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Mormons Baptize Anne Frank Again: What is Posthumous Baptism?

by NowPublic Staff | February 22, 2012 at 03:14 pm

568 views | 14 Recommendations | 7 comments

Mormon Church Keeps Baptizing Anne Frank

After promising not to, the Church of Latter Day Saints has (once again) given Anne Frank a posthumous baptism.This is not the first time, either: Anne Frank's name has been run through the posthumous-baptism wringer at least nine times over the years.

Image: Anne Frank Posthumous Mormon Baptism

What is Posthumous Baptism?

Posthumous baptism is pretty much what it sounds like: initiating a deceased person into the Mormon church. This is done via a living proxy at a dedicated Mormon temple. This process was created to answer the question, "What about people who lived and died before there was such a thing as Christianity (or, more to the point, the LDS Church)?"

The problem, obviously, is that a dead person can't actually submit to baptism, by dint of being dead: the ritual fails to engage the subject of the baptism.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints supposedly has a policy against baptizing Holocaust victims; we say "supposedly" because they keep doing it, i.e. Simon Weisenthal; as well as Elie Weisel's father and grandfather, and US President Barack Obama's mother.

Elie Weisel called out Mitt Romney, who donates millions of dollars to the Mormon Church, on the issue, but has yet to get a response.

Though the church regularly conducts proxy baptisms for dead, in what it calls an attempt to give everyone a chance to accept salvation through Jesus, it has a 1990s-era policy against conducting such baptisms for Holocaust victims.

It is patently offensive to rebrand someone who was murdered because they were Jewish, as Mormon. This is arguable for any deceased person of non-LDS religious persuasion, if you think about it.

Making fun of the general notion of baptizing someone who is already dead, certain pranksters have launched All Dead Mormons are Now Gay, which allows users to turn dead LDS churchmembers into posthumous homosexuals.

Attention, Mormons: Look, Anne Frank died at age 15 in the Bergen Belsen concentration camp. Anne Frank had no children, ergo none of you are her descendants. You cannot baptize her posthumously. Maybe you mean well, but just let it go.

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Karen Hatter

at 15:21 on February 22nd, 2012

Unbelievable!

Swan

at 15:58 on February 22nd, 2012

Unbelievable seems so tame a word for this ridiculous ceremony!

It not only defames the wishes and intent of Judaism, but also those of herself, her parents AND G-d. Anne Frank was Jewish, nothing more, nothing less and Jews are fiercely proud of their heritage. One wonders what G-d is thinking when an earth based church, created by a human being, takes one of His chosen and tries to scar their memory by declaring them Morman.

This is worse than constantly being visited in your home by black suit and tie Mormans who wish to convert you to their 'religion'. Isn't it enough that we have to deal with these visits to our private homes, no matter which other religion you happen to be?

They certainly haven't done themselves any favors! The parody website named, All Dead Mormans are now Gay! invites you to enter the name of a dead Morman and convert to homosexuality. Creative, however I don't agree with that either. No-one should defame another's religion, IF that indeed is what Mormanism happens to be.

Anne Frank died because she admitted and loved her religion - who are the Mormans to ignore her wishes and desires?

This truly is infuriating!

Great article NP staff, thank you!
~ Swan

Karen Hatter

at 21:46 on February 22nd, 2012

Swan, you're so right about unbelievable being too tame.

This ritual would best be described as disrespectful. The continuance of this practice also indicates the Latter Day Saints' inability to keep their word since they were supposed to have ended this offensive behavior.

hybarney (not verified)

at 20:11 on February 22nd, 2012

Your ancestors are not just baptized and confirmed as members of the mormon faith. Also necessary for salvation are initiatory and endowment ordinances. All names submitted to the temple are baptised, confirmed, recieve initiatory and endowment, and are then "sealed" to family over an altar. The temples frequently run out of names and "recycle", so temple work is frequently done many times per dead person.Initiatory involves washing and anointing, partially clothed (the proxy, of course), in preparation for becoming a king and priest, or queen and priestess unto the most high god, hereafter to rule and reign in the house of Israel forever. The proxy then recieves their new name, sacred and holy, never to be repeated outside of the temple. I feel safe revealing mine, as I am an exmormon. My temple name was Ruth, as were all other ladies in the temple that day. When I returned to do the work on behalf of dead people, they recieved names like Naomi, Eliza, Abish, Esther, Lucy, and Martha.The endowment involves watching a film, (or live action in select temples), which details the mormon view of the creation. A series of special handshakes and passwords are learned to ensure access to heaven. Mormons are strongly cautioned to keep these ceremonies secret, though they prefer the term sacred. Penalties, spiritual and physical, are threatened if confidentiality is breached. As I've left the church, I feel safe! Details of these ceremonies can be found with a simple google search.

Swan

at 22:24 on February 22nd, 2012

May I ask why you decided to no longer be a Morman?
~ Swan

Vinyl Banners (not verified)

at 22:57 on February 22nd, 2012

Thanks for sharing such a valuable information.

Stefanie Lesser (not verified)

at 19:37 on February 23rd, 2012

This act is not only disrespectful to the Jews but it is is morally wrong. You don't go into people's records and decide to baptize people who are already dead. What about legal contracts to leave the deceased alone? What about their families lives you are messing with? Are you even thinking of that? What about the survivors of the holocaust that are still alive today? Are you even aware of the consequences of your actions? You say its not supposed to be offensive but im sorry it really truly is both on a spiritual level and ethical one. What about history also? The Jews who were killed in the holocaust were killed because they were Jews and now you want to erase that fact. We are supposed to not repeat history. We are supposed to teach future generations to be noble to each other to learn from our past mistakes and learn about historical events like this so it doesn't happen again. Im sorry, but this is not out of love. Its about ignorance and hatred and it has to stop. All of it.