now I might have to.
Thank you for clarifying that Mary is Baptist. As such, she would normally believe baptism ≠ salvation (you would make a profession of faith first THEN get baptized) so apparently her grief is messing with her head even more than expected?
Random story...I was actually baptized twice. Dad's entire family--including him--was Lutheran at the time of my parents' wedding while Mom was raised Baptist (she fell away from the faith for a while but came back to it). Dad still occasionally jokes that he's "Lutheran on loan to the Baptists" though he's been a member of our church since 1972. Dad's mom was desperate to see me baptized as a baby as that's what the Lutherans believe (for reasons too lengthy and complicated, IMO, to get into here) while Mom was at first adamantly against having me baptized as a baby (as I would've been FAR too young to make a profession of faith*). She was to the point of near hysteria over the subject; she loved her MIL and didn't want to upset her but she didn't think I "needed" to be baptized. It was my mom's brother's wife, who along with my uncle belonged to the Missionary Alliance church (very similar to Baptists but with more of an emphasis on missionary outreach) who finally told Mom to just let Grandma have me baptized. It would mean nothing but a few drops of water to Mom but it would mean everything to Grandma. And thus I was baptized as an infant and then again around the age of seven.
* in churches who believe baptism comes only after a profession of belief that Jesus Christ is our one and only Savior, the age of those being baptized varies. In our church, the pastor and elders believe the concept of salvation can be understood by children as young as four or five and baptism can happen usually 2-3 years after that but in my brother's former (very strict, SUPER evangelical non-denomination) church, baptism usually didn't happen until the child reached 16 or so.
Apologies if you either knew all this or didn't care to know any of it 😁
