Mormon Church's Pathetic Disrespect of Holocaust Survivors
This comes from a fellow Daily Gotham editor:
This is so pathetic and so disgusting it is hard to believe. First of all, the sheer gall of converting ANYONE without their permission, let alone people slaughtered for believing in THEIR OWN religion, makes the Mormon Church one of the disgustingly rude groups I have heard of. But beyond that, it is pathetic! They are so desperate to be liked that they have to make up imaginary lists of converts to make themselves feel special! What losers!
The Mormon "church" has been in the news quite a lot lately, due to that organization's successful attack on the civil rights of LGBTQ Americans in California. However, coverage drives more coverage, and now, there's this.
Holocaust survivors to Mormons: Stop baptisms of dead Jews
Holocaust survivors said Monday they are through trying to negotiate with the Mormon church over posthumous baptisms of Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps, saying the church has repeatedly violated a 13-year-old agreement barring the practice.
Leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints say they are making changes to their massive genealogical database that will make it more difficult for names of Holocaust victims to be entered for posthumous baptism by proxy, a rite that has been a common Mormon practice for more than a century.
But Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that is not enough. At a news conference in New York City on Monday, he said the church also must "implement a mechanism to undo what you have done."
"Baptism of a Jewish Holocaust victim and then merely removing that name from the database is just not acceptable," said Michel, whose parents died at Auschwitz. He spoke on the 70th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the Nazi-incited riots against Jews.
"We ask you to respect us and our Judaism just as we respect your religion," Michel said in a statement released ahead of the news conference. "We ask you to leave our six million Jews, all victims of the Holocaust, alone, they suffered enough."
Is it even possible to do anything more offensive?
This is so pathetic and so disgusting it is hard to believe. First of all, the sheer gall of converting ANYONE without their permission, let alone people slaughtered for believing in THEIR OWN religion, makes the Mormon Church one of the disgustingly rude groups I have heard of. But beyond that, it is pathetic! They are so desperate to be liked that they have to make up imaginary lists of converts to make themselves feel special! What losers!
posted by mole333 | 6:07 PM
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2 comments
2 Comments:
Though I suppose this post to be futile, I wanted to give a little bit more context on the practice of Baptism for the dead as practiced in the Mormon church. Baptism for the dead is not forced conversion as you suggest, but a voluntary proxy action. Mormons believe that the dead currently are essentially still living as spirits and have full ability to think, talk reason and etc. Thus, they believe that individuals after death can have a spiritual conversion. They also, however, believe that a physical baptism is a vital part in accepting christ. Both a spiritual and physical conversion are needed. One without the other does not have the full effect. Thus, the practice of proxy baptism does not force anyone to be a member. It merely gives them an option that they can no longer exercise after death.
Even still, the practice of baptizing against families wishes holocaust victims is quite abhorrent which is why the church itself widely condemns it. It is very difficult to monitor the actions of individual members acting in temples throughout the country and was essentially impossible before the revolution of digital technology of the past few years. It is unfortunate that such a practice continues, but it is not a systematic or top down injustice but one of over zealous members going beyond what is rightful practice.
Your comment is welcome, and context may help some readers understand what you believe the Mormon Church is doing.
I will say that in the official LDS records a friend of mine (not Jewish, mind you) found such an unwanted, postumous conversion of his father recorded. It is fine to distance yourself from such practice and to clothe it in theological minutiae, but the fact remains that official church records document a practice that many would find abhorent.
I will also add that this is a particularly delicate subject for Jews who have been the subject of coerced and unwanted conversion for centuries. What may be theological nicities to you may in no way alter the gut level revulsion this will create among many Jews whose long, long history has contained countless threats, overt and subtle, to our beliefs and identity. A "vountary proxy action" on your part may yet be seen as an unwanted intrusion on our cultural identity. I have no beef against Mormons believing and practicing as they wish. But I am very hostile to ANY religion (my own included) imposing its beliefs on others either politically (as in the marriage equality issue) or personally (as in the case of "a voluntary proxy action" done on the part of our ancestors). I would imagine Mormons would also be sensitive to such threats to identity given their history, but perhaps it is hard to project one's own senitivities to others.
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