Inspired by this thread, but seeking a factual answer. If you want to debate the rightness or wrongness of the practice, go over there.
I know that the LDS Church has a policy of NOT performing proxy (posthumous) baptism on people who died in the Holocaust. I also understand that there have been efforts to remove obviously Jewish names from lists of people destined for proxy baptism.
What about others who wish to ensure that they (or their deceased loved ones) are not included in this practice after death? Does the LDS Church maintain some kind of central “do not proxy baptize” registry? If so, how would I get on that list?
I got my name on the National Do Not Baptise List but they just keep on baptising me. And always right as I’m sitting down to dinner!
Seriously, though, you can ask them to remove references to you by emailing dataprivacyofficer @ lds . org, but I don’t know if they’ll say yes. Or actually do it, even if they do say yes.
I’m kinda hopin’ they do proxy baptize me. I figure, all I need is one ancestor, and whoohoo, mormon heaven…Ok. If you find out where to get not-proxy-baptised, make sure we all know.
Again, not commenting on the propriety of it - but the policy has been repeatedly violated and removed names have been put back into the database, so why would you think that getting on a do-not-baptize list would have any real effect?
I don’t get the outrage against this, possibly because I’m not religious. I definitely don’t understand the outrage against Mormons baptising people who are already dead, do you think they’re going to care?
I wouldn’t care, but I can see how religious people might.
Would you find it objectionable if somebody had sex with the corpse of one of your recently deceased relatives? I mean, it’s not like she’s going to care.
It’s not their policy, per se; they were inundated with complaints when people found out what they were doing, and they agreed to remove Holocaust victims from their records.
The problem is that the listings to be baptized are made up by overeager laypeople, like my mother in law, who “know” that the Church didn’t really mean that, and that the Jewish people are overreacting to her helpful listing.:rolleyes:
Just because we mean well doesn’t mean we aren’t dumb and insensitive.
Don’t worry. If you unexpectedly end up in Mormon Heaven there’s an appeal process to have your baptism revoked. Look for the pile of blue forms on the table to the right of the door.
They are relevantly analogous. Each is a case of one party doing something posthumously to another party, where the other party’s own friends or relatives interpret that action as disrespectful.
To some people, they do, to the extent that both acts are equally gratuitous and outrageous.
Religion is not rational. Intellectually, I tell myself that if the teachings of the LDS Church are correct, my soul/spirit/neshamah/incorporeal essence will probably reject their offer of posthumous conversion; if my understanding of things is correct, all LDS ordinances are ineffective and without merit. My gut, however, tells me that proxy baptism is at best presumptuous and at worst an active assault on my own beliefs. So I’d like to know if there’s some action I can take in order to have some chance that they’ll leave me out of the whole business.