Dog Saint
In a recent blog post I made an off-hand mention of the fact that my friend Mark baptized his dog. A number of people have asked me about that episode, so perhaps I should elaborate. We were in third grade, and the topic was how many people we had in our families.
“Seven,” Mark said.
“Not seven,” somebody corrected. “You have six people in your family. Three boys plus one girl plus two parents.”
“Plus the dog,” Mark said.
“You can’t count the dog.”
“Sure I can,” Mark said. “I baptized him.”
Mark was the only openly Presbyterian person I knew at the time. I understood that Presbyterians were different from Baptists, but I had never known exactly how. Mark seemed pretty much like the rest of us. But now things were starting to come into focus: Presbyterians baptized their dogs.
I was a little resentful. I had tried to get baptized my own self but failed the initial interview. (Preacher: “Can you tell me in your own words why you want to be baptized?” Me: “Because all my friends are getting baptized.” End of interview.) To learn that even Mark’s dog had beaten me to the punch was just too much.
Years later I was relieved to learn that Mark’s position on canine baptism was idiosyncratic and in no way representative of the Reformed tradition.
Aaron Roughton
I forget if this has already been established or not, but was it a dunking or a sprinkling? As a Methodist, you know where I stand on the issue, but it seems like even discounting tradition, one method might be easier than another in this case. As a side note, I dunked a cat once, but it dissolved immediately in the holy water on account of its innate feline evilness.
Jonathan Rogers
I assume Mark, being a young Presbyterian, sprinkled the dog. At the time, being a Baptist, I pictured it as a dunking.
Sorry about your cat.
Aaron Roughton
Oh, it wasn’t my cat. In fact, the words “my cat” have never been used truthfully in any form of representation of myself or my belongings.
Peter B
Aaron, I could’ve sworn you had a small earthmover in there somewhere.
Caleb Land
This was an incredible post. Still laughing.