THe denomination I grew up in didn't believe in infant baptism, but I don't see how its any worse than indoctrinating some poor defensless kid with religious dogma in the first place. I mean, I supposedly made an "informed consent" to be baptized, but in reality I was more or less brainwashed into it. Whereas a lot of Catholic parents baptize their kids as infants but then don't do much to force them one way or the other afterwards. So I think that the real issue isn't baptism per se, but about the entire issue of parents indoctrinating their kids when they're too young and impressionable to have any sort of perspective. And, tough as it is, there's not much anyone can do about that - parents have the right to teach their kids whatever (legal) religion they want. Once the kids are grown, they are responsible adults and can make their own decisions - but of course their skewed world view is usually so internalized by then as to make it all but impossible for them to break away from it. I was only able to b/c even as a fundamentalist I was at least aware of a different world view: the secular humanist worldview whcih formed the basis of public school education. That's why homeschooling is so popular amoung fundamentalists: it gives you complete control over everything that goes into your children's minds.
But I don't want to sound like I'm accusing all Christian parents of what basicaly amounts to mental abuse; obviously most aren't so controling. And even the ones who are, think that they're doing it for the child's own good.
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"The world is my country; to do good is my religion." ~ Thomas Paine |