Godparents?

Question

I have a question to ask about the Lutheran religion. If your baby is baptized Lutheran do the god parents have to be of the Lutheran religion also? I know it is with Catholics, but I am not sure with the Lutheran religion.

Answer 1

In the Lutheran denomination, the Godparents should be Lutheran. It is their job to help the child grow in their faith and in their walk with God.
Godparents are not the same as guardians. My aunt and uncle are my oldest daughters Godparents, but they are not her guardians! My brother and sister-in-law are the Godparents of our other daughter, but not her guardians. Hubby's brother and wife are the legal guardians if anything should happen to us... they are much more capable of permanently taking on 2 extra children at this point in their lives.
The Godparents send my girls extra Christmas presents, usually something reflecting our faith, a special present on their baptismal birthdays, and they also gave them their first bibles. That's their job.... my aunt even made sure that I had our oldest enrolled in confirmation classes.
The guardians... well they just keep asking if our insurance is paid up and how much is in the college funds... that's their job! LOL
I know I over answered, but I hope it helps!

Answer 2

In the Congregation I grew up in non Lutherans could be Godparents, but Sponsors had to be Lutheran, from the same Synod, or one that is in fellowship with our own Synod.

As in usafbrat's answer the sponsors are to pray for the child, and to ensure that the child is brought up in the faith if the parents are unable to.

When my daughter was baptized we had one of each.

Answer 3

I'm a Catholic, and I'm the 'godparent' of a MUSLIM child ... and if I had to 'raise her' I would raise her to be THE BEST MUSLIM POSSIBLE, and 'forget' about my 'religion' ...
Yes, in the Lutheran church you must have Lutheran 'godparents' just as you must have Catholic godparents in the Catholic church ... but these days, the 'meaning' of being a 'godparent' is changed, and you may want to choose 'formal' godparents for the baptism, and have 'informal' godparents who will actually help 'raise your child' in the religion and WAY you want your child to be raised. I KNOW that my 'situation' is unusual, but the family that is Muslim choose me to be their daughter's godparent because they 'know' that I'll raise their daughter to be a 'good American' and a good Muslim, regardless of my 'own religion's beliefs' ...

Answer 4

Godparents are just something that was made up by mankind.Jesus Himself was baptized by John the Baptist and there were no godparents. So since it really doesn't matter anyway. No The Godparents can be any religion. In God's eyes they are souls and that's all that matters. You get to heaven by believing in Jesus you don't get to heaven by baptism it is just being obedient to God that baptim is practiced. And the whole body should be emerced in water. But do what makes you happy.

Answer 5

call them in spite of you desire to. the belief of "godparents" that involves asking somebody you believe to look after your little ones if something happens to you is basically good straight forward experience. the belief of "godparents" that they had strengthen the little ones on your very own faith is kinda stupid. And basically calling them "godparents" (it particularly is a straight forward term) does not recommend thought in a god any extra than saying see you later does (bypass seem up the origins of the observe). Peace.

Answer 6

I have to disagree with Thomas M who seems to think that both godparents and baptism are irrelevant.
First, would Jesus have, Himself, been baptised if it was just an empty ritual? No, because it has meaning since the days of the Old Testament which, incidently, is in the Bible. Some willl differ on what baptism means, but if it was important to Jesus, then it should remain important to us.
Secondly, Jesus didn't have godparents? So? It is a "man made" tradition, but that doesn't make it unimportant or irrelevant. Jesus entrusted His Church to men when he left it in the hands of the Apostles to administer and said to Peter,"whatever you render on earth shall be rendered in heaven." That lends legitimacy to "man made" religious practices, rites and traditions.
Godparents are your childrens' spiritual guardians in case you can't fufill your duties of bringing them up in your faith due to death, illness, etc. Do you really think Jesus would have a problem with that? Didn't Jesus say that we are our brother's keeper? Don't you think He'd be pleased that you had a shepard in the wings to keep your children on the path with Christ in case you were unable to do it? It only makes sense that He would.
Literal readings of the Bible exclude so much. Just because you can't find it in Jesus's time doesn't make it irrelevant to faith. We revere the Epistles of Peter and Paul, yet Christ never wrote in his time. Does that make the Epistles irrelevant? Of course not. That's why they became part of the New Testament. If the early Christians thought like you did, they would have excluded a lot of what we cherish now because "Jesus didn't have that" or "Jesus didn't do that."
I have no problem with the fact that Jesus entrusted His church to man to shape as thought necessary in order to preserve and spread the faith. If men of good will, dedicated to Christ institute traditions to strngthen faith and bring man closer to God, that's a good thing in my book.