Mormon church post-humously baptized Gandhi

[C.B. Nerdlinger]

I doubt any of the dead people have a particularly strong opinion one way or the other.

[Tegan]

Of course, there is one other aspect to proxy baptism that can be useful. If a Mormon complains about gay marriage, you can tell them, "You baptizing dead people offends my religion every bit as much as gay marriage offends you! Instead of banning gay marriage, we should ban baptisms for the dead!" After all, both acts hurt the complainer about equally. And since both complaints tend to be religious, they are comparable.

Just a thought.

[Tegan]

Wait, then what's the point of these baptisms? I thought they were to bring someone into the Mormon faith.

Nope. It's a "get into Heaven free" pass, assuming the person who receives it chooses to use it. Mormons think of it as a gift to ancestors who didn't have a chance to hear the Truth during their lives. And, again, it's a fundamental part of their belief. You cannot get into heaven unless you are baptized. Many people die without ever having been baptized. So proxy baptism fulfills a part of the necessary requirements for heaven.

[Hugin]

Ah, so it's a way to get around God being a dick. That makes sense.

[Spiffy]

Also: Anne Frank

http://www.hindustantimes.com/India-...e1-818684.aspx

While I don't think this is really a scandal, I would say this is pretty far up there in regards to obnoxiousness. I also and especially find interesting that the same thing was done to Romney's atheist father-in-law...

They've long done this. In fact, if you watched the PBS series, Finding Your Roots, this past year (online at PBS' website), they discuss the fact on that show that the Mormon Church has an entire Genealogy Center in Salt Lake which does Genealogy research and gathers records from THE WHOLE WORLD, and its SPECIFICALLY because the Church has this core doctrine of "posthumous baptisms" of ancestors. So the thing is, whether we approve or not, this is a LONG running project for them, to the tune of multi-billions of dollars invested in this center and its research for decades already. They're SO invested in it that they aren't going to drop it easily.

How extensive are their records? Well the celeb on Finding Your Roots in that segment was Margaret Cho. And they found HER family records--they had digital scans of a family document maintained by distant family in Korea. And no, Margaret isn't even remotely Mormon, nor is anyone in her family tree. The Mormons just HAD it, because apparently they obsessively gather ALL this kind of info, worldwide.

[Tegan]

From what I understand of the mormon version of the afterlife, from a brief description given to me in the benbo, is that everyone goes to what is essentially heaven anyway, but there are exclusive, upper tier VIP areas. Baptism is one of the requirements to qualify for the best parts.

Um, not quite, but close enough. Not everyone gets to heaven, and Mormon hell is much more frightening to me than a bunch of demons prancing around a lake of fire. But lack of baptism doesn't send you to hell... I'm going to stop now, because I could go on for quite some time trying to explain this and probably mess it up.

Mormons are not necessarily being assholes for doing this. A bit naive for turning it to a PR stunt as if it puts them in a good light.

It's not a PR stunt. In the article, a woman sniffing through the database spotted the information and e-mailed it to someone who would be offended by it. In other words, a shit-stirrer stirred up some shit and got the response she was looking for.

The only reason those databases are accessible is to prevent Mormons from re-baptizing people. Unfortunately, due to human nature, it doesn't work because many people are too lazy to do their basic research. Mormons don't exactly publish those lists, but they generally don't hide them (though in the article the woman claims the information was hidden. If she's telling the truth, someone committed a sin, there). And a lot of people go out of their way to make the proxy baptisms seem much more sinister than they are.

As proxy baptisms are a fundamental Mormon belief, the church spends a great deal of time, money and effort in trying to collect and preserve as much genealogical information from around the world as they can. In some cases, the Mormons took copies of information that was later destroyed by fire or war. Whether or not you agree with the religion, you ought to appreciate the preservation of historical information.

Mormons are not supposed to baptize people who are not part of their family, hence the heavy emphasis on genealogy and linking people to family. If you can make a family connection to a famous person, you can baptize them... but you are supposed to check first. Human nature means some folks get overeager or ignore the rules. They'll get their reward, and it may not be what they expect.

[Tegan]

Ah, so it's a way to get around God being a dick. That makes sense.

Another fundamental part of Mormon belief is that every human has the freedom of choice (grumble: although some Mormons forget that entirely too often). God will not force people to heaven, but he's arranged a set of rituals to get to heaven. By participating in the rituals, it's an indication that you've made the choice.

Being baptized by proxy by the Mormons does not make a person Mormon. It's just one of many rituals which a soul in the afterlife can reject or accept as they wish.

[Cam63]

Thank God I'm an atheist.




...*Boom-tish*

[Tyr]

I can't help wonder if any of this is tied into Romney winning the Republican nomination.....

[Cam63]

Oven needs all the help he can get.