They call themselves the original Baptists, but any similarities to Americans of that description pretty much end with the waterborne ritual they share.
Iraq's Baptists, known as the Sabaean Mandaeans, don't gather in suburban megachurches equipped with TV screens and state-of-the-art sound systems. Their Baghdad headquarters is a tiny temple whose cash-strapped congregation doesn't own so much as a bullhorn.
Preaching the Gospel and winning converts are not among their strong suits. For one thing, while some Mandaeans have studied the Bible, they don't regard it as their holy book. For another, these Baptists don't consider themselves Christians. Their faith, with influences from Judaism, Gnosticism, pre-Christian religions, Christianity and Islam, predates Christianity, possibly by centuries, if not millennia.
For the Mandaeans, there is no such thing as missionary work or conversion. Membership in the religion is so exclusive that it can be attained only by birth, and only if both parents are Mandaeans.
Having survived thousands of years under harsh circumstances, the Mandaean religion risks being erased in a region where Islam is, by far, the dominant religion, many Mandaeans say. In some respects, they credit the nonsectarian government of ousted leader Saddam Hussein with helping protect and preserve their faith when few others would. It is unclear how the Mandaeans will fare under any future Iraqi government.
The word Sabaean comes from the Aramaic-Mandic word saba, or "immersed in water," according to the group's Web site, www.mandaeans.org. Mandaean comes from the word menda, or "knowledge."
"We are one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world. Some say we are the oldest," Sheikh Jabbar Helu, the most senior Mandaean cleric, who wears a long gray beard, flowing robes and is a fluent speaker of Aramaic, the language of Jesus and John the Baptist. "Our religious texts date to Seth, son of the prophet Adam. Our last prophet was John the Baptist."
Principal among Mandaean beliefs is "that water is the source of all life. It is the basic element of all living things," said Sheikh Khaldun Majid, another senior cleric. "Rashamen (ablution using holy water) is the essence of our religion. History shows that we were performing Rashamen before the emergence of Judaism, Christianity or Islam."
The last time an outsider was permitted to convert was around 70 A.D., said Sheikh Jabbar. Persecution and internal divisions during the first century A.D. were the main reason for closing the religion to outsiders, he added.
Their numbers are dwindling because birthrates among members are dropping, he said. He estimated there are only 100,000 to 150,000 Mandaeans worldwide, mostly concentrated in Iraq and Iran. At its peak before Christianity, it was among the most widely practiced religions in the world, he asserted.
Having been based in a heavily Muslim-dominated region for centuries, the religion has fallen into obscurity. Since the 1979 seizure of power in Iraq by Saddam and the 1978 Islamic revolution in Iran, foreign researchers have had limited access to the Mandaeans.
Clerics said the last major academic study of the group was done in the 1930s by Elizabeth Drower, a European scholar who spent years living among the Mandaeans in Iraq. After establishing close friendships and a deep understanding of the religion, she asked for permission to convert, said Sheikh Khaldun.
"It could not be permitted. Not even my own cousin was allowed to baptize his two children as Mandaeans. He was married to an outsider," the cleric explained. "He asked me to make an exception, but I could not."
The secret to their religion's longevity is the ability of its members to adapt to more dominant cultures while remaining internally close-knit and mindful of the need to preserve their own way of life.
Fancy food is discouraged. Purists among the Mandaeans will eat only what they've grown or slaughtered. Alcohol is forbidden.
Not only have the Mandaeans in Iraq survived three devastating modern wars and outlasted the 25-year dictatorship of Saddam; their ancestors in ancient Mesopotamia endured the dynasties of Hittites, Israelites, Mongols, Ottomans, Greeks and Romans, to name a few.
They are mentioned four times in the Old Testament, not always in the most glowing terms. In the Book of Job, Mandaeans are described as violent raiders who seized livestock and killed servants "at the edge of a sword." But the Book of Isaiah describes them as "men of stature."
In modern Iraq, they are largely ignored. Muslims tend to confuse them with Christians because their temples bear a wooden cross draped with a folded cloth. Mandaean women frequently wear Western-style clothes.
The Mandaeans' focus on water, particularly in the performance of ablutions before prayers and rituals, more closely resembles the Muslim practice of ritual cleansing before the five daily prayer services than it does any rite of Western Baptists.
Sheikh Jabbar said the Mandaeans try to respect both Islam and Christianity and avoid favoring one over the other. But the association with Christianity is undeniable, he added, given the New Testament accounts of John the Baptist's foretelling the coming of Jesus.
"We like to think of our religions as cousins, just like Jesus and John the Baptist were cousins," said Sheikh Jabbar. "Our religions are very similar, but they are also very different."
He said Mandaeans study and respect the teachings of Jesus, but regard him not as the son of God, but as wise messenger - one who may have been a follower of John the Baptist.
John's baptism of Jesus in the Jordan River, recounted in the Gospels, suggests that Jesus was a Mandaean, not a Jew, Sheikh Jabbar added.
Several New Testament passages quote Jesus as praising John the Baptist. In Luke 7:28, he says, "Among those that are born of women there is not a greater prophet than John the Baptist."
Unlike Christians, for whom baptism is typically a once-in-a-lifetime event, Mandaeans may be baptized thousands of times as a purifying rite, Sheikh Jabbar said.
Couples, for example, will be baptized once after their engagement, again before the wedding ceremony and yet again after the marriage is consummated.
Pallbearers must be baptized before and after carrying a coffin. Anyone who comes into contact with a "sinner," or nonbeliever, must be baptized. And every Sunday, all Mandaeans are encouraged to undergo baptism.
Sheikh Khaldun compared touching water to "touching God."
Preferably, the water should come from a clear stream, Sheikh Jabbar said, and rarely is a Mandaean community located far from a major river or tributary.
Baghdad's main Mandaean temple used to stand on the banks of a tributary to the Tigris River. But the channel was diverted years ago when Saddam decided to build a presidential palace a mile upriver.
Now, that palace is occupied by U.S. troops. The Mandaeans hope their water source will be restored, although such a project is not on the Americans' list of priorities as they confront suicide bombers, support establishment of a new government and oversee the rebuilding of the nation's infrastructure.
Wars and Saddam's reign of fear caused many Mandaeans to flee Iraq in recent years. One group escaped to Australia, where they garnered headlines by claiming they'd fled their country because of religious persecution. An Australian judge ruled against their asylum request. Despite uniform expressions of hatred for Saddam, Mandaeans in Baghdad said they experienced little or no persecution under his regime.
Staying as nonconfrontational as possible is another key to the religion's longevity, the clerics said.
"We believe in the messages of all the prophets," said Sheikh Khaldun, referring to Moses, Jesus and Muhammad. "They had valuable messages for the people. But we believe the essence of all these messages was contained in the original message from God to Adam."
Because of the river diversion, the temple now uses tap water to fill two large outdoor baptism pools. The pools are unheated, and in winter, the water is nearly freezing. But discomfort is no excuse for avoiding baptism, as several Mandaean youths discovered during a wedding in December.
Normally, families try to schedule weddings in spring or summer to avoid an ice-cold dunk, one shivering bride said, as her mother draped a coat over her shoulders.
"We had already postponed the wedding because of the war," she added. "We couldn't wait any longer."