Yesterday afternoon, you could have gone to YouTube and seen a video posted by First Baptist Villa Rica (in Georgia) in which a pastor showed up at Villa Rica High School right before football practice to conduct a mass baptism that included players and a coach.

The caption read: “We had the privilege of baptizing a bunch of football players and a coach on the field of Villa Rica High School! We did this right before practice! Take a look and see how God is STILL in our schools!”

Someone must have tipped them off to how unbelievably illegal this all was.

By last night, the video was gone. (Though you can catch glimpses on this news segment.)

The Freedom from Religion Foundation sent a letter to the Carroll County School System yesterday that said — and I’m paraphrasing here — Seriously?! What the hell do you think you’re doing?!

The District was quick to release a statement:

The Carroll County School System was made aware of a situation that took place at Villa Rica High School prior to football practice on August 17th. The District is currently looking into the specifics of this situation and will take appropriate steps to ensure all state and federal laws are followed.

Considering how no one is denying any of this happened, the District needs to make clear immediately that this sort of activity will not be allowed on school property, that coaches (in that capacity) are prohibited from conducting religious activities with students, and that the church has no business barging in before practice to recruit members.

If the students want to be baptized, they can visit the church on their own time.

Or is the church so insecure that it has to conduct baptisms only when a kid’s friends and coaches are watching?

Of course, the comments online are full of Christians who think they live in a theocracy where they’re allowed to foist their religion on children anytime, anywhere, without punishment. You’d have better luck trying to talk sense into Donald Trump‘s supporters.

The law says the District made a huge mistake. And they’ll have to pay a heavy fine if they don’t act quickly to put a stop to this nonsense in the future.

(Image via 11alive video)



