speaking of Baptism,

[Lazarus The Resurected]

For those of you who don't know (wich is prbably most of you), My girlfriend and I are currently expecting our first child. My mother recently posed the question of wether or not we intended to have the child Baptized (mom's a Catholic, and so is my girlfriend's father). I am against it on the grounds that niether of us are Catholic, or even Christian. I was wondering though, would the Catholic Church even baptize a baby born outside wedlock to a Witch and a Satanist? Also, what are your views on Baptism before the age of reason?  

[Shadows-shine]

I have no clue what the Catholic Church's stance on baptizing an infant that isn't born to a catholic family much less outside of marriage.


About baptizing before the age of reason, I think it's stupid! I don't agree with it. Why baptize an infant? They don't even know what's going on, much less understand the reason why they are being baptized. Baptism has to be a choice that one makes by themselves. It's part of making a covenant with the Lord in my views, so how can an infant do that?  

[The Amazing Ryuu]

First of all, congrats on your future baby. smile

Baptizing an infant is the parents' promise to the church to raise the child in a Christian environment until the child can come of an age to decide for themselves. They are taking on the responsibilities of teaching the faith, its tenants and doctrine outside of the setting of the church itself. I believe there's also something in some traditions that say that a child who has been baptized before the age of reason will go directly to heaven if said child dies before reaching that age, but I could be wrong there too. I think baptism before the age of reason has just as much merit as baptism at or after. Most denominations have a confirmation system in place, where are you are essentially re-baptized anyway, and even if your church doesn't, there's nothing to stop you from reaffirming your faith at any time, with or without a ceremony.

That being said, unless you have a real desire to try and educate your newborn about Christianity (and be positive about it), I wouldn't even bother. It seems the grandparents are perfectly able to handle that. If they're really on you about a baptism, I'm pretty sure even the Catholics would allow a grandparent to stand in the place of a mother or father and take on the duties the ceremony demands. Another denomination might allow you and your girlfriend to baptize your child, provided you agreed to the basic idea of raising him/her attuned to the Christian faith, but I'm pretty sure the Catholics are more strict about that. I don't think it matters so much that you're not married as that you're not part of their church.

Don't we have a resident Catholic in this guild? I'd like to have someone to ask instead of going off the little I know myself.  

[freelance lover]

Ryuu kind of touched on this, but I'll go ahead and repeat.

Infant baptism is typically the family's way of saying that they'll raise their child Christian and the church is to hold them accountable and lift them up to the Lord. If you don't plan on raising your child Catholic, I see no reason for you to baptize the child. That just seems silly.

Now, if you child eventually decides to become Christian of their own free will, then getting baptized would be their own personal choice and it would be an action of accountability for themselves, and less the family.  

[Matt Pniewski]

1. The Catholic Church would Baptize my baby lovebirds if it thought that doing that gave it a chance of growing up Catholic..... Not to sound like I'm hard on Catholics, but they brought this criticism upon themselves when they decided Confirmation should be as early as third grade.



2. You'd essentially be baptizing the baby just to make other people feel better. Sounds like an awful lot of trouble for something that you don't care about and is according to your beliefs completely unnecessary. Heck, I have my doubts on whether Baptism AS DEFINED BY THE CATHOLIC CHURCH is necessary.


3. Congrats.  

[Lazarus The Resurected]

freelance lover

Ryuu kind of touched on this, but I'll go ahead and repeat.

Infant baptism is typically the family's way of saying that they'll raise their child Christian and the church is to hold them accountable and lift them up to the Lord. If you don't plan on raising your child Catholic, I see no reason for you to baptize the child. That just seems silly.

Now, if you child eventually decides to become Christian of their own free will, then getting baptized would be their own personal choice and it would be an action of accountability for themselves, and less the family.

Lol, if my children (yeah, i'm hoping for a couple more) get "Saved" I'm disowning them.  

[Matt Pniewski]

Lazarus The Resurected

freelance lover

Ryuu kind of touched on this, but I'll go ahead and repeat.

Infant baptism is typically the family's way of saying that they'll raise their child Christian and the church is to hold them accountable and lift them up to the Lord. If you don't plan on raising your child Catholic, I see no reason for you to baptize the child. That just seems silly.

Now, if you child eventually decides to become Christian of their own free will, then getting baptized would be their own personal choice and it would be an action of accountability for themselves, and less the family.

Lol, if my children (yeah, i'm hoping for a couple more) get "Saved" I'm disowning them.

Haha... I think my Dad said the same thing.... He's a catholic, but after years of working for a Fundamentalist Nutjob......



To be fair, the man WAS really insane. He refused to sell cats around Halloween because he claimed they were used around that time in Satanic Rituals.... A moral panic that has no real basis around fact, and yelled at his employees for writing "X Mas" instead of "Christmas". As my Dad said "We only have so much space on the sign outside.


But as long as we are talking about kids of different faith, I got a joke.

A Jewish Man goes to his Rabbi. He says "Rabbi, I have a problem. My Son, he says he is becoming a Christian!"

The Rabbi looks at him, and contemplates. He finally says "I will speak with God on the matter. Come back to see me tomorrow."

The next day, the man goes to the Rabbi. He says "Rabbi, what did God tell you?"

"God says he's having the same problem."  

[Lazarus The Resurected]

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.  

[Shadows-shine]

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.  

[Lazarus The Resurected]

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.

LDS?  

[Shadows-shine]

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.

LDS?

Also known as the mormons  

[The Amazing Ryuu]

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Either that, or they'll try to harass you into converting. I tried it on my parents when I was 12 and just didn't understand that I was not presenting them with any new information. I'd just suggest making it pretty clear to them from a young age that their religion will be their own, but you have yours and like it that way. smile  

[Lazarus The Resurected]

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.

LDS?

Also known as the mormons

ah. Later Day Saints.
*shudder* mormons.  

[Matt Pniewski]

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.

LDS?

Also known as the mormons

ah. Later Day Saints.
*shudder* mormons.

Come on. Don't talk about Mormons as if they are as bad as those "Christian Scientists." Anyone whose religion is based on "Don't see the doctor" and "Your kids don't need to get Vaccinated" is a danger to all of us.  

[Shadows-shine]

Matt Pniewski

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

Shadows-shine

Lazarus The Resurected

atualy now that i think of it, if my kids get saved, they'll disown us anyway.

Maybe not...

My parent's contemplated disowning me when I told them I converted to the LDS religion.

LDS?

Also known as the mormons

ah. Later Day Saints.
*shudder* mormons.

Come on. Don't talk about Mormons as if they are as bad as those "Christian Scientists." Anyone whose religion is based on "Don't see the doctor" and "Your kids don't need to get Vaccinated" is a danger to all of us.

Haha, I've heard about those guys...they're kind of weird...