotionalism could have been the catalyst for the explosion of baptisms that day.
“I myself am a Christ follower. I would be happy for my child if she chose to be baptized,” another parent wrote. “HOWEVER…I would want to be present for this event in my child’s life.”
Like other commenters, she shared her concern regarding baptismal peer pressure, saying, “I would’ve wanted to make sure that they are understanding exactly what baptism is, why people do it, that is not a requirement, and that is THEIR CHOICE to do so, and that they’re not just following friends or feeling pressured to do something their not ready to do. Them feeling pressured or just following a crowd IS NOT a true and genuine profession of their faith. It is peer pressure. IMO, that causes me to ask does that even count? If it turned out to be a bad experience due to feeling pressured, I wouldn’t want that to cause them to later on turn away from their faith. There is a lot to unpack in this situation. No notes home. No permission slips.”
One former Northwood Temple Academy student said that the school’s administration “needs to be held accountable for making choices without parental consent.”
“I can say with confidence,” the former student said, “that 100 CHILDREN didn’t make a personal decision on their faith. They were pressured by the adults they are supposed to be able to trust. This trust can be abused.” The student then went on to share some of the dark history the school has had in its past administration.
McLamb told CBN News that the school wasn’t expecting the firestorm that resulted from the more than 100 spontaneous baptisms.
“Honestly, the whole faculty and staff of middle school and high school were overwhelmed. We’ve had great outpouring of the Lord on our students before but never where it seemed like the line would never stop. They just kept coming to the stage,” McLamb said.
McLamb sent out an email to parents explaining that the “Spirit of the Lord moved and the invitation to accept the Lord and be baptized was given and the students just began to respond to the presence of the Lord. I do understand that parents would desire to be a part of something so wonderful happening in the lives of their children, and so I apologize that we did not take that into consideration in that moment.”
McLamb shared in the email, “I pray that at the end of the day we will all rejoice because God truly did a work in the lives of our students.”
