Taking the Plunge--River Baptisms

[Elphaba]

I was riveted by the pictures in Taking the Plunge, of river baptisms taken in the South during the first half of the 20th Century. This photo is actually a picture postcard of a black child's baptism, which was apparently a popular item for whites to buy. The story is worth a read just to see what the purchaser wrote on the postcard.

I thought this was beautiful:

To see a person walk fully clothed into water, becoming heavy and vulnerable in nature, weighed down by corporeality — it’s an almost mythological sight, evoking Ophelia as much as Moses and Jesus. It is an act that immediately makes us think of drowning, just as the emergence of that same person walking slowly, drenched, gasping a little, up through the mud makes us thinks of survival. Of salvation. The river baptism, which needs little more than a body of water and a group of willing participants, is a simple act, but aesthetically, it’s a powerful one. From the spectator’s vantage, watching someone immersed backward — face, clothes, hair, and all, into a river — you can feel the catch in your own lungs, the terrifying bit of water in the nose, the mute roar of the river rushing in your ears. You could almost think you’re falling, too.

Elphaba

[mightynancy]

I love that passage! Thanks for sharing it. :)

[RipplecutBuddha]

fwiw, both my parents were baptized in a river...not the same river though.

[pam]

My dad was baptized in a lake. During the winter. In Alaska.

[Guest]

My son was baptized in the Atlantic Ocean while a hurricane brewed 50 miles out to sea... the water was up to his waist but he didn't have to fall backwards much because when the wave came, it crested above his head!

[Blackmarch]

I had a couple cousins baptised in a river that was pretty much snowmelt runoff... luckily it was not winter tho.

My son was baptized in the Atlantic Ocean while a hurricane brewed 50 miles out to sea... the water was up to his waist but he didn't have to fall backwards much because when the wave came, it crested above his head!

wow

[rameumptom]

I baptized a few in rivers on my mission in Bolivia. I also baptized in a small pool next to a dormant volcano, filled with water, called Lake Tarapaya. People still swim in the volcano, but are occasionally sucked under and scalded to death. You can see the small pool in the photo, where we baptized. For safety sake, there is (or at least was 30 years ago) a cable stretching across the lake for people to grab hold of in case of induction currents or whirlpools.

[Laureltree]

Thats awesome, thanks for sharing.....

[Backroads]

Absolutely lovely!