Health risks fail to deter the faithful in Appalachia

VAN LEAR, Ky. (AP) -- The Rev. Ted Dawson stood waist-deep in an eastern Kentucky creek preparing to dip two new converts beneath the water in a baptismal service that many Appalachian churches prefer -- outdoors in free-flowing water, evoking Jesus in the Jordan River.
These Protestants believe full immersion in water for professing youths and adults is a necessity, and that there's no better place for Christianity's initiation rite than the great outdoors.
"We were raised that way," said Susie Hall, who was baptized with her husband by Dawson in Johns Creek earlier this year. "I feel closer to God in nature."
But these days, the tradition is threatened in eastern Kentucky by rampant water pollution resulting from so-called straight piping of sewage into streams.
"Most of the people I baptize want to be baptized in the creek," said Dawson, pastor of the Old Log Church.
For several years Kentucky health officials have had advisories in place against swimming or "other full body contact," which includes baptizing, in designated streams. The reason: high levels of fecal coliform bacteria that indicate the presence of untreated or inadequately treated sewage.
Nationwide, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said in a 2000 report that 39 percent of tested streams were at least partially unfit for swimming because of bacteria or other types of contamination. In Kentucky, 48 percent were at least partially unfit, with only slight improvement to under 45 percent in 2002.
Kentucky Division of Water spokeswoman Maleva Chamberlain said bacterial contamination in streams creates a potential for diarrhea and other infectious diseases. In other words, people getting baptized could get sick.
Most churches, even in rural areas, have been slowly getting away from outdoor baptisms, but creeks remain the norm for small mountain communities, said Bill Barker, director of the Southern Baptists' Appalachian Regional Ministry.
"It's the traditional way of doing it, and change comes slow in the mountains," he said.
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