Baptism/Christianity in HP/DD and Draco

[sistermagpie]

No: HPFGUIDX 153441


> Leslie41:
> Yes, of course.  But Rowling could have accomplished this by 
making 
> Sirius a relative, or by making him the guardian should they die.

Magpie:
Actually she couldn't make him a relative, imo, because bloodlines 
are important in themselves, and obviously she didn't just want it 
to be a legal document saying Sirius was the guardian should they 
die.  Godfather implies exactly what she needs, an adult who's been 
given a quasi-parental role without being related, that puts him 
above "a friend of your father" and yet outside of "blood 
relative."  His parental role has a spiritual nature to it.  That is 
why I think much is made, repeatedly, of the fact that he's Harry's 
godfather, more so than the specific words of the ceremony they 
used.  

Leslie:
  
> Much is made, repeatedly, of the fact that he is his godfather.  
And 
> sure, many people kind of ignore their roles as godparents, but 
when 
> you go back to the actual ceremony of baptism (in the Anglican 
> church), the godparent has to renounce the devil, acknowledge 
Christ 
> as savior, etc. etc. etc.

Magpie:
Yes, the ceremony has stuff about renouncing the devil and 
acknowledging Christ, but as you said, many people go on to ignore 
the role. 

Leslie:
> 
> Those who are not Christians are not asked to be godparents, no 
> matter how close the tie may be, because they either are not 
> baptized, or they cannot claim Christ as savior, or both. 

Magpie:
And yet watch any soap opera and you'll see examples of non-
religious characters named as godparents at Christenings with the 
importance being on the bond between the characters.  This seems to 
me to be exactly the way it's used with Sirius and Harry so far.  
Sirius doesn't seem to ever be interested in whether Harry's been 
brought up with religious instruction.  He seems more focused on 
this being his best friends son to whom he has a responsibility.

Leslie:
> 
> I'm not saying that there is or will be any sort of explicit 
> Christian message at the end of HP, but anyone who's ever been to 
a 
> baptism in the Anglican church knows that it's pretty serious 
> stuff.  It's easy to make light of this, but my inclination would 
be 
> *not* to take it so lightly.  In the Anglican Church (as well as 
in 
> the Catholic church) baptism actually confers grace.

Magpie:
Yes, I've been to christenings and I acknowledge that JKR is using 
the Christian ceremony of a christening.  I do think the ceremony in 
HP canon is important and has a spiritual aspect to it, just not 
primarily due to Harry receiving grace he otherwise would have 
lacked and Sirius accepted Jesus as his Savior at some point.  The 
ceremony still seems primarily important to me for the bonds it 
cements between the characters and their loved ones.  I'm not 
removing the Christian aspect but I don't think the christening 
suggests much about their religious life so far--for many people the 
religious ceremonies are the only ones they know for these 
purposes.  Maybe I'm not quite seeing how you think this is going to 
put into play that is different from the way I'm seeing it.  
Tolkien, I believe, considered grace to play an important role at 
the end of his story, while I see nothing of the kind, so the two 
povs can certainly exist within the same set of events.

-m