**TL;DR**: Niece called and told me about her anxiety from having to speak before getting baptized. Her parents signed her up for the class without her consent
I’ll try to keep background details as brief as possible. My parents didn’t raise us religious. My brother(Tim, m44) became a Christian in college when he met a girl he began going to church with, and they are now married with two daughters (Lynn 12, Lori 10). Lynn called me over the weekend and told me that her parents signed them up for a baptism class despite her telling them that she didn’t want to be baptized because of her anxiety. She’s anxious about having to go on stage and say a few words about why she “wanted” to get baptized beforehand, and it’s made it her hard to focus on other things throughout the week. It’s caused her a lot of stress, and she mentioned past anxiety about a Christmas play her parents also made them do in the past, and the anxiety makes her hope she doesn’t wake up the next morning because it’s “one day closer” from what she said. She also said she struggled with nervous shaking as a result too. She mentioned her anxiety to her parents, but they refused to let her drop out
For context on my relationship with Tim, he and his wife have given me (and my parents) numerous salvation talks despite us saying we’re not interested, and we’re not as close as we used to be before he became religious. He once turned off my radio in the car because I was playing “worldly” music when I picked him up from the train (called me inconsiderate for doing so with him in the car), and he makes small jabs about my lack of faith too. So when I called and told him that he shouldn’t force his daughter to do something that’s making her anxious to the degree that she is, he said it had nothing to do with me and told me to stay out of it. But when I told him that he was making her do it for himself, he hung up on me and didn’t answer a second call. The reason I’m posting is because I don’t know what to do next. My dad used to call him out on his ways, but he’s no longer with us, and mom’s not on good terms with Tim (Tim told her to get saved so that she wouldn’t die unsaved like dad and spend heaven with her grandchildren). I take care of mom, and Tim visits every few months. I’m posting to ask what I should do or if anything can be done to help Lynn. I’m open to suggestions because I don’t have many, and Tim likely won’t hear anything from me or mom
*edit: I should’ve added this, but she attends a Christian school. I doubt her parents would let her see a mental health specialist, and I’m not sure if a counselor at a Christian school will feel since the source of the anxiety is a baptism speech. I could call her back and suggest that she try in case they have a good counselor*