HAS THE CHURCH THE RIGHT TO BAPTISE YOUR CHILD?
Baptism, despite the common view, is not based on parental consent. It is not a favour to the parents. It is two people inviting the Church to baptise but it is up to the Church. It is all based on the Church’s consent to baptise the child. It is clear nobody has the right to force a religion or an individual minister to perform a baptism. Christianity holds that Jesus alone is the real baptiser and as he is judge a right arises to refuse baptism to a child that will not be brought up to serve him or which will be brought up in heresy such as abortion or infanticide being morally good or that Muhammad is wiser than Christ. The minister of baptism has to cooperate with Christ and refuse or postpone baptism where it is necessary to do so. If Christ is dead and if Christianity is a false religion then baptism is nothing special - it is just a sprinkle. It may be nothing in itself but that does not mean it cannot be used to put you in a system that may adversely impact on your life. If you become Muslim you have to in some way at least in your heart reject your baptism and be glad that you are now in the true religion.
The lesson from all this is that baptism is not and cannot be the parents' business. It is their business to suggest baptism to the child when old enough but that is all. The misperceptions around baptism lead to people saying nothing while children are enrolled in religion without any regard for real spirituality or concern if the religion is true or false or man-made or whatever. If parents treated baptism as not being about a social experience or even a party they would not need correcting.
Baptism is regarded as bigger sacrament than marriage and without it there can be no Church so it is more than just a ceremony and a day out. Its ultimately of cosmic importance. For that reason it is absurd to imagine anybody having the right to decide to have their baby baptised.
Religion gives you an excuse to discriminate with impunity. Some religions only exist because they are good for discriminating but nothing else. The good they do is about discrimination so it's not praiseworthy.
Many autistic people see through religious claims and have highly developed analytic ability. Atheists with autism are certainly born that way. And we have a religious framework in the bigoted Christian world in which autistic children are baptised and given a religious formation and suffer over an imposed religious identity later in life. Their identity is not them and that alone hurts and degrades. And then there is the matter of nasty doctrines and Bibles and fearsome spirits! And invented sins – crimes against God. And a child is still made x denomination though that may invite discrimination from other religions or whatever.
The Church baptises children under a gender that is not really theirs. There are six sacraments for the typical heterosexual and five for the homosexual or four if you count in the ban on gays being ordained. A transgender man is denied the priesthood and it goes on and on.
The Prayer of Exorcism and Anointing before Baptism goes: Almighty and ever-living God, you sent your only Son into the world to cast out the power of Satan, spirit of evil, to rescue man from the kingdom of darkness, and bring him into the splendor of your kingdom of light. We pray for N./and N. Set them free from original sin, make them a temple of your glory, and send your Holy Spirit to dwell within them. We ask this through Christ our Lord. Amen.
So not only is the devil in the child but the child has original sin and is not a temple of God's glory. This is really judgemental stuff and must be taken seriously. Baptism insults the baby. Think of the implied accusations against babies in the world that will not be baptised.
The traditional exorcism prayer which is used when the alternative rites are requested runs, "I exorcise thee, unclean spirit, in the name of the Father and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, that thou goest out and depart from this servant of God, N. For He commands Thee, accursed one, Who walked upon the sea, and stretched out His right hand to Peter about to sink. Therefore, accursed devil, acknowledge thy sentence, and give honor to the living and true God: give honor to Jesus Christ His Son, and to the Holy Spirit; and depart from this servant of God, N. because God and our Lord Jesus Christ hath vouchsafed to call him (her) to His holy grace and benediction and to the font of Baptism. "
Satan is even prayed to, "And this sign of the holy Cross, which we make upon his (her) forehead, do thou, accursed devil, never dare to violate."
And there is, "Ephpheta, that is to say, Be opened, for an odour of sweetness. Be thou, devil, begone; for the judgement of God shall draw near."
Religion needs to claim to be inspired and guided and set up by God. Otherwise it is just pseudo religion and superstition. Man has no right to lay down religious laws for anybody. Religion thrives best on the kind of people we have in our society - people who lack concern for whether a religion is true or not. The Muslim and Catholic religions for instance cannot both be from God or authorised by him. Or both might be preaching religions of man and man has no right to order anybody to do anything on religious grounds - only God can have that right and even that is debatable. If man has no right to dictate he has less right if he thinks he can dictate for God if God has no such right!
God has no needs and rights are based on needs so God has no right to judge us and is failing to love the sinner and hate the sin if he judges us. He is just being arrogant and spiteful and hypocritical. For these reasons parents need to think more about baptism from a religious and spiritual perspective and worry more about why a baby should not be baptised on spiritual or religious grounds!
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 - they can't have the intention? 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.
The Church says that when you are born in a country you become a citizen of that
country and under obligation to obey its laws. It says the state has the right
to enrol you as if you consented by being born in that country. But the state
has to enrol you. You do not have to be enrolled in any religion - and
especially when you are only a baby! The Church would have to say that babies
have to be enrolled by baptism into the Church for baptism is so essential and
important. The implication is that it is justifiable for God to make the baby suffer
for not being baptised! That is vindictive. To marry your child to such a god is
like forcing somebody into an abusive marriage. In such marriages, the abusive
partner has to do a lot of good in order to control his or her spouse and to
make her or him feel guilty if she or he stands up for herself or himself. The
claim that the Church has the right to make members of babies implies that the
Church is of absolute importance - even more important than the state. The
Church certainly teaches that all states should collapse rather than the Church
which is seen as God's work and his society and his living temple.
To devote your child to religion by having it baptised is dedicating that child
to an anti-humanitarian stance and to fundamentalism.
The state does not enrol you because your parents or somebody else decides for
you that you are going to be a citizen. The Church cannot then use the state as
a justification for putting obligations on a child that it doesn't consent to.
Catholicism lists plenty of sins that drag you to Hell but worries little about keeping anybody out of Hell. Rather it worries a lot about getting babies baptised. That is just a hangover from the days when the Church was even more political than it is now. It is about getting "citizens".
Not only does the Church have no right to baptise, it has a duty not to
baptise.
