NS's story is an interesting one.
I doubt NS would take offense to this, and sorry NS if you do, my perception is you don't give a shiz about what LDS think of your situation...
But I see this as a perfect example of crossing the "grace line". If you want to be in the covenant you can. You keep picking yourself up after falling and mustering up enough faith to keep coming back and never quit. That's being in the covenant.
A member who says to a bishop, I haven't paid my tithing (or lived Wow or law of chastity or whatever) due to my lack of faith or lack of effort or other human frailty, but I believe in Christ and I want to follow him and I want to be able to baptize my son. At that point a bishop lays out a relatively simple plan for the member to demonstrate a degree of faithfullness and allows the member to baptize his son. Even if the member fails to achieve the plan, if he's efforting and doesn't give up, then he's OK.
There has to be some degree of faith or humility or desire to be part of the covenant. If the member like NS basically says F U I don't care enough to make even a small attempt to pay tithing (or WoW, etc.), then that person is out of the covenant and the person unwilling to receive God's grace.
So even being the grace extremist, I wouldn't have allowed NS to baptize his son in that case (though I also imagine NS is exaggerating a bit the details).
|