At Home in Her Faith: The Journey to Become a Baptist

Lisa Merlini

February 9, 2004

Gwendolyn Braughton made a decision on New Year's Eve that would change the course of her life forever. A month later, on February 2, 2004, she became a Baptist. After the 11 a.m. service at Abyssinian Baptist Church, Braughton, 43, professed her faith in Jesus Christ in front of the congregation alongside her niece and nephew. One of the assistant pastors then proceeded to dunk her completely under water in the church's baptismal pool. Thus, by the full immersion practiced most commonly in the Baptist faith, Braughton was baptized.

For Braughton the event was somber and spiritual. She made and sealed a commitment to "lead my life by the word of God and accept Jesus Christ as my Lord and savior," she said, "and accept the Baptist faith as my own."

For the congregation, however, the event was joyous. They were accepting another individual not only into their faith but into their church as well, an individual who, like all Baptists, came to the decision to "give her life to the Lord." She came to that decision, as is Baptist custom, by her own volition.

They call baptism elective, but without it, even if someone attends services faithfully every Sunday and believes in the church, that individual cannot officially become a Baptist. According to Luke 3:3, John the Baptist performed a "baptism of penance for the remission of sins." Baptists welcome new members into their fold through the same method John the Baptist used, full immersion after a public declaration of their faith.

Full immersion is an act of purification, of cleansing. Dr. Curtis Freedman, professor of theology at Duke Divinity School, puts it this way: an individual gets baptized so that same individual can "follow the way of the Lord and be right with God." In other words, so an individual can earn and attain salvation.

Dr. Lloyd Allen, an ordained Baptist minister and a professor of theology at the McAfee School of Theology at Mercer University, said that according to Baptists, authentic baptism is by full immersion and full immersion only. "There is no acceptance in the church without it," he said, "no way of entering what is an otherwise open and democratic church."

He also said that, in the tradition of their namesake, Baptists accept only new members who choose to become members, in other words, anyone old enough to make the decision on his or her own. "It's called elective because people elect to do it, elect to become a part of the church and make a public witness of their belief," he said. "The church is a group of gathered believers. You cannot be born into it, and as such, you don't baptize infants because they can't choose to be part of the church."

Accountability also factors into the decision to baptize those only able to make that decision. Roger Williams, founder of Rhode Island and a Christian minister, was the first American to recognize this in the mid-1600s. In a published argument against the forced baptism of Native American infants by the Puritans, Williams wrote, "Christening doth not a Christian make." What he was referring to, essentially, was that baptism alone does not a Baptist make. True conversion comes at the point when faith is declared publicly. Baptism is an acknowledgment of that, a symbol.

Braughton just sees her baptism as the culmination of a journey. "I was raised attending Baptist services, she said. As a child, she used to visit her grandmother in North Carolina and attend services with her. "I fell in love with the music and the sermons," she said. "They were so strident, so full of life and energy."

For the past ten years, Braughton belonged to the United Church of Christ. She considered returning to her roots only when she visited Baptist services with a class of her students. The point was to expose them to as many different faiths as possible, so they could each choose the one that was right for each of them. She didn't expect that in the process, she would find her own.

Braughton opens her Bible, bound in pale leather with her name engraved on the cover, and follows Reverend Calvin Butts' sermon intently, pen and paper in hand. It is the second Sunday in February, the start of the second week of Black History Month. Reverend Butts is preaching the need for the African-American community to regain its moral high ground after the recent embarrassments of Kobe Bryant, Michael and Janet Jackson.

Meditating on this and the day's scripture, taken from Psalm 90: 1, "Lord you have been our dwelling place throughout all generations," Braughton feels as if the sermon and the scripture and speaking directly to her. "I've really just come home," she said, "and I don't think I ever want to leave again."

(Updated April 28, 2004)