Even after the LDS church said it would stop baptizing dead Jews, it continues to do so, offending everyone along the way.
Mormons are posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims as well as grandparents of public figures like Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg, despite church rules intended to restrict the ceremonies to a member’s ancestors, according to a researcher who has spent two decades monitoring the church’s massive genealogical database.
The discoveries made by former Mormon Helen Radkey and shared with The Associated Press likely will bring new scrutiny to a deeply misunderstood practice that has become a sensitive issue for the church. The church, in a statement, acknowledged the ceremonies violated its policy and said they would be invalidated, while also noting its created safeguards in recent years to improve compliance.
Pray tell, how do you invalidate a baptism for the dead? Read on.
Proxy baptisms are tied to a core church teaching that families spend eternity together, but the baptisms do not automatically convert dead people to Mormonism. Under church teachings, the rituals provide the deceased a choice in the afterlife to accept or reject the offer of baptism.
So, if the dead person did accept the choice, and then the LDS church invalidates the baptism, what does that do to the dead’s eternal status?
The ceremonies first drew public attention in the 1990s when it was discovered they were performed on a few hundred thousand Holocaust victims, which Jewish leaders condemned as grossly insensitive.
The posthumous baptizing of Holocaust victims reopens Jewish wounds from being forced in the past to convert to Christianity or face death or deportation, Jewish genealogist Gary Mokotoff said.
“The more she digs, the more she uncovers,” Mokotoff said. “It’s not like a chance circumstance.”
After discussions with Mokotoff and other Jewish leaders, the LDS church in 1995 established a rule barring baptisms of Holocaust victims except in rare cases where they are direct ancestors. It also bars proxy baptisms on celebrities.
So if you are famous and can fight back in the media, you are exempt. Everyone else is screwed. Brilliant.
Ryan Cragun, an associate professor of sociology who studies Mormonism at the University of Tampa, said Mormons are striving to baptize everyone who has ever lived to help get non-Mormons out of “spirit prison” in the afterlife and receive exaltation.
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Posthumous baptisms are performed at the church’s 159 temples around the globe, mostly by young people. Members are escorted to a decorative baptismal font resting on statutes of 12 oxen. An adult or older teen male reads a short prayer, and the member – representing the dead relative – is immersed in water.
Each baptism is recorded in the database.
At a conference this year, top LDS leaders stressed the importance of proxy baptisms – saying God wants all his children “home again, in families and in glory” – and encouraged young members to get involved. The church has nearly 16 million members worldwide.
Mark me off your list.
Via the AP