http://freethoughtblogs.com/pharyngula/2012/01/29/mitt-romney-ghoul/

Excerpt:

Mormons have some disgustingly repulsive habits. One of them is their obsession with the dead.

It seems Mitt Romney’s father-in-law was smarter and stronger than he was, and didn’t live his life with the crutch of superstition to hold him up. He’s related by marriage to a goddamned atheist, which is a plus in Romney’s favor: he’s at least brushed up against reason a few times in his life.

Ann Romney’s Welsh-born father (who Mitt mentioned in last night’s debate to shore up his pro-immigrant bona fides) was an engineer, inventor, and resolute atheist who disdained all organized religion and raised his children accordingly. Davies, his son Roderick told the Boston Globe in 2007, regarded the faithful as "weak in the knees."

The brush up with reason didn’t help: the Romneys actively worked to convert the Davies family, and succeeded, except in the case of Edward Davies. But like all good Mormons, they had a sneaky last ditch attack they could make: they just waited until Davies died. Once your brain stops working, it turns out, you’re much more susceptible to Mormonism.

According to this entry in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints’ genealogical database, Davies was baptized as a Mormon at a “special family meeting” 14 months after his death: “All ordinances except sealing to spouse performed in Salt Lake Temple on 19 Nov 1993 in special family meeting,” the entry says. (When we previously asked the church whether Davies had been baptized, a spokesperson told us that the information was available only to his family and church members. But it’s apparently right there on the internet for those who know what to look for.)

Mormons deserve some kind of special prize for intellectual and moral cowardice. That is one creepy religion....

My favorite line :

"Once your brain stops working, it turns out, you’re much more susceptible to Mormonism."

I think the thought can be further refined:

"Once you stop your brain from working, it turns out, you’re much more susceptible to Mormonism."

In this case, it was Ann's militantly godless, anti-religion father:

"After wondering aloud yesterday whether the Romneys converted Mitt's dead father-in-law to Mormonism, 'Gawker's' John Cook has confirmed it: Yes. They did.

"Edward Davies, Ann Romney's father, was an atheist who was also strongly anti-religion. By the time he died, he was the only member of Ann Romney's immediate family to not convert to Mormonism.

"14 months later, in 1993, he was baptized in a special ceremony at a Salt Lake City church. This practice requires a living person who has already been baptized to undergo the immersion in water again on behalf of the dead. No word on who this person might have been in Davies' case.

"Information on the ceremony was listed on a genealogical database, and another entry on Ancestry.com detailed a separate sealing ceremony that linked Davies to his wife in death. Two 'Gawker' readers confirmed the data.

"Baptism of the dead is encouraged by the Church of Latter-day Saints, as it is seen as essential to salvation. But the LDS Church has been criticized for it often. After coming under fire in 1995, the Church agreed to stop baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims posthumously. It had already added tens of thousands to its baptism registry by that time.

"Romney's faith has done little to damage his quest for the presidency so far. But the issue pops up once in a while, most recently after Romney's tax returns showed a $4.1 million donation to the Church. There's also evidence to suggest that anti-Mormon sentiment could have given votes to Newt Gingrich in South Carolina.

"When Newsweek asked Romney whether he had performed any proxy baptisms in the past, Romney responded 'I have in my life, but I haven't recently.'"

("CONFIRMED: Romney Family Had Ann Romney's Atheist Father Posthumously Baptized Into the Mormon Church," by Jordan Teicher, in "Business Insider," at: http://www.businessinsider.com/confirmed-romney-family-had-ann-romneys-atheist-father-posthumously-baptized-into-the-mormon-church-2012-1)