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 Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal.
February 15th, 2012
04:21 PM ET
Mormons apologize for posthumous baptisms of Wiesenthal's parentsBy Moni Basu, CNN (CNN) - The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has apologized for "a serious breach of protocol" in which the parents of the late Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal were posthumously baptized as Mormons. The church also acknowledged that three relatives of Holocaust survivor Elie Wiesel were entered into the genealogy database, though not referred for baptism. Asher Wiesenthal and Rosa Rapp were baptised in proxy ceremonies in temples in Utah and Arizona, according to the database records discovered by researcher Helen Radkey in Salt Lake City. The Wiesenthal baptisms violated a 1995 pact in which the church agreed to stop baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims. "We sincerely regret that the actions of an individual member of the church led to the inappropriate submission of these names," said church spokesman Michael Purdy. "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." Mormons believe that they may be baptized by proxy for deceased ancestors who never had that opportunity. Church members, however, are supposed to request such baptisms only for their own relatives, Purdy said. The agreement over Holocaust victims came about after it was discovered that hundreds and thousands of names had been entered into Mormon records. Jewish leaders said it was sacrilegious for Mormons to suggest Jews on their own were not worthy enough to receive God's eternal blessing. Radkey, who has been tracking Mormon genealogy records for a while for people who ought not to be there, said she inadvertently stumbled upon the Wiesenthal name a few weeks ago. Among others people she discovered had been baptized by proxy is President Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham. The Simon Wiesenthal Center denounced the baptisms. Wiesenthal's father died in combat in World War I. His mother perished at the Belzec concentration camp in 1942. Holocaust survivor Simon Wiesenthal died in 2005 after spending years hunting down Nazis. "We are outraged that such insensitive actions continue in the Mormon Temples," said Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wiesenthal Center, who participated in many of the high-level meetings between Jews and Mormon officials. "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," he said in a written statement. He expressed gratitude to Radkey for "exposing the latest outrage." Radkey also found the names of relatives of Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor, author and Nobel Peace Prize laureate. "In this case, the Wiesel family names were not submitted for baptisms but simply entered into a genealogical database," Purdy said. "Our system would have rejected those names had they been submitted." Purdy said it was "distressing" that church members had violated policy and regretted that "an offering based on love and respect becomes a source of contention." Radkey said the church makes such breaches possible because any member can submit a name not connected to their own family. "There are way too many entries slipping through the cracks, including Jewish Holocaust victims," she said. "It's (the Mormons') belief to save the dead that is causing the problem." Wiesel, meanwhile, told the Huffington Post that Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, who is Mormon, should speak to his own church and tell them to stop the practice of proxy baptisms on Jews. soundoff (2,053 Responses)« Previous 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 Next »
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The CNN Belief Blog covers the faith angles of the day's biggest stories, from breaking news to politics to entertainment, fostering a global conversation about the role of religion and belief in readers' lives. It's edited by CNN's Daniel Burke with contributions from Eric Marrapodi and CNN's worldwide news gathering team.  |
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You think I can stick Muammar Gaddafi in there and they won't even notice it,this just proves religion is the most Idiotic thing in the world,I tell Mormons that show up at my door I am Muslim,you should see the look on their faces.
For extra lulz try telling them something like you're a member of ancient Pagan religion of Slovakia or something. "now if you'll excuse me gentlemen, the sacrificial pyre must be hot enough now and I have sheep to behead for it."
Mormons are just as nervous when they come to my door. They know that Catholics believe things that are as crazy or crazier than they do and the chances of getting a Catholic to convert from one extremely controlling religion to another is unlikely.
I'm going to shower..errr...I mean baptize my dead cat.
I'm taking it upon myself to officially baptise all deceased Mormons into The Church of Satan. How do you like that?
Fine with me. Satan is already after my soul and yours. It wouldn't mean a thing.
We believe in Tolerance of Religious views. Baptizing someone, by proxy, against their chosen religious views seems to be the opposite of tolerance. Therefore, you can now baptize friends and strangers to Notm Ormon, at http://www.notmormon.com.
the government should sell dead souls to the religions. they can bid on dead people, half the money goes to the family, half to pay off the debt, and then let them spend all their tax-free dollars and grant money on paying us back in a wasted effort.
The baptism's are for the deceased only. They do not have to accept it...
Baptisms are a rite of the pagan perversion of Judaism called Christianity. Hashem does not accept any of those acts of evil to begin with, so your point is irrelevant.
Judaism is the only true faith and all these heretical versions of it like Christianity and Islam are false, pagan, blasphemous, and reject the Covenant Abraham made with the Eternal One, the Ten Commandments, the Tanakh, the one and only Book, and Talmud the codification of the Tanakh. Remember that, ONE, not three, Christians, with your ridiculously obvious idolatry worshiping "saints". Not praying to a meteorite, lying about being descended from Ishmael, murdering Jews among others Muslims. These Mormons and other sanctimonious weirdos like them therefore have no valid rites whatsoever.
How about some apologies to Catholics, Protestants, Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, Shintoists, etc etc etc next? I know we don't have our own version of the ADL but come on now...
"Jewish leaders said it was sacrilegious for Mormons to suggest Jews on their own were not worthy enough to receive God's eternal blessing. "................................................This is the kind of absurd situation you get when you take religion too seriously. Reminds me of the famous quotation from Mark Twain: "I believe in the True Religion, all 342 of them." My pet rock has more credibility than Mitt's religion.
So Brian how is that any different than a Marxist Communist condemning or not acknowledging a Maoist or Leninist? Whether politics or religion it's a matter of ideology. Religion has no monopoly on hatred or being perverted by evil.
The whole idea of baptizing someone after they are dead is ludicrous. If the deceased did not choose to be baptized while alive, then it is a done deal and is between him and God. It amazes me that Mormons believe in this practice;but then again, if they can accept the whole Mormon theology, I guess they might buy idea as this well.
Baptism for the dead? Another meaningless ritual from Mormonism. Dead people cannot make the decision to follow Jesus.
Why in the world does he think that Romney should be responsible for fixing this issue? He is a member of te church. Along with millions of others. I can't imagine that one member has so much authority in the church that he has all that much influence. Ridiculous.
exactly. if only this same principle applied to all the muslims who are peaceful, too. a few bad apples and then suddenly the whole religion is at question.
Honestly, who cares? Do you really think their rituals have any effect on anything or anyone? They're just doing their own version of booga booga. It's completely meaningless. Their believing in something doesn't make it so.
yet another reason why religion ruins everything.
Right, people get upset about the most ridiculous things
Prayer changes things
.... in your head
Atheism has been working great for thousands of years. what evidence do you have to back up your argument?
There has been plenty of evidence for prayer changing things presented. Only idiots would claim otherwise. Atheism has a long history of its adherents changing living people into dead ones by the millions.
Do people NOT KNOW that the reason the Morman's have the biggest (and growing) private genealogy database in the WORLD is so that they can baptize ANYONE who has died!!??!! And they do. Without permission from families. Worldwide. An entire block in downtown Salt Lake City is dedicated to housing such research. Good luck in breaking the code to get in to this secretive, tax-free "religious" society aka: cult.
Please, are the gods so stupid that just because an alive person claims a dead one is now a different religion said god would have to throw them out of their old religion heaven and send them to the other heaven??? Really, some of you are more obsessed with dead people than the ones living.
I'm not Mormon but I am a genealogist. Your information is incorrect. The LDS Church does not randomly and systematically baptize individuals who are in the genealogy records in the LDS library. The information for the baptism is submitted with the genealogy information proving the connection of this ancestor to you. The only individuals that submit these baptisms are Mormon. The information is in the LDS library and you can see it. The Sealing which is the process has a number and you can research that information. This baptism or sealing is a part of the Mormon belief that if the living are not 'Sealed" with their ancestors they they will not spend eternity together. The LDS Library has amassed probably the largest repository of records for use by ANYONE to do their research at NO expense. The LDS Library is currently with the help of thousands of volunteers (of which you do NOT have to be Mormon) are transcribing the information to go up online and it will be available to the public again at NO EXPENSE. This process is a part of the Mormon beliefs. As I said I'm not Mormon but I have cousins that are and they have patiently explained and answered all my questions about Mormonism. I don't agree with their beliefs, but I do respect their right to believe.
What a load of garbage. Why would they need a full city block to house such a database? I don't care how big it is, a few racks in a data center would be sufficient. As far as becoming a Mormon is concerned, I gather it's not difficult. I've met several Mormon converts.
Really. Take off that tinfoil hat for a while.
They should blow up that abomination you call a Church in Salt Lake City.
Rabbi, I see no harm. This is a request to the Almighty for acceptance to heaven, not a pox. You need to start worrying about the beeeeeeg problems out there and not this.
The bigotry, violence, intolerance, misogyny,hatred, corruption of children, and self-centeredness of religion is the BIG problem.
Except that Judaism is the only true faith and all these heretical versions of it like Christianity and Islam are false, pagan, blasphemous, and reject the Covenant Abraham made with the Eternal One, the Ten Commandments, the Tanakh, the one and only Book, and Talmud the codification of the Tanakh. Remember that, ONE, not three, Christians, with your ridiculously obvious idolatry worshiping "saints". Not praying to a meteorite, lying about being descended from Ishmael, murdering Jews among others Muslims.
hum... the lack of intelligence in the comments sections just makes it not even worth leaving one...
I'm not Jewish, but I still NEVER want to be baptized into the Mormon church. That goes for now and for when I'm dead! I wish there was some way to prevent this practice. I wonder if it can be put into a will?
As do you I trust in Hashem that any act of these heretics, be they "Christian", "Muslim", "Mormon", etc. are null and void to begin with. The heretics and blasphemers then have the nerve to blame or attack us when they know our path is true, that we follow the Covenant, and they do not.
This is really funny. I'm not familiar with Mormon posthumous proxy baptism, but my understanding of baptism is that it can't be rescinded, only renounced. I guess the Wiesenthals are Christians wherever they are.
Wrong heretic, Christianity is a Jewish heresy corrupted by paganism, tritheism, lies, blasphemy, and to top it off insults the true path of Hashem.
Actually there not Christian, they are Mormon. Two different things.
I guess the Mormons aren't here in force yet. They really believe they are Christians.
I am...and exactly when did you become my judge anyways? I don't need your permission to believe in Jesus Christ.
Can't see what the fuss is about. The baptism only has power if you believe in the religion. Obviously, they don't...what can it hurt?
Christianity is a Jewish heresy, like Islam. Therefore all "baptisms" are heretical, not Jewish and therefore null. These Mormons are the Scientologists of the 19th century. They will burn for this.
It is highly disrespectful to the deceased and their families to forcibly "make" them christian by going through the motions of a baptism.
Millions of Jewish people died in the Holocaust for their beliefs. Why do Mormons have a right to Posthumously convert them? If they wanted to be Mormon they would have converted BEFORE they were killed and they would have done it themselves. It is an offense to their memories and their beliefs to change their religion after dying for being Jewish.
Mormons are not Christians
I believe the practice is being misunderstood. I am pretty sure that Mormons do not believe that proxy baptisms automatically convert anyone. The belief is that it creates the opportunity for someone to accept the baptism after death. Those recieving proxy baptism are not concidered converts. This belief is being distorted to make it sound more ridiculous. If you think the idea is stupid why do you need to distort the belief furthur?
I could never get a straight answer about the policy of baptizing people whose names have appeared in records owned by the LDS Church. I am Catholic of Irish descent and do not appreciate any baptizing of my ancestors; this is the reason I do not contribute my family information to the LDS library.