Spike's Bitches 26: Damn right I'm impure!
[NAFDA] Spike-centric discussion. Lusty, lewd (only occasionally crude), risque (and frisque), bawdy (Oh, lawdy!), flirty ('cuz we're purty), raunchy talk inside. Caveat lector.
We just say "No, we haven't had him baptized" in a tone that usually precludes follow-on. I guess I'm wanting insight into the minds of the folks asking: do they think we are horrible people or possessed by the devil? I need to know, in case they show up with rope and kindling some day.
I don't know. The church we belong to now does baptize infants, and it's still nothing I've even asked my friends at church who have new babies, because it's such a personal choice. Our current church is not a Baptist Church, it's Congregational. However, the pastor is in many ways--a Baptist at heart, so he's also all for it if a family doesn't want to baptize their infant. His own children were baptized only once they were old enough to choose it.
I grew up in a church that only practiced what's sometimes called Believer's Baptism. That is, you had to be of an age (I think it was abitrarily set at 12 at my church, but other churches are different) where it was clear it was your choice, and you had to take classes to understand it, first. Like Stephanie's church, they would have a Dedication for infants, every once in a while.
Baptism is one of my hot-button issues with other Christians, anyhow. It's something far too much of Christendom has used as an excuse for division with other Christians. It's perpetually on my list of top ten things I want to smack people for.
I grew up in a church that only practiced what's sometimes called Believer's Baptism. That is, you had to be of an age (I think it was abitrarily set at 12 at my church, but other churches are different) where it was clear it was your choice, and you had to take classes to understand it, first.
See, this is cool. If Mallory wants to be baptized someday and works to understand what it's about, I'll be fine with it.
I was old enough to run away and hide behind statues when I was christened. I suspect there was a package deal, or it was keeping up with the Joneses -- I wasn't christened until my mother's best friend christened her son, who's about a year younger than me.
My sister wasn't, and I delighted in telling her that her name wasn't real, and that she was going to hell. Despite not believing in heaven nor hell, just like I'd been raised.
My dog, Toby, is having a lump removed from his chest today. We've been watching it for a year, but the vet said it had grown enough recently that it should come out. I'm sure he will be fine, but I'm still a bit worried for him. Sebastian, our other dog, seems a bit worried about where Toby is. He was out sniffing the car a few minutes ago.
It's something far too much of Christendom has used as an excuse for division with other Christians.
Too true. My dad discovered that my sister's church practices full-immersion baptism (his Methodist church is into the sprinkle and pray kind), and he's kind of quietly horrified. I'm sort of in the camp that whatever version makes you feel closer to your God should be kosher. So to speak. But he sees it as a thing.
ETA: Much dog~health-ma, to you, Stephanie.
My dog, Toby, is having a lump removed from his chest today. We've been watching it for a year, but the vet said it had grown enough recently that it should come out.
Oh, poor Toby. I hope it goes easily for him (and you). Do they have any idea what it is, Stephanie?
The vet just called. They have cleaned his teeth (since he was going to be under anyway) and are getting ready to take out the lump. They asked if I wanted it sent to the lab and I said yes, so I should know in a few days if it's a cyst or some type of tumor. It seems very contained, though, so his overall prognosis is good.
My dad discovered that my sister's church practices full-immersion baptism (his Methodist church is into the sprinkle and pray kind), and he's kind of quietly horrified. I'm sort of in the camp that whatever version makes you feel closer to your God should be kosher. So to speak. But he sees it as a thing.
A lot of the churches that do Believer's Baptism baptize via immersion. It's how I was baptized. I mostly prefer it too, but refuse to get dogmatic over it, one way or another. My kids are little, but they do all believe, so we had them baptized on Father's Day, this year. Because they aren't infants, our minister came over for lunch, a few weeks before and talked to them about it, to ensure they were choosing to do it, and that they had at least a basic understanding of the significance. Because our church generally baptizes infants, they'll still go through a confirmation class and ceremony, when they're of age.
They were sprinkled, because our church doesn't have a baptismal pool, but the minister would have made arrangements with the local American Baptist Church to use their pool, if we'd been particular. I'm not, because I'm not thinking Jesus is fussy about it. I have seen great arguments in favor of both ways.
I'm curious, does your dad say why he objects? Is it because infants are then not baptized, or does it have something to do with the immersion method, do you know? I'm just curious because when details are given in the NT on baptism, those details indicate immersion. I promise I won't smack your dad. I have bigger fish to smack fry.
I was old enough to run away and hide behind statues when I was christened.
My BiL was three. He had *just* learned to say, "G-ddammit." He blurted it out at the dinner table and everyone just looked at him in shock. He grinned. But later that night we heard DH's father yell the same thing from another room and we knew exactly where he picked it up. MiL went white with anger and hissed at FiL, "If this child says that in the church, you're getting your ass kicked."
My dog, Toby, is having a lump removed from his chest today. We've been watching it for a year, but the vet said it had grown enough recently that it should come out.
I hope it's just one of those benign growths dogs get. Mac had one taken off a few years ago that was nothing but a lump. Still--freaky. And my dogs always get weird when one of them is gone to the vet. It's the pack mentality and they hate it when someone is missing.
I'm curious, does your dad say why he objects? Is it because infants are then not baptized, or does it have something to do with the immersion method, do you know?
Well, both my sister's kids were baptised via the sprinkle method as infants (before my sister's family joined their current church), so I guess that's not Dad's main problem with baptismal stuff. He hasn't really gone into detail. He just says, at irregular intervals, "Did you know your sister's church practices full immersion?" I respond with something along the lines of, "Yep. And?" He then says something along the lines of, "Why? I just don't get it." And he shakes his head with a world of, "That's just not right," in his expression. I think he sees it as another, fairly significant, rejection of the church both my sister and I were brought up in.
But then my Unitarian Universalism conversion (with attendant worship of deity as "Goddess" and pagan issues) doesn't seem to bring the same reaction. Either he's saving his head shakes over me for when my sister's around, or baptismal methodology is more of an issue than the divinity of Jesus and the name and form of the Creator. Which I find kind of confusing, but then Dad's always been pretty complex.
