What do you think about the Mormon Church baptizing dead Jewish people into Mormonism?

Comments

• The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for doing this and you are defending it. Interesting...
  
  In past posts, I have had Mormons (apologies if I use the wrong verbiage here)deny the Church or it's members baptized anyone without their knowledge or consent. (My mother-in-law found she'd been baptized by the Church without her consent when doing genealogical research) Now the Church has admitted to doing so and apologized.
  
  You say they don't do so but when the Church issues an official apology for doing so I guess there is a disconnect eh? It's something you should look into perhaps? Did you read the posted material?
  
  So do they or don't they? It appears, from their statement and official apology, they do baptize dead people. I am not sure how advocating or apologizing for that sort of thing makes you more tolerant than others?
  
  I see it, the act of baptizing the dead, as pretty insulting. You or your clergy (again apologies if I used the wrong term) decide that you can make choices of faith for the dead that are better than they made in life? That's a pretty big assumption, if that is, you are a believer.
  
  Then there's this whole free will thing...again...maybe an argument that is over my head.
  
  When my father met my mother he had to convert to marry her. He claims he was a Methodist (as many Mid-western Swedes were) while she was a German Catholic. Later he claimed to be a Baptist to get out of dancing and card playing but that's another post. He took the classes and converted. Not so secretly my father never believed there was any God but him. Part of his promise was to raise any children as a Catholic.
  
  Catholic's have similar ideas as those you have expressed, or as I assume you have based on your post and spend a good deal of time trying to convert people; by word and in past by the sword.
  
  It's one of the reasons I left the Catholic Church because I found that and other policies of the Church deeply offensive on several levels.
  
  Silly me, I consider ones relationship with the divine deeply personal. From Bible study to the nuts and bolts of daily living I find any attempt convert whether it be by word or sword deeply offensive.
  
  Free will...remember that?
  
  If you truly believe, why would you intervene in a person's relationship with God? Doesn't one need to establish their own relationship with God?
  
  Attempting to, after death, interfere with or manipulate anther human beings relationship with God and excusing it with the sort of argument you made is pretty interesting.

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  by Wynper on February 16th, 2012

• I’m not defending anyone, I’m simply telling you how it works. The church apologized for offending people, not for the baptisms themselves. The names they receive for people to be baptized by proxy are generally submitted by church members (anyone who is a member of the Mormon church can submit names for baptism by proxy). If you were a member of the church you could submit names of your ancestors to be offered the rite of baptism. You would do this because you would believe (as a Mormon), that your ancestors needed this rite to enter into the kingdom of God. In your heart you would be doing a glorious and wonderful thing for them. Say you find out that your great grandfather was Jewish and never had a Christian baptism. You would submit his name and he would be baptized by proxy. In the spirit world (as believed by Mormons), he would be offered this baptism, but he would not be required to accept it. Even as a spirit he has free will. He would be free to choose. It’s simply an offering, not a force.
  
  Now imagine your cousin, who isn’t Mormon, finds your great grandfather’s name in a log book as being baptized by proxy. Your cousin is angry and contacts the church. The church doesn’t list you as the person who submitted the name, only that “a member” submitted it. They offer their apologies to your cousin, who is obviously upset and thinks the church has forced its will upon her and her ancestors, when in fact it was you who submitted the name. See how it works? The church apologizes to your cousin, but still believes what they did was proper.
  
  On top of that, your great grandfather does not become a member of the Mormon church upon baptism. He is simply offered the rite of baptism as a spirit. He is not included on membership roles, or even considered to be Mormon by the church. He is a Jew who has been offered the opportunity to accept the sacred rite of baptism. That’s it. There’s no manipulation with anyone’s relationship with God. If you die and go to heaven, and then find out that someone sacrificed a chicken in your name, are you automatically a Satanist? No, your relationship with God is everything it has ever been, no matter what others do. I think you’re putting too much into this. It’s not as big of a deal as you’re making it out to be.

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  by BACzero on February 17th, 2012