Baptism Rant

I know what you are thinking. “You have a rant about baptism?”

Yes, I do. One of my pet peeves is telling innocent little kids that they need to repent of their sins in order to get baptized. You hear it with surprising frequency, like at almost every baptism service you attend, and at lots of Primary Sharing Times. And take, for example, this line from the song “I Like to Look for Rainbows,” sung at every Primary-run baptism I have been to in the recent past:

I know when I am baptized, my wrongs are washed away and I can be forgiven and improve myself each day

How did this get past correlation? Did they not read the scriptures cited in Lesson 7? D&C 29:46-47 tells that that little children are incapable of sin and are redeemed from the foundation of the world. Moroni 8:9-12 says that little children do not need repentance and are alive in Christ.

I would be hard-pressed to identify an LDS doctrine I like more than the redemption of little children. It is beautiful and merciful, and intuitively true. So why do we find ourselves telling innocent little kids that they need to repent of their "sins" to get baptized?

I know that there are scriptures out there that say you have to repent in order to be baptized. I know that there are scripture that say that children have to be accountable and capable of repentance in order to get baptized. But “capable of repentance” and “needing repentance” are two different things. And, don’t get me wrong, I think we should teach our children about repentance and help them understand it. I think they need to know what it is and how it works by the time they reach the “age of accountability.”

But to me, baptism for an 8-year old is different than for an adult. It is about obedience. It is about discipleship. It is about entering the strait gate and joining the Lord’s church. It is not about repenting and remitting sins. What sins has an eight-year old committed? But am I wrong here? Am I misunderstanding something?

End of rant.

Poll!! Are 8-year Olds Baptized "For the Remission of Sins?"

Does baptizing children at eight years really address the problem of infant baptism? Or does it just raise a new set of questions? Vote and leave you comments here. Baptism post to follow.

How Long Has It Been Since Your Last Confession?

We use a lot of formulations to teach what repentance is and how it is accomplished. One of the simplest is that we confess and forsake our sins. D&C 58:42-43. The importance of forsaking our sins is a no-brainer, but confession is an interesting idea. What does it mean to confess our sins? Do we need to confess them all? I was pretty impatient and lost my temper this morning with my daughter. Is it really important that I confess that sin? And, how do I do it? Some religious traditions have more formal procedures for confessing sins than we do. Is that good? Bad?

When I was younger, I remember thinking that confession was all about deterrence. I mean, who wants to go through the humiliation of confessing their sins? But, maybe there is something more to it.

In our family, when someone has done something wrong and hurt someone else, we have implemented our own formula for an apology. It follows this basic pattern: The offender has to look the offended party in the eye, and say words to effect of, “Ashley, I am sorry that I pushed you.” This has to be done with sincerity (or at least a convincingly sincere tone).

Each part of this simple little formula is important. Looking the offended in the eye and saying “I am, sorry,” is all about accountability and acknowledging that we have done wrong, regardless of the circumstance (“She started it!”). Expressing sorrow is sort of the point of the whole thing. Identifying or describing the wrongful act reinforces what behavior was wrong and is to be avoided.

Expressing our apologies in this way makes a lot of sense when dealing with family relationships and friendships. But is confessing our sins to God or the Bishop the same thing? Or is it completely different? It's not like we are telling God something He doesn't already know. And beside the deterrent effect, is there a connection between confessing and forsaking sins?

Lesson 7: The First Principles & Ordinances

So, as you have noticed by now, I like to start off the week thinking in general terms about my upcoming lesson. This week it is Lesson 7, The First Principles and Ordinances of the Gospel. As usual, I am linking to some sources to get your mental wheels turning. I really like reading the old lesson materials at Keepapitchinin. I find this information to be a little meatier than the current manuals. I also ran across gospeldoctrine.com which has ideas and quotes from Church leaders on passages from the Doctrine & Covenants.

So get ready for Faith, Repentance, Baptism and the Gift of the Holy Ghost. The challenge in this type of lesson is, of course, that everyone has heard these topics a million times. The basics can, however, yield very interesting discussions. If you have thoughts about generating discussion on these topics, please share.