"Today, A Sad Day For The Upci"

[TRFrance]

Originally Posted by blueaugust

Now I'm at lost as to where this thread is heading...

Blue, I'm with you. I just got done reading the whole thread, and I'm simply flabbergasted and disturbed by some of the stuff I've just read.

Frankly, the whole thread was misleading and just unfortunate. The original post gave the impression that deceptive and unethical things were being done by the UPCI leadership to 'pad the numbers' of people being baptized. This would be a revolting thing if it were true. Now it seems almost certain that it's not the case.

The poster made reference to it being "a sad day for the UPCI".... proclaimed that "the UPCI has just shot itself in the foot" .... and made reference to how the $25 charge...

Originally Posted by Bishop1

...Closes The Door To The Going Out On The Streets On The Last service Night And Paying The 'Street People' To Come In And Get BAPTIZED So They Can PUBLISH The Large Number Of Candidates Baptized In That Service ! Bishop1

Taken at face value, the implications of such a charge would be shocking to say the least, and would certainly give reason to question the integrity of such UPCI leaders who would approve of such a thing.

But when things got clarified (4 days later), what we see is that a few people in the area [allegedly] claimed they were paid to be baptized. I can't say its true or isn't, but even if it's true it would now appear to possibly be just be the doing of a small number of misguided/dishonest individuals doing something clearly unscriptural and ungodly. (Then again, we just don't know what happened... For all we know, they may have just been paid to show up at the service, and then later on decided to be baptized.)

Still, clearly the original post was worded in such a way that it would give someone the impression that this was:
A) a practice common in the UPCI... that was now being "exposed", and/or
B) something done with the knowledge of UPCI leaders, in order to show greater numbers of people being baptized at the Conference.

That original post was incredibly misleading (even if unintentionally so), and irresponsibly written, but what was even more dismaying was to see how so many on this thread seemed inclined to believe such an allegation was true, or at least credible.

Stuff like this just shows how rumors can get started on message boards, and good men can get their name and reputation damaged unnecessarily. Very sad.