Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!wuarchive!bcm!dimacs.rutgers.edu!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: CONS.ELF@AIDA.CSD.UU.SE (Ake Eldberg) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: Infant baptism and bible interpretation Message-ID: Date: 24 Jan 91 08:21:12 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Lines: 41 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu Travelling in the USA, I have seen the sign "Church of Christ" here and there. It told me nothing because that denomination does not exist in Sweden. I guess the closest we come is the Pentecostals who are a congregationalist evangelical type of baptist church. Myself, I was born and raised in a secularized family. I went so Sunday School among these evangelicals, but as an adult I have come to find my spiritual home in the high-church Lutheran community (which in Sweden is more like High-Church Anglican than anything you Americans would call "Lutheran"). Baptism was once a problem for me, because I saw that many parents who were not churchgoers and had very weak links to Christianity were having their children baptized because it's tradition, but without knowing what it means. This made me think a baptist approach was better. Let the kids choose for themselves. It is still a problem for me, as a minister of the Church of Sweden, that so many of the parents are not truly members of the parish -- they belong to it in theory, but they don't go to church. I have been impressed by the Roman Catholics who demand attendance in order to regard people as true Christians. Several Lutheran (C of S) parishes are now employing a special programme to bring the parents to awareness of what baptism really means. Meaning, we get them to go to church and some "school" meetings before their children are baptized. On principle, however, I am still convinced that children can validly and rightly be baptized into a community which their family already is in. They were born into a Christian family, and there is nothing to say that any level of knowledge or any amount of faith is necessary to be received by God. Let the children come to me! said Christ. But it gives me trouble that many parents who have no intention of caring about God want their children baptized because it's a neat tradition and nothing more. Ake Eldberg