Who Baptized Lincoln... Catholic's or ?

5fish

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After Lincoln was assassinated many churches tried to show he(Lincoln) was a good Christian and some went as far as saying he(Lincoln) was baptized within their denomination.

The Restoration Movement churches were ones...

http://www.therestorationmovement.com/_states/missouri/okane2.htm

Snippet...

Abraham Lincoln never claimed to be a member of any church, but almost every denomination makes some kind of claim to Lincoln. Starting on the “Black Easter” two days after his death, preachers began trying to demonstrate that Lincoln was a true Christian. Various ministers set out to prove Lincoln a Presbyterian, a Catholic, a Methodist, a Congregationalist, a Quaker, a Universalist, even a Spiritualist.

Nevertheless, heirs of the Restoration Movement (Churches of Christ, Christian Churches, Disciples of Christ), like other religious groups, have wanted to call Lincoln “one of us.”

Snippet...

I met Brother John O’Kane who was state evangelist in Illinois. It was at a convention. We were together about all the time. The Lincoln matter as to whether he [Lincoln] had ever been baptized came up. Brother O’Kane told me one day, “Yes, Brother Weimer, I know all about the affair. On the night before Lincoln was to be baptized his wife cried all night. So the matter was deferred, as she thought. But soon after Lincoln and I took extra clothing and took a buggy ride. I baptized him in a creek near Springfield, Illinois. We changed to dry clothing and returned to the city. And by his request, I placed his name on the church book. He lived and died a member of the church of Christ.”
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In September that same year the Christian Review published a similar letter Weimer had written July 27, 1942. Weimer stated that O’Kane, in the presence of witnesses, said:

I took Lincoln’s confession one night at our church services in Springfield, Illinois. Then when Lincoln told his wife, she stormed the castle, and declared it with intense vehemence that she would not permit such a thing.


And we move on the Catholics for there are some who state Lincoln was baptized Catholic as a youth Illinois. It seems the Catholic church even investigated the claims and posted it. I have a link to the first 4 pages of the story of Lincoln's Baptism in the Catholic church... I can not post any snippets from it...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44374532?seq=3#metadata_info_tab_contents

Here another Catholic review...

https://www.jstor.org/stable/44374533?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents

We have the Baptist Claim... http://www.bpnews.net/48372/washington-and-lincoln-baptism-claims-debated

Lincoln's baptism tradition is recounted by Wolever, based on Lloyd Ostendorf and Walter Olesky's 1995 book "Lincoln's Unknown Private Life: An Oral History by His Black Housekeeper Mariah Vance." Vance testified some 40 years after the fact that President-elect Lincoln was immersed in Springfield, Ill., before leaving for Washington in 1860 to fulfill a promise to his Baptist mother Nancy Hanks Lincoln.
To conceal the baptism from his wife, who opposed Baptist views and battled mental health challenges, it was performed at night by German Baptist Brethren minister David Elkins, according to Ostendorf and Olesky's account.
James Murch's 1962 history of the Stone-Campbell movement recounted a story with similar details yet with a minister from his denomination said to have performed the baptism. Murch noted another account that Lincoln was baptized in Virginia while he was president.


So does it matter if he was baptized does it matter which church did the baptizism?
 
Gentlemen. While I wish in no way to comment on anyone's faith or religious viewpoint, the topic of this thread is to discuss into which church or denomination Lincoln may or may not have been baptized. To avoid potential holy wars, please refrain from posts on religious dogma and limit our posts to the topic as laid out in the OP. Thank you.

Posted as moderator.
 
Why everyone wants Lincoln in their corner...

https://www.visionandvalues.org/2007/02/the-faith-of-abraham-lincoln/

After his death, Lincoln became the second great hero of the nation’s civil faith. Popular prints portrayed Washington receiving Lincoln into heaven with open arms. While Washington was the saintly father figure and the American Moses, Lincoln was the Christ figure and the first great martyr. Following his assassination, grieving Victorians elevated the often harshly criticized president to sainthood. They portrayed Lincoln as bearing the moral burdens of a blundering and sinful people, suffering vicariously for them, proclaiming cherished Christian virtues and values, and sacrificing his life for the causes he loved: the Union and freedom.

Lincoln was never baptized, never received communion, and never joined a church, but he had a thorough knowledge of the Bible, was deeply interested in spiritual matters, and peppered his speeches with biblical references and allusions.
 
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A reminder: our Community Guidelines forbid any discussion of religion that does not directly relate to the American Civil War. Posts that present or discuss specific religious doctrine will be deleted.
 
Although Lincoln himself never formally joined, he and his family worshipped at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois where he owned a family pew. Mrs. Lincoln had been a member since April 13, 1852. Their two-year-old son Thomas (Tad) was baptized in the church on April 4, 1855. While in Washington, the family attended the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.
 
Although Lincoln himself never formally joined, he and his family worshipped at the First Presbyterian Church in Springfield, Illinois where he owned a family pew. Mrs. Lincoln had been a member since April 13, 1852. Their two-year-old son Thomas (Tad) was baptized in the church on April 4, 1855. While in Washington, the family attended the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church.

Mary Todd Lincoln was a hardcore Presbyterian does not make Lincoln one... As my dad said, "Its the person who is willing to wake up on Sunday morning determines what religion the kids will be..." It is obvious Mary Todd Lincoln was willing to wake early on Sunday... The point is because he went to a Presbyterian church does not mean he was baptized in one...

Edited; modern religious references
 
Last edited by a moderator:
The point is because he went to a Presbyterian church does not mean he was baptized in one...
Thanks for your response.
No, it does not. But it does give us some sense of his beliefs. In my reading I have not seen any information concerning his baptism. I do know that in the community in which he was born (where some of my family- including the midwife who assisted his birth- were his close neighbors) there was a strong Baptist congregation.
My guess is that Lincoln was baptised a Baptist.
 
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