Posthumous Baptism
I am Catholic. A non-devout Catholic. A Cafeteria Catholic, as it were. I really do not care about what other Christian denominations or other religions believe or don’t believe. And I am not really offended by what they think about me and my beliefs. For example, I could be offended by the Evangelicals and their belief that I am going to Hell if I don’t “find” Jesus. Like I always tell them, I don’t need to find Jesus. I never lost Him.
But I digress.
Like I said, other religions can believe what they want. What they cannot do, however, is involve me in their religions against my will, or without my knowledge.
From the News Journal:
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. [..]
Mormons believe posthumous baptism by proxy allows deceased persons to receive the Gospel in the afterlife. The church believes departed souls can then accept or reject the baptismal rites and contends the offerings are not intended to offend anyone.
Hey Mormons, I don’t make fun of your religion or your beliefs, although I would have ample material if I chose to. In this country, you can worship what you want, when you want. Just as my late grandmother chose to worship God in her own way, as a Catholic, as was her right. It is the height of disrespect and arrogance for you to intrude upon my and my grandmother’s Freedom of Religion. So help me God, if I ever find out that any of my ancestors have been baptized as Mormons posthumously, I will travel to Salt Lake City, go into your Cathedral, and burn any posthumous baptismal certificates I find.
Why can’t you act like normal Christians and be glad with the fact that non-believers will burn for eternity in Hell?
This whole issue was raised again when it was discovered that the Mormons were trying to baptise Elie Wiesel (he’s still alive) and his father and grandfather. This is a disgusting practice that seems to be centered on baptising deceased Jews. DD – I’ll go with you to SLC. Guess I need to check to see if they baptised my mother who passed away in 1998 and my father who passed away in 2006.
“Why can’t you act like normal Christians and be glad with the fact that non-believers will burn for eternity in Hell?”
LOL
It is a strange bit of business to focus one’s spiritual energies on, but the Mormons doing this aren’t trying to hurt the dead. Not that I approve of this, BTW. I can’t imagine how this could be at all useful, though — by the time you get to them, you’d expect that they’ve already met their judgement. And I don’t think that a baptism or gospels will change that. Even for most of the living.
If my dead ancestors were turned into Mormons, I’d give them magical caffeinated beverages to turn them back.
I just baptised all the Mormons as Catholics. Don’t worry guys, you won’t believe now much time you will save going to church only on Christmas and Easter.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/elie-wiesel-calls-on-mitt-romney-to-make-mormon-church-stop-proxy-baptisms-of-jews/2012/02/14/gIQAZK6bER_story.html
Isnt this just like Voodoo? if you dont believe in it, then what’s the point in getting offended? Mormonism (to me) is like any other faith. a bunch of rules and magic that attempts to explain why you shouldn’t be a dick. Obviously, if you are offended, then there was offense to be had…. see don imus…. Mormons can baptize my dead body all the want…. as long as they can convince Body Worlds to give it back… I dont think we “go” anywhere after we die where that will have any effect.
If you believe in reincarnation and are posthumously baptized by the Mormons… will you come back as a Mormon?
(man, that would really mess up their ancestry registry)
“…a bunch of rules and magic that attempts to explain why you shouldn’t be a dick.”
props.
I was taken to task a week ago when I brought this weird practice up but now the post has finally picked up the story.
The thing that amazes me the most is Mittens when the story first broke he denied having any knowledge of this practice and refered all questions to the church, but in the Post’s story he admitted to having preformed this act. Further examination of the subject reveled that Mittens had his wife’s father Baptized after his death and in life the man was a great scientist and atheist to boot.
I’m thinking Mitt isn’t going to be the nominee. Perhaps Santorum, or perhaps Sarah Palin, but I think it is clear that Republicans don’t want to be represented by Mitt.
Consider this then. I lost a baby midterm and was taken to the hospital pronto because of bleeding. The hospital ended up being a Catholic one. I was informed after the delivery, the fetus was baptized by the MD. not being Catholic, I really didn’t care. I askedt and was told oh yeh, that was normal practice in the delivery room for the miscarriages and stillborns there. Didn’t bother me. No big deal. I just consider all that stuff extra concern and kindness in my behalf. Like wishing merry Christmas to everyone.
“I just consider all that stuff extra concern and kindness in my behalf.”
That’s nice, but I’m under no obligation to find their motivations so benign. In my experience, church organizations — as opposed to actual members of churches — don’t do anything out of extra concern or kindness. They are earthly organizations, acting to increase their earthly power. Period.
The devil is in the details lol