Can an animal be baptized? Like a goat or a pig, for example?

Question

Or a capybara? If yes, could I bring my goat, Roy, with me to church on Sunday?

Answer 1

YOU can baptize ANYTHING if you want to. I'm not sure you will find any upright pastor that will do it for you. Just take your goat and/or pig down to creek and throw him/her in. Then tell them "you are baptized". Work just as well. Then you can butcher them and eat well for a while. Good luck. Pops

Answer 2

Dearest Bert. you can talk your goat to church, but will surely be sent home.
Pardon me for my ignorance, but I have no clue what a capybara is, and probably dont need to or want to.
But, as for baptizing any animal, surely you jest.
To be baptized where making a decision whether you will follow God or not, and accept Jesus as your saviour. You must confess your sins and repent. and turn from sin. That is salvation. I dont know about you, but I dont know any talking pigs, goats or that other thing you mentioned. They cant choose and they cant talk. This is just blaspheming of God and its a dangerous place to be. Ask God to forgive you and mean it. You are on dangerous ground. At first I thought this is too silly to anser. BUt then thought, no, underneath the questions could be a guy who is seeking truth, just hates to admit it. SO I seriously answer your question, and the answer is N O you cant baptize an animal. But, you can be baptized are you interested? If so, call a Christian friend or a pastor today and ask God to take you where you need to be. Its lifechanging man. worth all you hve to give it. Leave the farm animals home, but take yourself to church. Never know what you will hear there that will change your entire life and those around you. God bless you....

Answer 3

Perhaps in Bush's church. Maybe after they quit dancing with the snakes.

The RC Church often has a blessing of beasts to celebrate St. Francis. Take Roy there. I have a friend that has two pigeons, which he takes to church with him often. The people really like them particularly the one with the bad leg. Since this friend is also a Pastor, he often lets the birds perch on his kepi when he is sermonizing.

He has a pet pig too, but the pig belongs to another denomination. Ours gives the sacrament to all the bovines that are trucked through town on their way to your dinner table. Don't tell me you have never heard the expression "Holy Cow".

Answer 4

Baptism is an act of spiritual symbolism. In order for it to mean anything, the one being baptized must understand and willingly surrender to baptism. You can "baptize" an animal (as in go through the motions) if you want to, but it would be meaningless. In the past, some have tried to forcibly baptize people into a particular faith--that is also pointless.

Answer 5

I don't think so, but some churches bless animals.

If this isn't just a silly question, you can find out if there are any churches who do a blessing of the animals, and take your four-footed or furry friends to that.

Some believe that blessing the animals started with Francis of Asisi, others say John the Baptist.

In actuality, cermonies for blessing animals, driving out disease, blessing them with many offspring, go back MUCH farther than Christianity:

http://www.sacred-texts.com/pag/frazer/gb06205.htm

Answer 6

No, an animal cannot be baptized.
It requires an ability to understand the plan of salvation and make a conscious effort to change one's life. An animal cannot do that. That is why babies should never be baptized.

Answer 7

It depends on the goat, Roy sounds like an upstanding fellow...especially if he wants to join you for service.

Unfortunately many people think that animals have no 'soul'. I find this quite egotistical to be honest. "You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals..." we are no different than any other lifeform on this planet, but we like to think we are.

Answer 8

Yes they can, and the Catholics in medieval Europe used to try them in court for every crime imaginable including heresy and murder. It is a quite ridiculous feature of history

A paragraph from a book review;
These trials were often far from rational by modern standards. There was a long tradition of trying corpses, dating to the infamous "Cadaver Synod" of A.D. 897, in which Pope Stephen VI exhumed the corpse of his predecessor, Pope Formosus, dressed it in vestments, propped it up on a chair, and put it on trial. Corpse trials continued through the Middle Ages, and were endorsed by a 1591 legal treatise, On the Trials of Corpses, Ashes, Memory, Animals, Inanimate Things and Absent Defendants.

The Idea of animal baptism was taken from John who declared that Christ was sent to save the world and the peasants took that to mean every living thing in the world so they got their cattle saved and their demon possessed chickens exorcised. You would not want to risk getting a demon inside of you by eating a demon possessed egg from a demon possessed chicken would you.
I wish I had the time to get out the history books and send you more details, it was all quite silly, really.

Answer 9

A pig baptized. Holy desecration!!!!! Anyways animals can't be spiritually baptized since they don't have a soul like man does. I guesse you could do it if you wanted too(no pigs) but it'd be a waste of time..

Answer 10

Well you can baptize it, but it won't do any good. Just like you could go get baptized before you write a question like this, and it won't do you any good either. You've got to mean it.

We get baptized as Christians as an outward sign of obedience and faith in Christ. But unless we're sincere and doing it for the right reasons, we go down a sinner, and just come up... a wet sinner.

Now stop mocking God and go ask for forgiveness.