Part 1 of 3

And now that Communist tyrant Fidel Castro is dead, Mormon Church true-believers are, no doubt, obediently focusing on ushering him into line for an expedited necro-dunk designed to transform him into a loyal Latter-day Saint.

Let's, therefore, take this opportunity to review Mormonism’s history of necro-immersing into its faithful fold the good, the bad and the ugly. Nah, let's just concentrate on the ugly. It's so much more, shall we say, "revealing."

This foray into the murky depths of the Mormon faith includes its necro-dunking of the likes of Genghis Khan, Vlad the Impaler, Josef Stalin and, yes, Adolf Hitler. To be sure, damnably, dastardly, despicable and deadly fellows, all of them. Hitler will be our primary focus.

The Mormon Church is itself deadly serious about its baptism-for-the-dead doctrine. Those who refuse it are, well, eternally dead when it comes to getting themselves Mormon-God deified. Time for a closer look at the membership-scavenging Mormon Church's love affair with history's lowest of the low.
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EXHIBIT A: Mormon Church Leaders Insist That Everyone Must be Baptized—Even If They Come to the Tub as Dead Non-Mormons

As now-dead Mormon apostle Boyd K. Packer declared at General Conference:

"There are several religions larger than most Christian denominations, and together they are larger than all of them combined. Their adherents for centuries have lived and died and never heard the word baptism. What is the answer for them?

"That is a most disturbing question. What power would establish one Lord and one baptism, and then allow it to be that most of the human family never comes within its influence? With that question unanswered, the vast majority of the human family must be admitted to be lost, and against any reasonable application of the law of justice or of mercy, either. How could Christianity itself be sustained?

"When you find the true church you will find the answer to that disturbing question.

"If a church has no answer for that, how can it lay claim to be His Church? He is not willing to write off the majority of the human family who were never baptized.

"Those who admit in puzzled frustration that they have no answer to this cannot lay claim to authority to administer to the affairs of the Lord on the earth, or to oversee the work by which all mankind must be saved.

"We have been authorized to perform baptisms vicariously so that when they hear the gospel preached and desire to accept it, that essential ordinance will have been performed. They need not ask for any exemption from that essential ordinance. Indeed, the Lord Himself was not exempted from it.

"Here and now then, we move to accomplish the work to which we are assigned. We are busily engaged in that kind of baptism. We gather the records of our kindred dead, indeed, the records of the entire human family; and in sacred temples in baptismal fonts designed as those were anciently, we perform these sacred ordinances.

"“Strange,” one may say. It is passing strange. It is transcendent and supernal. The very nature of the work testifies that He is our Lord, that baptism is essential, that He taught the truth.

"And so the question may be asked, “You mean you are out to provide baptism for all who have ever lived?”"
"And the answer is simply, “Yes.” For we have been commanded to do so.

"'You mean for the entire human family? Why, that is impossible. If the preaching of the gospel to all who are living is a formidable challenge, then the vicarious work for all who have ever lived is impossible indeed.’

"To that we say, ‘Perhaps, but we shall do it anyway.'

"I bear witness that this work is true, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that there is on this earth today a prophet of God to lead modern Israel in this great obligation. I know that the Lord lives and that He broods anxiously over the work for the redemption of the dead, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."

("The Redemption of the Dead, " by Boyd K. Packer, LDS General Conference, 5 October 1975, reprinted in “Ensign” magazine, November 1975, p. 97, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/the-redemption-of-the-dead?lang=eng0


Current--and almost dead--Mormon Church president Thomas S. Monson has declared that “none shall be denied" baptism for the dead:

"And for those who have died without a knowledge of the truth, a way has been provided. Sacred ordinances can be performed by the faithful living for the waiting dead. Houses of the Lord known as temples dot the land. As Elijah the prophet testified, the hearts of the fathers have been turned to the children, and the children to the fathers. (D&C 110: 14–15.) None shall be denied. All shall have opportunity for eternal blessings."

("An Invitation to Exaltation" by Thomas S. Monson, satellite broadcast during Church-wide investigators fireside, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1 March 1984; see also, “An Invitation to Exaltation,” "Ensign" magazine, July 1984, p. 69, http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1984.htm/ensign%20july%201984%20.htm/an%20invitation%20to%20exaltation.htm)
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EXHIBIT B: The Mormon Church’s History of Baptizing Holocaust-Murdered Jews—and Then Lying About It

In a conversation with “Associated Press” reporter Jennifer Dobner, headlined “Chat with Mormon Leader,” then-LDS Church president Gordon B. Hinckley uttered some astoundingly false and misleading statements. Some of them had to do with the Mormon practice of baptizing Jews murdered by the Nazis during the Holocaust.

AP: ” The ordinance of the Baptism for the Dead has been a source of controversy. What is it that people don't understand about it and can you appreciate that some might see it as a form of religious imperialism?”

Hinckley: ”Well, if they wish to so regard it. But they must realize the performing of the ordinance does not mean acceptance of the ordinance. Those for who the ordinance is done do not necessarily have to accept it.” 25 December 20015,

AP:”On the other side?”

Hinckley: "On the other side. So there's no injury done to anybody."

("Pres. Hinckley Answers Myriad Questions about the LDS Church,"
by Jennifer Dobner, "Associated Press," in "Desert News, 25 December 2005, http://www.deseretnews.com/article/635171604/Pres-Hinckley-answers-myriad-questions-about-the-LDS-Church.html?pg=all)


Make no mistake about it: Mormon Church leaders insist everyone must be baptized Mormon. As now-dead Mormon apostle Boyd K. Packer declared at General Conference:

"There are several religions larger than most Christian denominations, and together they are larger than all of them combined. Their adherents for centuries have lived and died and never heard the word baptism. What is the answer for them?
"That is a most disturbing question. What power would establish one Lord and one baptism, and then allow it to be that most of the human family never comes within its influence? With that question unanswered, the vast majority of the human family must be admitted to be lost, and against any reasonable application of the law of justice or of mercy, either. How could Christianity itself be sustained?

"When you find the true church you will find the answer to that disturbing question.

"If a church has no answer for that, how can it lay claim to be His Church? He is not willing to write off the majority of the human family who were never baptized.

"Those who admit in puzzled frustration that they have no answer to this cannot lay claim to authority to administer to the affairs of the Lord on the earth, or to oversee the work by which all mankind must be saved.

"We have been authorized to perform baptisms vicariously so that when they hear the gospel preached and desire to accept it, that essential ordinance will have been performed. They need not ask for any exemption from that essential ordinance. Indeed, the Lord Himself was not exempted from it.

"Here and now then, we move to accomplish the work to which we are assigned. We are busily engaged in that kind of baptism. We gather the records of our kindred dead, indeed, the records of the entire human family; and in sacred temples in baptismal fonts designed as those were anciently, we perform these sacred ordinances.

"’Strange,’ one may say. It is passing strange. It is transcendent and supernal. The very nature of the work testifies that He is our Lord, that baptism is essential, that He taught the truth.

"And so the question may be asked, ‘You mean you are out to provide baptism for all who have ever lived?’

"And the answer is simply, ‘Yes.’ For we have been commanded to do so.

"’You mean for the entire human family? Why, that is impossible. If the preaching of the gospel to all who are living is a formidable challenge, then the vicarious work for all who have ever lived is impossible indeed.’

"To that we say, ‘Perhaps, but we shall do it anyway.’

"I bear witness that this work is true, that God lives, that Jesus is the Christ, that there is on this earth today a prophet of God to lead modern Israel in this great obligation. I know that the Lord lives and that He broods anxiously over the work for the redemption of the dead, in the name of Jesus Christ. Amen."
(”Redemption of the Dead,” by Boyd K. Packer, LDS General Conference, 5 October 1975, reprinted in “Ensign” magazine, Nov. 1975, p. 97, https://www.lds.org/general-conference/1975/10/the-redemption-of-the-dead?lang=eng&_r=1)


Current (and not far from dead) Mormon Church president Thomas S. Monson has declared that “none shall be denied" baptism for the dead:

"And for those who have died without a knowledge of the truth, a way has been provided. Sacred ordinances can be performed by the faithful living for the waiting dead. Houses of the Lord known as temples dot the land. As Elijah the prophet testified, the hearts of the fathers have been turned to the children, and the children to the fathers. (D&C 110: 14–15.) None shall be denied. All shall have opportunity for eternal blessings."

("An Invitation to Exaltation," by Thomas S. Monson, satellite broadcast during church-wide investigators fireside, Salt Lake City, Utah, 1 March 1984; see also, “An Invitation to Exaltation,” Mormon Church "Ensign" magazine, July 1984, p. 69, http://library.lds.org/nxt/gateway.dll/Magazines/Ensign/1984.htm/ensign%20july%201984%20.htm/an%20invitation%20to%20exaltation.htm)


GONG!

If offending the descendants of Jewish Holocaust victims (whose loved ones were genocidally exterminated by Hitler) by then secretly necro-baptized them into the Mormon Cult without their families’ knowledge or consent does not constitute “injury,” then nothing does.

If the Mormon Cult promising these deeply offended Jews that it will discontinue this grossly violative practice in manhandling their dead (then failing to follow through on that promise) does not constitute “injury,” nothing does.


Time for a Google God Fact Check

According to "Cable News Network’s" international reporting, Jews felt so offensively injured by the boundary-busting practice of Mormon necro-baptism that they demanded (and ultimately received) a meeting with Mormon Cult leaders in their efforts to bring about a cessation of the practice:

”Mormons meet with Jews over baptizing Holocaust victims . . . December 11, 2002 . . .

“SALT LAKE CITY, Utah (AP)--Mormon and Jewish leaders met Tuesday in New York City to discuss the Mormon Church's apparent breach of its agreement not to posthumously baptize Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews.

“Mormon leaders requested the meeting with Ernest Michel, chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors who helped broker the 1995 agreement with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, said Church spokesman Dale Bills. . . .

“Baptisms for the dead are performed inside Mormon temples, with a Church member immersed in water in place of the deceased person. Names of the deceased are gathered by Church members from genealogy records as well as death and governmental documents from around the world.

“’For Latter-day Saints, the practice of proxy baptism is a means of expressing love and concern for those who have preceded us. It is a freewill offering,’ Bills said. . . .

“Independent researcher Helen Radkey, who prepared a report for Michel, is certain the agreement has been broken. In her research of the Church's extensive genealogical database, she found at least 20,000 Jews-- some of whom died in Nazi concentration camps--were baptized after they died.

“’There shouldn't be one single death camp record in those files,’” Radkey said.

“Radkey has been researching Jews included in the Mormon databases since 1999, when she found Anne Frank and her extended family listed as being baptized.

“Also among those baptized posthumously by the Church, according to Radkey's research: Ghengis Khan, Joan of Arc, Adolf Hitler, Josef Stalin and Buddha.

“Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, said the Mormon Church needs to rein in its members if it is serious about its pledge to stop baptizing Holocaust victims.

“’If these people did not contact the Mormons themselves, the adage should be: Don't call me, I'll call you,’ Hier said. ‘With the greatest of respect to them, we do not think they are the exclusive arbitrators of who is saved.’”

("Mormons Meet with Jews Over Baptizing Holocaust Victims, "CNN," 11 December 2002, https://web.archive.org/web/20031226075524/http://edition.cnn.com/2002/US/West/12/10/baptizing.the.dead.ap/)


Another Google God Fact Check:

According to the online site for "National Public Radio’s" “Morning Edition,” the Mormon Church has re-promised to stop its dunkin'-the-dead “in behalf” of Hitler's murdered Jewish victims:

"Mormons Aim to Stop 'Baptism' of Holocaust Victims,"

“April 12, 2005--The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes another attempt to address concerns of Jewish groups who complain that Holocaust victims are showing up on Mormon baptism rolls. Mormons believe that after death, baptisms save souls. Ten years ago, Mormon leaders agreed to try to stop this practice. Now, they vow to try again."

("Mormons Aim to Stop 'Baptism' of Holocaust Victims," by Howard Berkes, "NPR," 12 April 2005, http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=4586805)


Still Another Google God Fact Check:

According to the online encyclopedia “Wikipedia,” under the heading “Holocaust Victim Controversy, the Mormon Church has violated its own guidelines in performing its necro-baptisms,” the LDS Cult has a bad habit of not honoring its word on the matter:

”It is asserted that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has made it a long term practice to vicariously baptize the Holocaust's Jewish victims and other prominent individuals. However, Church policy states that Church members submit their own names for these type of ordinances, and require that a surviving family member's permission be obtained for any Baptism that is to be performed of deceased individuals that have died within a certain time period (usually 50-75 years).

“However, some baptisms were done for Holocaust Victims, without proper approval or permission. When this information became public, it generated vocal criticism of the LDS Church . . . from Jewish groups, who found this ritual to be insulting and insensitive. . . .

"Partly as a result of public pressure, [Mormon] Church leaders in 1995 promised to put into place new policies that would help stop the practice, unless specifically requested or approved by relatives of the victims.

“In late 2002, information surfaced that members of the [Mormon] Church had not stopped this practice despite directives from the [Mormon] Church leadership to its members, and criticism from Jewish groups began again.

"The Simon Wiesenthal Center, Los Angeles, is on record as opposing the vicarious baptism of Holocaust victims. Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Center holds: ‘If these people did not contact the Mormons themselves, the adage should be: Don't call me, I'll call you. With the greatest of respect to them, we do not think they are the exclusive arbitrators of who is saved.’ Recently Church leaders have agreed to meet with leaders of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.

“In December 2002, independent researcher Helen Radkey published a report showing that the [Mormon] Church's 1995 promise to remove Jewish Nazi victims from its 'International Genealogical Index' was not sufficient; her research of the [Mormon] Church's database uncovered the names of about 19,000 who had a 40 to 50 percent chance of having ‘the potential to be Holocaust victims . . . in Russia, Poland, France, and Austria.’

“Genealogist Bernard Kouchel conducted a search of the 'International Genealogical Index,' and discovered that many well-known Jews have been vicariously baptized, including Rashi, Maimonides, Albert Einstein, Menachem Begin, Irving Berlin, Marc Chagall, and Gilda Radner.

"Some permissions may have been obtained, but there is not currently a system in place to ensure that these permissions have been obtained, which has angered many in various religious and cultural communities.

“In 2004, Schelly Talalay Dardashti, Jewish genealogy columnist for The Jerusalem Post noted that Jews, even those with no Mormon descendants, are being rebaptized after being removed from the rolls. In an interview, D. Todd Christofferson, a [Mormon] Church official, told the New York Times that it was not feasible for [Mormon] Church to continuously monitor the archives to ensure that no new Jewish names appear. The agreement referred to above did not place this type of responsibility on the centralized [Mormon] Church leadership.”

("Christianity: Details about 'Baptism For The Dead,'" under "Holocaust Victim Controversy," http://www.christianity-guide.com/christianity/baptism_for_the_dead.htm)
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EXHIBIT C: Notifying the Media of Mormon Necro-Dunking Practices

When it comes to the LDS Church's post-mortem baptizing pf Nazi-murdered Jews, leave it--once again--to the Google God of the Internet to upstage the Grove-of-Trees God of Joseph Smith by revealing that Mormonism's frauds are all wet.

In the interest of public exposure, I posted the following to the "Huffington Post" site (keeping it short, to the point and sourced):

“Despite efforts by Mormon apologists, gross Mormon Church insensitivity in its secret temple practice of necro-baptizing Hitler-massacred Jews is not a topic for debate elsewhere. That debate was sparked by the Huffington Post article currently being debated.

“As faithful LDS defenders well know, Mormons believe that post-mortem necro-dunking of Nazi-killed Jews can turn Jews to the Mormon Jesus if, according to the Mormon Church doctrine, those Jews come to their senses in the afterlife and accept this death dunk as necessary for their eternal salvation.

“As to the practice of necro-dunking dead Jews or anyone else, the Mormon Church itself has put out a statement on this bizarre ritual (attached as a "clarification" to the original article at the top of this thread) assuring people that they don't rob graves to perform this ritual. Mormonism's PR handlers obviously realize it has a serious image problem. The Mormon Church could eliminate that problem by eliminating its insulting practice of necro-dunking Jewish victims of Third Reich genocide, and all others to whom they subject this indignity.

“Finally, some Mormon apologists argue that the proxy stand-ins who are vicariously necro- dunked for non-LDS deceased do no represent the "spirits" of the dead because spirits can't be baptized. But why can't the miracle-performing Mormon God provide for the baptizing of
spirits?”

(“Mormon Church's Prior Baptism Of Dead Jews Could Raise Concerns For Florida Voters,” by Steve Benson, “Huffington Post,” reader commentary section, 28 January 2012, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/social/Steve_Benson?action=comments)


I further posted in the same “Huffington Post” reader commentary section the following:

“AP: 'Mormon and Jewish leaders met . . . to discuss the . . . Church's apparent breach of its agreement not to posthumously baptize Holocaust victims and other deceased Jews. . . . [I]n her research of the Church's extensive genealogical database, [Helen Radkey ] . . . found at least 20,000 Jews--some of whom died in Nazi concentration camps--were baptized after they died. . . . Radkey . . . found Anne Frank and her extended family listed as being baptized. Also among those baptized posthumously by the Church . . . [was] . . . Adolf Hitler . . . .'

"NPR: 'The [LDS Church] ma[de] another attempt to address concerns of Jewish groups who complain[ed] that Holocaust victims are showing up on Mormon baptism rolls. . . . '

"Wikipedia: '[S]ome baptisms were done for Holocaust victims without proper approval or permission . . . [which] generated vocal criticism. . . from Jewish groups who found this ritual to be insulting and insensitive. . . . . [I]nformation [later] surfaced that members of the Church had not stopped this practice despite directives from the Xhurch leadership . . . . Talalay Dardashti, Jewish genealogy columnist for The Jerusalem Post noted that Jews, even those with no Mormon descendants, are being rebaptized after being removed from the rolls.'

"(Steve Benson, ex-Mormon, grandson of former LDS Church president Ezra Taft Benson, recipient of 1993 Pulitzer prize in editorial cartooning," ibid)
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EXHIBT D: Exposing to Regional and National Jewish Leaders Alike the Mormon Church’s Continued Necro-Dunking of Dead Jews

In February 2012, I was informed in a phone call to the New York headquarters of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith that its then-national director of the ADL, Abraham Foxman, was well-versed on the Mormon doctrine of ritualized dead-dunking and that an episode involving Simon Wiesenthal had brought the matter to the attention of the ADL. Foxman (who have known since the 1980s when I joined him on an ADL trip to Israel and with whom I have more recently met up with when he came through Phoenix), demanded that the Mormon practice necro-baptizing Jews stop, given that its continuance amounts to a second murder of the Jewish identity of Jewish Holocaust victims. He also notified the Mormon Church that continual ADL monitoring of the Church would help, he hoped, keep it from future breaking of the its promise to discontinue the dead-dunking of exterminated Jews. He asked the Mormon Church to implement more stringent internal controls on this dead-dunking practice. He has also called for the Mormon Church to consider abandoning its practice of dead-dunking not only Jews but other non-Mormons.

I informed a local Arizona ADL official that Mormons were not only dead-dunking Jewish victims of the Holocaust, they actually regarded themselves as being adopted into the covenant of the ancient Jewish bloodline. I told him that Mormons are given patriarchal blessings, where the name of the tribe of Israel to which the Mormon recipient of this blessing has supposed Mormon-asserted linkage is pronounced upon the head of the recipient.

The ADL official said he was not aware of that.

I also noted to this official what Mormons do, in effect, is to invade Jewish genealogical tribes, declare these tribes as their own, then extinguish the Jewishness of actual Jews via necro-dunking them into the Mormon Church. He was not pleased to hear that news.

He was not pleased to hear that news.

I wished to speak directly with Foxman about all of this in some detail, when it was convenient for him to do so; consequently, next day, I talked with him by phone about these matters in some detail.

(By way of background, Abe was born to Polish-Jewish parents--Helen and Joseph Foxman--in Russian-occupied Poland in 1940 and was their only son. He was saved from Nazi extermination by his Polish Catholic nursemaid, Bronislawa Kurpi, to whom Abe was given by his parents when the Nazis ordered them to enter a ghetto in Nazi-occupied Poland. Kurpi had Abe baptized a Catholic under the name of Henryk Stanislaw Kurpi. She raised him as a Catholic through the end of WW II in Vilnius, Poland. Abe was eventually reunited with his parents (who survived the war, although 14 of Abe's family members did not). He immigrated to America with his mother and father in 1950).

We discussed the insulting LDS practice of baptizing-for-the-dead Jewish Holocaust victims and what could be done to stop it. Perhaps not coincidentally, that same month, the Mormon Church capitulated in the face of continuing Jewish objections to its unrepentant practice of baptizing Nazi-exterminated members of the Jewish faith.

The issues surrounding the Mormon Church's continued baptizing of dead Jews were laid out in detail in a returned-call from Abe. In terms of information exchange, it involved me relaying to him the following:

--The Mormon Church, through its necro work, not only dead-dunks Jewish Holocaust victims.

It also:

--confirms dead Jewish Holocaust victims as members of the Mormon Church;

--seals dead Jewish Holocaust victims, in various Mormon temple rituals, to the Mormon Church and to Mormon members themselves through secret oaths of allegiance and handshakes engaged in by proxy temple workers dressed in Masonic costumes;

--performs proxy necro ceremonies for dead Jewish Holocaust victims, the details of which the Mormon Church does not talk about;

--invades the tribes of ancient Israel to which these dead Jewish Holocaust victims belong (through patriarchal blessings pronounced on Mormon Church members where Mormons are notified of the ancient tribe of Israel to which they themselves are attached); with this being done by Mormons by "adopting" themselves, through covenant, into the Jewish bloodline; and then

--extinguishes the very Jewish identity of dead Holocaust Jewish victims by transforming these Nazi-slaughtered Jews, who died for their faith, into Mormons.


Other points covered:

--Information was relayed that (despite Mormon Church claims that it cannot effectively control local Church members who are necro-dunking dead Holocaust Jewish victims), the Mormon Church is definitely able to see and review the extracted names of dead Jewish Holocaust victims whose names have been submitted for--and ultimately processed through--its necro-dunking rituals.

--Explanation was given that the Mormon Church has only now taken action against Church members involved in the dead-dunking of Simon Wiesenthal's parents because the Mormon Church has been seriously and publicly embarrassed by the episode--although the Mormon Church has known for years that dead Jewish Holocaust victims have continued to be necro-dunked,

--Reference was provided to public news reports exhibiting screen-prints of Mormon Church computer records showing the names, the dead-dunking dates, the dead-dunked membership confirmations and notices of completion of necro work done on dead Jews who have been processed into Mormon membership ranks via LDS proxy rituals.

--Emphasis was placed on how the Mormon Church has serious financial incentive to continue performing its dead-dunking rituals, due to the fact that Mormons who wish to be "families forever" pay a required temple entrance fee of 10% of their income to attend and work in Mormon temples for not only the dead, but for their own personal salvation.

--Note was taken that Mormons fervently do necro-dunking for dead Jewish Holocaust victims because they believe that dead Jewish Holocaust victims are anxiously waiting to have it done for them.

--The point was accentuated that Mormon necro-work is what keeps Mormon temples operating and, indeed, if it was not for that necro work (which comprises the vast majority of what Mormons busy themselves with doing in their temples), there would be very little for Mormons to do in temples.

--Explanation was offered as to how the Mormon Church builds temples in carefully demographically-analyzed areas, where temple construction is based on Mormon population density and projected Mormon population growth so that Mormon Church earnings can be maximized through charging for temple entry and participation.

Foxman’s reaction to these points included these observations:

--The Mormon Church has got dead Jewish Holocaust victims coming and going.

--The Mormon Church has promised in several meetings with Jewish leaders to stop the necro-dunking of dead Holocaust Jewish victims but has not kept its promises.

--The Mormon Church desires acceptance by larger society but is not willing to pay the price necessary for that acceptance by changing and ceasing its offensive necro-work doctrines or practices.

--The Mormon Church could, if it genuinely wanted to, stop in short order its offensive practice of necro-dunking dead Jewish Holocaust victims.

--Disappointed and frustrated Jewish representatives would soon be meeting--yet again--with Mormon Church leaders to re-convey their objections, grievances and demands.


Armed with expanded information to continue his battle with the Mormon Church's continuing assault on dead Jews, Foxman effectively used it against LDS HQ. In fact, I later chatted with the then-Arizona regional director of the ADL, who was in the company of a fellow ADL employee who had flown in to Arzona to discuss efforts aimed at identifying and prosecuting criminal elements among anti-Semitic White supremacists and other hate-mongering groups. In passing, I mentioned to the regional director--also a friend of mine--my previous information-sharing with Foxman about countering LDS Church necro-immersions of exterminated Jews. The regional director knowingly smiled.

Understandably, Foxman had been getting increasingly frustrated with Mormon Church foot-dragging on ending its practice of Jewish dead-dunking. Foxman had already hit the Mormon Church hard on its necro-baptism of Jews, demanding that it must:

1) desist from further necro-dunking of Holocaust Jewish victims; and

2) abandon the Mormon doctrine of necro-dunking altogether.


Relentless criticism of LDS dead-dunking had begun to take its toll on the beleagured Mormon high command.

As noted by “Public Radio International”:

“Mormon Church leaders have apologized to the family of the late Holocaust survivor and Jewish rights advocate Simon Wiesenthal after a researcher discovered that his Jewish parents were posthumously baptized by Mormon Church members, the ‘Associated Press’ reports.

“Mormons regularly baptize deceased non-believers and members of other religions to offer them the option of salvation in the afterlife, ‘USA Today’ reported. The rite does not make them Mormon, the Church says. . . .

"’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 on Monday, the AP reported. 'We consider this a serious breach of our protocol and we have suspended indefinitely this person's ability to access our genealogy records.'

"’We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon temples,’ Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean at the Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, told the ‘AP.’ 'The only way such insensitive practices would finally stop is if Church leaders finally decided to change their practices and policies on posthumous baptisms, a move which this latest outrage proves that they are unwilling to do.'

“Abraham Foxman, the Anti-Defamation League’s National Director and a Holocaust survivor, explained in a statement why it’s important to stop the practice, USA Today reported. ‘Holocaust victims died precisely because they were Jewish,’ he said. ‘Listing Jews as 'Christian’ on one of the most researched genealogical sites in the world inadvertently aids and abets denial of the Holocaust.’

“Former Mormon and researcher Helen] Radkey also found that the name of Nobel Peace Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel, along with the names of his father and maternal grandfather, had been entered into a Mormon database for the deceased, which can be the start of the process leading toward posthumous baptism, the ‘Huffington Post’ reported. Their names have since been changed to ‘not available,’ Radkey told the ‘Huffington Post.’ Wiesel--who was [at the time] actually still alive and kicking at 83--told the ‘Huffington Post,' ‘I think it's scandalous. Not only objectionable, it's scandalous.'"

(“Mormon Church Leaders Apologize for Baptizing Jewish Dead,” by Samantha Stainburn, “Public Radio International” [PRI], 15 February 2012, http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-02-15/mormon-church-leaders-apologize-baptizing-jewish-dead)


Under pressure from Foxman and others, the Mormon Church’s official house mouse apologist, the “Deseret News” reluctantly confessed about LDS Inc.'s gross insensitivies on this score, but only did so while attempting to blame the fiasco on recklessly irresponsible and disobedient individual Church members:

“The LDS Church has suspended access to its genealogy database for a Church member who last month had a posthumous proxy baptism performed for the parents of famed Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal.

“The Church also issued a public apology.

"’We sincerely regret that the actions of an individual member of the Church led to the inappropriate submission of these names,’ Church spokesman Scott Trotter said. ‘These submissions were clearly against the policy of the Church. We consider this a serious breach of our protocol and we have suspended indefinitely this person's ability to access our genealogy records.’

“At the same time, the ‘Huffington Post’ is reporting that the names of Nobel Prize winner and Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel and his father (who was a Holocaust victim) and maternal grandfather had also been submitted for proxy baptism, although an LDS Church spokesman said those names were not actually submitted for baptism, but were simply entered into a genealogical database.

"’Our system would have rejected those names had they been submitted [for baptism],’ said Church spokesman Michael Purdy.

“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long asked members to engage in baptisms for the dead only for direct relatives. More specifically, according to agreements reached between LDS and Jewish officials as recently as 2010, the LDS Church has promised that the names of Holocaust victims would not be submitted for baptism for the dead in any of the church's temples unless those names belong to direct ancestors of those submitting the names.

"’We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon temples,’ said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center and one of the Jewish representatives who participated in the Mormon/Jewish discussions of the matter. ‘Such actions make a mockery of the many meetings with the top leadership of the Mormon Church dating back to 1995 that focused on the unwanted and unwarranted posthumous baptisms of Jewish victims of the Nazi Holocaust.’

“Cooper added that ‘the only way such insensitive practices would finally stop is if Church leaders finally decided to change their practices and policies on posthumous baptisms, a move which this latest outrage proves that they are unwilling to do.’

“Abraham Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League and a Holocaust survivor himself, was more measured in his response.

“’We believe the Mormon Church is trying to act in good faith to live up to its agreement to prevent the names of any Jewish Holocaust victims from being submitted for posthumous baptism,’ Foxman said. ‘They understand that this issue is extremely important to the Jewish people, as Holocaust victims died precisely because they were Jewish. Listing Jews as 'Christian' on one of the most researched genealogical sites in the world inadvertently aids and abets denial of the Holocaust.’

“Foxman pledged to continue to work with LDS leaders to bring ‘greater understanding and respect to both of our faith communities.’

"'A lot more needs to be done by the LDS Church to educate its membership about its policy prohibiting names of Holocaust victims to be offered for posthumous baptism,' Foxman continued. 'Perhaps the ultimate solution would be for the church to revisit its theological position on posthumously baptizing Jews and believers outside the (LDS) Church, just as other religions have reconsidered centuries-old beliefs.'

“At the very least, Foxman hopes that the LDS Church ‘will increase its vigilance of its computer system, launch an education program for its members and appropriately discipline those Church members who violate the policy.’

“According to the LDS Church 'Newsroom' website, Latter-day Saints have been performing baptisms in Church temples on behalf of their deceased relatives for nearly 180 years.

"’The practice is rooted in the belief that certain sacred sacraments, such as baptism, are required to enter the kingdom of heaven and that a just God will give everyone who ever lived a fair opportunity to receive them, whether in this life or the next,’ the website article explains. ‘Church members who perform temple baptisms for their deceased relatives are motivated by love and sincere concern for the welfare of all of God's children. According to Church doctrine, a departed soul in the afterlife is completely free to accept or reject such a baptism --the offering is freely given and must be freely received. The Church has never claimed the power to force deceased persons to become Church members or Mormons, and it does not list them as such on its records. The notion of coerced conversion is utterly contrary to Church doctrine.’

“According to Purdy, ‘the policy of the Church is that members can request these baptisms only for their own ancestors. Proxy baptisms of Holocaust survivors are strictly prohibited.’
“In the case of the Elie Wiesel, Trotter said his name would have eventually been rejected for posthumous baptism because he is still living.

"’The submitter mistakenly entered information into a field that indicated that individual was deceased,’ said Trotter. ‘Once it was determined that this person is still living, that name was removed, since we do not include information on living persons in our database.’

“Purdy acknowledged that names are occasionally submitted in violation of policy. Regardless of the intention of the submitter, he said, such submissions are considered ‘a serious breach of protocol.’

“According to the Church website, however, such submissions ‘are also extremely difficult to prevent because the temple baptism process depends on voluntary compliance by millions of church members around the world. The Church nearly always learns about problems after the fact.’

"’It is distressing when an individual willfully violates the Church's policy,’ Purdy said, ‘and something that should be understood to be an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention. The Church will continue to do all it can to prevent such instances, including denying access to these genealogical records or other privileges to those who abuse them in this way.’

“For Rabbi Benny Zippel of Chabad Lubavitch of Utah, the whole issue is a tempest in a teapot.

"’It's totally meaningless as far as I'm concerned,’ he said. ‘For someone to go into the water and say some words and be immersed--why does it matter? To me, it doesn't. I would just let it go.’

“Rabbi Zippel bases his feelings on the Jewish concept of conversion, which requires thorough research, intense study and approval by a rabbinical court.

"’You cannot possibly have a person convert without their knowledge,' he said. 'So to me, when we're dealing with posthumous conversion, it's an oxymoron. If it is a conversion, it can't be posthumous; if it is posthumous, it cannot be conversion.’

“So, as far as Rabbi Zippel is concerned, LDS baptism for the dead is ‘a non-issue.’”

"'I'm not offended by it,' he said, 'because to me, it is meaningless. So why should I care?'"

(“Mormon Church Apologizes for Jewish Baptisms for the Dead,” by Joseph Walker, “Deseret News,” 14 February 2012, http://www.pri.org/stories/2012-02-15/mormon-church-leaders-apologize-baptizing-jewish-dead)


Yet, the Mormon Church, despite Its promises to do so, kept on baptizing dead Jews.

As reported by the “Daily Beast”:

“Jews and Mormons are once again battling over Mormons’ posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims, and it’s not the last time the groups will spar.

“The Church of Latter-day Saints apologized Tuesday for posthumously baptizing Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal’s parents amidst much Jewish vitriol. But despite more than two decades of negotiations and agreements between the two groups to prevent such baptisms of dead Jews, the practice persists.

“These by-proxy ceremonies (where the living dip themselves to represent the dead) are so integral to abiding Mormon life that, as one Brigham Young professor and practicing Mormon put it, 'I don’t see any way that we can ever ultimately say we’re not going to do it for people.' But LDS leaders continue to make promises to Jewish leaders that they do not keep.

“An unwieldy genealogical database operated by the LDS Church called Family Search is at once a public registry for ancestry research, calling itself the 'largest genealogy organization in the world,' and a receptacle for Church members to nominate deceased individuals to receive baptism rights. The lack of policing of its users and content may be partially to blame for some continued posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims and perhaps for the mistaken request for a baptism of the very-much-alive writer, Elie Wiesel.

“Regular checks of Family Search by a researcher who has been called the 'Erin Brockovich of posthumous genealogy,' Helen Radkey, revealed the baptisms of the Wiesenthals and the alleged targeting of Wiesel. Also a disaffected Mormon, Radkey is sure the Church does not want the secular public meddling in the ‘junkyard of records,’ which contains millions of names of living and dead people and bears an understandable margin for error.

“’It’s such a quirky practice,’ she said of the posthumous baptisms, which many Mormons believe are an act of reverence and love. 'What’s happened is that Mormons have gone underground.'

“The obligations for Church members are in plain view, but that doesn’t mean all follow them. Mormons must ‘perform vicarious temple ordinances for their own deceased family members,’ through entering them on Family Search. Since there is no monitoring of entries, Radkey says, they can include anybody, alive, dead, or imagined, despite Church rules against entering non-family people. However, Family Search does instruct specifically that LDS Church members do not submit for posthumous baptism ‘celebrities or Jewish Holocaust victims.’

"Still, Radkey said she has found in her scouring of the registry everyone from Jesus Christ to 9/11 plane hijackers to Mickey Mouse. She says sometimes baptisms occur of names that are misspelled or changed purposely to game the system, say, Jesus Christ without the first ‘s.’

“Since Mormons believe that everyone deserves the baptism, the instructions for entries do encourage guessing: 'submit names of persons who have probable family relationships that cannot be verified because records are inadequate, such as those who have the same surnames and resided in the same areas as known ancestors,' they read. Multiple baptisms have been performed on the same deceased person—causing Mormons to wonder which one counts—and the ritual has been given to parties allegedly removed from the system.

“Brigham Young professor Daniel Peterson likened the technological glitches in the New Family Search system to shifting 'Wikipedia' entries changed daily by users, or old voter registries that feature dead individuals among those eligible to vote. To Peterson, the baptism is sacred and willingly blind to religion. ‘We take it literally,’ he said. ‘Everybody has to receive this. Everybody hasn’t.’

“Jewish and Mormon leaders first devised a pact to stop all baptisms of dead Jews in 1995, but soon after, Radkey made public that the Church had reneged. More recently, Jewish and LDS leaders agreed to halt baptisms specifically of Jewish Holocaust victims in September 2010. Since the baptisms indeed linger, Jewish groups’ and leaders’ feelings are a mix of deeply offended and angry.

“’Holocaust victims’ only crime was that they were Jews. Now [the Church] is basically killing them again by eliminating their Jewishness,’ said Anti-Defamation League director Abraham Foxman, who also was part of an interfaith coalition to address the subject. He likens the situation to earlier quarrels between Jews and the Catholic Church over Jewish legitimacy, and says that, like the Catholics, the Mormons will come around and work to smooth their relationship with Jews.

“’It’s important for them to know that we’re watching,’ he said.'That’s how you keep people honest.'

“Both Foxman and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, agree that the Church knows what it is doing, and that any efficacious solution must come from education and messaging within the Church.

"‘I have nothing left to say to them,’ said Cooper. ‘I don’t want to schlep aging survivors to another meeting. This wound remains open.’

“Peterson, a Middle East expert who identifies as pro-Israel, insists that the posthumous baptisms, performed in about 130 LDS temples, honor all non-Mormons, including Jews, but he sees how the action would seem weird to outsiders.

“’All we’re doing is dunking someone and saying a prayer or doing a ritual,’ he said. ‘Being upset about it presumes that we have an effect.’

“Mormons believe that baptizing the dead allows them entry into God’s kingdom, but that the recipients can choose whether or not to accept the service. So why do non-Mormons care so much if they don’t believe in the sacrament in the first place?

“To Jewish genealogist Gary Motokoff, the conversation is over one word: baptism. It reminds Jews of ‘persecution by Christians where Jews were given the choice of being baptized or being murdered,’ he wrote in an email. ‘Holocaust victims were murdered for only one reason: they were Jews.’ Motokoff met with LDS officials in the 1990s about the issue, but was not part of the 2010 agreement.

“Mormons have long had a unique relationship with Jews, aside from both being religious minorities. The Mormons liken the Jews’ pilgrimage through the desert to their own trek to reach Salt Lake City, and Peterson said anti-Semitism is specifically warned against in the 'Book of Mormon.'

“Perhaps the most famous Mormon in the U.S. today, [former] Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, has stayed mum on the deceased-baptism issue. In an email, a –then] spokesperson for Romney’s campaign echoed the position the candidate has adopted in many interviews—that questions about the Church should be directed to the Church. The posthumous-baptism procedure is irreversible, despite theatrical attempts by television host Bill Maher to undo the deed done to Romney’s notoriously atheist father-in-law.

“Despite apologies, agreements, or sanctions—such as the rebuke given to the anonymous Church member who baptized Asher and Rosa Wiesenthal, Jews seem to have few choices: stay angry, accept, or simply ignore what apparently will remain a regular Mormon religious practice.

“’They’ll never able to stop baptism of Jewish Holocaust victims as long as they have these beliefs and procedures,’ Radkey said.

“As long as Mormons believe all people deserve to live in the presence of God, this will continue.”

(“Mormons Still Baptizing Dead Jews Despite Agreements to End Practice,” by Allison Yarrow, in “Daily Beast,” 15 February 2012,http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2012/02/15/mormons-still-baptizing-dead-jews-despite-agreements-to-end-practice.html)


Finally, on 29 February 2012, through a First Presidency letter to all LDS bishops, the Mormon Church released the following statement to lay off its necro-dunking of two specific groups::

"Without exception, Church members must not submit for proxy temple ordinances any names from unauthorized groups, such as celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims"

"Celebrities and Jewish Holocaust victims." In that order.

How nice of them.

("Mormons Warned Against Baptizing Holocaust Victims," by Peggy Fletcher Stack, "Religion News Service," in "USA Today," 5 March 2012, http://usatoday30.usatoday.com/news/religion/story/2012-03-05/mormons-proxy-baptism-holocaust-jews/53372816/1)
_____


(continued below)



Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:33AM by steve benson.

Part 2 of 3

EXHIBIT E: The Mormon Church’s Horrible History of Sympathy Toward Nazi-Style Anti-Semitism

The following chronolgy, as posted by RfM contributor “baura” (with original emphasis):

“June 18, 1933--Nazi Party newspaper in Berlin publishes 'Juden und Mormonen,’ which criticizes Germans for belonging to LDS Church which has 'always been very friendly with Jews.'

“Dec 9, 1933--Church Section article ‘Mormonism in The New Germany,’ enthusiastically emphasizes parallels 'between the LDS Church and some of the ideas and policies of the National Socialists.' First, Nazis have introduced 'Fast Sunday.' Second, 'it is a very well-known fact that Hitler observes a form of living which Mormons term the }Word of Wisdom."' Finally, 'due to the importance given to the racial question by Nazis and the almost necessity of proving that one's grandmother was not Jewess,' there no longer is resistance against genealogical research by German Mormons who 'now have received letters of encouragement complimenting them for their patriotism.'

“Jan 25, 1936--CHURCH SECTION photograph of LDS basketball team in Germany giving ‘Sieg Heil’ salute of Nazi Party.

“Nov 23, 1938--First Mormon victim of Nazi Holocaust, Egon Engelbert Weiss in Vienna, Austria (recently annexed to Nazi Germany), writes desperate letters to eight returned missionaries in Utah and Idaho and to First Presidency; 'Conditions here are terrible for us Jewish people." He asks if Presidency can make necessary affidavit to enable his family to escape to America, signing letter "your brother in the Gospel."'

“Jan 27, 1939--Counselors J. Reuben Clark and David O. McKay write to Jewish non-Mormon who appeals for First Presidency help to escape Nazi regime: ‘We have so many requests of this sort from various persons, including members of the Church, that we have found it necessary to ask to be excused from making the required guarantee.’ Letter suggests that he contact American Jewish organizations.

“Apr 14, 1939--An article by West German Mission President Alfred C. Rees entitled] In the Land of the Mormons’ appears in a special issue of the Nazi Party organ DER VOLKISCHE BEOBATCHTER. In the Editor's Preface to the article, President Rees is called ‘the representative of the Church in Germany,’ who ‘paints for our readers a portrait of Mormonism today, a Church which views the New Germany with sympathy and friendship.’ Whether President Rees originally wrote the article in German or not, the language of the piece abounds in such loaded terms as Volk and Rasse (race); and a picture of Brigham Young bears the caption, ‘Fuhrer der historischen Mormonenpioniere.’ disturbing in hindsight is the way President Rees blatantly parallels Mormonism with Nazism. As Rees warms to his topic, Mormonism begins to sound like a fulfillment of Nazi teachings, providing ‘the practical realization of the German ideal: “the common good takes precedence over the individual good.” ‘Rees concluded by assuring his readers that 'Mormons are people who put this healthy doctrine into action.'

“Apr 24, 1939--First Counselor J. Reuben Clark requests U.S. department of State to assist immigration of two Mormons: ‘She and her husband are Aryan natives and nationals of Switzerland.’ In contrast, Clark privately urges State Department not to help Jewish children to leave Nazi Germany if their parents are trying to send them to United States.

“July 1, 1939--Nazi Gestapo arrests two American LDS missionaries in Czechoslovakia and put them and two other missionaries into prison. Not released until Aug. 23.

“June 24, 1941--Counselor J. Reuben Clark advises Mormon ‘against your assuming as truth the most of the criticism you see leveled against Hitler and his regime in Germany. I visited Germany twice within the last half-dozen years . . .. Hitler is undoubtedly bad from our American point of view, but I think the Germans like him.’ Because of such statements, federal intelligence agencies investigate Clark in Utah as possible pro-Nazi subversive.

“Feb 5, 1942--LDS teenager, Helmuth Hubner, Rudi Wobbe, and Karl-Heinze Schnibbe [are- arrested in Hamburg for distributing anti-Nazi leaflets. 10 days later Hubner's branch president (who had once put a sign saying ‘Jews not allowed to enter’ over the chapel door and also allowed broadcasts of Hitler to be part of Church services) writes ‘Excommunicated’ on Hubner's records. 17-year-old Hubner, the 'ringleader' is beheaded by the Nazis on October 27. His membership is later reinstated and his excommunication is termed a 'mistake.' Two teenage co-conspirators of Hubner--Rudi Wobbe and Karl-Heinze Schnibbe-- are both sent to labor camps. They both emigrate to the United States after the war. On January 8, 1985, Hubner's 60th birthday, they return to Hamburg where they, are treated as heroes by the government of Hamburg. They place a wreath at the site of Heubner's execution. Says Wobbe, ‘After forty years, to come back to a city that had actually put us away in concentration camps and prisons . . . now to be honored and taken around as guests of the city with the members of the government . . . it was surprising-even a bit uncomfortable.’

“Feb 15, 1942 - In Hamburg, Germany, Branch President Arnold Zollner writes ‘Ex-communicated’ on 17-year-old Helmuth Hubener's membership record. Hubener had been arrested 10 days previously for distributing anti-Nazi propaganda. Zollner had previously posted ‘JUDEN IST DER EINTRITT VERBOTEN!’ (Jews not allowed to enter.) on the door of the branch meeting-house and would bring his radio to church whenever Hitler or Goebbels were scheduled to speak. Heubner is beheaded by the Nazis on October 27, 1942. On November 11, 1946, District President Otto Berndt, and the new mission president, Max Zimmer, write ‘excommunication done by mistake’" on Hubener's membership record. Later, Zimmer's successor, Jean Wunderlich, notifies the Salt Lake leadership of the affair, and on 24 January 24, 1948, the First Presidency orders a similar notation placed on the membership record.

“Feb 5, 1949--First Counselor J. Reuben Clark recommends anti-Semitic ‘PROTOCOLS OF THE ELDERS OF ZION’ to Ernest L. Wilkinson, soon to be president of Brigham Young University. In Dec. 1957 Clark makes similar recommendation to Apostle Ezra Taft Benson, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture. This may be reason Benson organizes secret surveillance of employees (especially Jews) in U.S. Department of Agriculture.”

Now the segue from the Mormon Church's historic pro-Nazism to the Mormon Church's pro-Hitler baptism.
____


EXHIBIT E: What is Wanted? An Answer to This Question: “Has Adolf Hitler Been Baptized for Dead by the Mormon Church?"


Hitler was, in fact, baptized for the dead (to be more accurate, actually more than once), but the Mormon Church has its own history of attempting to cover up that inconvenient truth.

According to former Mormon researcher Helen Radkey:

"On August 30, 1998, Don McAreavy, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada, wrote to the LDS Family History Library asking if LDS proxy temple work had been performed for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. McAreavy specifically wanted to know if temple ordinances had been performed for Hitler and Braun on September 28, 1993, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah.

"A response to this inquiry was sent to McAreavy on September 8, 1998. Typed on an official letterhead of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the letter was signed by Mae Dean Ashton. The address of the sender was shown as: Family History Library, 35 North West Temple Street, Salt Lake City, Utah 84150-3400.

"Ashton's reply read as follows:

"'Dear Mr. McAreavy:

"'Thank you for your letter of August 30th regarding temple ordinances for Adolph Hitler and Eva Braun.

"'We searched the International Genealogical Index TM Addendum and found no information listed for either. The enclosed printout is the closest we could find and you will note that birth dates are 1836 and 1838.

"'No additional information is available.

"'Sincerely,

"'Mae Dean Ashton

"'Team Leader, Photoduplication Unit' . . .


"The printout Ashton sent McAreavy shows LDS proxy ordinances which have been performed for Alois Hiedler or Heidler (Hitler), the father of Adolf Hitler.

"In October 1998, McAreavy was able to obtain copies of LDS temple ordinance records for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun from Philip Roberts of the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention.

"These IGI (International Genealogical Index) copies reveal that Adolf Hitler was indeed baptized and 'endowed' on Dec. 10, 1993, and 'sealed' to his parents on March 12, 1994. These events took place in the London Temple, England.

"Robert's copies also show that Hitler was 'sealed' to Braun on September 28, 1993, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah, and on June 14, 1994, in the Los Angeles Temple. Roberts sent copies of these records to Ashton.

"McAreavy sent another mailing to Ashton on October 17, 1998, again asking her if she could locate information for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun in LDS files. On November 17, 1998, McAreavy mailed a double registered letter to Ashton. He reminded her that Roberts had sent documentation to her which seemed to indicate that the Mormon Church had done temple ordinances for Adolf Hitler and Eva Braun. 'Would you please be kind enough to verify if the information that Philip Roberts provided is both accurate and proof that temple ordinances were performed for Adolf Hitler,' McAreavy wrote.

"Ashton replied to McAreavy's November 17 letter on December 2, 1998. She again insisted that the [Alois Hitler] copies she had sent McAreavy with her September 8 letter were all that could be located in the IGI TM [Addendum]. McAreavy was informed that he could soon expect to receive a reply from the [Family History] Department Director.

"On December 29, 1998, McAreavy again wrote to Ashton. He requested the name and mailing address of the Department Director because he had received no communication from that person, as promised by Ashton.

"When there was no response to this request, McAreavy wrote directly to the Department Director of the photo duplication Department of the Family History Library on January 25, 1999. McAreavy again asked if the Mormon Church had done temple ordinances for Hitler and Braun.

"The following reply, again typed on an official letterhead of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, dated March 16, 1999, was sent to McAreavy from the Family History Library:

"'To Whom It May Concern:

"'Subject: Famous or Historical Figures

"'You recently wrote to inquire if temple ordinances have been performed for a famous or historical figure. As a matter of policy, we respond to such requests only when those making the request are directly related to the person about whom they seek information.

"'It might be helpful to know that, as an institution, we have no control over the names individuals submit to receive temple ordinances. However, we strongly counsel Church members to submit only the names of those persons to whom they are related. Furthermore, we believe that ordinances performed in behalf of any deceased individual are valid only if that person is worthy of and chooses to accept what has been done in his or her behalf.

"'The Church spends a great deal of time, effort, and money to make information available that helps not only its members, but all who are interested in family history pursuits. You are welcome to use the resources we provide. We hope you find satisfaction in doing do.

"'Sincerely,

"'Family History Department'


"In this impersonal communication to McAreavy, the LDS Family History Department clearly avoided taking responsibility for the discrepancy between Ashton's September 8 denial of LDS temple work for Hitler and Braun--and the IGI copies, supplied by Roberts, which seem to show that this notoriously well-known pair have, indeed, had proxy LDS ordinances performed on their behalf.

"At the time McAreavy made his initial inquiry to the Family History Library on August 30, there were multiple entries in LDS temple ordinance files which showed that Mormons have performed various rituals on behalf of Hitler and Braun. These records can still be accessed. Ashton gave McAreavy incorrect information.

"Was this a deliberate evasion of truth? What are the facts?


"Adolf Hitler Converts to Mormonism

"Current IGI TM Addendum temple ordinance entries for Mr. [Adolf] Hiedler (Hitler) show that Hitler was 'baptized' by Mormons on September 30, 1993, and 'endowed' on April 27, 1994, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah.

"This record was in the IGI TM Addendum at the time of Ashton's denial [to McAreavy of temple ordinance information for Adolf Hitler] on September 8. I obtained a copy of this particular record for Hitler from the LDS Family Search Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City on July 13, 1998, less than two months before Ashton stated that no such IGI record existed for Hitler.

"If Ashton and her co-workers were not very efficient in their search for Adolf Hitler temple ordinance entries in the LDS genealogical computer system, the same could be said for their lack of thoroughness in locating the same type of records for Eva Braun.

"Eva Anna Paula Braun, born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, on February 7, 1912, was 'baptized' by Mormons on October 16, 1964, and 'endowed' on February 5, 1965, in the Los Angeles Temple. She had been 'sealed' to her parents some time prior to 1970.

"This information is current and is easily accessible in the IGI TM Addendum, in which file Ashton stated that no information was available for either Hitler or Braun. These entries for Braun should have been found by genuine seekers. In this case, it seems these records may have been intentionally overlooked. Was it easier for McAreavy to be given inaccurate information rather than present him with any copies which he could possibly have used against the Mormon Church? Or are the staff of the Family History Library so poorly skilled at accessing their own computer files that they missed the entries in question?

"In addition to the IGI, which is a huge database of names and vital information for multimillions of people, with an Ordinance Index attached, the other significant LDS genealogical file is the Ancestral File. In this family history archive, LDS ordinance records may be found attached to pedigree charts.

"There are, currently, Ancestral File ordinance records which show Adolf Hitler was 'baptized' on September 4, 1993, 'endowed' on October 12, 1993, and 'sealed' to his parents and also Eva Braun on June 14, 1994 - in the Los Angeles Temple. The June 14 sealing of Hitler and Braun is the same sealing which Roberts sent copies of to McAreavy and Ashton. These entries could once be found in the IGI. They have since been deleted, along with other entries for prominent Nazis. What is going on here?

"Prior to adding the 1997 edition to the IGI, it seems that the Mormon Church, intent on preserving its public image, attempted to remove the names of well-known Nazis from the IGI files.

"Most of the IGI entries for Adolf Hitler; Mrs. (Adolf Hitler); Adolf Eichmann; Paul Joseph Göbbels; Hermann Göring; Rudolf Hess; and Heinrich Himmler, were quietly removed. Also erased were the records for Benito Mussolini, the dictator of Fascist Italy from 1922 to 1943 and ally of Hitler and the Third Reich.”

Radkey further writes:

“Four years after the LDS Church agreed to stop posthumous baptisms for Jewish Holocaust victims, perhaps the best - known of death camp martyrs--Anne Frank and members of her family--continue to pop up in Mormon temple and genealogical records.

“Further, the records show temple work has also been done vicariously for the Holocaust's chief perpetrator, Adolf Hitler, and many of his Nazi henchmen.

“Church officials acknowledge the renegade records are thorns in the flesh, but they insist they have done their best to honor their 1995 agreement to keep Holocaust victims out of temple rites--and to eradicate records for "fictitious or inappropriate" figures, like Hitler, when they are discovered.

“’The battle, they say, goes on, an arduous task considering the faith's genealogical databases contain literally billions of names. What is more, ‘As interest in family history increases, hundreds of thousands [more] names of deceased people are continually being submitted by members of the Church and others around the world,' said Church spokesman Michael Purdy. ‘

“Mormons believe proxy baptisms give the dead an opportunity to join the Church in the spirit world. Similarly, dead spouses and their children can be ‘sealed’ for eternity, just as living Latter-day Saints enter into eternal marriages and families are ‘sealed’ together in the faith's temples. Only Mormons ‘in good standing’--those who regularly tithe, live moral and law-abiding lives and adhere to the Church's prohibitions against alcohol, tobacco, coffee and tea--are issued 'temple recommend' cards that allow entry to temples.

“Mormons are encouraged to limit submissions of names for vicarious temple work to their own ancestors.

“Still, Church genealogical records contain a ‘Who's Who’ of historical figures targeted for Mormon baptism for the dead, family sealings and marriages in the hereafter.

“The list spans both the noble and ignoble, famous and infamous. On one hand is a host of Roman Catholic popes and saints, among them Joan of Arc, Ignatius Loyola and Francis Xavier, the latter now listed as married, or sealed, despite lifelong celibacy.

“Columbus also is there, sealed to a Beatriz Enriquez Harana -- the explorer's mistress; so are Buddha and the mysterious ‘Mrs. Buddha.’ King Henry the VIII, along with several of his six wives, have appeared in Church genealogical records, along with the Communist foursome of Karl Marx, Joseph Stalin, Mao Tse-Tung and Ho Chi-Minh.

“It is harder to understand why some Mormons choose to offer posthumous salvation to history's tyrants and madmen. Herod the Great, whom the Gospels recount massacred Bethlehem's infant boys in an unsuccessful bid to kill Jesus, was baptized in the Logan Temple in 1994; Ivan the Terrible, Dracula (Vlad ‘The Impaler,’ Prince of Wallachia), and Rasputin, spiritual adviser to the doomed Romanov family of Imperial Russia, also have cropped up in Church files.

"And then there is Hitler, whose dreams of a German Third Reich resulted in the systematic slaughter of 6 million Jews and the deaths of tens of millions of others during World War II.

“It took only seconds recently to retrieve Der Fuehrer's record --and that of wife Eva Braun--from the LDS Church's Ancestral File via the FamilySearch Internet site familysearch.org. The records also listed two men as having provided the most recent of recurring Hitler-Braun files.

[see copies of the Mormon Church’s official baptism-for-the-dead paperwork in behalf of Adolf Hitler and Eva at linked source below]

“One, a Salt Lake City man, insisted he had neither submitted nor done proxy temple work for Hitler and Braun, and that his name was being used by someone else. The second man, however, acknowledged having been baptized for Hitler and several of his lieutenants -- among them Martin Bormann, Heinrich Himmler, Reinhardt Heydrich and Joseph Goebbels -- in the Los Angeles Temple.

"’I firmly believe [Hitler] will be in Outer Darkness [the Mormon equivalent of hell],’ said the man, a longtime LDS Church member who agreed to talk only on condition of anonymity. ‘But I'm not the judge.’ The man said any doubts he had about the submissions eased when, riding up a temple elevator, he saw a plaque containing a quotation from the Church's canonical Doctrine and Covenants: ‘I, the Lord, will forgive whom I will forgive, but of you it is required to forgive all men.’ Apparently, that decision has already been made in the case of Hitler and his minions. While their names may still pop up, periodically submitted by diehard genealogists, Purdy said any temple work done for them is for naught.

“Recognizing their crimes against humanity, particularly Holocaust victims, submissions for Nazi leaders are deemed inappropriate to a rite originated out of members' love for, and desire to perform sacred temple rites for, their ancestral dead.

"’Policy is to remove them as soon as possible. Moreover, in the case of the names in question, Hitler, Eichmann, etc., the temple ordinance work for these individuals has already been nullified,’ Purdy said. The fact that such figures of infamy continue to crop up in LDS genealogical records at all angered Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, which operates the Museum of Tolerance in Los Angeles.

"’Whether official or not, the fact remains that this is exactly the kind of activity that enraged and hurt, really, so many victims of the Holocaust and caused alarm in the Jewish community,’ Cooper said. 'Whatever framework in which it is presented, the notion of performing these sort of rites for Hitler, Himmler and other Nazis . . . is beyond [understanding].

"’It also can be utilized by forces who always are looking to marginalize the murderous behavior of the Nazis and in many ways try to rehabilitate them,’ he added. ‘Even if that wasn't the goal of the people who did this, in the real world that is what could happen.’ Nonetheless, Cooper also has praise for the faith, in particular the work of Mormon genealogists, to support restitution claims from World War II financial institutions on behalf of Holocaust victims. ‘Since 1995, there has been a new spirit in terms of relations and activities, and in many quarters even a sense of trust [between Jews and Mormons],’ Cooper said. ‘This kind of behavior, showing up in official documentation of the Church, hurts that.’

“However, while the Wiesenthal Center insists the Church's Family History Department find a way to better monitor questionable genealogical submissions, the prime mover behind the 1995 agreement, Holocaust survivor Ernest W. Michel, is more forgiving. Michel, who signed the pact in New York on behalf of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, acknowledged that improper LDS records submissions ‘keep happening, but in few instances.'’ ‘What I assume is that there are some hotheads within the Church who will continue to do that despite it having been forbidden by Church decree,’ said Michel, executive vice president emeritus of the New York Jewish Federation. ‘But in my opinion, the Church has kept its word.' Under the agreement, the Church removed some 400,000 Jewish names from its International Genealogical Index. Mormon leaders also issued edicts forbidding temple work for Holocaust victims. The only exception provided by the 1995 pact is for Church members with direct Jewish ancestors.

“Learning recently that names of the Anne Frank family had once more surfaced in Family History records, Michel contacted the Church. ‘I was assured these names would be removed,’ he said.

“Lisa Davidson, a spokeswoman for the 'Yad Vashem Holocaust Martyrs and Heroes Remembrance Authority' in Jerusalem, also called for more stringent measures to prevent improper submissions. ‘Yad Vashem is against this continued baptism of Holocaust victims and as a signatory to the agreement believes that steps should be taken to prevent future baptisms of this nature,’ she said.

“Family History Department officials have referred all inquiries--including questions about a rumored computer programming effort purportedly in the works to weed out improper submissions--to the Church's media relations office.

“Purdy could provide no details on the programming initiative except to say, "I expect that Church leadership will continue to explore ways to resolve these isolated incidents."

“Meantime, he stressed, the Family History Department ‘has taken all reasonable steps to notify those who have previously submitted such names not to do so in the future. Members of the Church have a preeminent obligation to their own ancestors [and] should not submit for temple ordinance work the names of celebrities and non-approved groups,’ Purdy said. Helen Radkey, a longtime genealogical researcher and frequent critic of Church members' propensity for baptizing dead non-Mormons, remains skeptical.

“’In fairness to the LDS Church, they have a rather complicated system when it comes to removing names,’ the Salt Lake City woman said. ‘I honestly don't think the left hand knows what the right hand is doing there.’

“Radkey, who says she converted from Catholicism to Mormonism and then was excommunicated in 1978 after disputing Church discipline of other members, found a new battleground when researching the pedigree of Gabriel Lalemant, a 17th century French Jesuit missionary killed by Iroquois Indians.

“She stumbled across LDS Church records showing Lalemant had been posthumously baptized into the Utah-based faith. Further research revealed temple baptisms and marriages -- many of them duplicated time and again--also had been done for numerous other revered Catholics. ‘I have three lists of Catholic saints, and every prominent saint has pretty much been done. Also the popes,’ Radkey said. ‘It is farcical of the Mormons, though well-intentioned, to be marrying people who were extremely well-known to have never married, like [saints] Francis Xavier and Bernadette of Lourdes and [recently beatified] Padre Pio.’ Radkey has repeatedly taken her concerns to Catholic leaders, even traveling to the Vatican to present her findings. In Rome, she says, her research was accepted with thanks and encouragement to continue. She has not, however, found fertile ground among local Catholic leadership. The Most Rev. George Niederauer, bishop of the 100,000-strong Catholic Diocese of Salt Lake City, said the question has not merited his making any official inquiry of the LDS Church.

"’I don't take it has an insult to my faith in large part because I don't think it is meant as one,’ he said. ‘If there is not harm intended, why should I concoct harm?’

“Niederauer acknowledged Catholics could find some offense in the disregard for their own baptism that Mormon temple workers imply by doing proxy rites for Catholic dead, but he sees the controversy as a minor one.

"’I really don't believe that Joan of Arc and Ignatius Loyola are bent out of shape by this,’ he said."

("The Mormon Church Attempts to Conceal Temple Records for Adolf Hitler,” by Helen Radkey, http://nowscape.com/mormon/hitler_temple_records.htm; and “LDS Struggle to Keep Proxy Baptisms Appropriate,” http://nowscape.com/mormon/hitler_temple_2.htm)
_____



EXHIBIT F: Anti-Semitic Content of Canonized Mormon Church Scripture

Even though the Mormon Church has insisted it has now stopped the practice of vicariously baptizing dead Jews, it certainly doesn't help its PR efforts that the LDS Church-canonized Book of Mormon harbors anti-Semitic verses, as acknowledged by Mormon apostle Bruce R. McConkie), in his "The Millennial Messiah," under a chapter entirely devoted to "The Jews and the Second Coming," in which McConkie unbelievably blames the Nazi extermination of Jews on the Jews rejecting the Christian Jesus:

"Let this fact be engraved in the eternal records with a pen of steel: The Jews were cursed, and smitten, and cursed anew, because they rejected the gospel, cast out their Messiah and crucified their King. . . . Let the spiritually illiterate suppose what they may, It was the Jewish denial and rejection of the Holy One of Israel, whom their fathers worshipped in the beauty and holiness, that has made them a hiss and by-word in all nations and that has taken millions of their fair sons and daughters to untimely graves. . . . What sayeth the holy word? “They shall be scourged by all people, because they crucify the God of Israel and turn the hearts aside, rejecting signs and wonders and the power and glory of the God of Israel. And because they turn their hearts aside, . . . and have despised the Holy One of Israel, they shall wander in the flesh and perish, and become a hiss and by-word and be hated among all nations." (1 Nephi 19:13-14; 2 Nephi 6:9-11.) Such is the prophetic word of Nephi."

(Bruce R. McConkie, "The Millennial Messiah" [Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret Book Company, 1982], pp. 224-25)


McConkie was simply parroting Jew-hating content that currently rests untouched in the Book of Mormon:

"Wherefore, . . . it must needs be expedient that Christ . . . should come among the Jews, among those who are the more wicked part of the world; and they shall crucify him ... and there is none other nation on earth that would crucify their God.

"For should the mighty miracles be wrought among other nations they would repent, and know that he be their God.

"But because of priestcrafts and iniquities, they at Jerusalem will stiffen their necks against him, that he be crucified.

"Wherefore, because of their iniquities, destructions, famines, pestilences, and bloodshed shall come upon them; and they who shall not be destroyed shall be scattered among all nations."

(2 Nephi 10:3-6)
_____


(continued below)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:38AM by steve benson.

Part 3 of 3

EXHIBIT G: All of the Above Mormon Church Necromantic Abuse of Dead Believers from Other Faiths is Rooted in Its Fabricated Dead-Dunking Doctrine

Mormonism's practice of dead-dunking is rooted in Mormon CHURCH Inventor Joseph Smith’s Non-God Guided, folk magic concoction of necro-baptism--all thanks to the unexpected demise of his brother, Alvin.

Smith didn’t receive any supposed Biblically-based, divinely-inspired “revelation” when announcing advent of the Mormon doctrine of proxy baptism for the dead (known popularly in certain circles as "necro-dunking”).

Contrary to popular Mormon belief, this necro-notion wasn’t instituted in order to provide salvation for deceased people who went to their graves as non-Mormons,

Rather, it was concocted by Smith out of his deep, personal, psychological need to deal with the unexpected death of his own brother Alvin combined with pressure he was receiving from his grief-stricken family to get Smith to something about it that would all make them feel better.

That assessment, of course, isn’t quite what you read in Mormon Sunday School manuals.

To be sure, as the LDS Church's official gospel lesson manuals spin it, God revealed the doctrine of necro-dunking to Joseph Smith after the death of his older brother Alvin within the supposed context of a grand plan to save otherwise condemned dead non-Mormons from themselves. (And it didn’t help matters for the sad Smith family to hear a Protestant clergyman tell them Alvin was going to hell).

This is how the Mormon Church peddles it in its choreographed and correlated instructional materials:

"When Alvin died, the family asked a Presbyterian minister in Palmyra, New York, to officiate at his funeral. As Alvin had not been a member of the minister’s congregation, the clergyman asserted in his sermon that Alvin could not be saved. William Smith, Joseph’s younger brother, recalled: '[The minister] … intimated very strongly that [Alvin] had gone to hell, for Alvin was not a Church member, but he was a good boy and my father did not like it.'

"In January 1836, many years after Alvin’s death, Joseph Smith received a vision of the celestial kingdom, in which he saw that Alvin, as well as his mother and father, would someday inherit that kingdom. Joseph 'marveled how it was that [Alvin] had obtained an inheritance in that kingdom, seeing that he had departed this life before the Lord had set his hand to gather Israel the second time, and had not been baptized for the remission of sins' (D&C 137:6). The voice of the Lord then came to Joseph, declaring:

“'All who have died without a knowledge of this gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God; also all that shall die henceforth without a knowledge of it, who would have received it with all their hearts, shall be heirs of that kingdom; for I, the Lord, will judge all men according to their works, according to the desire of their hearts' (D&C 137:7–9).

"On August 15, 1840, the Prophet Joseph Smith preached at a funeral in Nauvoo and, for the first time in public, taught the doctrine of salvation for the dead. According to Simon Baker, who was present, the Prophet began by testifying that the 'gospel of Jesus Christ brought glad tidings of great joy.' He read most of 1 Corinthians 15 and explained that "the Apostle was talking to a people who understood baptism for the dead, for it was practiced among them." He then declared that “people could now act for their friends who had departed this life, and that the plan of salvation was calculated to save all who were willing to obey the requirements of the law of God.”

"One month after the funeral address, the Prophet visited his father, who was very ill and near death. The Prophet discussed with his father the doctrine of baptism for the dead, and Father Smith’s thoughts turned to his beloved son Alvin. Father Smith asked that the work be done for Alvin 'immediately.' Just minutes before he died, he declared that he saw Alvin.5 In the latter part of 1840, the Smith family rejoiced as Hyrum received the ordinance of baptism for his brother Alvin."

("Redemption for the Dead," in "Teachings of President of the Church: Joseph Smith," 2007, Chapter 35, pp. 401-11)


Of course, that’s a warm and fuzzy story, but the reality of the situation was that Alvin's death prompted a great deal of stress among the Smith family about that state of his eternal reward, given that he had not died a baptized Mormon:

As Dan Vogel explains in his book, "Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism":

"After Alvin Smith's death in 1823, the Smith family was forced to worry about his eternal status when a minister implied that he had gone to hell because he was unchurched and probably unbaptized. . . . Seven years later, on 21 January 1836, Smith received a revelation that 'all who have died without a knowledge of this Gospel, who would have received it if they had been permitted to tarry, shall be heirs of the celestial kingdom of God.' . . . Later, in 1840, when Smith instituted the doctrine of baptism for the dead in Nauvoo, his brother Hyrum was baptized for Alvin."

("Religious Seekers and the Advent of Mormonism" by Dan Vogel [Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books, 1988], pp. 162-63)


Mark A. Scherer, World Church Historian for the then Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, explains how Alvin's death jump-started Joseph down the road to what turned out to be a piece-by-piece construction of the dead-dunking doctrine as a way to placate Smith and family’s personal sense of loss—while giving it the veneer of Christian authority by wrapping his concoction in Biblical verse.

Scherer writes:

"In the past we have dealt with some rather strange and controversial issues but always without being judgmental and always in proper historical context. . . . I would like to explore another: baptism for the dead.

"Alvin Smith, Joseph Jr.'s oldest brother, died suddenly on 19 November 1823 without being baptized into any denomination. In his 1894 account of Alvin's funeral, youngest brother, William Smith, described the service. William stated that Reverend Stockton, who preached the funeral sermon, berated poor Alvin for not being baptized and then announced that Alvin's soul had gone to hell. Stockton's declarations weighed heavily on the close-knit family and their concerns for Alvin's salvation lingered.”

Scherer notes how Smith hadn’t helped matters much when —as Mormonism’s prophet—he declared early on that those who weren’t baptized couldn’t get into Mormon heaven.

Oops. Alvin died an unbaptized non-Mormon. What the hell do we do now?

It’s necro-dunking to the rescue, as Scherer unfolds Smith family fear:

"Family concerns heightened in 1832 when [Joseph Smith] the [P]rophet revealed that those who were not baptized could not receive the Celestial Kingdom (D&C Section 76).

“But then, four years later, Joseph had a vision of the Celestial Kingdom where, strangely enough, he saw Alvin. Hearing this good news should have assured the family but events suggest that they still feared for Alvin's soul.”

The pressure was on. Scherer explains:

"On 14 September 1840, 69- year-old Joseph Smith Sr. lay on his deathbed in Nauvoo, Illinois. In this solemn moment, the dying patriarch quietly called for Joseph Jr. and again expressed concern for Alvin. The seer responded to his father, and to those gathered by his bedside, by announcing the privilege of the Saints to be baptized for the dead. Possibly Joseph Jr. had interpreted I Corinthians 15 as justification for the ritual.”

The result was exactly what the doctor order. Scherer writes:

"Baptisms for the dead satisfied an important need in the historic Mormon culture. It offered the surviving Saints assurance that their loved ones, left behind in graves from Kirtland, Independence, and Far West, as well as those buried in Nauvoo, were secure in the afterlife.

"And, as in Alvin's case, the Saints were comforted in their concerns that deceased loved ones who were not affiliated with the [Mormon] Church could now join them in the Celestial Kingdom.”

Relieved Mormons were so glad to get the good news that they eagerly started dead-dunking even before a baptismal font was built.

Again, Scherer:

"A few days after [Joseph[ the [S]eer's pronouncement, baptisms for deceased family members began in the Mississippi River, but without revelatory sanction. Then, on 19 January 1841, Joseph provided further instruction in what would become Section 107. In the following months, more documents, including Section 109 and 110, were added to the canon relating to this salvation rite.

"Public demonstration of the highly sacred ritual became a concern for the Nauvoo Church leadership. So, in the October 1841 General Conference, Smith halted further proxy baptisms until a font in the [Nauvoo] temple, presently under construction, could be erected. Not surprisingly, temple construction dramatically accelerated.

"In the following spring, as soon as workers enclosed the temple font area, baptisms for the dead continued. The Saints used a temporary wooden font while workers chiseled out a huge stone font perched on the backs of twelve stone oxen. Baptism for the dead was the first of many rituals to be performed exclusively within the confines of the temple."

("Through the Mists of Time: Chats with the Church Historian," by Mark A. Scherer, February 2001)


And it wasn’t just Smith’s family that was hit hard by Alvin’s death. It had rocked Joseph’s world, as well. In fact, so impacted was Joseph by his older brother's death that Alvin was one of the first in line to be proxy baptized—especially after Joseph's dying father told him to do so.

In his article, “'For This Ordinance Belongeth to My House': The Practice of Baptism for the Dead Outside the Nauvoo Temple," BYU Associate Professor in BYU's Department of Church History Alexander L. Baugh writes about how Alvin got bumped to the front to get dunked:

"There is a good possibility that Alvin Smith, Joseph Smith’s older brother who died in November 1823, was one of the first deceased persons to have his baptismal work performed. Lucy Mack Smith recalled that just prior to her husband’s death, Joseph told his father 'that it was . . . the privilege of the Saints to be baptized for the dead,' whereupon Joseph Sr., requested that, 'Joseph be baptized for Alvin immediately.' . . .

"Significantly, Joseph Sr., died on 14 September 1840, less than a month after the Prophet first taught the doctrine of baptism for the dead . . . . If Joseph and the Smith family were true to their father’s request that Alvin’s baptism be done 'immediately,' the likelihood exists that it was performed sometime around mid- September.“

Talk about fast-actin’ reaction. But Joseph Sr. didn’t get everything he wanted, as Baugh notes:

"The record containing the early proxy ordinance information indicates that Hyrum acted as proxy (not Joseph, as Father Smith requested), but does not give any other date than the year 1840."

Come to find out, however, Alvin was actually dead-dunked twice, apparently in order to make sure the Mormons got it right the second time (which, one might say, is no big deal since apparently many non-LDS dead folks have been multiple-necro-immersed over the ensuing years). As Baugh writes:

"The ordinance was performed for Alvin a second time, again by Hyrum in 1841, and was probably done after the font was completed and dedicated in the basement of the Temple. . . . A friend and contemporary of the Prophet, Aroet Hale, stated that Joseph Smith instructed the Saints 'to have the work done over as quick as the temple was finished, when it could be done more perfect.'"

(Alexander L. Baugh “'For This Ordinance Belongeth to My House': The Practice of Baptism for the Dead Outside the Nauvoo Temple," in "Mormon Historical Studies," p. 49)


Douglas James Davies, in his book, “Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites,” delves into the background of Joseph Smith’s reaction to his older brother’s untimely death, who died at age 25 after overdosing on calomel that he had taken to combat a bad case of “bilious colic.” Strange but true, his brother’s death hit Joseph so hard, in fact, that in order to deal with it he told his parents that he was going to marry Emma Hale in order to deal with his Alvin’s unexpected absence:

"Alvin, the elder brother of Joseph Smith, Jr., . . . died in November 1823 when Joseph was 18 years of age. Some two years after this Joseph told his parents that he had been so lonely since Alvin's death that he had decided to marry. This he did.“

That, apparently, wasn’t enough, since the local minister was telling the family that Alvin was languishing in the Regions of the Damned. To make matters worse, while reports were afoot that Alvin’s body had been dug up.

Joseph was bummed, as Davies notes:

“But his dead brother still lay in Joseph's memory. The minister who buried Alvin said it was likely that he had gone to hell, while his corpse was said to have been disinterred by aggressive neighbors. The father, Joseph Smith, Sr., even went off to dig and see if that was true. Here was a brother's death that was entirely out of the ordinary and deeply traumatic for Joseph. Indeed, trauma is precisely the right word . . . “

Time for a revelation to brighten the occasion—one that would become a cornerstone of Mormonism’s strange doctrines:

“ Indeed, trauma is precisely the right word, for some 13 years after the death Joseph received a profoundly influential vision of his brother.“

"This was in 1836, six years after the founding of Mormonism and at the newly-built Kirtland Temple. [H. Michael Marquardt, in his book, "The Rise of Mormonism: 1816-1844," reports that this ‘vision’ actually took place in the west end of the Kirtland temple, third floor].

“As part of the religious enthusiasm of this dramatic period of temple building and ritual activity, the dead brother returned to Joseph's mind. Religious enthusiasm and death stand should to shoulder. The event sparked in Joseph a desire to cope with the death of his brother and of others in a formal way. The outcome was scheme of ritual performed vicariously for the dead that would allow them access to salvation in the afterlife. This was the origin of what would become Mormonism's commitment to its now well-known scheme of genealogical research followed by ritual baptism on behalf of the death."

(Douglas James Davies, "Death, Ritual and Belief: The Rhetoric of Funerary Rites," 2nd ed., revised [London: Continuum International Publishing Group, 2002], p. 222; and H. Michael Marquardt, “The Rise of Mormonism, 1816-1844” (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Xulon Press, 2005], p. 535)


Davies subsequently delves more deeply into Joseph Smith’s personal psyche—one which evidence a immense inner need for the manufacture of a miraculous way by which Smith could provide for himself, his family and his followers an other-worldly means by which they could reunite with their dead and otherwise non-saved loved ones once more. Never mind that the effort required an invention that followed neither early Mormon or historic Christian tradition. Something simply had to be done in order perk the people up, in the name of “don’t worry, be happy.”:

Davies writes:

“ . . . [W]hat might we say about the origin of baptism for the dead? How did this tradition (for indeed it is now one of the determining features of life for dedicated Mormons) come about? This type of question is particularly important for invented traditions that have their source largely in one individual and for which individual creativity may have much to do with that person’s biography and psychology.

“Certainly, baptism for the dead was not part of the Book of Mormon, nor was it among the practices of the first 10 years of the [Mormon] Church’s life. According to formal Mormon statements, it was first announced by Joseph Smith in a funeral sermon, only months before his own death.

“The obvious textual cue for this rite lies in a single biblical verse of St. Paul (1 Corinthians 15:29) which alludes to the fact that some are baptized on behalf of the dead. Paul uses that idea to reinforce his strong belief in the resurrection. In the Mormon case, a revelation came to Joseph Smith in January 1841 (Doctrine and Covenants 124:30) in which the Lord instructs that a temple be built to contain a baptismal font that would firmly contextualize the practice that had initially taken place in rivers. By November of that same year the font existed, with vicarious rites taking place.”

Davies then offers a reasonable explanation for what drove Smith to invent the central Moron doctrine of necro-dunking:

“My own interpretation of vicarious baptism, speculative as it is, focuses on Joseph Smith’s personal history of grief, especially that for his brother Alvin’s premature death, when Joseph was about 18 years old. ‘Grief-stricken’ is an entirely appropriate description of accounts of the family and of Joseph in response to Alvin’s death, itself some seven years before the formal inauguration of the [Mormon] Church . . .

“[S]ome 13 years after Alvin’s death Joseph received a vision in which he saw Alvin in heaven, despite the fact that he had died prior to the Restoration.”

Now enter the family pressure for Joseph to spring Alvin from Hell:

When Joseph’s father was dying in 1840 he, too, reckoned to see Alvin. This suggests that moments of dying, death and funerals recalled Alvin and Joseph’s grief, and helped frame Joseph’s vision of vicarious baptism, catalyzed by the biblical verse already mentioned. “

So, when all else fails, buck up and create a fairy tale, which is exactly what Joseph Smith did—for him, his family and his faith:

“Joseph’s personal history of grief and his empathy with the grief of others brought that biblical text to new life as part of the Restoration. Far from being debilitated by his loss and grief, Joseph emerged able to do something about his brother’s death; indeed, all Mormons could answer that once perennial Christian conundrum of what would happen in eternity to those who had never heard the Christian message. They COULD hear it and benefit from it, if only rites were performed for them on Earth. Vicarious baptism thus reflect the clutter of rites that constitute the primate rationale of Mormon ‘invented tradition’—namely that nothing is achieved in the heavens apart from a ritual action underlying them on Earth.”

(Douglas J. Davies, in “The Invention of Sacred Tradition,” James R. Lewis and Olva Hammer, ed [Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2007], pp. 68-70)

*****


CONCLUSION

In the end, it was conniving charlatan Joe's made-up doctrine of dead-dunking that, in times of deep grief combined with eager superstition, kept his family from going around the bend:

As one encyclopedia (not the Mormon one) observes, Joseph's brother Alvin "figured prominently in the establishment of the Mormon doctrine . . . of the practice of baptism for the dead.

“On January 21, 1836, after the completion of the Kirtland Temple, Joseph . . . claimed to have had a vision of the Celestial Kingdom. Smith stated that he saw his brother Alvin in the vision, and was surprised at his presence there since he died before the establishment of the [Mormon] Church and its associated doctrines. . . . Smith stated that he then received a revelation concerning the salvation of those who die without hearing the gospel and their ability to receive the same opportunities as those who had the opportunity to hear it on earth. . . . . [In this revelation, found in Doctrine and Covenants 137:5] . . . Smith stated: 'I saw Father Adam and Abraham; and my father and my mother; my brother Alvin, that has long since slept.'"

("Encyclopedia: Alvin Smith (Mormon)"


Sleep well, tonight, folks. Thanks to Joseph Smith’s creative imagination, you’ll see your dearly-departed, dead-dunked loved ones in the morning.

And, for the Mormon Church, that includes Adolf Hitler.



Edited 4 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:17AM by steve benson.

Temujin, proclaimed as Ghenghis Khan, did not care about your religion or race -- just tribute, taxes and submission to Mongol rule.

And, of course, Hitler loved his German shepherds.

Next thing ya know, you'll be telling us they were just misunderstood.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:49AM by steve benson.

Genghis lived almost a thousand years ago. Stalin, Hitler, Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mao, and Fidel were brutal dictators who murdered millions of their own people. They were evil and we know why.


If you ask people in Eastern Europe, Genghis and his Mongolian hordes were bloodthirsty, savage conquerors. If you ask Mongolians, Genghis was no worse than others and unified their tribes into one nation and wanted to do the same to the rest of the known world. His title, Genghis Khan, literally means "Universal Lord."


So, does Genghis belong with Stalin or Hitler or rather Alexander the Great and Napoleon? Is killing for ideology better or worse than killing for conquest?

I don't know.



But John Wayne did play him in the movie...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pKxtQzwoHH8

Another one of those supposedly "divinely-led," savagely-strong, mercilessly-effective, benevolently war-mongering, brutally-butchering, conquering-hero, crush-your-skull colossal-kingly types.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Only the best that heaven can give.

Jesus Pillage Christ, where have we heard that line before?

"Mongol leader Genghis Khan (1162-1227) rose from humble beginnings to establish the largest land empire in history. After uniting the nomadic tribes of the Mongolian plateau, he conquered huge chunks of central Asia and China. His descendents expanded the empire even further, advancing to such far-off places as Poland, Vietnam, Syria and Korea. At their peak, the Mongols controlled between 11 and 12 million contiguous square miles, an area about the size of Africa. Many people were slaughtered in the course of Genghis Khan’s invasions, but he also granted religious freedom to his subjects, abolished torture, encouraged trade and created the first international postal system. Genghis Khan died in 1227 during a military campaign against the Chinese kingdom of Xi Xia. His final resting place remains unknown.

"Genghis Khan: The Early Years

Temujin, later Genghis Khan, was born around 1162 near the border between modern Mongolia and Siberia. Legend holds that he came into the world clutching a blood clot in his right hand. His mother had been kidnapped by his father and forced into marriage. At that time, dozens of nomadic tribes on the central Asian steppe were constantly fighting and stealing from each other, and life for Temujin was violent and unpredictable. Before he turned 10, his father was poisoned to death by an enemy clan. Temujin’s own clan then deserted him, his mother and his six siblings in order to avoid having to feed them.

"Did You Know?

"Mongol leader Genghis Khan never allowed anyone to paint his portrait, sculpt his image or engrave his likeness on a coin. The first images of him appeared after his death.

"Shortly thereafter, Temujin killed his older half-brother and took over as head of the poverty-stricken household. At one point, he was captured and enslaved by the clan that had abandoned him, but he was eventually able to escape. In 1178 Temujin married Borte, with whom he would have four sons and an unknown number of daughters. He launched a daring rescue of Borte after she too was kidnapped, and he soon began making alliances, building a reputation as a warrior and attracting a growing number of followers. Most of what we know about Genghis Khan’s childhood comes from 'The Secret History of the Mongols,' the oldest known work of Mongolian history and literature, which was written soon after his death.

"Genghis Khan Unites the Mongols

"Going against custom, Temujin put competent allies rather than relatives in key positions and executed the leaders of enemy tribes while incorporating the remaining members into his clan. He ordered that all looting wait until after a complete victory had been won, and he organized his warriors into units of 10 without regard to kin. Though Temujin was an animist, his followers included Christians, Muslims and Buddhists. By 1205 he had vanquished all rivals, including his former best friend Jamuka. The following year, he called a meeting of representatives from every part of the territory and established a nation similar in size to modern Mongolia. He was also proclaimed Chinggis Khan, which roughly translates to “Universal Ruler,” a name that became known in the West as Genghis Khan.
Genghis Khan Establishes an Empire

"Having united the steppe tribes, Genghis Khan ruled over some 1 million people. In order to suppress the traditional causes of tribal warfare, he abolished inherited aristocratic titles. He also forbade the selling and kidnapping of women, banned the enslavement of any Mongol and made livestock theft punishable by death. Moreover, Genghis Khan ordered the adoption of a writing system, conducted a regular census, granted diplomatic immunity to foreign ambassadors and allowed freedom of religion well before that idea caught on elsewhere.

"Genghis Khan’s first campaign outside of Mongolia took place against the Xi Xia kingdom of northwestern China. After a series of raids, the Mongols launched a major initiative in 1209 that brought them to the doorstep of Yinchuan, the Xi Xia capital. Unlike other armies, the Mongols traveled with no supply train other than a large reserve of horses. The army consisted almost entirely of cavalrymen, who were expert riders and deadly with a bow and arrows. At Yinchuan, the Mongols deployed a false withdrawal—one of their signature tactics—and then initiated a siege. Though their attempt to flood the city failed, the Xi Xia ruler submitted and presented tribute.

"The Mongols next attacked the Jin Dynasty of northern China, whose ruler had made the mistake of demanding Genghis Khan’s submission. From 1211 to 1214, the outnumbered Mongols ravaged the countryside and sent refugees pouring into the cities. Food shortages became a problem, and the Jin army ended up killing tens of thousands of its own peasants. In 1214 the Mongols besieged the capital of Zhongdu (now Beijing), and the Jin ruler agreed to hand over large amounts of silk, silver, gold and horses. When the Jin ruler subsequently moved his court south to the city of Kaifeng, Genghis Khan took this as a breach of their agreement and, with the help of Jin deserters, sacked Zhongdu to the ground.

"In 1219 Genghis Khan went to war against the Khwarezm Empire in present-day Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, Afghanistan and Iran. The sultan there had agreed to a trade treaty, but when the first caravan arrived its goods were stolen and its merchants were killed. The sultan then murdered some of Genghis Khan’s ambassadors. Despite once again being outnumbered, the Mongol horde swept through one Khwarezm city after another, including Bukhara, Samarkand and Urgench. Skilled workers such as carpenters and jewelers were usually saved, while aristocrats and resisting soldiers were killed. Unskilled workers, meanwhile, were often used as human shields during the next assault. No one knows with any certainty how many people died during Genghis Khan’s wars, in part because the Mongols propagated their vicious image as a way of spreading terror.
Genghis Khan’s Death and the Continuation of the Empire

"When Genghis Khan returned to Mongolia in 1225, he controlled a huge swath of territory from the Sea of Japan to the Caspian Sea. Nevertheless, he didn’t rest for long before turning his attention back to the Xi Xia kingdom, which had refused to contribute troops to the Khwarezm invasion. In early 1227 a horse threw Genghis Khan to the ground, causing internal injuries. He pressed on with the campaign, but his health never recovered. He died on August 18, 1227, just before the Xi Xia were crushed.

"Genghis Khan conquered more than twice as much land as any other person in history, bringing Eastern and Western civilizations into contact in the process. His descendants, including Ogodei and Khubilai, were also prolific conquerors, taking control of Eastern Europe, the Middle East and the rest of China, among other places. The Mongols even invaded Japan and Java before their empire broke apart in the 14th century. Genghis Khan’s last ruling descendant was finally deposed in 1920."

("Genghis Khan: Facts and Summary," http://www.history.com/topics/genghis-khan)
_____


“'I am the flail of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.'
—Genghis Khan

" . . . Genghis Khan founded the Mongol Empire and raided most of Eurasia. He developed the most advanced professional army ever seen in Asia. He was known as 'the Great Khan.'

"Synopsis

"Genghis Khan was born 'Temujin' in Mongolia around 1162. He married at age 16, but had many wives during his lifetime. At 20, he began building a large army with the intent to destroy individual tribes in Northeast Asia and unite them under his rule. He was successful; the Mongol Empire was the largest empire in the world before the British Empire, and lasted well after his own death in 1227.

"Early Life

"Born in north central Mongolia around 1162, Genghis Khan was originally named 'Temujin' after a Tatar chieftain that his father, Yesukhei, had captured. Young Temujin was a member of the Borjigin tribe and a descendant of Khabul Khan, who briefly united Mongols against the Jin (Chin) Dynasty of northern China in the early 1100s. According to the 'Secret History of the Mongols' (a contemporary account of Mongol history), Temujin was born with a blood clot in his hand, a sign in Mongol folklore that he was destined to become a leader. His mother, Hoelun, taught him the grim reality of living in turbulent Mongol tribal society and the need for alliances.

"When Temujin was 9, his father took him to live with the family of his future bride, Borte. On the return trip home, Yesukhei encountered members of the rival Tatar tribe, who invited him to a conciliatory meal, where he was poisoned for past transgressions against the Tatars. Upon hearing of his father's death, Temujin returned home to claim his position as clan chief. However, the clan refused to recognize the young boy's leadership and ostracized his family of younger brothers and half-brothers to near-refugee status. The pressure on the family was great, and in a dispute over the spoils of a hunting expedition, Temujin quarreled with and killed his half-brother, Bekhter, confirming his position as head of the family.

"At 16, Temujin married Borte, cementing the alliance between the Konkirat tribe and his own. Soon after, Borte was kidnapped by the rival Merkit tribe and given to a chieftain as a wife. Temujin was able to rescue her, and soon after, she gave birth to her first son, Jochi. Though Borte's captivity with the Konkirat tribe cast doubt on Jochi's birth, Temujin accepted him as his own. With Borte, Temujin had four sons and many other children with other wives, as was Mongolian custom. However, only his male children with Borte qualified for succession in the family.

"The 'Universal Ruler'

"When Temujin was about 20, he was captured in a raid by former family allies, the Taichi'uts, and temporarily enslaved. He escaped with the help of a sympathetic captor, and joined his brothers and several other clansmen to form a fighting unit. Temujin began his slow ascent to power by building a large army of more than 20,000 men. He set out to destroy traditional divisions among the various tribes and unite the Mongols under his rule.

"Through a combination of outstanding military tactics and merciless brutality, Temujin avenged his father's murder by decimating the Tatar army, and ordered the killing of every Tatar male who was more than approximately 3 feet tall (taller than the linchpin, or axle pin, of a wagon wheel). Temujin's Mongols then defeated the Taichi'ut using a series of massive cavalry attacks, including having all of the Taichi'ut chiefs boiled alive. By 1206, Temujin had also defeated the powerful Naiman tribe, thus giving him control of central and eastern Mongolia.

"The early success of the Mongol army owed much to the brilliant military tactics of Genghis Khan, as well as his understanding of his enemies' motivations. He employed an extensive spy network and was quick to adopt new technologies from his enemies. The well-trained Mongol army of 80,000 fighters coordinated their advance with a sophisticated signaling system of smoke and burning torches. Large drums sounded commands to charge, and further orders were conveyed with flag signals. Every soldier was fully equipped with a bow, arrows, a shield, a dagger and a lasso. He also carried large saddlebags for food, tools and spare clothes. The saddlebag was waterproof and could be inflated to serve as a life preserver when crossing deep and swift-moving rivers. Cavalrymen carried a small sword, javelins, body armor, a battle-ax or mace, and a lance with a hook to pull enemies off of their horses. The Mongols were devastating in their attacks. Because they could maneuver a galloping horse using only their legs, their hands were free to shoot arrows. The entire army was followed by a well-organized supply system of oxcarts carrying food for soldiers and beasts alike, as well as military equipment, shamans for spiritual and medical aid, and officials to catalog the booty.

"Following the victories over the rival Mongol tribes, other tribal leaders agreed to peace and bestowed on Temujin the title of "Genghis Khan," which means "universal ruler." The title carried not only political importance, but also spiritual significance. The leading shaman declared Genghis Khan the representative of Mongke Koko Tengri (the "Eternal Blue Sky"), the supreme god of the Mongols. With this declaration of divine status, it was accepted that his destiny was to rule the world. Religious tolerance was practiced in the Mongol Empire, but to defy the Great Khan was equal to defying the will of God. It was with such religious fervor that Genghis Khan is supposed to have said to one of his enemies, 'I am the flail of God. If you had not committed great sins, God would not have sent a punishment like me upon you.'

"Major Conquests

"Genghis Khan wasted no time in capitalizing on his divine stature. While spiritual inspiration motivated his armies, the Mongols were probably driven as much by environmental circumstances. Food and resources were becoming scarce as the population grew. In 1207, he led his armies against the kingdom of Xi Xia and, after two years, forced it to surrender. In 1211, Genghis Khan's armies struck the Jin Dynasty in northern China, lured not by the great cities' artistic and scientific wonders, but rather the seemingly endless rice fields and easy pickings of wealth.

"Although the campaign against the Jin Dynasty lasted nearly 20 years, Genghis Khan's armies were also active in the west against border empires and the Muslim world. Initially, Genghis Khan used diplomacy to establish trade relations with the Khwarizm Dynasty, a Turkish-dominated empire that included Turkestan, Persia, and Afghanistan. But the Mongol diplomatic mission was attacked by the governor of Otrar, who possibly believed the caravan was a cover for a spy mission. When Genghis Khan heard of this affront, he demanded the governor be extradited to him and sent a diplomat to retrieve him. Shah Muhammad, the leader of the Khwarizm Dynasty, not only refused the demand, but in defiance sent back the head of the Mongol diplomat.

"This act released a fury that would sweep through central Asia and into eastern Europe. In 1219, Genghis Khan personally took control of planning and executing a three-prong attack of 200,000 Mongol soldiers against the Khwarizm Dynasty. The Mongols swept through every city's fortifications with unstoppable savagery. Those who weren't immediately slaughtered were driven in front of the Mongol army, serving as human shields when the Mongols took the next city. No living thing was spared, including small domestic animals and livestock. Skulls of men, women, and children were piled in large, pyramidal mounds. City after city was brought to its knees, and eventually the Shah Muhammad and later his son were captured and killed, bringing an end to the Khwarizm Dynasty in 1221.

"Scholars describe the period after the Khwarizm campaign as the Pax Mongolica. In time, the conquests of Genghis Khan connected the major trade centers of China and Europe. The empire was governed by a legal code known as Yassa. Developed by Genghis Khan, the code was based on Mongol common law but contained edicts that prohibited blood feuds, adultery, theft and bearing false witness. Also included were laws that reflected Mongol respect for the environment such as forbidding bathing in rivers and streams and orders for any soldier following another to pick up anything that the first soldier dropped. Infraction of any of these laws was usually punishable by death. Advancement within military and government ranks was not based on traditional lines of heredity or ethnicity, but on merit. There were tax exemptions for religious and some professional leaders, as well as a degree of religious tolerance that reflected the long-held Mongol tradition of religion as a personal conviction not subject to law or interference. This tradition had practical applications as there were so many different religious groups in the empire, it would have been an extra burden to force a single religion on them.

"With the annihilation of the Khwarizm Dynasty, Genghis Khan once again turned his attention east to China. The Tanguts of Xi Xia had defied his orders to contribute troops to the Khwarizm campaign and were in open revolt. In a string of victories against Tangut cities, Genghis Khan defeated enemy armies and sacked the capital of Ning Hia. Soon one Tangut official surrendered after another, and the resistance ended. Genghis Khan hadn't quite extracted all the revenge he wanted for the Tangut betrayal, however, and ordered the execution of the imperial family, thus ending the Tangut lineage.

"Genghis Khan's Death

"Genghis Khan died in 1227, soon after the submission of the Xi Xia. The exact cause of his death is unknown. Some historians maintain that he fell off a horse while on a hunt, and died of fatigue and injuries. Others contend that he died of respiratory disease. Genghis Khan was buried without markings, according to the customs of his tribe, somewhere near his birthplace—close to the Onon River and the Khentii Mountains in northern Mongolia. According to legend, the funeral escort killed anyone and anything they encountered to conceal the location of the burial site, and a river was diverted over Genghis Khan's grave to make it impossible to find.

"Before his death, Genghis Khan bestowed supreme leadership to his son Ogedei, who controlled most of eastern Asia, including China. The rest of the empire was divided among his other sons: Chagatai took over central Asia and northern Iran; Tolui, being the youngest, received a small territory near the Mongol homeland; and Jochi (who was killed before Genghis Khan's death). Jochi and his son, Batu, took control of modern Russia and formed the Golden Horde. The empire's expansion continued and reached its peak under Ogedei Khan's leadership. Mongol armies eventually invaded Persia, the Song Dynasty in southern China, and the Balkans. Just when the Mongol armies had reached the gates of Vienna, Austria, leading commander Batu got word of the Great Khan Ogedei's death and was called back to Mongolia. Subsequently, the campaign lost momentum, marking the Mongol's farthest invasion into Europe.

"Among the many descendents of Genghis Khan is Kublai Khan, who was the son of Tolui, Genghis Khan's youngest son. At a young age, Kublai had a strong interest in Chinese civilization and, throughout his life, did much to incorporate Chinese customs and culture into Mongol rule. Kublai rose to prominence in 1251, when his eldest brother, Mongke, became Khan of the Mongol Empire and placed him as governor of the southern territories. Kublai distinguished himself by increasing agricultural production and expanding Mongol territory. After Mongke's death, Kublai and his other brother, Arik Boke, fought for control of the empire. After three years of intertribal warfare, Kublai was victorious, and he was made Great Khan and emperor of the Yuan Dynasty of China."

("Genghis Khan Biography: Warrior, Military Leader (c. 1162–c. 1227)," http://www.biography.com/people/genghis-khan-9308634#genghis-khans-death)



Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 01:14PM by steve benson.

GCHQ Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Temujin, proclaimed as Ghenghis Khan, did not care
> about your religion or race -- just tribute, taxes
> and submission to Mongol rule.


He'd have fitted right in with the Tory Party in the 1980s.

This means some famous people get a second chance at the celestial kingdom, but not the billions of people good Mormons have never heard of. And not the billions for whom no records exist. Some plan Elohim has there.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 02:45PM by Stray Mutt.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 03:22PM by steve benson.

Genghis Khan? For some reason that shocks me. I thought we were baptizing known people within living memory but mostly somebody's relatives, if not our own.

If I had gone to the temple and they announced the name of Genghis Khan as the baptisee I'm sure I would have drowned laughing. Do you think they did Mrs. Khan as well? (Somehow I doubt that they cared but I could be wrong).

I heard a radio host (in Canada) saying about Castro that today is not a day to badmouth a guy who just died (which is why our Prime Minister offered more positive comments - also because his late father, also a Canadian PM, was a friend of Castro's, apparently).

I'd say it depends on who the guy is.

So I'll take this thread to laugh a bit, if that is not too unseemly. (Do the angels weep more for the godly or the ungoodly I wonder).

"The system is screwed" gave me a good chuckle. I'm going to say that ten times a day before breakfast every day from now on. It should be immensely gratifying and cover a host of screwed up stuff.

And "Jesus Pillage Christ". I have not heard that one before. Good addition to this board's lexicon. (And yes, I'm a weird and terrible kind of Christian that wordplay makes me laugh, even invoking this name. I'm reading a series of Scottish mysteries at the moment and the detective frequently utters "Jesus wept". I choke laughing every time. Some things really tickle my funny bone and I can't always fend off the giggles).

The pillage part, not so mysteriously, reminds me of stories of the Crusades which I've been reading recently. Being even only a nominal Western Christian since birth, and fairly ignorant of the doctrine and history I must say, my impression until adulthood was that the Crusaders were the good guys ("our side") protecting "us" from the ravening hordes.

Mmmm. Not so much.

I figured that out around about the time I read of the Knights (Christians) "wading in blood up to their knees" after they charged through towns like plagues of locusts.

So "pillage" is the operative word. Maybe not so funny after all.

Most of my knowledge (little in the scheme of things) re Castro is from the US perspective. It's disappointing that a "revolutionary", the romantic ideal at least, turns out to be not so pure.

You gotta love the free health care and free education though.

But at what real cost?

The eternal question.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 06:48PM by Nightingale.

This dead dunking practice just displays to me how spiritually dead, morally bankrupt, and ethically challenged the church is as an institution.

It's a despicable practice made more despicable by its dedication that everyone in death will be subjected to the Mormon mantra whether we like it or not.

I'd venture most people both living and dead would find this a reprehensible practice, not only among the Jews. As an ex-Mormon and a Jew I have TWO very valid reasons not to be re-baptized after I die. Why DON'T OUR WISHES GOVERN instead of the church who tramples on our CIVIL LIBERTIES with EVERY DEAD DUNKING IT DOES?

Let's leave the evil bastards of history to the history books and God's judgment, if there is to be one. The Mormons are derelicts plain and simple to engage in the baptising of anyone after death, who wouldn't have given them a second thought in life. That's as evil a practice, maybe moreso, than ethnic cleansing.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 07:41PM by Amyjo.

I agree with the outrage against dead-dunking. It is awful to go against a person's preferences and personal choices, and grievous when it comes to religious practices, especially so when it is an ex-member whose express wishes are against it, something they didn't want in life or in death. Them being dead doesn't take the sting out of it because they are being disrespected, at least. It is a form of dominance made worse in that the deceased person can't speak up for themselves. As for dead-dunking of nevermos, it is intensely annoying to exmos, and perhaps the nevermo, that once again Mormons impose their choices on others, something nobody likes to experience. We may also feel extra vicarious pain over this unwarranted exercise of control over other people as we chafed under the authoritarianism of Mormonism and rail against it still.

I agree with your take on it, Amyjo. Except for this statement:

"That's as evil a practice [dead dunking], maybe moreso, than ethnic cleansing."

I would be 180 on that - ethnic cleansing is perpetrated against living persons. The dead person doesn't know about the dead-dunking (and even if they did, it has no power over them, they are not bound by it, it can't cause them anguish and grief and physical pain as well as all the other accompanying horrors of crimes against humanity).

Aspects of ethnic cleansing include forced migration (deportation), intimidation (to say the least), mass murder, genocidal rape, enslavement, destruction of physical and cultural aspects of the targeted population and other utter atrocities. It is seen as akin to the Final Solution (from Wiki).

I would be cautious about use of terms like Final Solution and Holocaust, certainly in comparison to much more minor events (I'm not saying you're doing this, Amyjo. It's just my summation of my thoughts).

So yeah, I hate the dead-dunking thing too, like many exmos. But atrocities against the living, to me, are astronomically worse.

I think it was the Apostle Paul (or somebody) who said they can kill my body but not my soul or spirit.

True dat (even if in spirit only, so to speak, for non-believers).

And the parallel is that you can dead-dunk me (and I'd hate it if I knew ahead) but that don't make me a Mormon. You can put me in Spirit Prison but I will never yield.

Did it (Mormonis) once. Hated it. Learned.

And if I'm lucky, my name will be off their books in time for me to die in peace. Maybe none of them can be bothered about me, alive or dead.

I shed no tears over that.

But I still hate the dead-dunking thing.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 10:43PM by Nightingale.

I realize it was strong language to use. Yet if one stops to think through what exactly it means when the Mormons engage in this practice as innocent sounding as they try to make it, is it is an annihilation of the collective conscience of an entire class of people. Those who are non or ex-Mormons, who have made a conscious choice not to be one of them - by will.

Jews are in another category of a collective group who was purged through pogroms and genocides to cleanse them of their "disease" of being non-Christian. We as a country and a people accept it is illegal and against our ingrained humanity to force religion on another. It really should be no different after death, than before.

With Jewish faith to have been subjected to persecution and anti-Semitism for millenia because their beliefs didn't match up with that of their persecutors, Mormons shouldn't get a pass because they engage in that after the Jew becomes deceased. It is still anti-Semitic at its core, as it attempts to deny the Jewish right of self-determination to remain a Jew in death as they were in life.

The outrage is just as great in my book as ethnic purging to erase Jews from the earth. The reason I find it more egregious is because of the rationalization that takes place by Mormons that it's to offer them the full realization of eternal blessings if they "only accept in the afterlife." Otherwise it basically tells them and others no one else is good enough to attain God's fullest blessings unless we subject ourselves to Mormonism's nonsense.

So yes, it's nonsense on one hand. On the other hand, it's deadly serious business they have no right to be involved with - the self-determination and free will of each person to decide for themselves what they will believe and their own faith journey. It's the utmost disrespect and degradation of the human soul. They may not be able to kill the soul, but in the attempt to deny the soul its right to be sovereign is the Mormon's way of trying to destroy the worth of the individual.

For those of us living, like myself, fully Jewish and a resigned Mormon - it is the utmost sacrilege to know that in the future I can expect this degradation to occur for me - and there ought to be a way to opt out of it. Where is that right for me? Why isn't it on the books now? The collective conscience is awakened, and it won't be silenced as long as there are dissidents who adamantly oppose that god awful practice, worse than death.

It shouldn't need to be something to have to "opt out" of. It needs to stop.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:17PM by Amyjo.

I am so disturbed by the necro (I love that term) dunking that I wrote the LDS Church and demanded that they put my name on a list to not be baptized. I am a former member and had my name taken off the records. I told them I knew full well I would not want this done after I am dead, and that if their god was so petty to demand paperwork from earth to get acceptance, I didn't want any part of their god. I am worried my sister (she has six kids) or her descendants would do this work after I am gone. I DEMANDED they not baptize me. I said I knew I wasn't a Holocaust victim, but since they were allowed to be on a "non-baptize" list, I wanted to be on a list.
I received a letter from Dennis Brimhall, Family History Dept Managing Director, stating they had several requests like this and they were going to discuss it in an upcoming meeting.
I later received another letter (unsigned) stating that they would not "initiate" my baptism for the dead. In other words, they blew me off.
We need large groups of people to get together to demand this practice be stopped for those who have left the LDS Church.

I respect your thoughts about this, Amyjo. I am not going to argue about how you should interpret it or what you should feel about it.

You said "...with Jewish faith to have been subjected to persecution and anti-Semitism for millenia because their beliefs didn't match up with that of their persecutors,..."

I thought it was because of the (ridiculous) charge of deicide that they were persecuted and also being the eternal scapegoats, blamed for everything that went wrong, including economic crises and even the plague. But religious beliefs were also in the mix, for sure, leading to the irrational thinking and blaming and persecuting. I've never thought it was because "you must believe like us" but maybe that has been part of it too.

I didn't say that Mormons should "get a pass", in case that's the way you read my post.

And I agree that one should not have to opt out. Same with resignation. We shouldn't have to take action to indicate we want out. Merely not showing up should be a strong and obvious statement.

We do agree that dead-dunking is wrong every which way.

And I thought they had agreed to stop it at least with Jewish people.

But apparently Mormon leaders lie.

What a surprise.

Those are my words, I own them. It wasn't referring to what you were saying.

There are other reasons why Jews have been persecuted for millenia, but religion is not least among them.

With the dead dunking, Mormonism's right to practice their religion ends where my rights begin. Or should. I'm astonished this singular issue hasn't been litigated yet. I expect it will in the foreseeable future. It isn't only the Jewish religion that has an interest in having this practice stopped. If more people were aware of the insidiousness of it, I'm sure there would be more public outrage than there already is.

Not litigated but Mormon Church leaders gave their word they would stop the practice when it comes to a Jewish person who has died.

They lied.

Perhaps it will only be resolved by litigation as is the way with many issues. I'd love to see it happen.

But religion is a tough nut to crack. Here in Canada some FLDS parents/leaders are coming up in court on charges relating to taking their underage girls across the border to the US (child trafficking) for the purposes of "marriage". Some have their first child before their 16th birthday. The incidents in question took place years ago but first, there are inordinate delays in getting cases to court in Canada and second, the federal govt waffles about whether to bring charges when the case relates to "religious freedom". The feds are involved because religious freedom comes under the purvue of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms and so a case like this is federal govt jurisdiction even though it's happening in one province. They cannot seem to decide whether freedom of religion is the primary right (even including beliefs such as polygamy and having "child brides") or whether children should be protected over and above the parents' rights. However, in principle it is agreed that children's rights prevail over a parent's right to freedom of religion. (So why the long delay in sorting it out?)

Seems self-evident to most of us. Apparently it's a snarly problem for them. Not unreasonably or unusually, they operate on the basis of only prosecuting a case if they have a high likelihood of winning it and to date have not been sure of that.

How protected is the Mormon Church when it comes to their freedom to choose to perform their dead-dunking ritual, even for non-Mormons? Most outsiders, many current members and even exmos don't consider that it's any big deal to use someone's name in an obscure religious ritual, especially if they don't even know about it or they are deceased. There are ways to make the ritual sound palatable and harmless, even well meaning.

We don't see it that way. But it's often difficult to explain to outsiders.

I well understand the outrage about the practice and hope it's only a matter of time before it is examined by non-mos and found to be distasteful, if not illegal. But maybe a lot of bad press will persuade the Mormon leaders to have a revelation to cease and desist. They care about their image and public perception. The unchangeable doctrines can be surprisingly malleable when it's expedient.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2016 01:57AM by Nightingale.

Nightingale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Not litigated but Mormon Church leaders gave their
> word they would stop the practice when it comes to
> a Jewish person who has died.
>
> They lied.
>
> Perhaps it will only be resolved by litigation as
> is the way with many issues. I'd love to see it
> happen.
>
> But religion is a tough nut to crack. Here in
> Canada some FLDS parents/leaders are coming up in
> court on charges relating to taking their underage
> girls across the border to the US (child
> trafficking) for the purposes of "marriage". Some
> have their first child before their 16th birthday.
> The incidents in question took place years ago but
> first, there are inordinate delays in getting
> cases to court in Canada and second, the federal
> govt waffles about whether to bring charges when
> the case relates to "religious freedom". The feds
> are involved because religious freedom comes under
> the purvue of our Charter of Rights and Freedoms
> and so a case like this is federal govt
> jurisdiction even though it's happening in one
> province. They cannot seem to decide whether
> freedom of religion is the primary right (even
> including beliefs such as polygamy and having
> "child brides") or whether children should be
> protected over and above the parents' rights.
> However, in principle it is agreed that children's
> rights prevail over a parent's right to freedom of
> religion. (So why the long delay in sorting it
> out?)
>
> Seems self-evident to most of us. Apparently it's
> a snarly problem for them. Not unreasonably or
> unusually, they operate on the basis of only
> prosecuting a case if they have a high likelihood
> of winning it and to date have not been sure of
> that.
>

Statutory rape would be the charge here in the United States in addition to the child trafficking charges of underage girls being given by parents to arranged marriages of older men. That was one of the charges that put away Warren Jeffs finally, after the law caught up to him.

> How protected is the Mormon Church when it comes
> to their freedom to choose to perform their
> dead-dunking ritual, even for non-Mormons? Most
> outsiders, many current members and even exmos
> don't consider that it's any big deal to use
> someone's name in an obscure religious ritual,
> especially if they don't even know about it or
> they are deceased. There are ways to make the
> ritual sound palatable and harmless, even well
> meaning.
>
> We don't see it that way. But it's often difficult
> to explain to outsiders.

It's very disrespectful to not only the deceased person's memory and all they believed. It's also highly disrespectful to their family and loved ones who are still living. These people want nothing to do with the Mormon religion in life or in death.

Elie Wiesel was outraged and sickened when he learned he was scheduled for post-humous baptism, right along with his then deceased parents, while he was still living. Even if he'd just learned it were his parents that were necro dunked, I doubt his outrage would have been any less. The Mormons have no right to sully the memory of the living or the dead this way. A Jew in life is a Jew in death. They consider themselves to be the "beacon on the hill" Christ spoke of in his parables. The Mormon religion is a cheap substitute for Jewish wisdom. It's also an insult to the memory of those loved ones who've already passed on.

Many Jews have been forced to assimilate through the centuries or face certain death by their foes. For those Jews who withstood that onslaught, to them death was a better option than giving up their cherished beliefs they hold dear. Their God is/was mightier than the sword and would avenge them to their enemies. No one, including the Mormons, can say they love God, while attempting to force their religion onto others post-humously. To the Jew, is another denial of their God given right of self-determination and free will, and the ultimate sacrilege and act of anti-Semitism to their deceased loved ones memory.

>
> I well understand the outrage about the practice
> and hope it's only a matter of time before it is
> examined by non-mos and found to be distasteful,
> if not illegal. But maybe a lot of bad press will
> persuade the Mormon leaders to have a revelation
> to cease and desist. They care about their image
> and public perception. The unchangeable doctrines
> can be surprisingly malleable when it's expedient.

Mormons have been very astute at bucking the system for as long as they can get away with it, unless such time the law intervenes and gives an ultimatum to cease and desist. Polygamy became outlawed only after the federal government stepped in and called it unconstitutional. After it was outlawed, the practice splintered off from the corporate religion, and went underground. With the post-humous baptisms they are only done in the corporate LDS church. Once it's been mandated by the courts, if ever, to cease and desist, the church would obey that because it knows it would have to or face the wrath of the judicial system.

Or Hotu Matua, or Aeneas or Romulus and Remus?

How about Dekanawida or his speaker Hiawatha?

Have they also been necro-baptised?

Do legends also get to have a choice of being offered Mormonism in the afterlife?

How does this differ from practices in other religions that make ritual offerings to the dead?



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 11/27/2016 03:40AM by anybody.

The high kings of Ireland have been necro dunked. They go back to BC by several or more centuries, and are considered mythical legends of Ireland.

Thank you, Steve!!!

:)

The dead can't say no...

Imagine being a 12 or 13-year-old boy, taken to the temple with the promise of pizza and ice cream afterwards. It's a bit of a chore, but you're with your friends, you're expected to go. You go.

You put on your baptismal robe and wade into the font. On your wrist is a band with a name, you are to give to the Melchizedek priesthood holder. He puts his his arm around you, raises his arm, and says, "Brother _______, having been commissioned of Jesus Christ, I baptize you, for and in behalf of Adolph Hitler (or Joseph Stalin or Fidel Castro or Jack the Ripper...," who is dead, in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost. Amen.