Infant Baptism and Systemic Good
It is easy to see the systemic nature of evil. Those abused as children often abuse; sons and daughters of alcoholics often become alcoholics; companies that do not treat employees well often do not have avenues available for change to happen. Systems can operate in ways that become self-perpetuating.
In a good creation that reproduces and creates, and lives under the stewardship of a race told to be fruitful and multiply, one would expect that evil need not corner the market on the nature of systems. One would expect that systems could produce good, as well.
Baptism is not only the sign of entrance into God's church, it is enaction of it, as well. Those believers who have joined the church, God's discipleship system that is neither cold or abrasive, but warm and caring (at least meant to be), know that it is in this community that God has changed them. Infant baptism is the faithful act that good can be transmitted by God's Spirit through his community. The act of baptism is the faithful act that the church can impart God's salvation, by his Spirit, the whole way through the child's life. Not only does it believe this, it is an act that reminds the church of its responsibility to pass on good systemically.
In a good creation that reproduces and creates, and lives under the stewardship of a race told to be fruitful and multiply, one would expect that evil need not corner the market on the nature of systems. One would expect that systems could produce good, as well.
Baptism is not only the sign of entrance into God's church, it is enaction of it, as well. Those believers who have joined the church, God's discipleship system that is neither cold or abrasive, but warm and caring (at least meant to be), know that it is in this community that God has changed them. Infant baptism is the faithful act that good can be transmitted by God's Spirit through his community. The act of baptism is the faithful act that the church can impart God's salvation, by his Spirit, the whole way through the child's life. Not only does it believe this, it is an act that reminds the church of its responsibility to pass on good systemically.
posted by Aaron Perry at
9:54 AM
8 Comments:
enjoying your thoughts on this... karen and i were just talking about this yesterday, in regards to what to do with gabriel (dedication or baptism). personally, i love the symbolism of baptism for infants, at least as i understand it. your thoughts help confirm this.
hey brando,
thanks for your encouragement. let me also say that inasmuch as baptism accomplishes the work of the church to accept and raise this child, the act is transformative. it is even transformative (and more than symbol, though not less than symbol) without the local church taking responsibility as God himself is at work. (at least, that's what I think....and the Wesleyans, too, i thing.)
Hugh was baptized last Sunday.
Crusty
systemic good at work.
"Systems can operate in ways that become self-perpetuating."
are you defining infant baptism as a good system? if so, on what grounds? more to the point, should infant baptism be practiced by all people because it is a good system--regardless of what they believe or whom they follow? (and i ask this question with quebec on my mind and in my heart...)
ryan
i say that infant baptism can be systematically good. it can be systematically good inasmuch as it propels relationship within the church, although as a Wesleyan who believes in the gracious means incorporated into baptism, i trust that it is a good just by its ordination as an act in which God is involved.
the ground of this belief is, of course, its practice through church history and its prominence in Christendom. with all its baggage, i don't think it an open and shut case.
but, no, i don't think it should be practiced by all. infant baptism only makes when it is part of the systematic discipleship of believers. only within an established (read: at least one generation old) church does it make sense. only faithful and believing parents can properly entrust their child to the providence of God in an appropriate way.
yes, i agree that it can be systematically good within the context of an established body of believers, parents who properly understand the cost of following jesus and that it sets a trajectory for the child's life similar to that of giving a child their name(s). the difficulty i find, and i'm think this is what you were alluding to, is when it becomes a ritual devoid of meaning...
during King Josiah's reforms, Jeremiah noticed the people were changing their outward appearance but not their inward reality..."Do not trust in deceptive words and say, 'This is the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD!'" - Jer 7:4
that being said, everytime i hear the words "infant baptism", i can't help but think of the episode of The Simpsons where Ned Flanders learns that the Simpson kids have not been baptized so he breaks open the "emergency baptism kit" and plans to baptize them in the springfield river... :-)
anyway, i digress.
ryan
hey ryan,
my concern is not empty ritual--and i think the simpsons episode reflects this, even if unintentionally, and Jeremiah definitely reflects this. my concern is not empty ritual, but empty people, devoid of meaning.
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