Saturday, May 9, 2009

Infant Baptism



Diana was baptized on Saturday. I was kind of surprised that she was baptized as Vahida is a Muslim and Dustin non practicing. Although I have been surprised on Bryce's side too. It is a beautiful ceremony, except with Father Peters who seems to be on E and doesn't slow down for people to make the responses, but I kind of feel like it is a joke to most people. You are committing to raise your child in a particular way that you are not living and are not going to be living, so you are basically lying in a house of worship. To add to the lie my mom kept calling Vahida "Dustin's wife" to the priest, which is not true by Catholic standards. I mean, sure in some countries and faiths having a kid together means you are married, but in traditional American Catholic you need some rings and such. I think all religious vows are sacred. I love being the Godparent to Justin Giunta and I try to always celebrate the day of his baptism and let him know I am here for any questions he has in his faith. I am not a great Catholic example, as I do not attend the Catholic Church, but I am well versed in it and feel I have a strong spiritual connection to the same God they serve. I think Amber will probably do a pretty good job with Diana too.
I am undecided if we should baptize our child as an infant. I think baptism is an amazing thing, but I like the faiths that allow the person decide to do it for themselves. It is then a personal decision to be God's child and not the parents. Once someone is baptized a lot of faiths don't think you should be re-baptized. I kind of feel cheated out of choosing my own baptism because of my infant baptism and I don't want to take away from my child's faith process. Plus, can't the parents make a commitment to raise the child without the act of baptism. In addition, I am not planning on raising our child any particular religion. I want our child to be aware of the amazing Creator and the power of Love, but our child may experience that is so many different ways and I don't want to think they have to be one way because I chose for them before they could make up their own mind.
It is another Catholic battle we may have to face, much like our wedding. On the Durbin side I think we have a little space, but on my mother's side our child may be the first unbaptized in the line. Oddly enough, despite the vow, our child may be the one who attend the Catholic church more times than all the other grand children and are taught Catholic values. All I know is my mom is saving the stuff from Diana's christening for reuse in about 5 months and at that time I might not have it in me to fight. So little baby, if you ever are baptized as an infant and then get mad at me for it as an adult or young adult, please know that this was my stance before it happened.
If we do baptize our child, I think I might follow it up with a blessing ceremony at our home with our friends of different faith traditions also giving their blessings and commitments of support if the child chooses their faith path. We have Muslims, Jewish, Buddhists and Spiritualists who would all be willing to share (Do I have any Hindu friends that I know of?)

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