Baptism for the dead,?

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Mercury7

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I have been doing some ancestry research lately trying to find many of my relatives from time past. My neighbor ( who is a mormon) pulls up a site ( family search.com) and it was amazing how easy it was to see old relatives. But she logged on using some secret mormon password or virtual handshake, and we were able to see much more than a non believer would see.

I was just floored to see many of my relatives (who have been dead for over 20 years) had been baptized in the mormon organization, in fact it was recorded right on the screen that they were baptized ! And the scary part for me, is that someone actually physically did this. They went through the ceremony in behalf of my relatives without letting any of the living non believers know what was going on. Many of the dead people that I knew were very staunch Catholics all of their lives. In fact, when they were buried the comment “rest in peace” was prayed about many times.

What gives the mormons the right to take strangers and do this to their memory ? I find it VERY disturbing how they talk about religious freedom, and yet imagine that approaching a person in heaven who should be resting IN PEACE talking to them about changing their lifelong religion.
 
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I find it stranger that they think it possible to change someone’s religion in Heaven. I’m not even talking about things being set after death. Surely if someone is in communion with God their attention is already where it needs to be.
 
thank you for your reply. Growing up in a Catholic family, this actually scares me. I don’t believe it at all, but the arrogance of actually believing, and approaching someone in heaven with this material is not correct at all. Feel like I need to stand up for my relatives, and for their belief’s. Very disturbing to realize that a religion believes this.
 
Agreed. There’s no reason to baptize someone without their consent or to suggest that someone is of a religion that the person does not believe.

It has no effect on the person’s afterlife, but it is arrogant.
 
Look at it this way: Either the Mormon religion is right, or it’s not.

If the Mormons are right: Aren’t you glad they’re doing this for everyone? I mean, how unfortunate, that you and all your ancestors wasted your lives on the wrong religion. Thank God the Mormons will posthumously save you.

If the Mormons are wrong: Then their baptism has no effect. It’s an inert, empty ritual. It has no power in this world or the next. It shouldn’t bother you at all if they baptize you, or anyone else, because it makes no difference.

So no matter how you look at it, there’s no reason to be upset. 🙂
 
I’m not really sure why this is causing such agitation, as
  • it has absolutely no effect on the deceased people’s souls
  • nor does it result in any kind of change to official historical records, e.g. the US Census for 1910 doesn’t go back and change Great Grandma’s record to Mormon because she was “baptized after death” in 1990
  • nor does it have any effect on the living descendants, e.g. you’re not expected to join the Mormons or send them your money because Great Grandma got baptized after death by your cousin.
 
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As a long-time avid genealogist, I belong to several genealogy sites - if they are Mormon owned, it’s my understanding that any person entered, if not already in the database, is (not sure I’m using the correct term) “sealed” by the Mormon Church - seems to me there’s a way you can see that when you pull up additional details on a given individual.

Pretty sure that anyone who is not Mormon just ignores that bit of info.
 
Thank you for your reply. The reason for me is the fact that in their belief system they just assume they can present their viewpoints after a person is dead. We weren’t successful during their past life on earth, now we have a brand new avenue of harassing them during eternity, I find that very disturbing, let the dead rest.
 
The arrogance is what disturbs me. Most of them were Catholic all of their lives. Thank you for your thoughts.
 
I’m an ex mormon who has been to the temple a few times. Is it arrogant for them to baptize dead people? I guess, but since it’s all meaningless who cares? Let them waste their time.
 
I empathize with your concerns for that Mormon/LDS ritual of baptism of the dead.

I’m glad that someone pointed out how this is an empty ritual and that looking at this matter logically, there is no reason to fear it or be upset.

If you look at the history of Mormonism and what Joseph Smith claimed he did and happened to him, then you can see that he retold the story of his wandering between several Christian churches where he couldn’t accept someone’s authority over him. He combined beliefs from many denominations, as he said he explored many of the churches during the “Great Awakening.” He taught that subjective experiences determine the truth of claims, which is how he got a lot of people to believe in his wild claims.

If you allow yourself see the parallels, he took the Catholic and Jewish practice of praying for the dead and recast it as baptisms of the dead. He didn’t have the theological understanding or training to understand what he was combining.

That is why the LDS church is a syncretic religion combining elements and beliefs of Roman Catholic and/or Episcopalian, Presbyterian, Lutheran, Baptist and even Masonic religion and rituals into one man-made religion designed to serve those at the top.

They are very insular as their belief system is fragile if they are not continually reminded of it, and they are free to believe whatever they want as long as they keep their temple activities and tithing going. If they socialize or come in contact with outsiders, they are a bit cold to non-members unless they are actively on a mission to convert others.

I feel bad for them. It was the first man-made religion that I came into contact with or heard about. They really need our prayers.
 
Mercury7 said:
now we have a brand new avenue of harassing them during eternity, I find that very disturbing, let the dead rest.
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I don’t think it’s bothering the deceased person at all. The dead are beyond caring about that. From a Catholic standpoint, such a practice has no effect on the dead. It is only bothering you, the living relative. So it might be better for you to say it is arrogant in that it disturbs living descendants.
 
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thank you for your logical explanation regarding this topic. The one aspect that really gets me is the arrogance regarding this belief, sure if they believe this is true concern yourself with your own relatives. Just using the names of anyone who died seems very intrusive.
 
yes, you nailed it. It bothers me more than the dead people. Thanks for your insightful opinion 🙂
 
Just as Catholics do not consider a Mormon baptism to be valid, Mormons do not consider ANY non-Mormon baptism to be valid. I don’t think it’s weird at all.
 
RuthAnne said:
Adolf and Eva Braun Hitler are happy Mormonites, too.
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Not necessarily. Every temple ordinance must be accepted by the individual themselves and also must be sealed by the Holy Spirit. This example shows that it is not our place to judge anyone.
 
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thanks, your comment really helps me see the reality of this belief.
 
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