By: Robin Murray-o'hair
Re: Re: Mormons to Halt Posthumous Baptisms

MORMONS TO HALT POSTHUMOUS BAPTISMS

Families of Holocaust Survivors are "Outraged" that LDS
Continued Bizarre Practice Even After 1991 Ban

by Conrad F. Goeringer

   In the ongoing battle for souls, the Mormon Church ("Church of
Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" or LDS) reached an agreement
this past Friday (4/28) with Jewish groups and relatives who say
that deceased family members -- victims of the Nazi holocaust --
were posthumously baptized. The Mormons believe that a spirit
survives death, and can be "baptized" for salvation into the
"true Church of Jesus Christ."

   But the relatives of holocaust survivors see it as an insult.
Associated Press quoted Ernest Michel, head of a survivor groups,
as opining "I am a Holocaust survivor, and I found my
grandmother, uncles, aunts and friends had been baptized. That,
to me, I found totally unacceptable.  I was incensed when I found
out about it."

   The LDS supposedly ended this strange ritual in March 1991, on
orders from the church's ruling body known as the First
Presidency. But an investigation has revealed that the ban was
violated; this fact surfaced when a newspaper reported that a
concentration camp victim killed in France had been baptized
posthumously into the Mormon church.

   Under the new agreement, baptisms of the dead who are not
related to living church members will cease, and the next issue
of the church-run International Genealogical Index will not have
the names of all known posthumously baptized Jewish holocaust
victims.

   Which raises an interesting question for theologians and
"church scholars" -- once the names are removed, are those folks
kicked out of heaven?

                           --30--

 * WCE 2.0/2394 * One man's religion is another man's belly laugh.