Hope this doesn't get toooooo controversial, but ......

For those people who choose to christen their child/ren but do not consider themselves religious, would you mind sharing your reasons for doing so? I often wonder why people who do not go to church & do not actively practice that faith themselves still get their children christened.

Both hubby & I were raised Catholic & attended Catholic schools but despite all of this neither of us are religious. Much to our parents' disappointment, we have chosen not to have our daughter christened as we see this as being hypocritical & irreverent considering our own views on religion.

I don't expect people to share their own views on religion. I am just curious as to why people choose to introduce their children into a certain faith if they don't actively practice that faith themselves.

I've often wondered this. Kinda like people getting married in a Church yet probably could only count the number of times they attended Mass (or whatever it called) on one hand.
Do you think you'll have some other ceremony instead for you baby? Like a Naming perhaps?

I am not religious at all, never have been. Hubby was 'raised' Catholic and attended Catholic school, his mum claims she is religious, but that is really just for show and to be perfectly honest I act more religious than her sometimes!!!!!
Hubby attends Christmas mass sometimes but that is about it these days as I don't feel right attending. If it was left up to me, my kids wouldn't be christened, and we would have been married outside a church, however hubby has some religion in him and he said he wouldn't have felt married unless it was in a church and wants to have his child christened, so he is being done next month.

So the short answer after all that ramble is, I would be happy not to, but hubby wants to even though he is really a non practicing Catholic.

I'd be interested to know too..... I'm guessing its just a matter of tradition or wanting to have a gathering to celebrate the new baby.

Paul and I regularly attend church so it was important for us to have Loz baptised.

Hubby and I were both raised Catholic and went to Catholic schools, though as we've grown older we've come to the realisation that we don't follow a lot of the Church's views. Because of this we've decided not to baptise Mia, and we'll be sending her to a non-denominational school. We want her to decide what religion she wants to be a part of (if any) when she's older.

I still believe in God, just not the views of the Catholic Church. We were married in a Church as at the time I felt differently about the Catholicism.

My mother is not religious, and was never baptised.

We were baptised (my brother and I), along with my mother, when I was about 2 (brother was younger). We then never went to church at all. My dad was never baptised, and didn't want to be baptised then.

That was in the early 80s though, and I think it was more the 'done thing' then.

I actually coverted to Catholocisim when I was in late Primary school, as I went to a Catholic primary school, and my brother and I sorta thought hey, we have learnt about this religion, all our friends are catholic, lets covert! Mum had no issue with it. Since then I have been pretty much non practising, and don't even believe a lot of the Catholic 'ways'.

After all this religious hoo-ha, I will not be baptising my children when we have them (not even close yet!). I think if people want to, then thats their choice, but I am happy for my children to follow whatever belief path suits them

Same here. Although I was bought up attending church and was christened and then confirmed, I found as i got older my views on religion change dramatically.

My kids' dad and i briefly discussed it and didn't have any of them baptised/chistened.

I want to allow my children the opportunity to learn about religion in their own way and make their own decisions about what they believe.

I personally see an element of hypocracy in baptising or christening a child if a family isn't committed to the beliefs of that religion, whatever it may be.

For me religion was a large part of my childhood, but not my adult life. Matt on the other hand never even attended religious instruction classes at school or has any religious beliefs.

LIke teag.reen said, I would like our child christened under the COE as part of family tradition and a celebration of new life, but we might settle for a naming day.

We did have a family & friends gathering (a party of sorts) specifically for our daughter when she was 3 months old to celebrate her arrival & formally introduce her to everyone (where we specified no gifts, as the cynic in me sometimes thinks people have these occasions specifically for the gifts ). However there was no ceremony involved as we didn't think this was really necessary

Do some people do it so their child can attend a certain school?

Hubby is Catholic and went to a Catholic High School, but I dont think he has ever really gone to church. I was Uniting and always went to Church and Sunday school with my mum, but once in High School, my social life sort of took over, so we are both not overly religious. We got married in a Catholic Church.

I guess with us it is just a Tradition. We were both baptised so thought our kids should be too.

Although Keira is baptised Catholic we probably wont send her to a Catholic school.

Ditto, we are both not religious people so our children wont be baptised.

Im going to be perfectly honest here.

My husband is not religious neither is his family, him and his brother never had a blessing or a christening.

My family have always had a strong tradition with christenings up until my cousins who are now 12, 11 and 9 and havent been christened.

My husband and I got married under a uniting church minister even though we dont go to church, My church experience extends to Christenings, marriages and funerals, and we got our children christened under the uniting church.

Why? My grandad, he is the sweetest man alive and he asked me to, simple as that.

It was all about respecting his wishes and I and my husband were more than happy to do that. It didnt matter who else told us not to it was just the way he said it.

I thought this was why a lot of people did it. We just attended a 4 years olds christening as she apparantly needed it to get into a catholic school. She had a naming ceremony when she was a baby.

The mother was brought up a catholic and does plan on taking the little girl to church from now on, though I am a bit of a cynic and don't know if it will last.

Neither Andrew or I are religious and we had Jack baptised Catholic for non religious reasons. We wanted to have a special day to introduce him to the family (those that hadn't already met him) and to formalise his godparents. We did look into doing a naming day but it was going to end up being quite expensive so after consideration (including taking into account the fact that catholic schools are much more prominent than Christian schools - hubby is Christian) we decided to have him baptised. Our parish priest is fantastic, very relaxed, the service was all of 30 minutes and he cracked jokes through out.

As far as we were concerned, a christening is like a formal introduction of the baby to the community. In times gone by, everyone would have all gathered at church each week so it made sense. These days people are not so tied to the church.

We decided to have our daughter christened as part of the tradition, I couldnt think of a better event (nameing day or whatever) and because our parents pretty much expected it. It wasnt so much because of the religious implications, more of the formally makeing her part of our group of family and friends.

Hubby and I are in no way religious and were not married in a church. I have always thought that we would never christen our children but recently I have been in two minds about it.....

We have a christening gown at home made by my great grandmother (it is hand-sewn french lace and absolutely beautiful). My grandmother, my mother and her sister were all christened in this gown. My brother and I were not though because we grew too fast and mum hadn't organised a christening yet (it is a very small gown and only fits newborns).

So recently I have been thinking it would be a lovely thing to have our newborns christened in this family christening gown - in the church where my parents were married and my brother and I were christened. Mum is no longer alive, so it is something that I feel has a strong connection to her which is very important to me.

My parents were never religious in any way but had us christened (Uniting Church) because it was the done thing in the 70's I guess. Plus they sent us to Sunday school every Sunday morning for a year or two - however I think this may have been their way to get a few hours on Sunday mornings to themselves - very clever!

My hubby is Catholic and I am Anglican. I don't attend church, but when we got married it was important for both of us to be married in a church. The local Catholic church had very strict rules about a non Catholic marrying in that church, and because of all the formal paperwork, counselling and everything else I would have had to go through, we got married in an Anglican church.

Hubby attended a Catholic school, and has fairly firm views about our children attending Catholic schools also. I'm fairly ambivalent, as long it provides a quality education I don't mind if it's Catholic or not.

So, after all my ramble, our children might be christened in the Catholic church so that should we choose to send them to Catholic schools, they will be able to go. Plus, I can't ignore the fact that hubby is Catholic so he would like them christened Catholic too. Looks like I might be the odd one out in our family

I was christened in the Uniting Church, and my husband was christened in an Anglican church. We were married in the Uniting church and our children will probably be christened in the Uniting church as well. We are not particularly religious but it meant a lot to me to be married in a church, and I think it will be the same for a christening.

We also have a gorgeous family gown that my mother, her three sisters and I wore and I would like our children to wear that too. I also think it would mean a lot to my Dad for us to christen our children.

I am not Christened, and my son is not either. It is not part of our religion to be Christened. My son attends a Catholic school, even though we don't belong to that religion so I don't think that should be an issue.

I think christenings are lovely, but I do find it a bit bizarre when non-religious people have their children christened, given there are naming ceremonies you can do to instead. In the end I just accept there are various reasons why someone would do that, it is up to them if it important to them do so.

I regret not having a naming day for Isaac though, that would have been lovely. If we have another child, then maybe I will do them both together!

There can be a discord between beliefs and religion, too. We had Gwen christened because I believe in God and so on, but I call myself non-denominational Christian and have a big problem with a lot of religious institutions, particularly denominational churches. Which is why I don't tend to go! Still, it was important enough to me to want her christened.

There is also the fact that my entire family took it for granted she'd be christened and there would have been some significant arguments if I hadn't - they are properly churchy, not like me.

When she grows up it would be nice if she felt like I do, but more than anything I want her to *think* about questions of religion and come to her own conclusions.