I agree, let the dz junior topic be about welcoming =)Svein Rune wrote:Btw dz, I'm sorry for continuing this, this topic shouldn't be about this issue, so people who want to follow up upon whether baptizing is right or wrong should make a new topic.
Found one interesting article by some random person.
I was baptized when I got my name and I know there can be a difference between baptized and none-baptized (Baptists). It can seem a bit separated into groups, cults. We have it like that in my country. But I don't think, weather a person choses to do it or not, that there will be a major conflict.http://lifewise.canoe.ca/Parenting/2008/02/21/4865938.html wrote: By Jackie Burns
It was the two little sisters who lived down the street from me as a kid that scared me away from church. They used to torment me, saying I was “going to hell†because I wasn’t baptized and a regular churchgoer like them.
The experience left such a bad taste in my mouth that I can still remember their names and faces more than 25 years later – and believe me – my memory isn’t one of my strong suits.
I couldn’t understand why these little pig-tailed blonde girls – who should have been playing carelessly in the park like the rest of the kids our age – had such strong convictions about religion when they weren’t even old enough to be left at home alone.
We used to call their dad ‘Mr. Clean’ because he was constantly washing his driveway with the garden hose. Looking back now I can see the irony – was he trying to wash to wash away the sins of the family? If only I had that comeback as a seven-year-old girl.
My parents decided not to baptize me as a baby because my father was Catholic and my mother Protestant. They thought it would be a good idea to let me decide for myself which religion I wanted to embrace when I was old enough.
In the mean time, I definitely felt different than all the other kids who had water poured over them. In fact, it wasn’t until my adult years that I actually met a handle of people who, like me, hadn’t been officially welcomed into the church.
I remember feeling confused when serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was baptized in jail before he was killed. Did that mean that a man who murdered 17 people and kept their remains in the fridge was now going to heaven while I would suffer a less kind fate?
The issue of baptism came up again after the birth of my son. Like my father, my husband’s family is Catholic and baptizing their grandson was a given. I struggled for a long time over what to do. If I wasn’t baptized, why was it important for me to baptize my son?
In the end I decided that this was something I wanted not only for my son, but for me as well. Call it the 2-for-1 baptism special. I’d always believed in a higher power and having my son only drove that point home for me. If ever there was a time to take the plunge, so to speak, it was now.
While researching which church I wanted to baptize us in – I came across a statement on the Metropolitan United Church’s website that really struck a chord. “Baptism is not a requirement for God’s love. We believe people who die without baptism are in no way condemned, lost or damned.†Take that neighbour girls!
I had always felt good about the United Church’s openness towards women, same-sex couples and other religions. I’d also been married by a United Church minister two years before.
So on a sunny Sunday morning in November, I held my four-month-old son in front of the congregation of family and friends and was baptized alongside him. As the minister poured water on our heads and anointed us with oil – I felt overcome with emotion. Whatever life held for us – we were in it together.
And it turns out I’m in good company. Auzzie actor Russell Crowe recently told Men’s Journal magazine that he plans to be baptized at the age of 43. “I started thinking recently, if I believe it is important to baptize my kids why not me?†he said of his sons 3 and 1. “There is something much bigger that drives us all. I’m willing to take that leap of faith.â€
I couldn’t have said it better mate!
Discuss
