Romney Converted His Father-in-Law After He Died

[babylonsister]

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/27/romney_converted_his_father-in-law_after_he_died.html

January 27, 2012

Romney Converted His Father-in-Law After He Died


Gawker: "Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney's militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as 'hogwash.'"

[notadmblnd]

1. they baptise everyone by proxy

If your name is in their database, I'm pretty sure you have been baptised Mormon.

[babylonsister]

2. Even if they didn't believe? That sux. And

! Long time...

[flying rabbit]

12. It's a good thing really. If the Mormons are right you go to heaven.

so you got that going for you.

[notadmblnd]

30. No, you don't go to heaven

Mormons believe that when you die, if you are a man you inherit a planet to populate to rule. In the Mormon afterlife, the men become Gods. The Women's job is to produce offspring, that why they now have multiple wives in the afterlife.

[flying rabbit]

33. Well this is

how it was of explained to me by an (admittedly) not too devout Mormon.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Degrees_of_glory

[morningfog]

9. If your name is in their database and you have been dead one year, yes.

They proxy baptize probably thousands of names a day. All of the founding fathers, all dead presidents, Hitler, every relative of every member of the church they can find going back hundreds of years. They baptize relatives from the 1300's if they have the names.

[LiberalFighter]

22. Have them baptize aliens from another planet.

[grantcart]

31. they have committed not to do Jews after strong progests.

Sickening,

[niyad]

3. it absolutely amazes me that people are so deluded that they think that doing something like this

actually has any effect on the deceased. kind of like them marrying people on the other side, too.

[Ilsa]

4. Davies can reject it in the afterlife

if he so chooses, according to Mormon Doctrine. The idea being that if there is an afterlife, and you know you are dead and without salvation, you would gladly accept this "gift" by whomever stood proxy.

Personally, I think Davies had it mostly right. There is a lot of hogwash in religion.

[Ilsa]

5. BTW, most Christian religions reject

this practice of proxy baptism.

[ButterflyBlood]

18. Mormonism is the only church that does it

Most new churches would view it as pointless since baptism is just viewed as an initiation ceremony, it's an act of someone who wishes to proclaim that they are a Christian and dedicating their life to Christ. Baptizing someone against their will would be absolutely pointless and has no effect on anything by this belief. The older more established churches baptize babies but only with the consent of the parents. No mainstream church today views baptism as a "get into heaven free" card or required for salvation either, a common misconception I've noticed.

[asjr]

6. Did the church take its 10 pct. after the

conversion?

[davidpdx]

7. It was an auto deduction

[asjr]

8. Good one!

[ejpoeta]

10. I remember when my dad was dying. He didn't have long.

And his brother came to see him. Now, I am not Catholic and don't believe in that. I am a recovering Catholic. But my Dad is one. We even stood around him with a priest and did the prayers for my dad. When Ed came I immediately went into protection mode. Not sure what brand of crazy religion he is that isn't Catholic, but he apparently converted his parents on their deathbed and I wasn't going to have him browbeat my dad. He was Catholic and I wasn't going to have my uncle try to do anything to disturb him before he died. He didn't do that, thankfully.... the priest was very good at diffusing things. LOL!

As far as posthumously.... give me a break. You can't convert someone who's dead.

[babylonsister]

11. My ex, raised Catholic in his youth (nuns and such in the family),

always said he was in the 'reserves'. I kinda liked that. I'm glad your dad wasn't bothered, and agree, you can't convert someone who is dead. But that's the oddness of religion and certain beliefs, and believers.

[MADem]

13. The Mormons got in hot water for trying to pull that shit with deceased Jews, as well.

Talk about "repugnant"--people's beliefs, or lack of same, are elements of their being and trying to hijack that is to take away an element of someone's personhood.

[Generic Brad]

14. I don't understand the outrage over this practice

I am atheist, but the act of posthumous baptism does not offend me. I don't believe in it, so the idea of it has no power over me. I think it's kind of nice of that Mormons care about non-believers of their faith enough to make what appears to me a kind gesture from their point of view.

[NYC Liberal]

15. I agree, but I also appreciate that other people may feel differently.

Of course, browbeating someone on their deathbed (as mentioned by a few people here) is totally different.

[ButterflyBlood]

19. As a non-Mormon Christian I agree

They can "baptize" me after I'm dead if they wish, I'll probably just get a good chuckle out of it from heaven. And if it turns out the Mormons are right after all, well I should be pretty thankful then.

[babylonsister]

24. So you have no problem with them doing something to/for you

you'd never consider if you were alive? Very valid question from me, as I'm flummoxed. Thanks.

[ButterflyBlood]

28. I was baptized in the Catholic church as a baby, which I had no say in

And I want as much to do with the Catholic church as I do with the LDS one. Is it an issue? No because I don't have anything to do with it now. I'm even getting baptized again in two weeks in a different church in a choice I entirely made for myself. The Catholic Church doesn't have any control or effect on me because of that, and the Mormons wouldn't either if they did this after I died.

[DesertRat]

26. I think it's wrong that they posthumously converted Holocaust victims including Anne Frank

It can be very upsetting to their relatives, especially since these people were killed for their Jewish faith.

"It took Ernest Michel, then chairman of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, three years to get Mormons to agree to stop proxy-baptizing Holocaust victims.

Mormons desisted in 1995 after Michel, as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reported, “discovered that his own mother, father, grandmother and best childhood friend, all from Mannheim, Germany, had been posthumously baptized.”

Michel told the news agency that “I was hurt that my parents, who were killed as Jews in Auschwitz, were being listed as members of the Mormon faith.”


http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/19/opinion/dowd-anne-frank-a-mormon.html?_r=1

[ButterflyBlood]

29. They aren't being listed as Mormons or considered converts

They just believe this gives them a choice in the afterlife. Similar to how if you're baptized as a baby you have a choice to accept that church. I made the choice to reject the one that baptized me.

[grantcart]

32. It is patronizing and insulting to survivors. In this case the FIL specifically did not want to be

baptized after he passed.

[Kalidurga]

16. Dead people don't argue...

so they are the easiest to convert. Even easier than baptizing babies.

[ButterflyBlood]

17. Silly practice, but harmless

Really not any different from baptizing babies when you think about it. I was baptized as a baby without my consent into a church that I don't want anything to do with any more than I want anything to do with Mormonism, and it doesn't have any effect on my today. I'm actually being rebaptized in my current church in two weeks.

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

20. This seems creepier than those Marines peeing on corpses

Pretending to change someone's religion, after they're dead, and against any stated will while they were alive? That's not just creepy, it's presumptuous and pompous.

We will hijack his soul into our superior religion.

Thanks, but no thanks.

[gopiscrap]

21. You know if Willard became president

that the Mormon church would make him use tax dollars to pay for resaearch to get us all proxy baptized.

[Cracklin Charlie]

23. What's the Point?

Do the Mormons then count these converted souls as Mormons?

They are always bragging about how many members they have.

[Hassin Bin Sober]

25. Meh, As long as they don't make me wear those funny skivvies.

[Ikonoklast]

27. But the corpses of the converted dead become Zombie servants to "real" Mormons for all eternity

in the afterlife.

No personal planet for you!