Mormons sorry for posthumous baptisms

RTÉ News

The Mormon Church has apologised for the posthumous baptisms into Mormonism of the parents of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.


Source: RTÉ, Getty Images
Republican US presidential candidate Mitt Romney has been called on to address the issue of baptisms 'by proxy'

....The apology by the Mormon Church came on the same day that Holocaust survivor and Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel called on Republican US presidential candidate and prominent Mormon Mitt Romney to address the issue after Mr Wiesel's own Holocaust victim parents were similarly baptized by the Mormon Church...

Read More: http://www.rte.ie/news/2012/0215/mormons.html

[notably, Mitt Romney baptised his father-in-law posthumously]

sgath92 said:
So its not "we're sorry" but "we're sorry you're offended." Except they're saying the names shouldn't have been submitted to the process in the first place.

It's kind of hard to get offended by something you don't believe in. It's more just laughable.

Bloopy said:
sgath92 said:
So its not "we're sorry" but "we're sorry you're offended." Except they're saying the names shouldn't have been submitted to the process in the first place.

It's kind of hard to get offended by something you don't believe in. It's more just laughable.

Most names shouldn't be submitted to the process in the first place.

This is only supposed to be done, and per their religion only "works" for people who are direct ancestors of a given mormon. We're talking people related by blood here. So Joe Blow down the street your typical mormon would have them do the service for whoever he thinks was his great great great grandparents.

But since most people, mormons included, don't know much about genealogy how this works in practice is someone will go to a site like ancestry, find someone who has already made a family tree with their family in it, and then takes that family tree as gospel. Without any actual genealogical work. No historical research. No footnotes, no basis to prove any hereditary link. Which means most of the time instead of having the church posthumously converting their real great great grandparents, they end up trying to posthumously converting someone who isn't even related to them & was simply erroneously placed in some end user's family tree on the internet. Most user created family tree content on sites like ancestry are just plain wrong.

The mormon's have their own genealogy site similar to ancestry, and the database is filled with a lot of dupes, fluff, and inaccuracy. It's still a helpful tool for someone who actually knows what they're doing [just as ancestry is]. But there seems to be few & far between [of any given religious persuasion or lack thereof] who actually know how to do real genealogical research.

So I really don't see what the big deal is here, and I don't think I would get the controversy if I wasn't an atheist. Per their own belief system all these dead people have to agree to become mormons. I don't think Elie Wiesel seriously believes his dead parents would agree to converting to mormonism [assuming he believes they still exist in some spiritual afterlife sense].

EmptySkyXD said:
sgath92 said:
So I really don't see what the big deal is here, and I don't think I would get the controversy if I wasn't an atheist. Per their own belief system all these dead people have to agree to become mormons. I don't think Elie Wiesel seriously believes his dead parents would agree to converting to mormonism [assuming he believes they still exist in some spiritual afterlife sense].

It isn't about that. It's about the fact that Jews have been persecuted for their beliefs. Both Wiesel's and Wiesenthals parents perished because of who they were. Christians can't even stop trying to convert you in death. This.

I think it's just a shame a man who claims to be rational and good for America seeks to baptise holocaust survivors and victims after their death.

There's a bloody good reason why some did it when they were dead. Their belief is ludicrous, they know they wouldn't accept it in life. It therefore seems symbolic but to Jews insulting. I think apologies are owed.

Apologies and retractions go a long way...

learn from their mistakes and move on. Everyone has to.

Church PR:

“It is distressing when an individual wilfully violates the Church's policy,” the statement continued, "and something that should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention.”

Somebody doesn't know the definition of respect.

lawynd said:
On the bright side, we can now introduce deceased Mormons to the joys of homosexuality that they never enjoyed in life. http://alldeadmormonsarenowgay.com/
That's fucking hilarious. I love it.

^ hehehe

It's disgraceful to someone's memory to make a decision for them posthumously if you have no reason to believe that they would have made the decision on their own.