Last night while checking in on the discussion topics at various facebook sites I came across one that immediately caught my attention. It was on the "you know you are a church of christ" group on facebook. A young woman was concerned about the appropriateness of her 18 year old cousin being baptized because he has autism.
Since I work with people with mental retardation and autism all the time (and the two are not the same thing) I had to look at her post and respond. Several others had made notes about "talking to the person to see if they really understood what baptism was all about", studying with the person, and so on. While these are not necessarily inappropriate actions - anyone might benefit from such studying and conversations - what struck me was the expectation that the person in question needed to know God and understand God in the same way as they (those without the disability) did. I wondered if any of us could look back at the time of our salvation and say that we really knew and understood what our action and God's intent was. I readily admit that my understanding 15 was different from my understanding at 9 when I was baptized. At fifteen I decided to be re-baptized (is there such a thing?) because I "didn't really know what I was doing before." Now in my forties I look back through my life and see many times when I understood more - and at times , less - than I did then. But I believe that I surrendered to Christ at age 9, and continue to do so today.
Jesus told us to become like little children because such is the kingdom. If that is the case, how can any one consider denying a young person the opportunity to surrender themselves to him? Whether they understand the ins and outs of christianity - I don't know - and I don't think it matters. I know that I have had a number of people with mental retardation minister to me, admonish me, and model Christ to me. I have prayed and waited for death with a woman who knew she was dying and was unafraid because she knew she was going to be with Jesus. She chose the songs for her own funeral - and they were joyful songs of praise to God. She knew that there was a God who was THE power, she knew Jesus was his son and that Jesus loved her, she knew she had "done bad things" and wanted forgiveness, and she had joy in her Lord. If that isn't christianity I don't know what is. It didn't matter that her IQ was that of an 8 -9 year old child. So lets all be children of God's - like her - and forget about being "adults" when it comes to faith.
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2 comments:
I was going to comment here. But I think I'll just have this conversation with you later because I already have way too much to say on this subject to put on here.
Alright I just went and read the actual arguement on facebook along with several other discussions, I find it rather amusing how these obviously teenage or college age kids are trying to have these debates when they really don't have a solid arguement let alone the Biblical knowledge to back it up.
I was physically angry at some of the other discussions and the idiotic things that people said (see really angry). Like you I am amazed at how ridiculously coservative some of the people of my generation are. I don't know if it's a negative reaction against postmodernism or the fact that they've been raised in a bubble, but I find it irritating. I have many more things to say on the subject, but I'll refrain from voicing those opinions until after a certain university has handed over my diploma.
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