May 7, 2001
Austin church startled as cat baptizes itself
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___AUSTIN--Maybe it was a leap of faith, or perhaps just a graceful leap.
___But worshippers at Woodlawn Baptist Church know beyond the Shadow of a doubt that one of the latest of God's creatures to tread its baptismal waters fled at least a couple of other denominations to become a Baptist. Sort of.
___The baptismal procession started unexpectedly, during the early Sunday worship service at the Austin congregation, Pastor Barry Chinn reported.
___"Halfway through the message, I saw a low shadow dart across the center aisle," he said. "'Oh, no,' I thought. 'Something is wrong with my eyes.'
___"A second later, I saw it again. This happened a couple more times. Whatever it was, it was making its way toward the platform."
___Soon Chinn--as well as many other worshippers that morning--realized the "shadow" was a big, black cat.
___"Preachers hate to stop in the middle of a sermon. Of course, some of us don't stop at the end of the sermon either," Chinn acknowledged. "But something had to be done, and I asked if someone would help the 'visitor' to a door."
___Two "big guys" got up to grab the cat, but they missed, Chinn recalled. "'Great,' I'm thinking. 'No wonder we don't have a softball team. If we can't catch a cat in church on Sunday, we sure can't catch a grounder on Monday night.'"
___Eluding his "purr-suers," the cat ran up the steps of the podium and darted into the choir loft. He also apparently decided to help Chinn with his sermon, letting loose with a loud "meeeow" of his own.
___"'I guess I'll have to do this myself,'" Chinn recalled thinking. He turned from the pulpit and reached over the railing to grab the cat.
___"Shadow must have heard enough of the sermon to know what to do next," Chinn said. "He took off again like a bolt of lightning, and making his way through the surprised choir, leaped over a tenor and into the baptistry filled with water."
___Shadow the cat swam out of the baptismal waters and purred in one of the changing rooms until ushers found him and delivered him to the great outdoors and, theoretically at least, his home.
___The feline epiphany in a Baptist sanctuary on Sunday raised several theological questions at Woodlawn, Chinn noted.
___One parishioner asked the pastor if this episode had turned a Baptist church into a cathouse. Chinn demurred.
___Another wanted to know if Chinn had ever baptized a black cat before. "No, that was the first black cat," the pastor responded. "I've baptized a few skunks, but that's another story."
___Most questions turned on the nature of Shadow's denominational history.
___One church member theorized the cat came from a long line of Cat-tholics.
___Another speculated Shadow was Pentecostal, pointing out the feline's only word, "meeeow," was uttered in an unknown tongue. Chinn expressed gratitude that no member rose to offer an interpretation to the enthusiastic if not ecstatic utterance.
___Ultimately, observers agreed the cat left the church a Baptist, since he was indeed immersed and left the baptistry a--somewhat, at least--changed tom.
___Chinn pointed out the self-baptism was not unprecedented.
___Baptist pioneer John Smyth did not have a pastor to immerse him when he founded the first Baptist church nearly four centuries ago. So, he baptized himself.
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