Wow. My first post in a month and it goes three times.

My browser must have really *missed* you guys.

flirted with conversion to Unitarian Universalism for a long time in high school, and for some reason it never pinged my parents' radar either.

Since my parents pretty much founded the Unitarian group in my hometown (during a period when my dad was still into religion but getting away from it, and my mom was getting into it but hadn't gotten craxy yet), I think they would've been okay with me converting to UU.

Seriously, if they wanted me to be a member of a religion, though, they maybe shouldn't have thrown them all at me, one per year.

ION, I've gone from mildly annoyed to seriously depressed. The guy who washes car windows on our corner told me that his wife is pregnant. He showed me her ultrasounds. He says he'll have to get a euro from every car, and work all day, and he still doesn't know if he can pay for the delivery. Let alone the baby.

I could give him money, but it won't solve the problem. It won't even put a bandage over the problem.

Just in time for JenP's visit to my backyard, wet and messy stuff. [link]

Hi Lyra Jane! Hi Lyra Jane! Hi Lyra Jane!

((Raq)) It is sad. Your caring does help, and raising Mal to be a caring human helps. I do believe this.

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.

Me too--at least, I can be dogmatic about it, but I usually choose not to, even when I have to grit my teeth through infant baptism services in my current church. NSM over the infant issue as over the "child of the covenant" way in which it's presented, which is a very Presbyterian thing and one of my lingering points of disagreement with my denomination, because if you follow it all the way back to its origin it smacks of predestination, and I don't see how anyone could love and worship a God who just arbitrarily picks who goes to heaven and who goes to hell.

But baptism? Not that big of a deal. Another legacy of my Baptist upbringing is that I believe the sacraments are symbols rather than actual means of transmitting grace or spiritual power. So the "fire insurance" aspect of infant baptism has always puzzled me, though I understand the theology behind it intellectually, because my gut reaction is, "But it's just water. It doesn't mean anything unless the kid comes to believe someday and then decides it does."

I had a college roommate who'd been raised Catholic but then joined a charismatic church that practiced believer's baptism by immersion. By their standards, her infant baptism by sprinkling didn't count. She invited a bunch of us from our college Christian fellowship group to come to her baptism. While we were there one of my friends, a Catholic, realized that Jen had had a Catholic baptism as a baby and was so upset and offended by the idea that this church didn't think it was a real baptism that he very nearly walked out of the service. I could understand where he was coming from, though we ended up having a long, polite, and educational talk about our different perspectives on sacraments coming from opposite ends of the Christian tradition.

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.

The Mormons do that, too. And of course all the Anabaptists do.

I had mine baptized, but theyr'e both atheists; I'm the only believer in my family. This is because I'm really really opposed to prosetylizing. Yes, I know about the Great Commission, and I flunk it. I tell my kids what I believe, and why, but I don't say "You need to believe this too." I guess I really believe in faith by ocnviction.

I was baptized as an infant and confirmed at age 12. The former was more of "welcome this child into the church" and the latter was "this person has made the choice to become a Christian in the Methodist tradition." I think both can have a place. I also think that 12 is kind of young to make decisions on where you'll spend the rest of your spiritual life. But then, I'm biased in as much as my confirmation didn't "take".

ETA: Which makes it sound like my confirmation was faulty in some way, and I don't really mean that. I mean that I don't think I really had enough life experience at that point to make an educated commitment to a spiritual path.

I also think that 12 is kind of young to make decisions on where you'll spend the rest of your spiritual life.

Yeah, I agree. But I think it's pretty much standard, or even a bit late. Mormon kids join at 7, and I forget what age Catholic kids are confirmed at.

Oh, that reminds me. I was skimming through Showtime listings the other day and one of the movies they have coming up is apparently a Mormon version of Pride and Prejudice.

I was baptized as an infant and confirmed at age 12. The former was more of "welcome this child into the church" and the latter was "this person has made the choice to become a Christian in the Methodist tradition."

That's my experience (Presbyterian, and later UCC).

and later UCC

United Church of Christ? As in the "we welcome everyone" commercials? I have such a love on for everything I've heard about that denomination. If I could get past my basic theological issues with Trinitarian doctrine I might be looking for a local congregation.