Curious About Your Opinion On This

Chesterton said:

This morning a lady was breastfeeding her baby in church during Divine Liturgy. Thoughts?

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Better than having the baby crying loudly because it is hungry. However, what could be wrong with something that is a natural process? Unless some through their lust like perving at mothers breast feeding their babies.

I was a Court victim adviser, and sometimes interviewed clients who asked if they could breastfeed their babies during the session. I told them to go ahead because I have two daughters and I wouldn't be embarrassed or offended.

Because it is not a sinful act, I don't see why it should be an offence to God to breastfeed a baby during a liturgical service. The sin is in the perverted voyeurs who become aroused with the sight of women's breasts.

it's not the place for it in my opinion, even if the mom is covered.

ArmyMatt said:

it's not the place for it in my opinion, even if the mom is covered.

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I remember taking my three year old daughter to church and was looking forward to the Vicar's sermon. Just before the sermon, she quietly said to me, "Daddy, I've pooed my pants". I had to take her out to the bathroom, clean her up, and change her, and so I missed out on the sermon. Just think of the hue and cry if I had taken her into the aisle and changed her there in front of everyone!

Not the best place to do but then what did they do in the time of Christ? We weren't there. No big deal. We can get over it.

Edited. Wrong thread.

If the mom is covered I see nothing wrong with it. However, some churches have a separate room that is adjacent to the sanctuary where it would actually be more appropriate, and would be better in regard to allowing the mom to be in a more quiet place so that should the baby fall asleep while nursing the mom can just stay in there while still listening to/watching the service.

Chesterton said:

This morning a lady was breastfeeding her baby in church during Divine Liturgy. Thoughts?

Click to expand...

Beats having a screaming child in the meeting.

Hmm.. if shes covered how cares. Yet if the Church would rather one do it somewhere else then during Church be wise to listen.

Chesterton said:

This morning a lady was breastfeeding her baby in church during Divine Liturgy. Thoughts?

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Is there any other space provided for mothers to breast feed?

Oscarr said:

The Roman government was not hesitant in promoting the Roman gods, and when Emperor-worship was instituted, it was a capital offence not to offer the pinch of incense on the pagan altar for him.

In the time of Christ, the Jewish political leadership totally supported Judaism and treated anything else as blasphemy and treason against the Jewish state. That was the excuse the Jewish leaders used to have Jesus crucified.

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What does this have to do with the topic at hand?

Our parish has a private space for this purpose. We call it the "Cry Room."
Earlier this month, I installed a high definition CCTV feed and monitor into this space so any person in the room could still watch/hear the service in progress, in real-time.

Beautiful! Nurse away, mom!

On my mission trip to Nicaragua, I saw several young women nursing their babies at the meetings.
It shouldn't be a problem for anyone.

prodromos said:

What does this have to do with the topic at hand?

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Nothing. I had a senior moment and responded to the wrong thread. I have edited the original post out.

It's nice to, on occasion, be able to depend on others for my opinion.

Chesterton said:

This morning a lady was breastfeeding her baby in church during Divine Liturgy. Thoughts?

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Seems fine to me. No different than feeding the baby a bottle. It's sad people are offended by the natural feeding of a baby (done modestly).

Jesus was breast fed - so what should that tell you about "God's opinion"?

On the one hand it's not "sinful". I wonder if it was ever mentioned how it was handled in the early Church? Such things are heavily influenced by cultural context.

On the other hand, we do have a general concern for modesty and not being a distraction.

Me personally (though I'm not in that situation anymore) ... our parish has a nursery with the service coming through on a screen there. There are rocking chairs and so on - I would choose to go there if it were me.

And if it were me noticing someone else doing it, I would probably just avert my eyes.

There's all kinds of things to consider - such as hoping no one makes a comment to make the mother not want to come to Church again.

I’ve seen clergy wives do it (concealed of course) during Matins and DL. No big whoop to me. I’m more concerned with the growing number of “Meh, I don’t care what same sex folks do together. Who am I to judge?” type comments at coffee hour.

~Anastasia~ said:

I wonder if it was ever mentioned how it was handled in the early Church? Such things are heavily influenced by cultural context.

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True; things are influenced by cultural context.

Nudity in the ancient world was pretty common. (There's a passage in the NT about Peter putting clothes ON to jump in the water; before swimming to shore.) Individually; people didn't possess so many articles / changes of clothing. So it was not uncommon to see nude laborers.

Although it was more common to see nude men than nude women. Greek men exercised and competed in the nude and Roman woman wore bikinis. The Romans actually invented the bikini for the purpose of women's sports competitions that had mixed audiences.

In the 2nd to 4th centuries; they did actually have nude baptisms. Women were baptized by other women behind a curtain.