Godparents-presents for godchild's siblings?

Carl31

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

MrSmartprice, I know I have said this before, why be a Godparent if it means nothing to you, why not let someone to whom it DOES mean something take that position?

I find it difficult to believe that you could make all those declarations knowing you had no intention of keeping them.

When I was a Godparent I had to declare that I believed in God, that I followed Jesus as his Son, that I renounced evil and I had to promise to help the parents to bring the child up to know the Christian faith. No way could I have said any of that when I was an atheist. In fact I turned down a request for me to be a godparent when I was twenty because at that point I did not believe and could not in all conscience commit to the declarations.

I'm afraid I DO think it is hypocritical of you, like Dunroamin does. If it meant as little to the parents of the child as it did to you, then the whole thing is just a mockery.

Thing is, in my situation anyway, I know that the parents of the child being christened are not religious either. I don't know why they feel the need to go through with a christening, I expect its mainly to get presents and to have a day for their child. In my opinion wrong and a complety pointless exercise, but its not my decision.

So if the parent reasons are questionable, then surely the godparents input to the whole charade is pretty irrelevant anyway?

I can't imagine these days there are many that have christenings for the reason they are intended

FBaby

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

I suppose if you make sure she goes to church and has a good founding in Christian knowledge, you could do that, but would you, if you do not believe it to be true?

Of course I would even if I don't believe it is true. My children, brought up with no religion both went through a phase of believing in God. my DD asked me if I believed in God. I said no, she said well I do. I said that absolutely fine, there is no right or wrong, it is what you believe in that matters. If she'd at a later age requested to be christened and followed the faith, asked to go to a Catholic school showing dedication to the faith, I would have been more than happy to support it (same for other religions).

I will rephrase to say I don't see how you can make promises to do something you don't believe in, nor how you can keep those promises.

I don't understand why you can't see it. There are many things I respect and am happy for loved ones to believe in or do despite not agreeing it for myself. But can you say that just because a Godparent is catholic, you can be assured that they will keep their promises?

There only has to be one godparent - a second one is optional - so the other one would have satisfied the conditions for the RC baptism.

Indeed. And I took my role much more seriously than the Godfather who was deemed catholic purely on the basis that he was christened one day, even though he had never stepped foot in a church for prayers since he was about 8!

I went to a Catholic christening one day where the Godfather was Hindu and had his turban on his head! The Godmother was catholic.

FBaby

When I was a Godparent I had to declare that I believed in God, that I followed Jesus as his Son, that I renounced evil and I had to promise to help the parents to bring the child up to know the Christian faith

The only thing that we were asked as Godparents (both of us)was the last part about bringing up the child up to know Christian faith. I had no problems with that, hence saying I would agree to be her Godmother. I wasn't asked any of the above, which is good as I would have said no!

andygb

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

If it meant as little to the parents of the child as it did to you, then the whole thing is just a mockery.

In my case, where I did not wish to be a Godparent, and the parents of the children were not at all religious, then I think the whole thing was a total charade.
However, I believe that organised religion is a total charade anyway, and is full of hypocrisy, so the whole Godparent thing had a huge amount of irony attached to it.

MrSmartprice

seven-day-weekend wrote: »

MrSmartprice, I know I have said this before, why be a Godparent if it means nothing to you, why not let someone to whom it DOES mean something take that position?

I find it difficult to believe that you could make all those declarations knowing you had no intention of keeping them.

When I was a Godparent I had to declare that I believed in God, that I followed Jesus as his Son, that I renounced evil and I had to promise to help the parents to bring the child up to know the Christian faith. No way could I have said any of that when I was an atheist. In fact I turned down a request for me to be a godparent when I was twenty because at that point I did not believe and could not in all conscience commit to the declarations.

I'm afraid I DO think it is hypocritical of you, like Dunroamin does. If it meant as little to the parents of the child as it did to you, then the whole thing is just a mockery.

Of course it was all a mockery. All religion is a mockery of common sense.

Why did I agree to be a godparent? I've explained it quite clearly. We had a crucial football match on the Sunday morning and my friend was the team's goalkeeper. To me (and to him if he's honest) the game was far more important than splashing a bit of water over his baby's head. He's an atheist, although his wife was brought up in a religious house, Welsh as it happens.

I seem to recall that there was some recital going on around the font, and I had to hold a candle or something. But I certainly made no declarations at any point. I took little notice of what happened as it meant nothing whatsoever to me.

None of it was of any importance. But I knew we needed the goalkeeper as we had nobody else. It was all justified in the end because we won our league that season. I did what I did for the team, which is far more important than worrying about any promises to imaginary gods and devils. I would also say that I was asked to be a godparent to their two older children and refused both times.

Just because I'm an atheist doesn't mean I wouldn't attend a funeral that had a religious element. I even attend the occasional church wedding if there is a good reception laid on. It doesn't mean I join in with any of the religious bit, I just ignore it.

Had I had my daughter christened in a church, that would have been hypocritical. We did absolutely nothing, not even a party. It has not affected her in any way.

Mojisola

MrSmartprice wrote: »

I seem to recall that there was some recital going on around the font, and I had to hold a candle or something. But I certainly made no declarations at any point. I took little notice of what happened as it meant nothing whatsoever to me.

I don't think what you describe is hypocritical. In a lot of churches, godparents have to say that they agree to renounce the devil and all his works, say that they accept Jesus as their saviour and that they believe in God.