posted on May 7, 2009 09:22:05 AM new
To me, this is outrageous--even if one believes in the practice.
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Thursday, May 7, 2009
Church: Obama's mother posthumously baptized by Latter-day Saint
By Manya Brachear
Chicago Tribune
CHICAGO -- Is President Barack Obama's mother a Mormon now?
Not necessarily. But The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has confirmed Obama's late mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, was posthumously baptized by a church member last year, shortly after Obama clinched the Democratic nomination.
Though it's still unclear whether the submission of Dunham's name was a prank or sincere gesture, church spokeswoman Kim Farah said baptizing someone unrelated violates church policy and the breach is under investigation.
"The offering of baptism to our deceased ancestors is a sacred practice to us and it is counter to Church policy for a Church member to submit names for baptism for persons to whom they are not related," Farah said in a statement.
The White House had no comment on the issue.
Latter-day Saints believe the opportunity to accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ is available through baptism and a just God would not deny that to previous generations.
They trace their unique custom of baptizing the dead to one of Apostle Paul's letters to the Corinthians in the New Testament: "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?"
But Mormons insist that posthumous baptism does not translate to forced conversion. They believe those baptized by proxy can accept or deny the gospel in the afterlife just as they can here.
Farah said occasionally baptisms do not comply with church policy.
"These rare acts are contrary to Church policy and sometimes cause pain and embarrassment," Farah said. 'They are also extremely difficult to prevent because the temple baptism process depends on voluntary compliance by millions of Church members around the world."
But some Mormon supporters of Obama find Dunham's baptism heartwarming.
"As an Obama supporter, it makes me very happy to learn that some Mormon person took the time to do this," said Giaconda Pachay of Union City, N.J. "Hence, this act to baptize for the dead is good and it is a humble deed."
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"Here in America we are descended in blood and in spirit from revolutionists and rebels - men and women who ***dared to dissent*** from accepted doctrine. As their heirs, ***may we never confuse honest dissent with disloyal subversion."*** --Eisenhower
[ edited by roadsmith on May 7, 2009 11:22 AM ]
posted on May 7, 2009 10:05:54 AM new
Words fail me as well. However, my brother is Mormon and I can tell you that his heart is always in the right place, even if it is misguided sometimes.
posted on May 8, 2009 04:46:26 AM new
I grew up knowing about the Mormon tradition of baptizing ancestors, so this doesn't surprise me. As kids, we went through a pet baptismal phase where we baptized some pets several times and may have included their ancestors as well. I equate this with praying for others. On my first job, I worked with a girl who had (what I thought) outlandish evangelical beliefs. When anyone disagreed with her, she always pronounced that she would pray for them, hoping God would show them the error of their beliefs. I consider this offensive and the baptism of the dead no more insulting. OTH, prayers by others to strengthen me in dire times are more then welcome. I'm glad to learn that baptism of ancestors isn't mainstream Mormonism, but, since it doesn't affect daily lives, am willing to let it go.
[ edited by pixiamom on May 8, 2009 04:48 AM ]
If Obama's mother could envision such religious rites I believe that she would do so with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well...just as Obama described in his book, The Audacity of Hope.
posted on May 9, 2009 06:07:35 AM new Excerpt from The Audacity of Hope by Obama
For my mother, organized religion too often dressed up closed-mindedness in the garb of piety, cruelty and oppression in the cloak of righteousness.
This isn't to say that she provided me with no religious instruction. In her mind, a working knowledge of the world's great religions was a necessary part of any well-rounded education. In our household the Bible, the Koran, and the Bhagavad Gita sat on the shelf alongside books of Greek and Norse and African mythology. On Easter or Christmas Day my mother might drag me to church, just as she dragged me to the Buddhist temple, the Chinese New Year celebration, the Shinto shrine, and ancient Hawaiian burial sites. But I was made to understand that such religious samplings required no sustained commitment on my part—no introspective exertion or self-flagellation. Religion was an expression of human culture, she would explain, not its wellspring, just one of the many ways—and not necessarily the best way—that man attempted to control the unknowable and understand the deeper truths about our lives. In sum, my mother viewed religion through the eyes of the anthropologist that she would become; it was a phenomenon to be treated with a suitable respect, but with a suitable detachment as well. Moreover, as a child I rarely came in contact with those who might offer a substantially different view of faith. My father was almost entirely absent from my childhood, having been divorced from my mother when I was 2 years old; in any event, although my father had been raised a Muslim, by the time he met my mother he was a confirmed atheist, thinking religion to be so much superstition.
And yet for all her professed secularism, my mother was in many ways the most spiritually awakened person that I've ever known. She had an unswerving instinct for kindness, charity, and love, and spent much of her life acting on that instinct, sometimes to her detriment. Without the help of religious texts or outside authorities, she worked mightily to instill in me the values that many Americans learn in Sunday school: honesty, empathy, discipline, delayed gratification, and hard work. She raged at poverty and injustice.
Most of all, she possessed an abiding sense of wonder, a reverence for life and its precious, transitory nature that could properly be described as devotional. Sometimes, as I was growing up, she would wake me up in the middle of the night to have me gaze at a particularly spectacular moon, or she would have me close my eyes as we walked together at twilight to listen to the rustle of leaves. She loved to take children—any child—and sit them in her lap and tickle them or play games with them or examine their hands, tracing out the miracle of bone and tendon and skin and delighting at the truths to be found there. She saw mysteries everywhere and took joy in the sheer strangeness of life."
posted on May 9, 2009 07:00:08 AM new
Mormons and their beliefs have always confused the heck out of me. I've had lots of dealings with LDS members over the years. Three of my best teachers at school are Mormon, and I regularly do business with Mormons in Utah. As a people I find them unusually trustworthy, giving and accepting of others. When I try to line that up against some of their wacky beliefs it just makes me shake my head in bewilderment. I don't get it.
On the other hand, I suppose examples of goofball dogma can be found in all faiths. Except for the Presbyterians of course, who seem to go to church in case there's a god.
