Should babies be baptized?

Christians disagree here too, largely for the same reasons churches disagree about what baptism actually does.

Traditions that baptize infants—Catholic, Orthodox, Lutheran, and Reformed churches, among others—see baptism as similar to circumcision in the Old Testament: a sign marking a child as part of God's covenant community, given by parents in faith before the child can personally respond. They also point to entire households being baptized together in the book of Acts, which likely included children.

Traditions that baptize only believers—many Baptist, Pentecostal, and other evangelical churches—teach baptism should follow a person's own decision to trust Christ. In the New Testament, baptism generally follows right after someone repents and believes, a pattern they see as the intended model, not incidental detail.

This is a sincere, long-running disagreement between careful readers of the same Bible. Churches in both camps warmly welcome and bless children either way, even while disagreeing about the timing of the water itself.