If you aren't religious - did you still get your baby christened?

[Firsttimemummy19]

Just that really, I'm not religious so very undecided..

Most people who have their babies baptised in the CofE have no intention of coming to church ever. They do it for the party. I was a baptism visitor and found it massively depressing. Why bother?

I’m baptised, but I’d never do it to my children. I don’t believe in any god, I don’t agree with faith schools and any relative I had that would have been ‘disappointed’ in our choice are no longer around.

Even if any of those were an issue, I don’t think it’s ok to do it without the child understanding what it’s all about, and ultimately that church then gets another person on their numbers, making it seem there are more practising Christians in this country than there actually are.

ultimately that church then gets another person on their numbers

That's not true (for C of E anyway) - only official "membership" list is electoral roll which is made up of adults who are regular attenders and have deliberately signed up, not something required of parents (let alone child) at baptism.

There are also records kept of attendance at Sunday services, but if you don't attend a service in the future then you are not going to appear in the numbers!

D3 I was wondering whether it was you who had started this thread. Very timely anyway.

No. We married in a registry office and i wouldnt say im a believer but im jot a practicing Christian either. We do Christmas but not in a religious way, Easter is 2 weeks off school and chocolate and thanksgiving is a week off school.

I bring my kids up with beliefs, thou shall nit steal, etc but they haven’t been christened.

MIL wanted it so they could be closer to God🙄

My granny was a church goer and forced my mum to havene christened.

No, we aren't religious. DH was raised Catholic but is non religious and very anti the Catholic Church. It was upsetting for his parents but they don't mention it now. We didn't get married in church either. I'm not anti religion but do believe it should be a choice you make, and not something that is forced upon you.

Not religious here, but we did want to celebrate the births of our children. Each had a naming day ceremony by the humanist society. It was perfect, they tailored the ceremony to our family, we had a few readings and some music, lots of food and fun.

Nope!

I'm a Christian and if I ever become a grandparent and my son or daughter wasn't a believer I would be disappointed if they did get their child baptised, because they would be professing a faith they didn't have.

I don't believe that somehow pouring water on a baby's head and saying some words makes the baby somehow closer to God. Baptism is simply a sign of the forgiveness that is available to those who choose to trust in Jesus. (However, I know other Christians take a different view on the sacramental nature of baptism).

I'm a Christian and we didn't get our kids christened. We had a blessing/dedication during a church service, they can decide to be baptised as teens or adults if they want to. As a parish church we have a constant procession of people we've never seen before and never will see again coming to get their kids baptised, during which the congregation have to promise to support them in their endeavour to bring their kids up in the faith - pretty difficult to fulfil that one! The clergy are obviously not blind to what is happening but see it as one of the services they offer to the community - there for all the big events in life - births, deaths and marriages!

I think the MN view that it's Absolutely 100% Hypocritical to get married in church or get your children christened if you're not religious not really reflected in society at large. Lots of people return to the church for significant events.
Just because many people do it doesn't make it any less hypocritical. You wouldn't realise what people really think about non religious parents who get their DC baptised because no-one in RL would say "wow, you're such a hypocrite!" out loud. Whereas they will on MN.

We didn't get our children baptised, even though both sets of GPs were very disappointed. My father put a lot of pressure on me with DC1 especially.
Of course we could have done it to make them happy, but why would I ignore my principles and promise to bring up my child as a Christian if I have no intention of doing so? It's still hypocritical even if it's done to please someone you love.

We haven’t, but similarly atheist SIL did, and acknowledged that two of the three godparents were atheists! I was bemused by the whole thing.

Anyone catch the baptism storyline in The Archers (Radio 4)? The baby's mother, Pip, was arm-twisted into agreeing to it, despite the father saying in front of the vicar that you can just cross your fingers behind your back when you make your promises!

I find it sad that the vicar doesn't say "these are beliefs that are of great value to Christians - you are always welcome in church to learn more about what we believe and I am always happy to discuss with you why you don't accept those beliefs, but I can't in all honestly let you stand up and make claims that you don't believe."

Anyway, Pip got pulled up when she asked her brother to be a godparent and he in no uncertain terms, in his blunt teenage way, said no, because as an atheist how could he take part in saying words he didn't believe in.

We had fun discussing this on The Archers threads over on the Radio Addicts board. [ archers ] =

As a practising Christian, I find it really disrespectful when people have their children baptised and yet blatantly are just doing it “for the party”.

People who are agnostic/come for the carol service/pitch up at Easter etc I have no problem with having their children baptised... but blatant hypocrisy I find quite hurtful.

I’ll be back on TA board when I’ve caught up... been a bit busy having a baby...

Absolutely not.

Nope! We got married in the woods (in a woodshed) and aren't religious.

No, it would be like marrying in a church without believing. Really hypocritical and disrespectful to the people who do believe.

Yes. I’m athiest. But religion is a cultural thing to me, not a belief system. I grew up in it and it’s of no concern to others how it works for me. It’s community and moral code. There is no god and there doesn’t need to be one for church to be a useful construct.

Congratulations on the baby!

I also married in a church.

Nope

I was agnostic when the dcs were babies, and dh an atheist, so a christening seemed entirely inappropriate.

In more recent times I’ve stayed away from family christenings where both parents are atheists and never attend church. They felt so wrong .

Not now religious (although I was brought up Catholic and DH brought up CoE).
We had both our sons baptised for two reasons:

• if either of them ever wanted to get married in church (though not sure if this is a requirement now)
• if we one day wanted to send them to a faith school (hypocritical, but there you go).

Nope, absolutely not. I'm not religious and neither is my DP. I was half-expecting some religious family members to kick off but thankfully they kept their opinions to themselves. If my DD wants to be baptised when she's 16+ then I will be there with bells on but I'm not subscribing her into a religion before she can even talk.