On Refusing Public Baptism

An increasing number of congregations within the Lutheran Church have adopted the practice of refusing public Baptism if the child was born out of wedlock.  Their policy requires such children to receive the Sacrament of Baptism in private only.  

This simply cannot be! 

I am not suggesting that there are no cases in which the Pastor refuses to perform a Baptism (that’s a different matter altogether), but when a Pastor requires Baptism to be private, for any reason, he misunderstands the distinction between Law and Gospel.  

As I understand it, the pietistic intention of such a practice is to not give the public impression of approval to the sinful lifestyle of the parents.  There is, however, another way to handle such a concern.  Teach and preach!  Catechize and admonish!  If the Pastor is doing this hard leg-work, meeting with the unwed parents, dealing with their sin of adultery in a proper way, calling them to repentance, and restoring them to the fold of Christ with absolution, then there is no reason to require that the forgiveness of sins be received behind locked doors.  

For if Baptism is in fact a means of grace, then there is no precedent for refusing it’s public administration.  The congregation has no authority to establish a law that one must fulfill (i.e. being legitimately born) in order to be publicly accepted into the Kingdom of God.  The Sacrament of Holy Baptism is not Holy because of the moral disposition of the recipient, but because of the one dispensing grace through such means.  Because of Christ.  Since it is performed on His authority, the Church must not turn Christ's Baptism into a shameful act no matter how ghastly the sinner might be.  Rather it is our sinful state that requires such baptizing in the first place.

While there are situations where baptisms are performed outside the Divine Service, these are exceptions, not punishments, and they are anything but private.  Those baptisms are announced at the next service and celebrated in the community of Christ's Church for exactly what it is, the working of the forgiveness of sins, the rescuing from death and the devil, and the giving of eternal salvation!

When a congregation demands that any Baptism to be performed privately, this treats public Baptism as an earned privilege.  It says that the means of grace must not be celebrated if your sin is public knowledge.  To this I humbly submit these words from Walther:

“When someone preaches that a person must be virtuous to earn his way into heaven, people praise this as a sermon of righteousness.  However, when these same people hear the message “Come unto Me all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest,” offering grace to all sinners without distinction, they are offended by it and consider it to be a false doctrine.  They reply: “How should this or that great sinner be able to come into heaven just as well as I, who from childhood have been intent on virtue and uprightness? Away with such a religion!” These people look upon God’s goodness with evil.  What a horrible sin! God’s Word tells us that the angels in heaven rejoice over a sinner who repents and finds grace.  Therefore, whoever does not wish the Gospel of grace to be received by a sinner becomes a devil, and his wish is that all of humanity would perish.  He becomes a devil even against himself, for whoever looks with evil because a sinner has been offered grace rejects the Gospel, shuts himself off from grace, and becomes irretrievably lost.” 

C.F.W. Walther God Grant It, 201

Thanks for reading!