Gay man de-baptises himself

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A man has asked to be ‘de-baptised’, saying that he was too young to decide his religion at the age of five months.

John Hunt, 56, says that he wants his 1953 baptism at the St Jude and St Aidan parish church in the Southwark diocese, south London, cancelled because he was not consulted and does not believe in God.

He decided to have his baptism revoked after reading about a gay man in Spain, Mañuel Blat, who won a court ruling under Spanish data protection legislation that he could have the record of his baptism stricken from the baptismal register.

Mr Hunt, a member of OutRage!, has obtained a de-baptism certificate from the National Secular Society, which reads: “I, John Geoffrey Hunt, having been subjected to the rite of Christian baptism in infancy hereby publicly revoke any implications of that rite.

“I reject all its creeds and other such superstitions in particular the perfidious belief that any baby needs to be cleansed of original sin.”

He paid £60 to post it in the London Gazette and the London diocese has agreed to amend his baptism notes with the notice.

However, he has been told that he cannot have his baptism revoked as it is a “historical record”.

The Bishop of Croydon, the Rt Rev Nick Baines, told the Daily Telegraph: “Whether we agree whether it should have happened or not is a different matter.

“But it’s a bit like trying to expunge Trotsky from the photos. You can’t remove from the record something that actually happened.”

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