Farcical Moments in Interfaith Relations
On the same day that two Eastern Orthodox Christian sects get in a bloody brawl over a church in Jerusalem (warning, graphic video), we get this truly insane story of a fracas over baptism between Mormons, Jews, and Catholics.
Apparently, Mormons are allowed to perform a ritual that is intended to “baptize” dead ancestors so that those ancestors can get to heaven. This “baptism” is purely virtual, since of course the dead ancestors were not actually Mormons, and aren’t around to attend the ceremony themselves.
One would think that such a policy would make it difficult for the Mormons to attract new members, since you needn’t become a Mormon yourself to get into heaven. All that is needed is for one distant descendant to perform some ritual, and your entire family tree is grandfathered into heaven.
Rather than being amused, the Jewish Holocaust survivors are so alarmed about this prospect that they are demanding that the Mormons revise their religion. Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors, said that it’s not enough for the Mormons to simply stop “baptizing” Holocaust victims. He said the church also must “implement a mechanism to undo what you have done.”
Huh? Are the Mormons now supposed to invent a way to un-baptize people in absentia? If it’s such a simple matter to just fabricate new religious doctrine, why doesn’t Mr. Michel just proclaim the new doctrine himself in the name of Joseph Smith and un-baptize all of those people in one fell swoop?
The other thing that struck me was the reason given for the outrage – it’s wrong to “baptize” the Holocaust victims, since they were “killed for their religion”. But these exact same Holocaust survivors argued that the Holocaust victims were killed “for their ethnicity, not religion”, when arguing against the Catholic beatification of Holocaust victim St Teresa Benedicta in 1998. Since she wasn’t killed for religion (they claim), she wasn’t a martyr. But whether the Holocaust victims were killed for ethnicity or for religion, we should all agree that they cannot be turned into Mormons in the grave simply by having their names typed on a keyboard in Salt Lake City. The Mormon church has no authority over Jewish doctrine, so I cannot see why the Holocaust survivors would even bother making such arguments.
This is why I cannot understand why the Vatican is also outraged. “In May, the Vatican ordered Catholic dioceses worldwide to withhold member registries from Mormons so that Catholics could not be baptized.” In other words, the Pope thinks that this Mormon ritual is dangerous, and needs to be prevented? Such anxious reactions from Jews and Catholics only legitimizes the Mormon “baptism” and implies that it has real power.
Where do we draw the line? Imagine a Haitian cult that claims to be able to give the “evil eye” that sends people to hell, and suppose that they keep a black list of all the people whom they have looked at using this “evil eye”. Do we expect the Pope and Jewish leaders to fly down to Haiti to beg and implore the cult leaders to “please undo the evil eye and stop giving the evil eye to Christians and Jews!”? How ridiculous! Are the Catholics and Jews compelled to combat every single random ritual that claims to affect Christians and Jews?
Clearly, the Islamic terrorists are going about things the wrong way. Rather than bomb innocent people, the Islamic terrorists need only claim to be “baptizing” dead Christians and Jews, and both religions will come to screeching halt attempting to go un-baptize all of their ancestors.
November 10th, 2008 at 11:11 pm
I promise you, Mormons can’t understand the big deal either. According to our faith, the proxy baptisms are purely pro forma rites performed in case the subject chooses, in the next life, to join. That is, we believe it is still possible after death, but a physical baptism must be performed. You’re welcome to think it’s madness; I think transubstantiation is lunacy, but it isn’t really polite to say so. But what I cannot figure out is how anyone can think that we Latter-day Saints are a bunch of deluded nuts, but yet we somehow still have the metaphysical power to change the religious affiliation of the dead!
Regardless, the Church banned Holocaust-victim baptisms 13 years ago, the policy hasn’t changed, and nobody can quite figure out why this guy is bringing it up now. They must have fallen on hard fundraising times.
November 11th, 2008 at 2:56 am
Baptism for Deceased Ancestors is referenced in 1 Corinthians 15:29 “Else what shall they do which are baptized for the dead, if the dead rise not at all? Why are they then baptized for the dead?”
It was practiced by Marcionites, an early Christian group, Orthodox Christian groups; Coptics (who even practice it today on occasion); Ethiopian Christians, called Abyssinians; and early Roman Catholics, as reported by Augustine and others.
The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) continues baptism and a lay ministry as taught by Jesus’ Apostles
November 14th, 2008 at 8:17 pm
Dan, thanks for taking the time to respond. I didn’t realize that the Mormon conception of post-death baptism also required a step of acquiescence by the soul in question. That’s very interesting. And you sum up my argument exactly by saying “I cannot figure out how anyone can think that Latter-day Saints are a bunch of deluded nuts, but yet somehow still have the metaphysical power to change the religious affiliation of the dead!”. It puzzles me to no end.
November 14th, 2008 at 8:33 pm
AB: This is absolutely fascinating! Thanks for sharing these details. I wasn’t aware that “of” had ever been interpreted as “on behalf of”, nor that this interpretation was associated with Marcion.
This really clarifies things. It is no surprise that the modern Roman Catholic Church would be eager to combat anything associated with Marcion, and this is probably far more about making a statement “contra Marcion” than about Mormonism. And Marcion’s *primary* deviation from church dogma could be seen as a form of anti-semitism, so it’s not terribly surprising to see Jewish leaders opposed to anything that could lead back to Marcionism as well. I admit that it’s a bit of a stretch for the case of the Jewish opposition to the practice, but it’s plausible.
Thanks again; you got right to the heart of the matter.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:33 am
As Pope of the Universal Life Church I hereby decree that everyone/everywhere (including dead people as well as future living people) is now and henceforth a minister of the Universal Live Church and entitled to all the rights thereof.
So there!
Love.
November 15th, 2008 at 10:34 am
As Pope of the Universal Life Church I hereby decree that everyone/everywhere (including dead people as well as future living people) is now and henceforth a minister of the Universal Life Church and entitled to all the rights thereof.
So there!
Love.