What I am mostly saying is that, as a Pentecostal, you would want to have your child validly baptized with having effect. That means either not baptizing him as a baby or baptizing him later on. Both are not compatible with Catholic faith. Re-baptism is something we just don’t do per Nicene Creed. It’s not really about someone making deal out of infant baptism, but about someone wanting to do non-infant baptism.
Respectfully I do understand your viewpoint. Now try looking at it from the other side. The side that says “it does have effect”. If this is not opposition or objection what is it?
Or I could choose to think of the infant baptism as a dedication of the child.
I wouldn’t be responsible for baptizing him/her later on. If the child grew up and wanted to become Pentecostal or Baptist and wanted a believer’s baptism, then that would be their choice.
It’s indifference. It’s a “I wouldn’t normally do this for my child, but since its important to you and not offensive to me I’m ok with it” kind of thing.
Oh I see. I haven’t thought of it that way. That’s nice. I thought that believer’s baptism would be offered to children above age of reason, so I was pretty sure it is somewhat about family. But then again that’s all fine now.
I mean it can be like that. Sometimes baptism is treated similar to a coming of age rite where you profess the faith for yourself, but baptism doesn’t determine if you’re born again. It’s much more important to have a conversion experience and personally place your faith in Christ.
That happens in Catholicism too… part about promising to raise child to-be-baptized in the faith is often ignored.
Appologies, I jumped off-line last night hadn’t logged in until now. @ltwin pretty much hit the nail on the head. I don’t object to it…if someone came if to me and asked what I’d do for my kid I’d probably say “It’s not what I’d do, but honestly it’s not that big of deal” It’s definitely not a hill I’m going to die on.
Very good point. Couldn’t help it, but reading that last sentence brought Adam and Eve to mind. Adam chose the “girl” over God. And, not to let Eve off the hook, she chose the devil over God.
If you read the post I was responding to, you’ll see the choice having to be made was not based on denomination, but whether the possible future spouse would refuse to accept Catholic teaching in situations that required the cooperation of both parties. (Consider that we’d consider Adam and Eve as being equivalently the same “denomination”!)JGD:
I really…really hope you’re not somehow insinuating that Catholics who marry us non-Catholics are somehow choosing the person over God.
Tannersimon:
It’s difficult to know because non-denominational churches are by definition outside of any larger church organization. If, for example, her church was Assemblies of God or Presbyterian or Lutheran or Southern Baptist, etc. it would make it much easier for us to pin down what she believed.
But a non-denominational church is a “lone wolf” so to speak. It isn’t a member of any of these larger groups, and so it doesn’t have to adhere to any written confession or doctrinal statement.
Typically, however, when someone says they are a non-denominational Christian, I think of some form of evangelical (because most non-denoms are evangelical in their beliefs). They could be similar to Baptist without calling themselves Baptist or Pentecostal/charismatic without calling themselves Pentecostal/charismatic.
If the above is the case, then you two would probably agree on a lot of basic beliefs (Trinity, etc.) but there would be a lot of differences. If you’re thinking about marriage and future children, you will need to discuss issues such as birth control and what faith the children will be raised in.
Evangelical Christians generally believe abortion is a sin, but they are not as a rule against birth control when used by married couples. My understanding is that Catholic teaching is more restrictive on this, and that might not be something she is prepared to follow.
Also, my understanding is that Catholics have to baptize their children in the Catholic Church and raise them as Catholics. This would most likely be foreign to a non-denominational evangelical Christian. Most of these churches practice believers’ baptism and do not baptize infants. She may believe that a person should make their own decision to be baptized and join a church only after coming to true faith in Christ. And it might disturb her that she’s expected to automatically raise children in the Catholic faith rather than teach them her own church’s beliefs or at least expose the children to both parents’ churches.