To laugh at the request to be godparents

Wow, OP. What a sneering heap of intolerance you are.

I say this as an atheist who did not Christen her children, marry in a church or am anyone’s godparents. My kids do go to a C of E school though. Guess I must be ‘daft’.

Fair enough, but to most people it is, as you say, lip service paid to tradition. So the OP is being a bit strange to find it so odd that she’s been asked.

Watch out for new parents who are only after free babysitting.

Don’t be rude about Christianity, it doesn’t make you look as intellectually superior as you think it does.

Of course Christianity is part of British culture.

But there's an obvious difference to promising you will help instill a faith in a child.

It's obvious some people don't take it seriously and will just pay lip-service for the sake of tradition, but personally I would be uncomfortable with it. I like my promises to mean something.

It’s exactly the same. Many people go to the carol services at the church, watch nativity plays etc and they aren’t religious. Christianity is part of British culture.

It's not though, because being part of a Christening as a godparent includes having to say you promise to help the child grow up in the faith and so forth.

It's not the same as enjoying the traditions of Christmas (many of which pre-date Christianity), because you don't have to go to church or engage with any of those parts of it.

It’s about welcoming a new member of the community. A christening in church is open to anyone. It’s about saying - here’s a new human and we’re all going to look after her.

Otherwise, I hope all of you agreeing that the OP is not unreasonable are not making any plans for Christmas. You can all take the Christmas Day shifts at work.

Most cultures have a ceremony welcoming a baby to the community. For centuries a Christening (baptism) was ours.

Indeed. We still have the semblance of this welcoming ceremony as Christian, but most CofE clergy understand that it’s a symbolic way of welcoming and naming children in a community and offering them other adults (godparents) as extra adult support and guidance.

It’s pretty easy to understand cultural importance of a christening even for non-believing “cultural Christians.”

Wow you are equally rude. If you have “rtft” you’ll understand that the majority of people don’t see it as religious either. It is cultural / a tradition. Unless explicitly stipulated, most people have religious funerals in the UK - and that’s nothing to do with their beliefs. Again, it’s cultural / tradition. HTH.

Because it is a tradition going to centuries.

Don’t be ridiculous. My not religious parents christened me in the 80s. It is a tradition. To celebrate the baby and yes, to have a party.

It's a promise to keep god in the babies life 🤣. Why bother christening a baby if you're not Christian?

Or maybe it means more to them than they admit to the OP because of the OP's attitude...

That’s unfair.

They may be doing it because “it’s what you do.” Having an occasion to celebrate the child is more than just presents and a party. Lots of people aren’t comfortable forging new ways to mark events now that religion has died back, when they still have an urge to mark those occasions.

Most cultures have a ceremony welcoming a baby to the community. For centuries a Christening (baptism) was ours.

Not everything is just cynical.

Actually op we do. Our state religion is CofE and the Head of State (HM the King) is also Head of the CofE. It’s also part of the constitution in terms of the Lords Spiritual and the CofE has many privileges in law including national holidays being based around the Anglican Church calendar. Our legal and cultural life is based on Christian values and has been that way for around a thousand years. Every day in parliament they have morning prayer (lead by an Anglican chaplain) and the church is a part of national life in many areas, for example in education.

@Gladicalled - it makes plenty of sense.

Like Voldemort, you can read the book and judge the actions.

Drowning entire populations, smiting cities, turning people into salt for looking over their shoulder at their burning home (hello, Hades and Eurydice similarities), sending his child down in human form to be tortured for some bizarre rule of his own making that says suffering by one man pays the price (to god) for other people’s sins (that he decides are sins and no one else). It’s a rigged game with an umpire who changes his mind.

God as a literary character is capricious at best, and by most standards a right bloody wrong un.

That doesn’t mean the God individual people worship is a rotter. Religious beliefs are very personal.

She shouldn’t be having her baby christened then. I guess it’s for the Instagram moment.

Actually it is a religious thing. Otherwise you are a mentor, sponsor, favourite aunt …. Call it what you want but you aren’t a godparent.

It is religious as far as the Church is concerned. It marks the child's acceptance as a Christian. The parents and godparents make promises to bring the child up as a Christian. However, most parents these days just go through the motions and have a party.

Ask them to give the job to someone who’d actually appreciate it.
That way the pool of interested adults is even larger!

Good Lord, how rude of you.

it’s a huge privilege to be asked to be a godparent- your friend’s daughter obviously thinks a lot of you.

But to laugh at the invitation? How utterly rude.