This demonstrates that human intellectual rational knowing or human inner experience is primary. In such language, baptism is clearly an appendage - a secondary, even unnecessary human act. It is another example of the relatively low place which Baptism occupies in the life of the church. I marvel at how some do everything possible to avoid the act of baptism. Fonts become progressively smaller, from bathtub size to finger-bowl capacity.
Great care is taken to be sure nobody gets wet.
Many baptisms are wedged between Sunday morning services, or moved outside the worship service altogether not to trouble people and keep them in worship an extra five minutes. T he Pastor who tells people that Baptism is a little ceremony for the parents and family members, or merely a symbol that a person made a decision for Christ, strips the sacrament of its explosive meaning. Far from being an outmoded liturgical act, Baptism is incredibly contemporary - a revolutionary action that subverts many of our cherished, but tarnished values. We cannot be given anything because we are self-made who earned and deserved what we have. We cannot be forgiven because we are basically good, without sin to tie us up in guilty knots.