Posted on 02/15/2012 6:03:57 AM PST by Colofornian
...Mormon church leaders apologized to the family of Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal after his parents were posthumously baptized, a controversial ritual that Mormons believe allows deceased people a way to the afterlife but offends members of many other religions.
Wiesenthal died in 2005 after surviving the Nazi death camps and spending his life documenting Holocaust crimes and hunting down perpetrators who remained at large. Jews are particularly offended by an attempt to alter the religion of Holocaust victims, who were murdered because of their religion, and the baptism of Holocaust survivors was supposed to have been barred by a 1995 agreement.
Yet records indicate Wiesenthal’s parents, Asher and Rosa Rapp Wiesenthal, were baptized in proxy ceremonies performed by Mormon church members at temples in Arizona and Utah in late January.
In a statement, the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the baptismal rites.
“We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon temples,” said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the center.
The church immediately apologized, saying it was the actions of an individual member of church — whom they did not name — that led to the submission of Wiesenthal’s name.
“We sincerely regret that the actions of an individual member of the church led to the inappropriate submission of these names,” Michael Purdy, a spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said in a statement issued Monday. “We consider this a serious breach of our protocol and we have suspended indefinitely this person’s ability to access our genealogy records.”
SNIP
Other religions, including the Catholic church, have also publicly objected to the baptism of its members, and it’s been widely reported that Mormon and GOP presidential nominee front-runner Mitt Romney’s atheist father-in-law Edward Davies was posthumously baptized.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
OK, that’s a good point. I guess because I think they’re fringe, I’ve (perhaps wrongly) assumed that everyone else does as well.
To inject a little humor: in Monty Python’s “The Life of Brian”, a man about to be crucified claims to be Brian, “and so is my wife”. Sometimes it is better to treat absurd claims as just that, rather than investing any credibility by vociferously objecting to them.
Thank God some people in this world can multi-task!
I don't know anything about you...but ya know, we as Christians take our cultural cue from a certain "Lord" named Jesus Christ. (Who are we to follow when it comes to setting cultural priorities? Jesus and the apostle Paul? or a poster named Mr. Bird?)
Here's Jesus:
"I tell you, my friends, do not be afraid of those who kill the body and after that can do no more. But I will show you whom you should fear: Fear him who, after the killing of the body, has power to throw you into hell. Yes, I tell you, fear him." (Luke 12:4-5)
So does Jesus say, "fear the Muslims or terrorists?" (No)
Does Jesus say "fear those who can kill your bodies?" (No)
Instead, does He say to exercise fear of the One who has authority to cast somebody into hell? (Yes)
So, indeed, our "fear" is on behalf of those who are placing their eternal spiritual lives at risk.
Those who are focused on ensuring my salvation get a better shake
Salvation from what, per Mormonism? Well, the founding vision of Mormonism was to take a "scorched earth" approach to worldwide christianity...an attempt to build a foundation on the spiritual graveyard of Christianity.
Joseph Smith knew that unless he could play scorched-earth religious politics, and get Christianity 100% out of the way, that no "restoration" was necessary. He would be irrelevant. Superflous. So he needed to bury Christianity in its entirety.
Does the following 1820s original vision of Joseph Smith, which a later generation of Mormons converted into Lds "scripture," sound like Kum Ba Yah hugging and embracing of Christians?
18 My object in going to inquire of the Lord was to know which of all the sects was right, that I might know which to join. No sooner, therefore, did I get possession of myself, so as to be able to speak, than I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light, which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that all were wrong)—and which I should join. 19 I was answered that I must join NONE of them, for they were ALL wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that ALL their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were ALL corrupt... (Joseph Smith - History, vv. 18-19, Pearl of Great Price)
So, Lds created a huge division in the religious community in the 1830s by labeling all Christians apostates...by calling 100% of our creeds an "abomination" to their god...and by saying we were 100% wrong and unjoinable as churches...all the while calling our leaders/teachers and/or professing believers 100% "corrupt."
Then they decided to spread that slander worldwide with over 100 different translations of that "scripture" and they've literally sent out a million missionaries to discuss our so-called complete apostasy thru the generations. Finally, as the apostle Paul was leaving the church of Ephesus, he warned them with this high-priority alert:
"I know that after I leave, savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock. Even from your own number men will arise and distort the truth in order to draw away disciples after them. So be on your guard! Remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you night and day with tears." (Acts 20:29-31)
Paul's cultural priority? (Defend against the false disciples who will proselytize the flock and draw away men unto themselves!)
Tell me something, Mr. Bird: If you did something tearfully night and day for three years, do you think it's rather important? So what? We're just to conclude, "Oh, the man who contributed a good chunk to the New Testament -- what does he know about cultural priorities?"
right. They are 2 distinct issues.
I even found my gggrandfather who was sealed, so that led me to THINK were they mormons? NO THEY WERE NOT, so their data is deceiving to the future families. He was sealed after he was killed by a jealous husband, what is that all about? Someone wanted him? hahahaha
This is just one of the things that is wrong with the LDS habits, so NEVER, EVER take the LDS genealogy records for FACT, it isn't.
Here is why: when one begins in the LDS, you begin your endless genealogy searching, (not that your looking for your own), you just looking for anything you can make work,(even if it don't fit). There is NO ONE who will object, just copy down whatever your eyes behold and enter as fact. Oh yes, they proof READ only, but if an F looks like a T, ok by them. T it is.
Now you may have John M. Franks who is now John M. Tranks, but hey now you have two people to dead dunk, so on and so on. They can then continue to misspell a name, NEW victims.
The point is: they don't care, all they need is names to DEAD DUNK.
They are poco loco, to be pitied.
I disagree with the tokens. "May Krishna bless you" is TOTALLY different than baptism. The baptism speaks of an enormous arrogance and tells the world that THEIR faith is superior to others. The "May Krishna bless you" doesn't go that far. One token is kind, the other is an insult.
You said "call me sentimental and silly," so...YOU ARE SILLY. :o)
I disagree with the tokens. "May Krishna bless you" is TOTALLY different than baptism. The baptism speaks of an enormous arrogance and tells the world that THEIR faith is superior to others. The "May Krishna bless you" doesn't go that far. One token is kind, the other is an insult.
You said "call me sentimental and silly," so...YOU ARE SILLY. :o)
This isn’t Africa, the leading republican candidate for President conducts these secret rituals of converting our loved ones to his cult after their deaths.
I would say that it makes sense for conservatives to discuss this aspect of Bishop Mitt Romney as we desperately try to figure out what makes him tick, and why he is obsessed with becoming President, and head of the GOP.
If it is so sweet, then why are they promising to leave Jews alone?
I wasn’t defending Romney, and wasn’t referencing anything remotely political. The article was about people being offended at Mormon’s “baptizing” dead people. I merely stated I thought Mormonism was moonbattery and it didn’t offend me.
Yes, that's nice. And it gets to the genesis of the dispute. The Jewish community has also spent a great deal of time and effort attempting to compile the names of victims of the Holocaust, an impossible task as entire villages were destroyed. And lost of man hours and money. Institutions fought the effort tooth and nail. The Red Cross and, I believe, the German government refused access to records until the last couple years. Certainly this was done to some extent for the dead, but primarilly for the living. Survivors and relatives, could learn the fate of family members and even within the last couple years family members have been reunitied. You can imagine the surprise of the groups collecting and distributing this information, one of the early results is baptism as a Mormon.
Harmless or not isn't really the point. People are entitled to take offence, or not. What's significant is that the Church has barred the practice, and is correct in enforcing their policies. Perhaps a millenia from now reasearchers will use the baptism data to prove America was a Mormon country.
Agreed. I fail to see the controversy here.
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