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=eng0Current--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)
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Edited 7 time(s). Last edit at 11/26/2016 11:33AM by steve benson.