It was a singular moment in television history, one etched in the collective audience’s minds, was the unlikely persona of Archie Bunker, baptizing a baby.
America knew Archie Bunker as the seemingly coldhearted bigot whose unrefined language ruffled America’s sensibilities each week.
His liberal son-in-law Mike (aka ‘meathead’) and daughter Gloria, maintained stringent standards as to what external influences their new son “Joey” would be exposed to in the first critical years of life, institutionalized religion being among them.
Archie had been upset to find out that the young couple had no intention of baptizing his grandson Joey.
Both Mike and we insisted that it would not happen, nor would they permit such a “pagan based” ritual to take place .
Archie fears for Joey’s life and soul soul because he himself had not been baptised.
Archie gets the idea that he would sneak down to the church and and secretly baptize his grandson.
Edith, while empathetic, is contrary to doing something against Mike and Gloria’s wishes.
One afternoon, while Edith’s back is turned, Archie grabs a hat and sweater out of a box that had been set aside for the poor, quietly cradles Joey and takes the baby with him to the nearby church.
Quietly sneaking into the church’s small baptistery, Archie does something that unexpectedly stirs America’s heart.
He awkwardly but tenderly holds his grandson above the baptismal font, looks up to heaven and first utters “ lord I sure hope I’m doing this, right”, then carefully pours water on his grandson saying the words “Joseph, I baptize you in the name of the Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit..”
In this surprisingly tender moment, Archie enamors and redeems both America’s soul, and most likely his own, in the process …
“All in the Family”, CBS, 1976
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