Baptism/Christianity in HP

[Tonks]

No: HPFGUIDX 153738

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Geoff Bannister" 
<gbannister10 at ...> wrote:
>
> 
> I stand by my comment quoted above that infant baptism per se does 
not make a person a Christian.
>

Tonks:
What we have here is a difference between Catholic and Protestant 
theology.  Keep in mind that the Anglican Church considers itself to 
be a `bridge church' between the Catholic and Protestant branches of 
Christianity.  And, of course, when one uses the term `Catholic' it 
does not mean just the Roman brand, as most people think.

The practice of infant baptism originated with the idea of a person 
needing to be baptized in order to enter heaven. This centers on the 
concept of `original sin'.  It used to be believed (until rather 
recently) that an infant, while free from *acts* of sin would need 
to be cleansed of `original sin' before entering heaven. And this is 
part of what baptism does. 

Following this it makes sense to me, that if Lily and James were 
Christian, even `nominal' Christians, they would want to have Harry 
baptized quickly before they went into hidden because they knew that 
Harry's life was in danger. They knew that there was a strong 
possibility that he might die and they were preparing him for the 
wrost.

Tonks_op