Mormon Baptisms for the Dead Make the News … Again. An Indepth Look at Posthumous Baptism.

When Politico's blogger Ben Smith wrote about the Mormon church's alleged baptism of President Obama's deceased mother, a storm of readers pounded out both sympathetic and furious responses. The news apparently had to do with the church's own investigation into the baptism. Smith writes,

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is investigating the posthumous "baptism" of President Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, as a "serious breach" of religious code, a spokeswoman said.

The LDS practice of baptising the dead made news late last year when the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors accused the Mormon church of failing to honor the terms of a 1995 agreement it had with Jews concerning baptism of the dead. A Jewish genealogist writes,

We want to say this to all well-meaning Christians: We don't want to be saved, redeemed, forgiven, reincarnated, resurrected, or enraptured. We just want to be left alone. After 2000 years — is it so much to ask? We find the idea of Jews being posthumously baptized into the Mormon church to be deeply offensive in the extreme and cannot express our disgust, outrage and revulsion at this practice in strong enough terms. If everyone has free will, or "free agency" as Mormons say it, why bother with baptizing the dead who chose not to accept Christ? It takes the spiritual hounding of Jews to new lows; not even the grave is a refuge from over-zealous missionaries!

How can Jews be committed to enumerating descendants when the Mormons distort our family ties and our historic links to Judaism? You may wish to include these disclaimers in your genealogy records –
I note for posterity that if future researchers find records of baptized relatives in Mormon databases, know that these wrongful baptisms were inflicted on those relatives posthumously – - those entries do not reflect changes in religious choice or practice of our deceased ancestors.

If having been subjected to the involuntary Rite of Baptism, I hereby publicly revoke any implications of that Rite and renounce the Church that carried it out.

A comprehensive list of news articles and opinion concerning the debate between the Jewish holocaust survivors and the Mormon church can be found here.

A Look at the Practice of Baptizing the Dead.

Mormons are the only religion that practices a posthumous baptism ceremony. Much of their ritual is secret.

LDS apologists have published a 5-piece film on YouTube concerning their faith and Mormon temples. This segment explains the baptism for the dead and includes commentary from clergy and academics who are supportive of the LDS faith.

1st Corinithians 15 is usually cited as the Biblical authority for the baptism of the dead. From the perspective of non-Mormon Christians, the following explanation is one of the more respectful videos commentaries concerning baptism of the dead. The narrator, who uses the name "Shazoolo," claims that famous persons such as Abraham Lincoln, Adolph Hitler, Anne Franks and Sigmund Freud have been posthumously baptized by the Mormons. (Editor's Note: Can our Mormon readers verify whether this statement is true?)

This video and commentary about the Mormon doctrine of baptism for the dead is not as sympathetic to the LDS faith. However, we have included it because it contains some interesting pictures that show the baptismal pool and glimpses at baptismal ceremonies, presumably for both the living and the dead.

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4. Catholics and Mormons Report Gains in Membership
5. The Book of Mormon – The Earliest Text
6. April Fool's as Athesist Day? How About a Certificate of De-Baptism Instead.
7. Theocracy Watch: Mormon Claims Religion Should Trump Civil Rights
8. LDS Members Petition Mormon Leadership to Soften Anti-Gay Stance
9. Mormon Slams Concrete on Daughter's Head for Refusing To Go To Church
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6 Responses to “Mormon Baptisms for the Dead Make the News … Again. An Indepth Look at Posthumous Baptism.”

1. Lee L says:

   August 13, 2009 at 1:02 am

   Mormons don't bulk baptize and they don't pick a name out of the hat. It takes a family member to submit the name of the person who is dead to be baptized. These names are checked through the genealogy center.
2. Linda Cowan says:

   October 18, 2009 at 7:00 pm

   Kindly produce documentation from the Cash family in which they authorized the proxy baptisms of Johnny and June Carter Cash.
3. Lee L says:

   January 11, 2010 at 11:40 am

   Any member of June and Johnny family can submit their name, through research a Mormon has to prove they are related. This is done through genealogy.

   So could I as a Mormon turn in the name of someone famous just to make sure they were baptized, no.

   I have submitted names of members of my family, I do not know what religion they were. On the other side they can accept the baptism or refuse it, some towns and cities hundreds of years ago did not have the opportunity to be baptized, this gives them the chance.
4. Brent Citey says:

   January 11, 2010 at 7:01 pm

   As a former Mormon, I can only say I am surprised at the vehemence of the reaction above with respect to a well intentioned act of kindness by LDS members on behalf of Holocaust victims.

   Keep in mind that, in the Mormon Church, Jews are rock stars.

   A non-Jew must struggle for years to climb the religious prestige ladder in the Mormon Church. If a man is very lucky and very holy, he will eventually be ordained a bishop. (I was neither holy enough nor lucky enough.)

   In the case of a Jew, however, as soon as his Jewishness is verified, he is offered the status of bishop. Why a person would complain at the obvious willingness to honor Jews in the Mormon Church when half of the rest of the world is attempting to eradicate Israel is a mystery.

   Based on the obvious hate and loathing present in the message though, I would surely not wish to be a Palestinian and actually offend the person who wrote the diatribe above.

   The people acting so vehemently have no idea one way or the other whether, as Latter Day Saints believe, there are places after death where following Christ (a Jew) is made available again.

   Instead of basking in the fact that the greatest religious icon in history was a Jew, these Jews above seem only to focus on a well intentioned act of service of which they do not understand on any level.

   The Jews above surely must have few real life problems if they are going to become so enraged by another person because he or she believes that he or she might be able to offer another human being a choice of worth after death.

   I left the Mormon Church because I didn't believe that the Church leadership was particularly inspired, but that doesn't mean they have evil intentions.

   As a matter of fact, one would have to search the Mormon Church membership roles for a long time to find a person with as little in the way of empathy and understanding as the author of the Jewish declaration above.

   Too bad. Another chance for the Jews to extend a hand of friendship to a group that honors Jews and promotes Jews a priori, and instead the Jew above comes as chose to issuing a Fatwa as a Jew can without becoming a Muslim leader.

   Just think, here are 10 million Mormons just thrilled to support the Jews and their causes, and this Jewish person writes such a hateful message, it is difficult to see how at least some Mormons won't wonder why it is that their Church is so enamored with preserving Jewishness upon the Earth.

   Very sad.
5. admin says:

   January 11, 2010 at 9:28 pm

   Based on the obvious hate and loathing present in the message though, I would surely not wish to be a Palestinian and actually offend the person who wrote the diatribe above.

   Are you talking about the Jews who were upset by the baptisms that allegedly violated a settlement agreement they had with the church? I don't understand your comment. What do baptisms that they don't want have to do with Palestinians? Why should their genealogy records be changed against their will?
6. Brent Citey says:

   January 13, 2010 at 4:17 am

   No, no, please don't place this on the table at an oblique angle.

   The Church has no intention or power to change anything legally. In fact, with the research facilities the Church has, most often the records can corrected if any of the relatives want copies of the research. But, this isn't forced on anyone. Although I can see an instance where someone would ask an uncle or aunt if a women was his or her sister, just for clarification. And, I guess at that point someone could throw a stone at the questioner. However, why people would take such an attitude in life is way beyond what is needed to start yet another war.

   No, what I am saying is that we need to look at the intention involved here.

   Let's assume that I were dead and had, as is true, been excommunicated from the Church AT MY REQUEST. That is, I had my name removed from the roles.

   So, let's use ME as an example, so as not to risk another rebuke by saying the example involves you,the administrator of this site.

   The Church doesn't CHANGE anything. They will look at a municipal record of my birth, and look at other roles and historical evidences getting the record as clear in THEIR files as possible.

   Then, they send that list to a temple.

   At that point, the Mormons best guess records representing those folks (me in this case) are used to perform the baptisms by proxy.

   This has nothing to do with the living. Nor does it have anything to do with anything except good intentions.

   My point is, people seem to be searching for reasons to get upset.

   If folks would simply look at the intention, and the practical effect these baptisms have on the lives of the living (NONE), there would be peace in the world.

   They, the Church, even though I am excommunicated, can baptize me when I am gone all they want. I'm flattered they would bother.

   And, that's the difference. Whereby there seems to be a whole lot of people, billions actually, just waiting to pick a fight with someone, if we will use a little wisdom and judgment, treat the whole matter as a compliment rather than an insult. OR don't even treat it at all.

   No public records are ever changed. No legal consequences are involved. Nothing tangible changes at all.

   The only thing that happens is that MAYBE on the other side of the veil, someone is given an opportunity they didn't have otherwise. And, if you guys are right and there IS no other side, then we ARE REALLY TALKING ABOUT NOTHING.

   So if atheists stand for peace and love and kindness and generosity and goodness and humanitarianism, let's show that. Let's encourage the Jews to understand and to be peaceful. Let's not support the anger and violence born of a willingness to get angry if the next guy's hat or turban is crooked. Or we don't like the size or shape of the guy's nose.

   Let's not walk around like a Dr. Dawkins with a sneer on our faces just begging someone to say "hello" (especially if it is a sunny hello) so he (we) can point out how really ugly and stupid the greeter is (In a sophisticated British accent of course.)

   That kind of behavior is all too often being associated with the atheists and Deists alike. Why would anyone claim the high ground and then go out of their way to display such a lack of grace of manner.

   The Mormons are doing no one any harm and the Jews have 10 million fans ready to applaud them.

   My comment was simply that the vehemence with which these individuals approached the well intended work of the Mormon Church was simply way beyond reasonable and shows their sense of brotherly love to be not very brotherly. If they can get so upset with the Mormons for intending their ancestors a good deed, what in the world will they do to a Palestinian who looks at them in the wrong way.

   I'm just saying, let's cut each other some slack here. Otherwise we are always going to be just one well intended remark away from World War Three.

   There are some fundamentalists rooting for World War Three, and there are some people who would start World War Three just to have a chance to poke Richard Dawkins in his ugly face.

   However, let's not be among either group. Let's even treat Dr. Dawkins with kindness he perhaps won't return. But, what the heck, down deep, I wager there are some really good things to say about Dr. Dawkins, and I promise to find them and report back.

   From the tone of many of the folks who write for this blog, there seems to be an automatic attempt to FIND something to mock other about.

   And, as several have said, at bottom none of us know whether there is a God or not.

   But, what we do know is that, at least here, there seems to be a lot of mocking of others going on.

   Why not praise the Mormons for their good intentions instead of coming close to blows.

   As the old saying goes, a good deed (even if it's just the intention to do one) never goes unpunished by somebody.