Why does the LDS (Mormon) Church do so much work in genealogy? Is it a method of proselytizing?
Der Aldt
The LDS church believes in performing ordinances (such as baptism) on behalf of the dead who did not have a chance to recieve those ordinances in thier life.
We therefore concentrate on Geneological research in order to find the names of our anscestors, so that we can preform those ordinances.
crap. I thought this was a thread about LSD! Damn my dyslexia. :o
You should also be aware that the Mormon Church does not believe or teach that the (dead) persons for whom these ordinances are performed automatically become Mormons because of this.
Their conversion and consent are still required; but if they should choose, in the hereafter, to accept the teachings of the LDS Church they are unable to be baptized since baptism is a physical ordinance and they no longer have physical bodies. So they are baptized by proxy to fulfill this requirement.
Some people have misunderstood this activity as a form of proselytizing but this is incorrect. One of the fundamental tenets of the Mormon religion is that men are free to act for themselves. Baptism for the dead is done in the hope that those for whom it is carried out will accept the teachings of the Church, but it is not sufficient without the acquiescence of the person involved.
What are their beliefs in the afterlife? People who are not Mormons can hang around and watch their descendents after they die? That’s what it seems to imply.
That IS what it seems to imply… Why do you ask?