Can I baptize my child without being religious?
Filed under: Child Development, Lifestyle, Newborn, 0-3 months, Infant / First year, Outings
Well, folks, in the interest of sparking controversy everywhere I have decided to present our dear readers with a question I've been churning around in my mind since I was pregnant. Actually, in all honesty, this is something I am struggling with and could really use some advice on resolving. Maybe you can help!
I'm very strongly considering having my son baptized. Nothing wrong with that in and of itself, of course. Infant baptism is all the rage with many religions. See, the thing is, neither my husband nor I are religious. I would say currently I am a spiritual person, but not someone who attends a house of regular worship on an even remote basis nor who has any real interest in doing so. That said, I've been having this urge to get my kid baptized.
Before we get too far into this, a few things:
1. I have nothing against religion, organized or otherwise. This column is NOT about the virtues (or not) of religion.
2. I know there are those of you who will immediately hit me over the head with my amoral atrocity for not going to church every Sunday. I already know in your eyes that I'm headed to H-E-double-hockey-sticks so no need to comment on that. Again, the column is NOT about this.
Ok, now, moving on:
It might seem hypocritical to not be religious yet wish to do something VERY religious for my child. On the contrary--I figure I was baptized and later had the opportunity to decide for myself whether or not I wanted to remain religious, so why not provide that for my son? I mean, after all, if there is a God (not the point of this column; I repeat NOT the point of this column) and it's important to be baptized in order to get into heaven, why not give my son that opportunity?
At least I think baptism might be a requirement for getting into heaven, in addition to being a good person and whatnot. Like I said, I am not a religious person. I did attend Catholic school from first through third grade though, so you'd think I would remember SOMETHING from that time. Sheesh.
What I'm trying to say is that my parents gave me the foundation and I chose from there; shouldn't I do the same for my son? Or should I let him make that decision when he's old enough (and, if so, when is old enough? When he's an adult?).
Anyhow, this conundrum isn't keeping me from getting sleep or anything but it is something to which I've given a lot of thought. The real issue isn't whether or not I SHOULD do it, but whether or not it can even BE done. Having been raised sort of Catholic I am pretty sure any Catholic priest worth his salt won't baptize a child unless the parents are members of the church. I'd have to assume--and here's where I am hoping for some clarification from you, dear reader--that other houses of worship employ similar policies.
As you might imagine from the above I am not going to join a church. It wouldn't be fair to those who were there in earnest. If I joined, I wouldn't be seen at mass or at fundraisers or at the summer picnic. Well, maybe the picnics--I gotta tell ya, from experience, church picnics are pretty awesome. Not to mention that going through all the hullabaloo of joining only to conspicuously drop after the baptism would totally mess with my karma.
So what advice can you offer? I would like to know what, if any, options exist for this kind of situation. Any thoughts? Remember, I'm not asking whether you to bash religion, think I am headed to tarnation for what I choose for myself (not being religious) or whether or not there's a God. I just want to know if it's possible to have my son baptized.
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