We understand that growing up in a church going family doesn't make a person a Christian. We understand that having Christian parents doesn't make you a Christian. We understand it is an individual choice that each person must make, whether to follow Christ or not. Because of that, baptizing a child doesn't make that child a Christian, any more than putting a tiny baseball uniform on a baby makes it a baseball player.What does that have to do with the price of tea in China? Are they with the rest of the family at the ballgame? Another question, is how many decisions do parents make for their children? Does the child decide when to go to school or what s/he wants to learn in school? Does the child even decide on his own bedtime? Do we wait to read to a child until the child is old enough to decide what s/he wants to hear? Do parents wait until a child is old enough to decide whether he wants to meet his grandparents, his aunts and uncles, and cousins? Or, being an actual member of the family, all of the above is a given for parents to decide?
Like I said, it comes down to what baptism means. Obviously, it means something different to Catholics than it does to non-Catholics. Non-Catholics believe it's tightly related to repentance because of passages like this one:All along, I've been saying it is fine for people to choose to wait to baptize their child, and that I have no problem with it. All I have been doing is presenting why Catholics baptize babies--and have been ripped up one side and down the other for Catholic (and my) choice. And for even presenting these reasons, I am the one accused of being mean.
Acts 2:38
"Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall receive the gift of the Holy Ghost."