Jewish Leaders Want the Mormon Church to Stop Authorizing "Baptism for the Dead" for Holocaust Victims

Mormons believe that those who have died without a proper LDS baptism will not have a chance at reaching the "Celestial Kingdom" and progressing towards "Godhood." So they see it as a kind and loving thing to baptize the dead (with a living proxy) in order to give them a (first or) second chance.

Unfortunately, Jewish leaders have demanded that the Mormon church stop baptizing deceased Jews, especially those who perished in the Holocaust (read the story here). Although over 300,000 names of dead Jews have been removed from the public LDS Baptismal Rolls, Mormon leaders will make no promises that it would not continue to occur in the future.

When I served as an Associate Pastor in Logan, Utah, for six-and-a-half years, I stopped by the LDS geneological library in Salt Lake City's Temple Square. Just for the fun of it I looked up the names of famous people who had been baptized by proxy. Sure enough, there she was, Queen Elizabeth I of England!

I say, let them keep on with their baptizing. It doesn't hurt anyone and their motivation is honorable. World-wide there are over 30,000 children who die from hunger or disease every day...not to mention 300,000 killed in one day last December with the South Asian tsunami disaster. Now that's a lot of catching up to do in the proxy baptism business!

Click on picture to enlarge

Somehow I cannot picture John the Baptist dunking Jesus in the Jordan River over and over and over again as a proxy for poor old King Herod the Great, Julius Ceasar, Socrates, Moses, Elijah and King Nebuchadnezzar!

Still, I suppose that there are some who will be glad for anything that keeps Mormons off of the streets and off of their bicycles!