Thursday, May 22, 2008

Charity's Views on Infant Baptism

I was raised as the son of a Presbyterian preacher and do not presume to be an expert in theology. But one time I discussed the meaning of infant baptism with Charity, my spiritual professor, and tried to clarify with her what it might mean to those involved. I had attended one Roman Catholic infant baptism, where the priest clearly said that their understanding of baptism was that by sprinkling water on the head of the child and performing that ritual, the Spirit of God would come into that child. I asked Charity what that ritual did accomplish, since I didn’t see any difference in the child afterwards, in contrast to the child before baptism.

Charity: From the Catholic point of view, they consider that the child of less than six weeks of age had been deposited on this earth as something which was wrong from the very start. Therefore it must be made to be perfect. To perfect it is to baptize the child into a new existence and a new way of being viewed in the custom of the church.

Ralph: I had a hard time understanding how a newborn baby could be imperfect.

Charity: It cannot be. We don’t sanction this.

Ralph: It always seemed illogical to me. What did the poor kid ever do? He was just lying there drinking his milk.

Charity: He was born.

Ralph: He was born and he didn’t have a chance. Even though he may have had free will, he didn’t have much of an opportunity to exercise it. Adults were telling him what to do every day.

Charity: That’s correct.

Ralph: In the Protestant church, they do not have that concept. It is the parents who are given instructions on how to raise the child in the religion, and it is neutral for the child.

Charity: They have the choice for the adult later if they choose to be baptized.

Ralph: To join the organization.

Charity: And becoming baptized is their way of understanding that they have been born defective, but they do not realize it until they have reached a certain age. Then they come to realize it. Once they realize they were defective, they felt there was another avenue that could make them perfect.

Ralph: Is this idea of being born defective part of The Great Deception?

Charity: Yes. It is all the grand design from The Creator which is what we must emphasize to the humans – no human is born defective. There is no avenue of the word “evil” as that does not exist in our language at all. Because there is no evil in our realm [Thoughtspace].

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