Godparents (Was: Pondering Arabella Figg)

[Kirstini]

No: HPFGUIDX 56665

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "splatt62" <splatt62 at y...> 
wrote:

> 
> In Britain, traditon is 2 godmothers and 1 godfather per girl and 
2 
> godfathers and 1 godmother per boy.

Not in my case. I've only got one of each, and I'd never heard of 
this tradition before. Doesn't it vary according to which particular 
denomination floats your boat?
 Anyway, all this talk about godparents has stirred up something 
that I half registered and buried after reading PoA. That Harry has 
*god*parents surely means (in Muggle tradition, obviously), that he 
was baptised into the Christian religion at some point. Whether or 
not the WW recognises a spiritual dimension, there has been no 
mention made in any of the books of any form of organised religion 
generally adhered to. Two possibilities suggest themselves - 1.) JKR 
is using the term generically to suggest a particularly close friend 
of the parent to whom the position is offered symbolically (in which 
case why was Sirius able to wield the word so authoritatively on 
Harry's Hogsmeade permission form?). 
2.)Harry was christened into a Muggle religion due to family 
pressures on his mother's side...It just doesn't seem likely that  
Lily, after graduating from Hogwarts and becoming a part of the WW, 
would still maintain the traditions of a Muggle religion which 
doesn't appear to have any specific relevance to the moral structure 
of the WW (NB - these are merely the speculations of a non-religious 
person taking the canon as a starting point. I don't want anyone to 
take offence. I personally feel that there is little possibility of 
an overtly religious dimension popping up in the next three books, 
but I don't want to force my position on anyone else). Therefore (is 
anyone still with me after that rather long parenthesis?)might there 
be a slight possibility that Lily's parents were still alive when 
Harry was born, and put some pressure on her to have her child 
baptised in the family tradition? Obviously the fact that Petunia 
shows very few signs of having been recently bereaved at the 
beginning of PS is rather against me on this one (and personally I 
support the "Lily's parents dead" theory. Whether or not Petunia 
disowned them, they would surely have expressed some concern at 
their missing grandson by now?).
Of course, it might have just been an oversight - the employment of 
a random figure of speech without thought to the implications. 
What does anyone else think?   


Kirstini
who today is feeling cowed, submissive and rather worried at the 
amount of thought she has given the above idea.