John Battern has an interesting dilemma: an explicitly racist couple would like for him to baptize their baby. Should he withhold that sacrament because their views on race directly contradict United Methodist beliefs?
Thursday, April 06, 2006
Should the Sacraments be Withheld?
John Battern has an interesting dilemma: an explicitly racist couple would like for him to baptize their baby. Should he withhold that sacrament because their views on race directly contradict United Methodist beliefs?
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6 comments:
Absolutely not because the child has nothing to do with his parents' narrow view. We are celebrating the child "putting on Christ". Would we withhold this evidence of the Lord's giving of Himself if the couple were agnostic or atheist?
Are they members of the church? If not, he can't.
I don't think John understood exactly the dilemma I was facing. I never questioned whether or not I should baptize the child. Every child deserves to receive the grace given in baptism.
What I'm questioning is whether or not I have the authority to deny membership to any individual who requests to join the church if I feel they are unready to take the membership vows? Our bishops and judicial council are sending mixed messages which have left pastors (or I should say, me) with a dilemma as to how to handle membership issues.
John,
John B. has edited out some of the details of the story for the sake of confidentiality issues. Some of those details are included in your post. Just thought you might want to consider editing them out of yours, too?
This would be a new issue in the ethics of blogging. What to do when you link to a post that is later edited by the post's author? I'm not certain, but my first instinct is to respect the original author's edits and edit my own to reflect that. I don't know for sure though. What do you think?
- Andy B.
Suppose that a {black|Mexican|Chinese} family moved to a {black|Mexican|Chinese} neighborhood because they wanted to be immersed in {black|Mexican|Chinese} culture.
What position would the church take on this foul and unChristian act of racism?
Interesting. Also the comments. I think the question (Rev Willy) is not are they members of the church - but rather do they attend and are they being transformed by their relationship with Christ.
In our liturgics class our lecturer (also UMC pastor) said that he will not baptise infants unless there is evidence of Christ at work in a family's life. He's not into hit and run baptisms
The question too is whether to revoke membership for ungodly lifestyles. I haven't heard it mentioned - but that's as valid as refusing to admit someone as a member in the firstplace.
today we are being asked to get more members - and that's good- but there's a part of me that also wants what I believe Wesley wanted - lives changed by Christ, not just pew sitters.
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