Baptism ...
Dear oh dear oh dear. I have a habit of sticking my foot in it with the in-laws. They're devout Catholics, and I through no fault, or effort on my part, am a Protestant. I don't personally believe in God, but when the sprogs turned up, I found myself unwilling to bet their eternal souls on it. And on this basic human fear Christianity continues to increase its headcount.

So off we toddled to Mass one bright sunny Easter Sunday. The Godfather, a fellow Heathen, and I were the only ring-ins and found ourselves bumbling along in a play where we had not seen the script. We were doing fine until the priest asked our Godfather to light the baptismal candle from the Paschal candle.

Godfather holds our wee baptismal candle up to the super dooper five foot special Easter High Mass jobby, which promptly goes out. Oblivious to the gasp of horror from the congregation, Godfather compounds his sacriligious faux-pas by turning around and picking up the Altar Candle! He then relights the Paschal candle and our baptismal candle.

When we were laughing about it later, I told him he should have lit up a joint too, just to guarantee his ringside seat in Hell.
(Que?, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 2:14, 3 replies)

I don't think you can be a Protestant, if you don't believe in god.

( monster munch person, man, woman... camera... TV?, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 8:43, closed)

You don't believe in God so you're not a protestant
So many people don't believe in God but still refer to themselves as Christian because that's the default status in the UK.

Christian != British
( AWPS, Wed 7 Sep 2011, 13:39, closed)

That's true
It was also often the default thing nurses would put down on forms in hospital, back when they used to do that sort of thing and before the Equal Opportunities policies came into full swing.

"If you can't give me a sensible answer, Mr Kasiarunachalam, I'll just put you down as C of E"
(richardm, Thu 8 Sep 2011, 12:18, closed)