I recently witnessed baptisms (on behalf of the dead) at the temple. Mormons, as well as many other Protestants, typically lean the person backwards. Mormons make a big deal that the entire body must be immersed, or the ritual needs to be repeated. In this Catholic baptism, an adult woman was baptized by immersion as she held onto the priest and another person.
In this re-creation of John the Baptist (quoting directly from the Bible), subjects lean forward to be baptized.
In the protestant baptism, the subject sits on a stool in the water, and it is much easier to recline in the water. The pastor didn’t even need to get wet! (Fast forward to the 3 minute mark to see her sit down.)
It got me thinking about all the different ways to baptize. Lying down backwards in the water seems to uncomfortable for the initiate. I really liked the re-creation video above where the person simply bends forward in the water. The person has balance, and it isn’t so awkward. I also like the idea of a chair. Why do you think we make it so hard for the person to bend backwards when baptized? Some of the youth being baptized popped up an elbow, knee, hair, or hand so the baptism had to be repeated. Could we be a little less strict on body parts (as done in the Catholic video) being immersed? Some videos on Youtube had two people in the water to make it easier. (Fast forward to the 1:20 mark to see the baptism.)
Can you see the LDS Church ever incorporating some of these policies for baptism to make it easier for the person being baptized?
Wheat & Tares 
You said,
Can you see the LDS Church ever incorporating some of these policies for baptism to make it easier for the person being baptized?”
I can see the Church not saying anything as long as the person is immersed, unless the Church leaders do say something and then I would say that God wants us to do what they say whether we like it or not and that we should not complain about it.
Good question.
I can see how bending backwards might be difficult for some. I would think sometimes there are variations in methods to accommodate various physical challenges, no?
I have another question, revealing my ignorance.
When did baptism come into practice–was it just with John the Baptist?
Possibly our standard procedure stems from seeing baptism as a type of death, a laying down in the grave.
That said, I have no objection to whatever adaptations may be necessary for an individual. I can’t see abandonment of immersion flying, though given revisions of temple washings and annointings over time, I’m not really clear why that wouldn’t in theory be possible.
Rich, semantics. Potato, pa-tah-toe.
Lois, the Jews had an ancient ritual called a mikveh, which seems to be a pre-cursor to baptism. I did a post on it a long time ago. See http://mormonheretic.org/2008/07/17/history-of-baptismmikvah/ From a biblical perspective, Christianity seems to have viewed the baptism of Jesus as a special rite, and it is not quite the same at a mikveh, although I was astonished to see the similarities.
The Book of Mormon, on the other hand, tells us that Nephi was baptized (2 Nephi 32). This would pre-date Christian baptisms by 6 centuries. Could Joseph have translated a Mikveh as a baptism? Possibly, but there is a lot of Christianity in 2 Nephi that isn’t in the Bible. Certainly John the Baptist was making a big deal about baptism, and that is where the biblical emphasis is.
Hedgehog, I agree with you. Early washings and annointings were whole body, and now it seems that it is more of a sprinkling. I think the sprinkling initiatories more more akin to the Catholic change of immersion to sprinkling. It was interesting to me to see the video of a Catholic baptized by immersion (even if her hands were out.) I didn’t know Catholics did immersion at all.
On my mission, I had an investigator who was afraid of water. When we discussed baptism with him together with the branch president, we decided that we would fill the font as full as possible, so that he could just crouch down and lean a little to be immersed. Unfortunately, he didn’t get baptised, not because of the fear of water though.
These are beautiful videos. I especially love the Evangelical baptism at Silverdale High School. I love how the guy getting baptised, when asked, “Who is Jesus to you?” says “Jesus is everything.” I love the singing, the music, the sermons, the celebratory atmosphere. It just reminds you as a Mormon, supposedly having the only authorised baptism, that we should really try to make it a special experience, because even when it is done at apostate churches, it is really an amazing thing.
Yes, they could do it differently. Just look at the temple. There is not so much standing and sitting and I think they changed that for the elderly folk in the temple, so I do not see any problem with bending forward
The Church has no policy on leaning backwards, it’s just the most common practice. There is nothing wrong with sitting down or bending forward. There is, however, a policy on being completely immersed, as well as on the baptizer standing in the water with the person being baptized. White clothing is also not a policy requirement for live baptisms.
We baptized a man in a wheelchair on my mission. We just filled font until it was up to his shoulders, lowered him in, and then baptized him by having him lean forward at the waist.
I think leaning forward should be the *default* option, not an extraordinary circumstance.
Why does our *hair* have to be fully immersed? Hair is dead!
In college I knew a guy who was very very large, both tall and wide. To do baptisms for the dead he knelt in the font and then bent forward. It would have given the baptist a hernia to try to bend him backward and pull him back up. For myself, I am very good at being dunked and do not see how leaning forward would be any easier.
It would be nice to just have a special personal event with a celebration instead of the correlated cattle car ones that are so prevalent today.
I performed baptism’s for the dead with the youth in my ward tonight and was shown written instructions for the person being baptized to bend over backwards to simulate laying the person in to a grave
This post reminds me of my daughter’s baptism a few years ago. On the day of her baptism I drove over to the Stake Center an hour before the service started to make sure everything was in order. When I checked the baptismal font I was horrified to see there was no water in it! I immediately turned on the water and started to fill the font, but by the time the service started it was only half full. In order to accommodate the baptism, we had to make a few adjustments. Instead of standing, my daughter sat on the bottom of the font and I baptized her while kneeling on the floor. It was a bit awkward, but the requirement to be baptized by full immersion was accomplished, even if it may have been a bit unorthodox. It was certainly a memorable experience for everyone involved.