WITH THIS WATER...

When Joey Crosnoe was first married in 1966, she decided to become a member of the Baptist congregation her husband belonged to.

"I made the decision to be baptized so I could join his church," she said.

But she said it wasn't until years later -- when she chose Jesus Christ as her personal lord and savior -- that she realized she had made her decision to be baptized for the wrong reasons.

Now a member of Lynwood Baptist Church, Crosnoe said the words of evangelist Kelly Green helped her realize that her baptism was not "on the right side of the cross."

"I knew that the act of baptism would not be my highway to heaven, but I wanted to be obedient," Crosnoe said. "I wanted to be like Him."

Three weeks ago, she made the decision to be baptized again.

From the very beginning, the Christians have universally practiced baptism. Celebrations of welcome and redemption, those practices vary from denomination to denomination.

Baptists hold the belief that baptism is an act of obedience and a profession of faith that follows acceptance of Jesus Christ as savior.

Minister Gary Belcher said that should be administered only on profession of faith. "At each worship service there is an invitation," Belcher said. The non-baptized, those wish to be baptized to join the church step forward and are welcomed by the congregation.

Belcher said those people are then counseled by ministers about their decision and are questioned closely about their motives.

"I am especially careful with children who wish to be baptized," Belcher said.

If the child wants to be baptized because he saw it done last week and thought it looked like fun, or because somebody he knew was baptized, then he is gently counseled away from the decision.

People are generally baptized either by being totally immersed in water, having water poured over their head or being sprinkled.

In Baptist philosophy, total immersion is essential. Other denominations also practice total immersion, but pouring water is most common.

The Rev. Randolph Tocktrop of St. Mary's Cathedral said "living water" is fundamental. "The water must be moving," he said, hence the act of pouring.

In the Roman Catholic faith, infants are the most common recipients of baptism. Most other mainstream Christians follow this practice.

The recipients wears white as a symbol of purity and a candle is lit to symbolize the light of the world. The same candle is used at the child's confirmation.

Infant baptism is seen as setting the child aside for God, followed years later by confirmation, or the young adult making a decision to accept His grace.

Minister Clayton Smith of Centenary Methodist Church, explained the practice of baptism as "a celebration of what God is doing in the life of that child."

Confirmation is the other half of the baptism, Smith said. Youth accept what was done on their behalf at baptism and make their own profession of faith.

Smith said he will soon be baptizing a 7-year-old boy into the Christian community. "I will be telling him that his baptism is a gift of grace that God is giving him through the symbol of water." He said he'll tell the boy that when he's old enough "He'll give God his gift of a profession of faith."

Catholics hold that an unbaptized infant -- tainted by original sin -- cannot be accepted into the Kingdom of Heaven. Neither do they go to hell, but remain in a special place, the limbus infantium.

Protestants generally do not agree.

Belcher said he believes that children who are too young to understand the concepts of redemption and forgiveness are under Christ's protection.