A Christian school in North Carolina baptized 100 students without seeking their parents permission first, the Fayetteville Observer reports.
Renee McLamb the head of Northwood Temple Academy told the outlet that some students were already scheduled to be baptized but others responded to the “presence of the Lord” and decided to join them.
“Truly, the Lord began to move this morning and we were so excited about what the Lord was doing. Several students had given their lives to the Lord during Spiritual Emphasis Week and they were scheduled to be baptized this morning,” she said in an email to the Fayetteville Observer. “But the Spirit of the Lord moved and the invitation to accept the Lord and be baptized was given and the students just began to respond to the presence of the Lord.”
In a post on Facebook, the school wrote: “I feel it in my bones, You’re about to move! Today we had over 100 middle and high school students spontaneously declare their faith and get baptized today.”
The school never asked parents for permission to baptize their children. One parent told the Fayetteville Observer that her 11-year-old daughter called her from school to ask her to bring dry clothes after her baptism and that’s how she found out.
“My daughter calls me from the school and says, ‘Mama, can you bring me some dry clothes? I got baptized today.’ I said, ‘WHAT?,’” she told the outlet.
Another parent was worried that her child’s baptism at school “undid” the baptism at church and some other parents were upset because they missed their child’s baptism.
“They should have corralled the kids in the back of the church, another room — somewhere — and said, ‘We understand your desire to get this done. We’d love for your families to be here and present with you,'” one parent said.
McLamb sent an email on Thursday afternoon to parents and students issuing an apology.
“In hindsight, we would do it differently and give the students an opportunity to contact their parents and ask permission to be baptize,” she wrote in the email. “We were not expecting such an overwhelming response to the message that was spoken, but as a mother I certainly can empathize with why some parents were upset.”
