Baptismal genealogy

Dissolving the boundaries of bloodline, expanding our families

Abstract

Centuries ago, Mennonite Anabaptists paved a way by dying for the conviction that baptism into the Christian faith was not a birthright passed on through citizenship or lineage. Today, “genealogical” Mennonites can pave the way for all of us to better understand that my “bloodline” may name those from whom I came, but it does not define or contain all of those to whom I truly belong through baptism.

What if the questions of the “Mennonite game” were not “Which ‘Friesens’ or ‘Wiebes’ do you belong to?” or “Who were your grandparents?” but rather “When did you join the family through baptism?” or “Can you tell me about your baptism story?” This is not to rekindle old forms of division over baptismal convictions (pouring versus dunking, or even infant versus adult). Rather, it is to alter the way we imagine our bonds and connections to one another, away from the bio-genealogical, in order to say within and across faith traditions, “By the grace of Christ, you and I are truly siblings. My family is your family. My people are your people.”