GODPARENTS CAN'T CHOOSE THE CHURCH FOR THE BABY
The Church says that the intention to be baptised validly is essential. Without
it, the baptism is just an empty rite with no power. But what about babies that
are baptised? The Church says they show a desire and intention to be baptised
through their parents and godparents who desire and intend it for them. This is
obvious nonsense.
Most parents and godparents do not understand Catholicism well enough to be said
to be making an informed decision to raise the child in that faith. Thus their
consent at baptism is invalid. There is no such thing as a right to have your
child baptised. But those who have the child baptised a Catholic have less right
to get it done than somebody getting the child baptised a Protestant who will
not impute the Catholic meaning to baptism. Catholicism is more complex and
bizarre than Protestantism. God parents generally are asked to take vows of
membership for a baby when they themselves don't know about religion to make a
valid choice for themselves never mind for the baby.
A baby cannot belong to any religion no matter how many godparents she or he has
that make the profession of faith in the Church or vows of commitment to the
Church for her or him. To say otherwise is absurd. The religious leaders make
these laws that they can because their chief goal in life is not to help others
find the spirituality that is right for them but for others to agree with their
beliefs. Parents have a duty to help their child find what works for her or him
not to limit a child to some religion.
Because baby baptism involves the parents and godparents vowing to ensure that
the baby will grow up a believing and committed Catholic, Canon Law demands that
the parents and godparents be proper Catholics. Protestants are not allowed to
be godparents. The parents and godparents themselves have to have been baptised.
Many born-again Christians have never been baptised. There are many who consider
themselves Christians as they wait for baptism. Despite the convictions and
feelings they have, Catholicism considers these Protestants as being
non-Christian. For the Catholic, only a validly baptised person can be a
Christian. The Church does not believe that all baptisms are valid. So anybody
whose baptism is suspect is ineligible to be a godparent. The Catholic Church is
evidently trying to show the child an example of sectarianism and to show the
child that it claims as a religion, the right to offend and insult people who
believe differently from it.
Baptism takes away our innate hostility to God according to the teaching of the
Church. If enrolling your baby in the gym cannot make it a true member of the
gym but only a nominal or pretend one, surely trying to enrol him or her in the
Church is far sillier if it is true that our nature is to live without God? It
is really down to a refusal to accept anybody as a person, they have to be
accepted as a Catholic.
If baptism were not an attempt to force religious membership on a child, the
godparents would not be commissioned by the Church and the parents to choose
membership for the child by proxy. What could happen is that the child would be
baptised but the membership would be conditional on the child's response when he
or she gets old enough. The rite will only work if the child accepts it later.
For example, God should treat the child as baptised and a member of the Church
if the child dies and so let the child into Heaven. Then he should take the
baptism as valid. If the child does not die and he or she repudiates the baptism
then his or her baptism will account for nothing and need to be repeated. If he
or she accepts then the baptism is validated. The Church holds that if you
accept the sacrament of confirmation you only receive the dormant sacrament but
you really receive the sacrament if you are antagonistic to God. You get the
graces only when you repent and turn to him. It is only then that the sacrament
really takes effect. So it is only a rite until the person is suited. It should be
the same with baptism and it is not. However baptising the child is still an act
of religious intolerance. It implies that being a human person born into a good
family who will raise the child well is not enough. It is insulting.
Do not become a godparent.
The parents and God parents consent for the baby to be a member of a
controversial, superstitious and harmful religion. That is unfair. What is even
more unfair is how Roman Catholic Canon Law sometimes permits baptism of babies
even against the will of the parents. "An infant of Catholic parents or even of
non-Catholic parents is baptized licitly in danger of death even against the
will of the parents" (CIC 868 §2).