I went to a baptism the other day that was for the children of my fiancé’s sister’s newborn daughter, as well as some of her cousins’ children that came in from Moscow for this special occasion.
It was a very nice and intimate ceremony of which a particular relative of theirs became very emotional, especially when my fiancé’s sister’s daughter was bathed in holly water. Her reaction to this was as if a miracle was performed.
The reason I noticed this was that we know this relative as being very “fake” in her feelings and she is the one in the family that always causes problems for everyone with her manipulative way of interacting with all of us.
On the way home, I pointed out my observation and my fiancé’s sister (who this relative is a sister-in-law to), said that she is a bit strange, but probably felt that evil spirits were washed out of the baby and for that reason reacted in this way.
From there, the conversation of baptisms, their relevancy and how could a 43-day-old baby have evil spirits in her?
The sister said that her daughter was born a Christian, after I asked the question if the baby gave her consent to be baptized into our faith? She went on to say that the baby was NOT born a Turk, to which I said that there is a difference between nationality and religious faith. Turks are a nationality, where Muslims, Christians, Jews and the likes and are religious faith.
I asked if they think that people should not be baptized into any religious faith until a level of understanding is ascertained, noting that our Church in Artsakh in the past has required that those that do wish to be baptized, must first understand what Christianity is.
The conversation left everyone thinking for a few minutes before we arrived to the reception hall, where we ate madakh (which if you follow our faith, we were to give to the poor), stuffed our faces, drank, danced and had a great time!!!
So what do you think? Is it right to force our religious beliefs on our children? Do we force our children to join the same political party that we belong to?
I know that my children will be baptized into the Christian faith when they are 40+ days old, but I really have to wonder if this is right or not?
It was a very nice and intimate ceremony of which a particular relative of theirs became very emotional, especially when my fiancé’s sister’s daughter was bathed in holly water. Her reaction to this was as if a miracle was performed.
The reason I noticed this was that we know this relative as being very “fake” in her feelings and she is the one in the family that always causes problems for everyone with her manipulative way of interacting with all of us.
On the way home, I pointed out my observation and my fiancé’s sister (who this relative is a sister-in-law to), said that she is a bit strange, but probably felt that evil spirits were washed out of the baby and for that reason reacted in this way.
From there, the conversation of baptisms, their relevancy and how could a 43-day-old baby have evil spirits in her?
The sister said that her daughter was born a Christian, after I asked the question if the baby gave her consent to be baptized into our faith? She went on to say that the baby was NOT born a Turk, to which I said that there is a difference between nationality and religious faith. Turks are a nationality, where Muslims, Christians, Jews and the likes and are religious faith.
I asked if they think that people should not be baptized into any religious faith until a level of understanding is ascertained, noting that our Church in Artsakh in the past has required that those that do wish to be baptized, must first understand what Christianity is.
The conversation left everyone thinking for a few minutes before we arrived to the reception hall, where we ate madakh (which if you follow our faith, we were to give to the poor), stuffed our faces, drank, danced and had a great time!!!
So what do you think? Is it right to force our religious beliefs on our children? Do we force our children to join the same political party that we belong to?
I know that my children will be baptized into the Christian faith when they are 40+ days old, but I really have to wonder if this is right or not?
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