forced baptism
Involuntary religious initiation
Forced baptism is the practice of baptizing someone against their will or without meaningful consent, typically under threat of violence, enslavement, or death.
Historically associated with religious persecution and colonial conquest, when Jews, Muslims, or indigenous peoples were compelled to convert to Christianity: The Spanish Inquisition followed centuries of forced baptisms.
The term also applies to baptizing children of other faiths who had been kidnapped or removed from their families.
- conversionAct of changing states
- coercionPressured compliance through threats
- InquisitionChurch tribunal against heretics
- Spanish InquisitionChurch court hunting heretics
- crusadeZealous effort for change
persecution · heresy · apostasy · catechism · missionary · colonization · indigenous peoples · residential schools · conquest · subjugation · christening · holy water · immersion · sacrament · pogrom · expulsion · Reconquista · compulsion
forced baptismreligious freedom
Right to practice faith
freedom of conscience · religious liberty · freedom of religion · religious tolerance · freedom of belief
force, forced, forces, forcing, forceful, forcefully, forcible, forcibly, enforce