Just in case that wasn’t obvious from the story I shared on March 21 about the four boys in Uganda who drowned during a baptism ceremony, here are a few more examples:

—– Three Drown During Baptism In South Africa (News24.com/SAPA; Jan 22, 2008)

 JOHANNESBURG: The bodies of three people who drowned during a baptism ceremony in Kgomotso village near Taung have been found, North West police said on Tuesday.

Superintendent Louis Jacobs said Oleseng Mosetlwa, 44, Letlhogonolo Monnamorwa, 28, and Joyce Molehane, 51, drowned on Sunday, during a church baptism ceremony at the Kgomotso river at 14:00.

The drowning was reported to the police at 17:00 and a search begun. It was called off on Sunday night. The search resumed on Monday and the bodies were found at midday.

Police have opened an inquest docket for investigation.

 

—– Devotee Drowns In Golden Temple Pond In India (Thaindian News/The Indo-Asian News Service; June 22, 2008)

 AMRITSAR, India: A Sikh devotee who had come to pray at the Golden Temple Sunday drowned in the sacred pond of the Sikh holy shrine here while taking a dip. The victim, Satnam Singh Randhawa from a village in Gurdaspur district in Punjab, was accompanied by his wife while visiting the shrine.

His wife later told shrine authorities and police that Randhawa was mentally disturbed. She said he slipped after stepping into the pond and drowned.

Seeing him drowning, other devotees and shrine volunteers pulled him out, but he could not be saved.

Golden Temple manager Harbhajan Singh said a number of volunteers were stationed around the pond at all times to help devotees in case of a problem or mishap.

The police started inquest proceedings into the incident.

 

—– Church Worker Dies During Baptism In Nigeria (James Ezema/Vanguard/allAfrica.com; Aug 17, 2008)

 For the pastorate and members of World Evangelical Bible Church (WOBIC) along Ogudu Road, Ojota, Lagos State, last weekend was indeed a tragic one.

The church was suddenly thrown into mourning after one of its members, youthful Emmanuel Olayiwola, drowned in a river, at Ogudu, Ori-Oke area of the state while a baptism exercise was about to be administered on a new convert, Miss Anita Osakwe, by a pastor in the church, one Abraham Sani. The deceased, a 28 year-old 200 level sociology student of University of Lagos, worked in the technical department of the church before he died in the process of the ill-fated baptism exercise.

Speaking with Sunday Vanguard on the incident, Pastor George Alao, who is the personal assistant to the general overseer of the church, Prophet (Dr.) Samson Ayorinde, said the deceased was not a pastor contrary to earlier media reports. Police sources at Area ‘H’ Police Station, Ogudu, where two of the church members were being detained over the incident, corroborated the position of the church that he was a worker there. Alao spoke on behalf of the church pastorate in the company of three other senior pastors.

According to him, the baptism exercise which claimed the life of the church worker, a Unilag student, was not approved by the church management. “The scenario came about this way: the pastor (Abraham Sani) who took the young man to the waterside for baptism is a member of four or five pastors, as occasion demands, who would normally go with batches of new converts for baptism….

The church management stated that when they got to the river, the pastor conducting the baptism and Emmanuel decided to enter the river to feel its depth while the lady who was to undergo the baptism remained ashore and was only to be invited into the water when they were sure of her safety. “As they got into the water, our own pastor (Sani) noticed, according to him, that the sand underground was giving way and he had to scramble out to safety. As he (Pastor Sani) was in front, turning back as soon as he got to the dry land, he looked and found that the young man was not following him. And if anything at all, he (Emmanuel) was actually sinking the other way,” Alao narrated. At that point, Sani raised alarm and ran to a pitch where some boys were playing football and asked for their assistance. “When all efforts failed as the young man had gone under water, he (Pastor Sani) ran to the community and some fishermen offered to help. They came, tried, nothing happened,” the pastor said….

The church management said that they had had extensive discussions with the family of the deceased who were also informed during the process of the search and rescue. The church, however, said that the exercise was totally contrary to the church’s guidelines for water baptism and distanced the leadership of the church from it….

 

—– 1 Drowns, 11 Missing During Goddess Immersions In India (Medha Chaturvedi and Sapna Varma/The Times of India; Oct 10, 2008)

 NEW DELHI: The Durga Puja festivities ended on a tragic note in the city when one person drowned and more than 11 people were reported to be missing while immersing idols of the goddess on Thursday in two separate incidents. The first, in which nine people are feared dead, happened at Sonia Vihar and the second at Wazirabad in North Delhi.

In the first incident, 13 people from Anand Parbat in west Delhi are believed to have gone to immerse a Durga idol in the Yamuna at Pushta in Sonia Vihar in North Delhi. The men seemed to have been washed away in the strong current. “Four of them survived and called the police while nine were untraceable,” said a police officer.

The incident happened around 3.30 pm. “The area where they drowned is in UP [Uttar Pradesh state in northern India]. After speaking to the UP police, we launched the rescue operations. The victims have been identified as Asif, Aftab, Pankaj, Kanhaiyya, Raju, Rajmal, Daleep, Jitendra and Sonu. Their friends who called the police were Udit, Tariq, Rajkumar and Manoj.

“We had all gone to the Pushta because it is a clean and less crowded ghat…We somehow managed to escape but the others couldn’t make it,” said a distraught Manoj.

The police said the ghat wasn’t authorised. “The authorised immersion sites are identified 15 days earlier and there is ample security and lighting there. This place is dangerous and secluded. We are verifying why these boys came to this place, so far away from Anand Parbat. Rescue operations were on till about 8.15 pm after which they were stopped for the night,” said DCP (north) Sagarpreet Hooda. He added that no body had been fished out.

In the other incident in the Wazirabad area, the body of a youth was fished out from the Yamuna after three devotees fell into the river during immersion, police and eyewitnesses said. The accident took place around 3.40 pm when people were present in large numbers. The victim, identified as Jitendra, drowned while taking the idol on his shoulders for immersion, eyewitnesses said. Two other men, identified as Sandeep Lakshman (20), from Prem Nagar in Nangloi, and Mandeep (13) from Kirti Nagar in west Delhi, were missing till late in the night.

“This too was an unauthorised immersion site and, therefore, there were no safeguards. Rescue operations started immediately and we were able to recover Jitendra’s body. A search for the other two victims is on,” said Hooda.

“We don’t know if more people have fallen into the river or not. Our men are on the job,” said an official of Delhi Fire Services.

 

—– Botswana: Going for Baptism? Don’t Forget the Lifejacket! (Lekopanye Mooketsi/Mmegi/The Reporter/allAfrica.com; Oct 31, 2008)

 Should people continue to die in the name of religion? This question becomes pertinent following the recent tragic incident in Thamaga in which three members of a local church drowned at Kolobeng River during a baptising session.

One of the deceased was the pastor of the church, who was the first one to drown. The two other church members drowned after they jumped into the river to rescue the priest. But according to the police, this was not the first fatal incident during a baptising session.

Although he did not disclose the figures, Botswana Police spokesperson, Senior Superintendent, Chris Mbulawa, confirmed that the police have dealt with cases of people who drowned while they were being baptised. He said whenever there is such an incident, the church members would first rush to the police for assistance. Mbulawa said as the police, they could advise members of the public that should take precautions whenever they conduct any ritual whether it be for healing or other purpose.

The police spokesperson said they cannot stop churches from baptising their members in water because they are acting within their constitutional right. But he urges that people should exercise caution. The president of the Botswana Council of Churches, Reverend Mpho Moruakgomo, said they were shocked by the recent incident.

“It is unfortunate people have died,” he commented.He said they are concerned about these incidents because it means there is loss of life at the hands of the church. Moruakgomo suggested that maybe churches should devise other means instead of baptising their members in rivers and deep waters. Alternatively, he said, the people who are to be involved in this exercise should learn to swim.

“We must find a way of teaching our people,” he said. He said in most cases, the people who are being baptised, including the pastor, do not know how to swim. He said people who are not comfortable doing so should not get into the water. Moruakgomo, a pastor of the Methodist Church, has a phobia for water.

He says he cannot baptise people in water. If he had to do it, he would delegate somebody. Moruakgomo said churches could also engage lifeguards when they are going to baptise in a river or a stream. He said the lifeguards would come to the rescue of anyone who is about to drown. Moruakgomo regretted that as churches they have neglected the issue of drowning for a long time.

“We overlooked this issue for a long time,” he confessed. The chairperson of the Organisation of African Instituted Churches, Nicholas Rakodu, also expressed concern about the drowning incidents although he said they have not discussed them at their forums. Rakodu believes that this is an issue that needs a holistic approach. “This is a social issue and it needs to be treated as such,” he said.

He said it also difficult to come up with a solution to the phenomenon. But for Rakodu, churches are also caught in a Catch 22 situation. He noted that most of their churches do not have plots where they can build pools for baptising.

As a result, they are forced to look for a place elsewhere and they end up even using areas that could be dangerous like rivers. Rakodu said in the past their churches have applied for plots but they have not been allocated. In the wake of the latest developments, he said, government should join hands with them to come up with a solution. “All the stake holders have to be involved,” he said. He proposed that maybe the authorities should identify a safe spot that could be used by churches for baptising at the Gaborone Dam.

Rakodu said churches that have resources would be able to erect a pool once they have been allocated a plot. In the meantime, the churches would continue with the water baptising sessions as a result exposing their members to risk.

 

—– Body Of One Baptism Drowning Victim Found; Others Still Missing (The Citizen/SAPA; Feb 24)

JOHANNESBURG, South Africa: The body of one of two men who drowned during a baptism in Bloemfontein was found in the Modder River on Tuesday, Free State police said.

“The body of 49-year-old David Monogmetsi, was found with the help of a sniffer dog at 10am,” said Captain Rulene Khun.

She said the dog was on a boat with his handler, when he found Monogmetsi’s semi-decomposed body in the river.

Three people were swept away during the ceremony on Sunday morning.

One of the men survived, and was found near where the ceremony took place. The search is still on for a 21-year-old man.

All were members of the Dothan Apostolic church.

In a separate incident two people drowned in the Klip River in Eldorado Park, Johannesburg on Sunday morning, also during a baptism.

Police have asked the public wear life jackets and be extremely careful when participating in ceremonies in rivers.

 

—– 12 Converts Drown During Baptism In The Democratic Republic Of Congo (AFP; April 20)

KINSHAS, DRC: A dozen followers of a revival church in Kinshasa drowned after they jumped into a river to be baptised, local media reported on Monday.

“Curiously, several half-clothed followers never re-surfaced (after diving in). They died by drowning,” Democratic Republic of Congo’s Le Phare newspaper reported.

The prophetess who was to perform the ceremony, Thetee Kalangangu, fled following the incident, the newspaper said, while irate residents appeared set to destroy the sect’s quarters in a poor Kinshasa neighbourhood.

A similar drowning-by-baptism incident occurred two years ago about 50km from the Congolese capital, according to Le Phare.

 

—– Four “Prophets” Arrested In Zimbabwe After Cleansing Ceremony Leaves Man Dead (Patrick Chitumba/The Herald; April 22)

HARARE, Zimbabwe: Police in Victoria Falls have arrested four prophets from a local Apostolic church for allegedly causing the drowning of a Chinotimba man in a cleansing ceremony that turned fatal in front of his family.

Police confirmed the incident, which they said happened on Sunday at about 5pm at Masue River just outside the resort town along the Victoria Falls-Bulawayo road. The name of the deceased has been withheld as police investigations continue while the prophets, including the church leader, were in custody helping with investigations.

According to sources privy to the drowning, the deceased, who had been ill for some time, was taken to the river after the “holy spirit” told the church leader that he needed cleansing from evil spirits that were causing his endless illness.

“After falling ill in February this year, he approached a prophet from this church who prayed for him. After the prayer sessions, the prophet told him that he needed to be cleansed from demons and the only way was through water baptism in the river they call Jordan,” said one of the church members who was at the scene.

The source said the deceased agreed to be baptised and a date was set.

“Yesterday (Sunday), the prophets came to his home where they prayed before making a trip to the river in the company of his family including his wife and brother.

“At the river, the prophets helped him to get into the water, which was chest-high. “Three of them then held him together, dipping him about seven times after which he started resisting, maybe indicating that he was suffocating,” he said. The source said the leader then instructed the now deceased to kneel in the water but he could not as the water level was high.
 

Just for the record, I don’t know of anyone who has ever drowned at an atheist or humanist meeting.

Do the gOds like us best or what?