Daily Archives: January 27, 2008

Editor’s Note: This is the third in a series on baptism in the United Methodist tradition.

“If you want to be in the club, here’s what you have to do…”

Have you ever heard these words?

Surely, at some time in your life, you have stood in front someone and been asked to do something to become a part of a group, a club, a community. It seems to be a part of human condition, these requests to perform some sort of duty in order to belong. It happens with children and their clubs of the moment, with teenagers in the formation of gangs, with college students in the Greek system of fraternities and sororities, and with adults in a variety of organizations and gatherings. At all ages, and among both sexes, this desire for rituals of initiation shows itself. And, as we learn as children, if we want to be a part of that community, if we want to be in the club, then we have no choice but to go along.

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