Baby's christening party ideas

Well said busgirl.I agree completely.
I think some of the comments did start out tongue-in-cheek..but somewhere along the way the sense of humour was lost!

Well done busgirl. You took the words right out of my mouth.

…ummm…conderkaz merely asked for “baby’s christening party ideas”…if she wanted your opinions on whether or not to christen her own child she probably would have posted “I need you nosey butt-heads to tell me how to raise my child” instead.

I always seem the odd one out, but for me to claim I was ever religious came from within, certainly not from my mother’s indoctrination.

You see, my mum is Catholic, but wasn’t practising at all when my brother and I were born, not even married in a church. Then we had a fire that caused the death of my brother and the priest was called, also to baptise me because I was in a bad way too (was the done thing).

We then had nothing to do with the church, closest thing being the Salvo’s who helped us out greatly till my dad was killed a couple of years later and mum got his insurance.

But into my schooling at Maribynong primary, into year one, I became restless and was complaining alot to my mum that I was understimulated and was sick of just colouring in, so mum’s friend (my Godmother) suggested going to the same school as them, St Vincents in Aranda, a big improvement for me and I somewhat embraced religion for some time. By time I had got to year 6, I questioned it all. I still recieved my confirmation, but with two minds (and a big case of everyone else was doing it).

By time i was in year 9, I was sick to death of it all (Merici was hardcore religion).

I baptised my three girls into the same religion and the same primary school, because I had a feeling they would embrace it too (I just stand in the background and support them).. They have been fine and know the other side quite honestly and if they didn’t marry in a church or baptise their kids, I couldn’t care less!

I honestly wasn’t drawn to any of it with my son though. But I was keen to baptise him in the beginning and it was his dad to talk me out of it and I settled on that and haven’t had any regrets.

It’s definitely not bad to have knowledge either way and the choice isn’t always shallow selfishness on the parent’s parts.

Indoctrinate is a fairly harsh word to use isn’t it Jim Jones? How is parents choosing to christen their children or introduce them to any system of faith different from those very same parents making any number of decisions on how to raise their children?

Now any thoughts on where a good place to have a christening party is?

Whatsup said :

The key word here is reasonable. I think it is unreasonable to suggest that the Christening of children should be stopped as mentioned in comment #2. I also think it would be unreasonable to force people to embrace belief systems if they choose not to, it works both ways.

And fair enough too. I tend to agree.

But comment #2 was directed at the notion that christening is a form of forcing people to embrace belief systems without any choice. A child being christened or dragged to church or whatever isn’t at the stage where s/he can make choices about what to believe. It’s a murky grey area that justbands obviously feels strongly about. I have strong feelings about it too, but I realise that, for the moment at least, people of all faiths are going to continue to indoctrinate their children in their own religious beliefs (let’s face it, it’s about the only way that religions can guarantee their continued existence) and there’s not much I can do about it without being as big a d1ck as those fundy religious types.

… or a barrister who talks to fridges:
http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2009/09/29/2699554.htm

Jim Jones said :

Whatsup said :

I don’t think Christening a child is in the same league as locking a child in a cellar and telling them lies about the outside world, but that is my opinion.

I don’t think so either – my point was that the “they’re my children so I can tell them anything I want, even if other people disagree” argument used above is bunkum. There are limits to how you can raise your children, and debating what those limits are is entirely reasonable.

The key word here is reasonable. I think it is unreasonable to suggest that the Christening of children should be stopped as mentioned in comment #2. I also think it would be unreasonable to force people to embrace belief systems if they choose not to, it works both ways.

As long as it is legal and consensual then it should be your choice if you want to be a scientist who speaks to invisible people whilst having sex.

Whatsup said :

I don’t think Christening a child is in the same league as locking a child in a cellar and telling them lies about the outside world, but that is my opinion.

I don’t think so either – my point was that the “they’re my children so I can tell them anything I want, even if other people disagree” argument used above is bunkum. There are limits to how you can raise your children, and debating what those limits are is entirely reasonable. Are you happy for scientologists to brainwash their children to be scientologists? What about if children had parents who were part of a Charles Mansonesque cult, is that okay?

I’ve no great problems with christening. I think it’s silly, but if you want a holy man to sprinkle water over a kids head to keep away the evil spirits, knock yourself out. Far greater damage is done by other aspects of organised religion: telling children that ‘sex is bad’ for example, or telling them that some invisible man created the world 6,000 years ago and that all the scientists are evil.

if you don’t believe in all that god stuff, that is your right. just have some respect for those who do.

Why? I don’t have to respect other kinds of outlandish fantasies. What’s so special about yours?

Of course, the anti-christening lobby here will explain how they raised their own children without passing on any of their own beliefs (or lack thereof).

Don’t need to. Our ‘beliefs’ are facts about the real world as opposed to, say, beliefs that gay people and rape victims should be beaten to death with rocks, or that a genie, his son and some ghost are watching our every move like Santa Claus and will damn us to burn in eternal flame if we think our neighbour doesn’t look half bad in those short shorts.