Sin

"We believe that men will be punished for their own sins, and not for Adam's transgression." (2nd Article of Faith)

I am the middle child of five siblings. The five of us were born across seven years, producing a wild pack of kids who were at times ferociously close and at other times at each other's throats. One of the things that used to make me madder, more outraged than anything else when I was growing up was when I would get blamed or punished for what one of the other kids did. I would howl with the injustice of it. It just felt so unfair, so wrong.

The idea that I could be "born in sin" is appalling to me. I've got trouble enough to contend with dealing with my own flawed, imperfect nature without taking on somebody else's sins right from the start.

I am mortal because of Adam. I will struggle, age and die. But the whole point of the atonement of Jesus Christ was to pay for the sins of the world, giving me a chance to make it through this crazy, complicated life if I will but rely on Him. Because of the atonement, Christ has conquered the two big barriers that cut people off from God: sin and death. Because of His resurrection I too will live again after I die. Because of His atonement, I can be forgiven when I sin.

1 Cor. 15: 22 "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive. "

I believe that children are born innocent into this world of sin. I believe that the mistakes little kids make do not count as "sin" up until the age of accountability, which my faith accepts as eight years old. Imagine my surprise when in graduate school psych classes on human development I learned about how judgement and moral reasoning develop, and heard that right around the age of eight some key shifts happen making it possible for children to comprehend the consequences of their actions in different ways.

Now, I could go on and on about what is or is not "sin" after that age. I'm sure I'll address that topic as I go on in other posts. But for now, suffice it to say that my belief system is that there is no sin for little ones.

Correlated to that is my understanding of baptism as an expression of faith and symbol of repentance, dieing to the old self and being born again new in Christ. Because that is how I view baptism I do not believe in the baptising of babies. They cannot sin. They cannot repent. They have no need of it.

That being said, I recently had a new understanding of infant baptism when I attended my brother's wedding in Santa Fe.

My oldest brother met his soul mate with the help of e-Harmony. After a very brief whirlwind romance they decided to get married. They had originally planned for a June wedding, but on impulse they got married last December while they were traveling in Key West, Florida. For whatever reason they decided they wanted to formalize their commitment to one another then and there. So they went to the local court house, bought themselves a license and legally tied the knot.

However, they still had their June wedding. It was important to them both to have a ceremony where they could share their union with family and friends. They were already married. They didn't NEED to go through a public ceremony. But that ceremony was very significant to them, and became so to many of us who love them as a way for us to bear witness to their union and to publicly say we are invested in the success of their bond, that we committed ourselves to stand with them in good times and bad, that we were on their side.

I think infant baptism is a lot like that. The baby has no need of it. It doesn't change anything at all in the child's relationship to God, just as my brother's public ceremony did not change his marital status. However, infant baptism, for those who believe in it, gives the family and friends of the child an opportunity to bear witness, to commit to their part in helping raise up that child in the family of God. Now, I believe it is very possible to do the same thing with a Christening that does not involve baptism. In my own faith new babies are given a name and a blessing in a brief church ceremony that is recorded in the permanent records of the church. I believe that is an important event.

But I am convinced nothing bad happens to a baby who happens to die without baptism. I believe that the spirit of that child would go right back to the loving Heavenly Father who sent them here in the first place. I also believe that Heavenly Father does not approve of infant baptism because it is both a distortion of the ordinance of baptism and a dismissing of the power of the Savior's atonement. So religiously I object to infant baptism. Socially, however, I can see how it could be a powerful ritual in people's lives.