I had never been to an old-time river baptism before Sunday. But while visiting in-laws in rural Appomattox County, Va., we attended on Sunday morning a gathering at the original site of a church that had been founded in 1772. In many ways it was the ultimate Red State event: unselfconsciously religious and patriotic, bluegrass music, potluck dinner. In other ways it defied stereotypes: one of the three teenagers baptised this day was black, and a prayer was said for a black minister in a nearby town who had died of cancer.


The preacher and a bluegrass band kick things off.


The baptisms took place in a creek that has been used for baptisms since the 1770s.