Dear Gramps,
Is a parent held responsible for her 8 year old children after they are baptized?
Stephanie, from Brittany, Louisiana
Dear Stephanie
Our children are all between 50 and 60 years old and we still feel a sense of responsibility for them. When children are living at home, baptized or not, the parents are responsible for teaching them correct principles and administering love and kindness to them. Before the children are baptized at age eight, the great atoning sacrifice of the Savior has paid the full price to an eternal justice for all their sins. After age nine, if the children have not been baptized, the sins that they commit will fall upon the heads of the parents if the parents have not taught them truth and righteousness.
And again, inasmuch as parents have children in Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized, that teach them not to understand the doctrine of repentance, faith in Christ the Son of the living God, and of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost by the laying on of the hands, when eight years old, the sin be upon the heads of the parents. For this shall be a law unto the inhabitants of Zion, or in any of her stakes which are organized. And their children shall be baptized for the remission of their sins when eight years old, and receive the laying on of the hands. And they shall also teach their children to pray, and to walk uprightly before the Lord (D&C 68:25-28).
Gramps
