Bonzo77 Posted May 24, 2011 Author Share Posted May 24, 2011 Either religious or hypocritical. The Christian church would prefer that the hypocritical ones are kept out. They might prefer it but it's not going to happen. I'm not the last none religious person that gets their kids christened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Anyone should be able to get their children christened, makes no difference whether they are christians or not. It's logically impossible to christen your child if you are not a Christian. All you can do is perform a meaningless ceremony of no purpose. To christen a child means to commit to bringing him (or her) up in your own Christian beliefs. If you don't have Christian beliefs, than regardless of what you think you've done at the church, you have not christened your child. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HeadingNorth Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 They might prefer it but it's not going to happen. It'll happen less often if they insist on giving such as the OP a thorough check. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julado Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Use their facilities yes. Make a mockery of their belief system for the vanity of the parents no. I don't believe any christened baby has actually found god and therefore would request they be baptised. It's all the parents. Baptised - should be full immersion...usually as an adult (some churches will baptise children who have accepted Christ in their life)...and by being baptised means that this is your affirmation of your walk with Jesus Christ..the mere sprinkling on the head with a cup full of water onto a babies head is not baptism. Babies can either be Christened or Dedicated......not that either of them would be purposeful if the parents were not believers and only did it because of "family tradition". There are agreements made during the service which concern the parents and God parents (clue in the title)...and those should not be said for any other reason than to bring the child up to KNOW of Jesus Christ.....it is not some form of entertainment Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMondo Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 It's logically impossible to christen your child if you are not a Christian. All you can do is perform a meaningless ceremony of no purpose. To christen a child means to commit to bringing him (or her) up in your own Christian beliefs. If you don't have Christian beliefs, than regardless of what you think you've done at the church, you have not christened your child. All I can hear is bla bla bla.............. I've christened my children, because of tradition. We were there, the water got splashed about, the vicar named them, then we went to the pub and had a knees up! I don't care what you might think, it seemed like a christening to me! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
MrMondo Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 It'll happen less often if they insist on giving such as the OP a thorough check. Then the church closes because the old bag has driven everyone away! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Flowersfade Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 With churches closing down or struggling to maintain their upkeep, you would think that the Christian community would be pleased when a family wants to get their child christened, what ever the reason! We are just about to christen our son. Not because we are religious but because we have a family tradition, which probably started due to religion. I've never been through such an ordeal!! The vicar made us go to a Sunday service (fair enough), then a few weeks after they made all the families go to an evening at church where we had to watch a DVD about Christianity and how a God Parent is supposed to teach the newly christened child about Jesus and the Christian faith. Then, to top it off, we had to go to a rehearsal. The rehearsal was by far the worst part. The vicar was pushy with the young ones amongst us, she was like a old fashioned school teacher, asking us questions about Christianity and the role of a God Parent. I was on the verge of getting up and calling the whole thing off! If anything, this has made my lack of faith even stronger. Do these people want our business or are they happier seeing their church rot into the Pushy Cristians Pushy Christians? better that than intolerant Arabs. You are really obsessed with Arabs aren't you?. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plekhanov Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 With churches closing down or struggling to maintain their upkeep, you would think that the Christian community would be pleased when a family wants to get their child christened, what ever the reason! We are just about to christen our son. Not because we are religious but because we have a family tradition, which probably started due to religion. I've never been through such an ordeal!! The vicar made us go to a Sunday service (fair enough), then a few weeks after they made all the families go to an evening at church where we had to watch a DVD about Christianity and how a God Parent is supposed to teach the newly christened child about Jesus and the Christian faith. Then, to top it off, we had to go to a rehearsal. The rehearsal was by far the worst part. The vicar was pushy with the young ones amongst us, she was like a old fashioned school teacher, asking us questions about Christianity and the role of a God Parent. I was on the verge of getting up and calling the whole thing off! If anything, this has made my lack of faith even stronger. Do these people want our business or are they happier seeing their church rot into the ground?! My friend wanted a naming ceremony to introduce her son to her friends and family, but coming from an oppresively religious background that she's escaped from was set upon not having a Christening. So she hired the village hall & then she & I wrote a ceremony together which I led with readings from assorted friends and family. It cost next to nothing and was a thoroughly pleasant event with none of the baggage which comes with a Christening. Not only did the celebrant make no attempt to force religion upon people but the parents amongst other things vowed to let their son find his own way in life as he matured without any attempts at indoctrinating him into a particular ideology from them. Incidentally the child's grandfather used his toast to announce to everyone that he regarded the ceremony to be a Christening and then proceeded to say a prayer. Nobody objected to this but can you imagine the reaction if I'd stood up at any of the Christenings I've attended and declared that it should have been a humanist naming ceremony? Such are the double standards religions benefit from in our society. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plekhanov Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Baptised - should be full immersion...usually as an adult (some churches will baptise children who have accepted Christ in their life)...and by being baptised means that this is your affirmation of your walk with Jesus Christ..the mere sprinkling on the head with a cup full of water onto a babies head is not baptism. Babies can either be Christened or Dedicated......not that either of them would be purposeful if the parents were not believers and only did it because of "family tradition". There are agreements made during the service which concern the parents and God parents (clue in the title)...and those should not be said for any other reason than to bring the child up to KNOW of Jesus Christ.....it is not some form of entertainment Who are you to arbitrarily declare all this? Sure like Xmas the ceremony of Christening has religious origins but that doesn't mean that as culture evolves people can't turn it into something rather different if they want to. Personally I think people should just start again from scratch with explicitly secular naming ceremonies but they are perfectly free to try and adapt Xian ceremonies to their own purposes if they want to whether you like it or not. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
julado Posted May 24, 2011 Share Posted May 24, 2011 Who are you to arbitrarily declare all this? Sure like Xmas the ceremony of Christening has religious origins but that doesn't mean that as culture evolves people can't turn it into something rather different if they want to. Personally I think people should just start again from scratch with explicitly secular naming ceremonies but they are perfectly free to try and adapt Xian ceremonies to their own purposes if they want to whether you like it or not. It doesn't bother me either way....it just seems a bit odd to me that non believers would even contemplate using a Church or indeed something that comes from the Bible....for a christening, dedication, baptism, marriage or funeral....just so the setting appears to be "correct". I fully agree that there should be the choice of secular naming ceremonies....aren't these available???? If there isn't maybe you could have a word with the registrar at the Town Hall...maybe they offer some sort of secular naming ceremony. Just to satisfy my own curiosity though...what would be the secular equivalent of GodParents??? And as for the full immersion thing...I think you might find it was something first thought of by two random dudes....one called John and one called Jesus....somewhere I have it written down in a book Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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