[Ezekiel Bathfire]

I was scanning foreign news to see if there were any ailing companies or countries to buy out, when I came across 2 stories that made my eyebrows raise. OK, they are both in Godless England and I hear you saying, “What does Bathfire expect from bucktoothed heathens and Islamofascists?" Nevertheless, they are worth a read. The first concerns a woman who committed suicide and murdered her gimp daughter, the other is a curious case.

The following story describes the frailty and foibles of woman. Read it and see if you don’t agree that

(i)The woman was not a goodly wife
(ii)She had been sinful and God was punishing her by giving her a gimp for a child
(iii)The loss of a man to be her head and guide is too much for any woman to bear.
(iv)Without a husband, she realized she was lost and murdered her child and then killed herself.
(v)This was God’s Plan all along.

Two bodies found in hunt for woman and disabled daughter

Estranged husband flies from New Zealand to be told of tragic discovery

The bodies of Jude Richmond and daughter Millie were found by police divers at a lake near the family's Cotswolds home

Police divers searching for a missing florist and her disabled daughter recovered two bodies yesterday from a lake near the family's Cotswolds home.

Jude Richmond, 42, and Millie Whitehead-Richmond, aged nine, had been missing since Sunday evening. The youngster had cerebral palsy and her mother was thought to be having business and relationship problems. The announcement of the discovery was withheld so that Mrs Richmond's husband, Nick, a City broker, could be told the news in person by detectives when he arrived at Heathrow from New Zealand.

It is believed the couple had recently separated and Mr Richmond decided to return to the UK on learning from a neighbour that his wife and stepdaughter had been reported missing on Monday.

This next story raises some interesting questions. The first being “Was the man ever baptized?” The answer is “No.” To be baptized, it is necessary to understand, as an adult, what is happening. The Catlick Church, in its attempt to get money form the gullible, baptizes anyone at any age. See what difficulties the Catlix get themselves into:

Water under the bridge

Around the world, atheists are asking to have their baptisms officially revoked, but churches aren't doing the decent thing.

Over the weekend the BBC carried news of an attempt by a man called John Hunt to get himself debaptised from the Church of England.

This caused a small volcanic eruption in the Christian blogosphere and a rush of emails from around the world (the story was carried on the World Service) to the National Secular Society (which had provided a tongue-in-cheek debaptism certificate to Hunt). The reactions ranged from the deranged ("you're possessed by devils – you are the antichrist") to the reasonably rational ("Baptism is a ritual more for the parents than the child – rather like a funeral provides comfort for the living rather than release for the dead").

Many people, Christians and non-Christians alike, couldn't understand why Hunt would want to renounce something that he didn't believe in and which has only symbolic significance anyway – even for those who do believe in it.

I think Hunt is actually part of an emerging movement that is uncomfortable with the authoritarian turn that organised Christianity has taken. They see a threat forming to their liberty and right to self-determination. The traditional indifference and indulgence of religion is turning for many into hostility.

The hostility is particularly true for the Catholic church, which does count the baptised as being "incorporated" into the body of the church, whether or not they later reject its teachings.

As Vatican teaching becomes more reactionary, the numbers who attend Catholic masses dwindle. Among the defectors will be some who want not only to reject the church dogmas, but also to formally revoke any connection they might have had with Catholicism.

This is clearest in nations that have the most Catholic influence. In Italy there is a similar debaptism movement that has designated October 25 "Debaptism Day" and in Spain the Catholic church has appealed to the supreme court to overturn a ruling that the church must amend its records to record a person's defection from the church on their baptismal records.

In Argentina another campaign by atheists and feminists is underway to reduce the overbearing power of the church by encouraging people to officially revoke their baptism.

John Hunt just wanted the Church of England to amend its records to show that he no longer had any connection with it. When he approached the church in Thornton Heath in London where he was baptised with a request for this amendment, he was told by the diocese to put an announcement in the London Gazette and this would be added to his baptismal records. This he did (at a cost of £60) and although the local Bishop, Nick Baines, told the BBC that that was fine, it is quite clear that, in fact, it will never happen.

I wrote to Lambeth Palace to ask if this method would be valid nationally, only to be told in a rather pompous reply from one Stephen Slack that baptism was a historic event and its occurrence could not, therefore, be erased from the record. The C of E was not covered by the Data Protection Act and so there was no point in trying to pursue that (as the Spanish protestors had successfully done): "I am afraid I cannot accordingly see any compelling argument that should lead the Church of England generally to adopt the procedure described in your letter."

So, it seems, once you're baptised as a babe in arms, there is no official procedure that will permit you as an adult to say: "Actually, I don't go along with this and my parents were wrong to do it on my behalf."

The churches continue to claim vast numbers of "adherents" around the world but I wonder how many of them are genuinely, conscientiously attached. And how many are claimed on cultural grounds. And how many of them would revoke their "adherence" if they could.

With this in mind, is it time for another campaign by non-believers to show their disapproval of the organised religions that have held such power for so long? Perhaps it is time for Britain's own mass de-baptism? Would there be support for this?

[Nobar King]

Why on Earth would anyone want to be de-Baptised?

[Ezekiel Bathfire]

My theory is that he was baptized as a child, didn't know what it was all about, and this has turned him against God. The Catlix are producing atheists!