Mental Disability and Baptism/Membership

[francis]

A question for this forum:
Some Christian brothers and I were discussing the question of mentally disabled teens and adults and how they might go about asking for baptism. I do believe that people in this position are capable of faith, but I also know some who would say they never reach the "age of reason" as non-disabled people do. Say somebody in your congregation had Downs Syndrome, what would your church's policies around baptism be for them? (Especially since many Anabaptists have to go through a baptism class to be baptized.) My congregation has never faced this but I know others have, so I have been wondering what perspectives others might have.
This could just as easily apply to other forms of mental delay such as profound autism, etc.

[steve-in-kville]

I had an uncle who had cerebral palsy. He lived to be 70 but never had the mental capability past a seven year old.

My opinion, when it comes to those that are mentally disabled, that there is an innocents of sorts. They cannot reason right from wrong and I firmly believe they will be made whole in heaven as with any other grounded Christian.

Feel free to disagree, but this is how I always understood this.

[MaxPC]

Great topic, Francis. Just so we can understand your question better, are you referring to cognitive impairments only that affect reasoning abilities or including emotionally impaired and specific learning disabilities (in which reasoning is intact but getting the information "in" is the issue)?

[francis]

Great topic, Francis. Just so we can understand your question better, are you referring to cognitive impairments only that affect reasoning abilities or including emotionally impaired and specific learning disabilities (in which reasoning is intact but getting the information "in" is the issue)?

I was thinking specifically in terms of cognitive impairments but I think the other question could raise interesting questions as well.

[steve-in-kville]

ETA: Just looked at out church directory... We have a family at church who has a son that is mentally handicapped. He is not a member but all his other siblings are. Even though we are considered more progressive (*cough* *cough* "liberal") congregation than most here, I will ask about the circumstances his lack of membership.

[knotdust]

We have 2 young men in our congregation who have been baptized and are permitted in to participate in communion. However, other church responsibilities such as voting etc they are excused. They do not have the cognitive abilities to make wise decisions in that regard. They are included in our men's Sunday School classes and the one has a bit more mental capacity, so he comes up with some surprising thoughts at times. We tried them in the youth boys classes for awhile but that just didn't work out very well. They can't be in the same class because they will play off each others thoughts and comments it was thought best to split them up. We have another teenager who is fairly low functioning on the autistic scale. He does join our children's classes but spends most of his time on an i-pad. He is not stupid but has a very small vocabulary and reasoning abilities. Unless something drastically changes he may never be a fully functioning person in society. He does enjoy his special classes at school and likes his teacher. He would love to go year around so he might function well in a rigidly structured environment. He needs constant supervision. So I said all that to say yes there are some who can function in a limited way in a brotherhood and I think we do them a dis-service to exclude them from some basic things in the body. Others may not the mental ability to even function at a basic level.

[MaxPC]

We have 2 young men in our congregation who have been baptized and are permitted in to participate in communion. However, other church responsibilities such as voting etc they are excused. They do not have the cognitive abilities to make wise decisions in that regard. They are included in our men's Sunday School classes and the one has a bit more mental capacity, so he comes up with some surprising thoughts at times. We tried them in the youth boys classes for awhile but that just didn't work out very well. They can't be in the same class because they will play off each others thoughts and comments it was thought best to split them up. We have another teenager who is fairly low functioning on the autistic scale. He does join our children's classes but spends most of his time on an i-pad. He is not stupid but has a very small vocabulary and reasoning abilities. Unless something drastically changes he may never be a fully functioning person in society. He does enjoy his special classes at school and likes his teacher. He would love to go year around so he might function well in a rigidly structured environment. He needs constant supervision. So I said all that to say yes there are some who can function in a limited way in a brotherhood and I think we do them a dis-service to exclude them from some basic things in the body. Others may not the mental ability to even function at a basic level.

I believe one of my favorite things about Anabaptists is that while functioning as a community with brotherly accountability, there is still room to charitably consider the individual's needs. Your post reminds me of that fact.