Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Apologizes For Posthumous Baptisms

In January, genealogists discovered that the parents of Jewish Rights Advocate Simon Wiesenthal had been baptized posthumously – by proxy -by members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The discovery outraged many prominent members of the American Jewish community, including Holocaust Survivor and Nobel Laureate Elie Wiesel and Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate director of the Simon Wiesenthal Center.

Wiesel called on Republican Presidential Candidate Mitt Romney, perhaps the most well-known Mormon in the nation, to denounce the practice of proxy-posthumous baptism. Cooper, meanwhile, pointed out that baptizing Jews who had been killed because of their faith into another religion was a slap in the face to their families.
In a report on the Simon Wiesenthal Center Web Site, Cooper noted that Wiesenthal had “especially revered his beloved mother.” According to Cooper, Wiesenthal’s mother, Rosa Rapp Wiesenthal was deported and killed at the Belzec extermination camp in 1942.

Now, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is apologizing for the baptisms. They assert that the baptism took place because of the actions of one individual, rather than because of church practices. That individual, church leaders say, was in breach of protocol. He has, they say, now been banned from accessing the church’s genealogical records.

But, for many members of the Jewish Community, the church’s move did not go far enough. According to Cooper, Jewish leaders have held talks with Mormon leaders since 1995, surrounding the issue of proxy posthumous baptisms. Despite many meetings and apologies, he says, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints has not put an end to the practice and it has continued to show a lack of sensitivity to Jewish families – particularly the families of Holocaust survivors.

Stopping the practice is problematic for the Church of Latter-day Saints, because members believe that posthumous baptisms can allow the dead a second chance to become saved, even after death. Members who want to save those who have died might be more concerned with helping the dead achieve salvation than with following man-made rules.

Nevertheless, church leaders have taken some steps to reduce the instances of offensive posthumous baptisms. They have, for instance, introduced a new screening process that is intended to make it harder for church members to enter the names of Holocaust survivors into church databases.

Yet these measures have not always proved to be effective and critics suggest that the church ought to begin implementing harsher penalties for church members who submit the names of Holocaust survivors for posthumous baptism.