Mrebo said:
Discussion poodoo (usefully ambiguous word, in this context).
Serious question: are Mormons going to try to convert me after I die? Or was that only for Jewish people?
Disclaimer: The views expressed in this link are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of Mrebo.
TV's Frink said:
More recently, and very weirdly, the Mormons have been caught amassing great archives of the dead, and regularly “praying them in” as adherents of the LDS, so as to retrospectively “baptize” everybody as a convert. (Here the relevant book is Alex Shoumatoff’s The Mountain of Names.) In a hollowed-out mountain in the Mormons’ stronghold state of Utah is a colossal database assembled for this purpose. Now I have no objection if Mormons desire to put their own ancestors down for posthumous salvation. But they also got hold of a list of those put to death by the Nazis’ Final Solution and fairly recently began making these massacred Jews into honorary LDS members as well. Indeed, when the practice was discovered, the church at first resisted efforts to make them stop. Whether this was cultish or sectarian it was certainly extremely tactless: a crass attempt at mass identity theft from the deceased.
...
What?
TV's Frink said:
A slightly more balanced account:
http://www.pbs.org/mormons/etc/genealogy.html
The practice has not been without controversy, however. In the mid-1990s, there was a backlash when it was uncovered that the names of about 380,000 Jewish Holocaust victims had been submitted for posthumous baptism by what church historian Marlin Jensen calls "well-intentioned, sometimes slightly overzealous members." In 1995, the church agreed to remove the names of all Holocaust victims and survivors from its archives and to stop baptizing Jews unless they were direct ancestors of a Mormon or unless they had the permission of all the person's living relatives. However, Jewish names have periodically been discovered since the 1995 agreement, including that of Holocaust survivor and Jewish human rights activist Simon Wiesenthal, which was found and removed in 2006. Catholics and members of other faiths have also been upset at the practice.
To put it simply (and to partially answer a concern raised by 005), we believe that we have the fullness of truth, insofar as God has revealed to man, as well as proper authority to baptize. Remember, we believe we are a restoration of Christ's church. As such, we believe that many have missed the opportunity to receive the gospel. We make this available through baptism for the dead, as mentioned in 1 Corinthians 15:29, and as evidenced by other scriptures, such as Malachi 4:5-6 (in reference to genealogy and the connection between ancestors and descendants, John 5:25, 28-29 (in reference to the deceased having the opportunity to hear the voice of Christ and accept or reject him), 1 Peter 3:18-19 and 4:6 (referring to Christ preaching to those who had already died), and Matthew 16:17-19 (referring to the priesthood power being able to bind on earth, and therefore bind in heaven). You see, we believe that those who missed the opportunity to accept Christ's gospel in this life will have the opportunity in the next. Baptism for the dead is an opportunity for them to receive the ordinances they received. Ideally, members will research their family's names and do perform the work for the dead for them. To do such work for Holocaust victims was purely well-intentioned. Since they do not believe it a valid ordinance, no one thought it would be offensive, but it is of great significance to us. Even the Founding Fathers of the United States have had this same work done for them. But out of respect for the offended Jews, and as pointed out in your more balanced article, the names have since been removed from the list, which essentially undoes the work for the dead.
