TOTAS: Seeing the Good - Baptism

If you have left the church, you probably have conflicted views about baptism for young children.
While the ceremony and teachings around it are accepted with joy and celebration by those in the church - for ex-mormons they are a source of concern because of troubling issues regarding informed consent, indoctrination, imposed conformity, social pressure and on and on and on.

There is certainly a time to explore those concerns, but setting those aside for a moment without forgetting them - is there anything worthwhile or good in any aspect of baptism in the lives of those who participate in it? It's okay to see the good and name it. That doesn't undo the reality of the concerns we might have - but it allows us to contemplate some of the practical effects of some of the teachings that accompany baptism and ask ourselves if there was anything good that came from it that was above and beyond the specific "churchy" stuff that adorns it.

If there are good lessons to be learned - what does it mean when we leave the church and, by extension, lose the benefit of those less tangible lessons?

By looking for the good in certain aspects of the church, we may just find that there are useful, healthy and good principles that we may find worthy to carry with us in our journey after the church.

This episode is an experiment in "Seeing the Good" - a concept that is important in every other aspect of our lives and no less in considering the church and our loved ones who still participate in it. Looking for the good may provide insights as we examine the roles that the church's teachings, ceremonies and traditions played in our lives above and beyond the churchy stuff.