Mormon Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said that “the offering of baptism to our deceased ancestors is a sacred practice to us and it is counter to Church policy for a Church member to submit names for baptism for persons to whom they are not related. The Church is looking into the circumstances of how this happened and does not yet have all the facts. However, this is a serious matter and we are treating it as such.”

According to “doctrinal background” from an LDS spokesman, “well-meaning Church members sometimes bypass this instruction and submit the names of non-relatives for temple baptism. Others — perhaps pranksters or careless persons — have submitted the names of unrelated famous or infamous people, or even wholly fictitious names. These rare acts are contrary to Church policy and sometimes cause pain and embarrassment.”

That's their excuse these days and that dog don't hunt...they've pretty much dead-baptized everyone who was on this planet and they look fools for doing this and their trying to cover their tracks and lie that this is not accepted procedure.

And Neil Armstrong.

That screening process just might shorter on considerations of personal character and longer on looking at a person's record of tithing

I think the church spokesman left the door open to some criticisms about requirements for those recommends.

They are basically saying that your religion is wrong and your family member won't go to heaven (or the planet Kolob or wherever) unless they become a Mormon posthumously. In actuality it doesn't do a damn thing but the intent is kind of offensive. Notwithstanding the disclaimer, a number of Jews who died in the Holocaust were "baptized" by Mormons. http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/15/mormons-still-baptizing-dead-jews-despite-agreements-to-end-practice.html

Also, is a LDS mother a Mormom?

It's just WORDS.

All religions say that. If people didn't think their religion was right, they wouldn't believe in it. Most religions contradict each other so it'd be kind of hard to believe in one and not think the others were wrong.

Anyway, you're right about the intent being scummy. I don't buy into any of it.

Not even all Christians. One interpretation of the "other flocks" is for that possibility.

Universality vs exclusivity.

and all of a sudden was unceremoniously yanked into creepy Mormon heaven.

Someone should re-baptize her into a more acceptable after-life forthwith.

Conversely though, postmortem religious changes might be beneficial.

For example, it is my understanding that if anyone read a book on the RCC prohibited Index, that one was immediately excommunicated (and "severely punished according to the judgment of the bishops&quot which means that when one dies, one goes directly to Hell (with no stop in Limbo or in Purgatory. Confusingly, the first of these was abolished by RCC a few years ago - but I think Purgatory still exists?).

In any event, if you had read say Copernicus's work which heretically states that the earth orbits the sun - you found yourself in Hell. But, when the Index was abolished in 1966, did that mean that you suddenly now find yourself in Heaven?

Simple question from a heathen.

Stains on my soul. Mortal sins versus Venial sins. Nuns hitting me with bamboo canes.

Thanks for that reminder of my lovely Catholic education.

listening to a black preacher pointing out that the U.S. has acted in unjust ways towards minorities or being part of a church that is offensive enough to claim your ancestors as members of their religion with a bastardization of a Christian religious ceremony. Add to the fact that Romney was in his 30s when the Mormon church finally accepted blacks into the full priesthood.

Easily trumps any Wright comments going forward. To a committed Christian the Mormon faith is more offensive than Islam in my opinion because of the baptism for the dead ritual.

Or is it more like dual citizenship? She can go to the heaven which plays better music?

you are stuck with it.

implications of the Mormon baptism?

It's just WORDS.

but to many it is a sacrilege and it should never be done to one who either wasn't religious or belonged to a different religion also when generations from now somebody researches ancestors are they going to think their family was Mormon? The practice of baptizing Holocaust victims still continues even though they have been told to stop. It's wrong and disrespectful.

But it's their Constitutional right to do it.

Getting outraged about it serves no useful purpose.

putting some sort of hex on their ancestors.

In 2012. AD.

In the United States.

We put a man on the moon and invented fusion but we're still fighting over whose skyspirits are better.

I feel that the individual who died should not have some silly ritual performed in their name It's about boundaries and respect

...getting upset about these morons activities is even MORE stupid than the activities in the first place...

What a pack of Losers. Do they have an un-baptize procedure as well or is this irreversible?

But the Holy Mother Church (RC) has addressed this issue and ruled that baptism is not reversible.

This came up in connection with Catholics secretly baptizing Jewish children and then having the children taken from the parents, as Jews were not fit parents for Christians.

The last recorded instance I knew of was that of Edgardo Levi Mortara in 1858 ... but it is now alleged that the essence of the practice continued into the 1950's

... recently discovered document in which the Vatican instructed its representatives in France after World War II to prevent baptized Jewish children from being returned to their families ...
http://www.adl.org/ADL_Opinions/Holocaust/20050123-Op-ed+PBP.htm

It is considered polite to ask.

of Richard Mulligan on Soap, who used to do a little mumbo jumbo thing with his hands to make himself invisible.

Really? Well-meaning in what way? I'd think they're selfish assholes for baptizing a dead non-Mormon who is DEAD and can't say no. It's completely fucked up and really pisses me off they do this. I'm not pissed off for religious reasons, I'm pissed off they do it without asking. They've baptized holocaust victims. WTF.

BTW - Ancestry.com is run by Mormons.....they have just finished inputting all of last year's Census data into their privately owned databases. Everyone American becomes a Mormon when they die.

I am not, never have been, nor will I ever be Mormon. But I traveled in my work and ended up in Salt Lake City, Utah for a year. Not only did they push me real hard to join, they did my ancestry from the forms I filled out for employment.

Dishonest, devious people who believe in magic, I wouldn't doubt they keep and use all of the information that people enter when using their website.

to go to the best afterlife, whatever the Mormons think that is. If the Mormons truly believe that, how can you say it isn't well-meaning? In their minds, they're spending an awful lot of time and effort to do this good deed for people who aren't able to do it for themselves. As I understand it, the deceased then get to CHOOSE whether to be a Mormon in the afterlife, they're not forced into it by the baptism.

I don't believe any of it, but I can't really deny that their intentions are good.

Are you sure Ancestry in run by the Mormons? I know Family Search is theirs, but I thought Ancestry was a separate thing.

My point - without consent. How can they presume to know and make decisions for others who have no choice?

Googe ancestry.com

They can baptize my dead body ... heck they can baptize me (live) in absentia.

I just can't work up the effort to care

In which case, maybe someone claimed she was related to them.

They can baptize me - in case they are right - hey I want my own planet!

now you know why

They have spent a lot of effort and money to collect all their records and share them with any genealogist who needs them. For many years this involved ordering microfilms to be viewed at an LDS church (for a fee that basically covered shipping from and back to Salt Lake City). I never heard a word of proselytizing while using films at their church, and the volunteers in charge were helpful and friendly. Recently they have been indexing and digitizing the collection and putting it online as a free research site (unlike Ancestry and other sites that charge upwards of $100 per year). I do appreciate how much the LDS materials are furthering my genealogy research, while at the same time being dismayed at their retroactive baptisms.

Now the genealogy database is interesting.

Too bad that it's involved with them.

If there is an 'afterlife' those unvoluntarily doused are probably making big plans for the dousers.

He was baptized in the Anglican church, and didn't have to baptized again when he became Catholic to marry my Grandma. While he didn't care one way or another about religion, I don't think he would have liked becoming Mormon without his permission. When I saw they re-baptized him, I tried to search their sites to find who did this. It has to be a "relative" researching their family tree. As a DIRECT decedent who KNEW him, I would have given them a piece of my mind.

She would have a duck fit That is so wrong they have no right to do it.

Superstition.

And so it is!

I bet they have.

WhoTF do they think they are? Bullshit Artists?

Romney's dead father used in some religious way comparable.

BTW they are not baptized as members - they are baptized in the belief that in the next life they can accept the baptism and confirmation if they would have been baptized by the Church life but never had the chance to be baptized or not to be baptized.

So there. We're even.

As long as they don't go about digging up bodies or anything, what does it matter at all. The ONLY reason this should make any difference to anyone is if there really is a god AND god gives a shit whether someone was baptized as Mormon (for better or worse).

1. Get mad.
2. Find those who did this to my mom.
3. Get incredibly violent with said persons.

Disgusting and twisted!