Reasons why I am not as worried about the particulars of baptism right now:
1. The legitimacy of crypto-Christianity
Reading about the history of north Africa and the middle-east made me realize that there are a host of reasons why people may keep their Christianity a secret. I used to think that NEGATED their Christianity – that to not declare the Lord in public was to disown him. But to protect your wife, you children, your friends, would you keep quite? This really did happen in the face of much Muslim conquest. A lot. I think God has mercy on these people. Look at the huge underground church in China. Are they not legitimate Christians because they lay low in the face of oppression? Some people are destined to be martyrs, for sure, but many more are meant to survive at the roots of the grass. For all of these people, throughout history, a highly-public splashing baptism might have not seemed like the best idea ever.
2. The legitimacy of the Christianity of those with diverse beliefs about baptism!
I believe that paedobaptists, credobaptists, sprinklers and dunkers and all real Christians. So I’m not going to expend too much energy on getting then to do it “just right”, even though I think there is room for all of us to improve in our understand and practice.
3. The illegitimacy of theology quizzes for establishing ones place among the “elect”.
What is in your head does not change what the water does. Thank God. The Lord does the real work.
4. The inability to follow through with some of my own current beliefs on the matter due to cultural and familial pressure and the strong feeling that to raise a stink about it would be unnecessary, or worse, sin.
The short of it is that I now lean toward infant baptism being the more proper practice, with catechism as they grow. But, my own children will end up being baptized later, just like I was and that’s OK. It will be interesting to discover if my new adopted daughter (just a few months away from finally bringing her home!) was baptized already in the Ethiopian Orthodox church. Interesting, but I’m not giving it too much thought.