Religious topic: Baptism, At What Age?

Baptism: At What Age?

The question of at what age should people normally be baptized has come up in relation to the topic that recently I was asked about limbo.

In order to discuss this we first need to talk about what the purpose of baptism is. We will also find that we need to discuss what sin is.

For most churches the main reason for baptism is for entry into God's salvation. That concept usually includes entry into a church community, acceptance of God and/or Jesus Christ as one's savior, forgiveness of past sins, a new beginning, and the opportunity of everlasting life in heaven. Note that different religions put varying degrees of emphasis on the purposes that I just listed.

Some churches that emphasize baptism as a way to be saved and allow for entry into heaven promote baptism at very early ages, sometimes as soon as possible after birth.

Other churches emphasize the conversion aspects of baptism of changing one's life from previous sinful ways to a new way of living with God or Jesus. Those churches commonly promote baptism for people of mature age or fully into adulthood.

Sin, in the Catholic way of thinking, is an act by which a person turns away or blocks their relationship with God. In order to commit sin a person must have a knowledge that their action is harmful or evil. An unchurched person may not easily realize that their own evil acts interfere with their relationship with God but as people do grow and mature they should at least learn the difference between good and evil acts.

As children grow and mature, at what age are they able to distinguish between good and evil? That is a difficult question. Children can distinguish between right and wrong very early. But it is only much later that they can make the connection where a wrong act is also an evil act. For example, a young child may not want to eat peas and then picks them up and throws them across the room. Most parents will be able to instill the concept of right and wrong regarding such an act at a very early age. But is it an evil act? For a young child certainly not. Later when the child gets much older such an act might indeed be an evil act though as the child gets older the behavior of the act may change to possibly shouting some rather inappropriate words instead of throwing things. Catholic theologians have often used the age of six or seven for when a child is probably old enough to know when they are choosing between good and evil.

Why do I bring up the concept of at what age can a person understand evil and sin? The reason is that for most churches one of the reasons for baptism is for the forgiveness of past sins and for a conversion or a new beginning of turning away from sinning. For a person to understand such a conversion from sin would seem to require that the person be old enough to understand the concepts of evil and sin.

Because the different churches focus on differing aspects of the reasons for baptism and because those differing aspects have more meaning at different ages of persons, therefore there is no overall agreement among churches as to what age a person should be baptized.

Likewise many people, irrespective of their church affiliation, believe that personal choice is important and therefore they often believe that a person's religious choice should be made at an age when a person is old enough to make such important decisions. Those people tend to object to the baptism of infants and children who are too young to make such choices on their own.

I did find a study that was interesting. It studied college students. It counted students who were previously baptized and whether or not they were still faithful members of their churches at college age. The study also looked at what age the students had been when they were first baptized. The interesting finding of the study was that those who were baptized before the age of 12 were much more likely to drop their involvement with church. Those findings support the concept that I described above of at what age can a child understands the concepts of evil and sin. The person who presented the study results instead of relating the results to the age of understanding of sin instead related that reason to the age at which children become capable of the concepts of abstract reasoning. I believe that the two concepts (understanding of sin and abstract reasoning) are quite interrelated.

From my experience as a Catholic, a church which promotes the baptism of infants, my general observations are that unless a person baptized as an infant continues involvement in church because of their family they tend to be more likely to drop out in later life.

Also from my experience people who choose to join the church from college age or later do so with a firm intention and are more committed to church membership and participation in future years. Likewise persons baptized as infants who for some reason come to a church for a new beginning and purpose also are more committed.

From previous exchanges with my readers here I expect a greater support for the idea of baptism at a later age when a person can make an informed choice. My church, and many others also, promote the idea that children and infants should be baptized either for their "guaranteed" salvation or for the symbolic act of entry into their church.

Since there is truly disagreement among churches as to the preferred ages for baptism, it should also be pointed out that within those churches there are also internal disagreements as to what age for other church essentials such as the age for communion or Eucharist, the age for confirmation, and the age for confession or reconciliation. There are also disagreements within churches about the ages for marriages but those discussions are usually superseded by civil laws.

Recognizing that infant or child baptism does not lend itself to active church or faith commitment in later life, some churches promote re- baptism later in life as an adult.

The Catholic Church, and many other churches, believe that baptism is a one time thing that effectively changes one's relationship with God. Therefore they do not promote or even permit re-baptism. Instead, sometimes, ministers devise some form of recommitment ceremonies.