Bizarre Rituals in Christianity


Watching the Inauguration we saw a long prayer, one of the boring but less harmful rituals of Christianity. The President of the U.S. could take office with no prayers whatsoever. 

The ritual of prayers is not as harmful as some others. One that has proved to be harmful is full emersion of babies baptism. I believe this is done by Eastern European Orthodox Catholics. A six week-old baby recently got water in its lungs and died.  Legal charges are pending. I recall some Protestant churches used to brag their baptisms used water from the river Jordan. People said it stunk quite badly. I wonder if any babies got sick from those germs.

Then there is communion, a ritual even more bizarre than baptism. I was at an Episcopalian service years ago which happened to include communion. Each participant drank from the same cup. The priest just wiped the cup with a cloth between participants. Yuk.

Just as bad, or maybe worse, is what the liberal church near where it live does. It's communion ritual is to take a piece of bread and dip it into the juice. Watching that I wondered how many unwashed fingers dipped into the juice? The last time I was there I faked a motion toward the juice but didn't touch it. A lady was holding the juice bowl gave me an angry look. 

The decline in denominations means fewer people who self identify as Christians will be baptized or take communion. A nice Sunday brunch at a restaurant will be their ritual. Probably that will be healthier. 

Another ritual in decline is the church wedding. There never was a reason to involve churches or religion in marriage but it successfully pushed its way in. Back in tribal and clan times marriages were arranged by the state. At that time the "state" were tribal leaders who matched couples in a way that helped the tribe. There was no role for religion. Today marriage itself is declining and other places to hold weddings, such as hotels, are becoming more popular.

I admit we all like to do things that are familiar. To some these are the rituals at church. Others are happier without these rituals.

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