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I am not a Mormon, and I am not a Jew. There are plenty of things that one can criticize Romney for, but, to jump on a religious procedure which causes no physical harm to anyone is a diversion in this year with all the other things that are going on.

Israel is under dire threat from the Majik Moolas, and Wiesel is focused on Romney's religious differences. Romney, for whatever else you can say about him, is a steadfast supporter of Israel. And Wiesel should look at the glass as half full, not half empty.

I have Mormon convert cousins who have baptized in absentia my grandfather and grandmother, devout Lutherans. I see no problem. The afterlife is the afterlife, and in the hands of God. And this life is for the living and doing what is right. The horror of the Holocaust, with 6 million plus victims, cannot be denied. But let`s not to get diverted by something like this.

...there is freedom to practice one’s religion in the Constitution. They may be irrational, but they are not harming anyone. [Amihow, post #9]

So what if there's freedom in the constitution to practice religion; 'tis also freedom in the constitution to critique it...now why did I have to say something so simple? ('Cause you resorted to something so simple)

As for the "harming anyone" question -- something brought up by BigEdLB ... keep reading below:

There are plenty of things that one can criticize Romney for, but, to jump on a religious procedure which causes no physical harm to anyone is a diversion in this year with all the other things that are going on. [BigEdLB]

Millions of Mormon man-hours -- Genealogy -- is rooted in baptizing dead people. Now, genealogy for "roots-searching" is fine, but when "genealogy as ultra time consuming religious obsession" takes over, wouldn't you say it might be good to consider what the apostle Paul has to say about this?

Or do you all just ignore the New Testament?

...stay there in Ephesus so that you may command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths AND ENDLESS GENEALOGIES. THESE PROMOTE CONTROVERSIES RATHER THAN GOD'S WORK—which is by faith." (1 Timothy 1:3-4)

But AVOID FOOLISH CONTROVERSIES AND GENEALOGIES...because these are unprofitable and useless. (Titus 3:9)

(Paul says it's useless, provokes controversy, and is not faith-promoting. So even the controversy ignited by protagonist Mormons is distracting)

As for the question, "Does this 'hurt' anyone?" yes it does -- in two prominent ways covered below.

ONE It hurts the living because over-focusing on the dead distracts what we can do in relating to & in caring for the living!.

We can all agree that Jesus talked much about serving the living -- the poor, the widow, the orphan, the lost sheep, right?

So what would happen in the world if all religions obsessed with the dead as much as Mormons do? Obviously, we're not going to "end poverty in our lifetime" (Jesus said, "the poor will always be with you")...but since countless LDS leaders have called the Mormon people self-saviors and saviors of the dead, it's not only a distraction from the poor but delusional.

And that leads to...

CONSIDERATION # TWO

We already have a "Savior of the world" -- we don't need millions more trying to bump Jesus out of that limelight:
* And we have seen and testify that the Father has sent his Son to be THE Savior of the world. (1 John 4:14)
* They said to the woman, "We no longer believe just because of what you said; now we have heard for ourselves, and we know that this man really is THE Savior of the world." (John 4:42)

Last time I looked in the Bible, Christians were supposed to object to idolatry in their culture. And if you don't think that Mormons make baptizers of the dead "saviors" who rival Jesus Christ, you haven't read their leaders' comments on baptism of the dead. For those citations, see: Are Mormon people LITERAL saviors of dead Jews, others? (The OTHER World Series: Vanity)

If you're a Christian or Jew and you conclude "this doesn't harm anyone," you're catering to idolatry -- substitute "saviors" pretending to act in his name.