Obama's Mother May Have Been Posthumously Baptized By Mormons Without Consent

AMERICAblog:

A reader contacted me last week, saying that last year, in the heat of the presidential campaign, the Mormons had posthumously baptized Barack Obama's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham.

Read the whole story: AMERICAblog

Comments

[totaldisbelief]

07:37 AM on 05/06/2009

"Step back folks, Nothing to see here. Just more religious nonsense."

[arvay]

08:33 AM on 05/06/2009

Precisely right.

Anyone who believes the dead will be upset deserves the laughter of one and all. These people are damaging no one with their credulous ceremonis, the negative impact of Mormonism is substantial in the political realm, but this is just foolishness, like their "magic underwear."

[larry278]

03:25 AM on 05/06/2009

My Christian, Jewish, Muslim & Buddhist friends will take appropriate action when they learn that the Mormons are baptising the dead again. It will be an ecumenical movement. The Mormons have asked for it. Soon the Mormons will feel the weight of many more prayer chains. The prayers for Mormons will be gentle. God likes to hear gentle prayers. I have reason to believe that God hears gentle, loving prayers. I have no idea of what the Buddhists will do since Buddhism is a non-theistic system of belief. The Buddhists will take appropriate actions.

[JohnFromCensornati]

06:32 AM on 05/06/2009

Anonymous has decided that your organization should be des-troyed. For the good of your followers, for the good of mankind--we shall expel you from the Internets and systematically dismantle the Church of JC of Latter Day Saints in its present form.
We acknowledge you as a serious opponent, and we are prepared for a long, long campaign. You will not prevail forever against the @ngry masses of the body politic. Your methods, hyp0crisy, and the artlessness of your organization have sounded its de@th knell.

You cannot hide; we are everywhere.

Knowledge is free.

We are Anonymous.

We are Legion.

We do not forgive.

We do not forget.

Expect us.

[antaeus]

01:33 AM on 05/06/2009

Anyone who's done any genealogy research in the past several years knows the Mormons have a mission to do this. It's a weird practice. But then, so is genealogy. So if you must, go use their research and have fun discovering that you're a Charlemagne descendant; then look at the Mormon library attendant and begin to have doubts about the quality of their documents. Realize that being a Mayflower descendant means being related to people like George Bush and Sarah Palin. Forget it all and go home and read a novel.

[BuzzingAlong]

01:30 AM on 05/06/2009

I wonder if the Church of Scientology has something similiar to the Mormons for baptizing the dead and living of other religions?

Wonder what would happen if the Church of Scientology baptized Jerry Falwell, Mitt Romney, Sarah Palin, Glen Beck, Pat Robertson, James Dobson amd the rest of the right-wing into Scientology?

[Freesia2]

12:57 AM on 05/06/2009

I read this article earlier but landed back here because of a computer glitch. (Ornery keyboard.) And I'm glad because it gave me a chance to look at that photograph again.

Obama's mother. I wonder if the other women here really register what she did. I haven't always thought on it but if you think of it it's pretty stunning. A girl from Kansas in the early 60s went abroad, met a man and fell in love not caring that he was black (which would have been a scandal back in Kansas in those days) had a baby (our President!) got herself educated, lived an interesting life full of travel and a career (which was something not as mainstream til the next generation of women) and kind of lived what we women always talk about. Making choices. She made them. Good ones.

Just looking at the photograph. She looks happy and calm. Chin up. I have no reason to write this, that photograph just struck me. So mainstream, it could be in any of our parent's albums, but she wasn't mainstream. She was kind of amazing.

[MsLiz]

08:01 AM on 05/06/2009

Going to Hawaii with one's parents is "going abroad"?

[Freesia2]

10:57 AM on 05/06/2009

To a gal like me from nowhere - yes ma'am. :-)

What I meant though was she later lived in Indonesia. And traveled.

[Pip1860]

12:13 AM on 05/06/2009

Is Mitt Romney a Mormon or a devil-worshipper?

[SeattleWill]

10:34 PM on 05/06/2009

The difference is?

[AngelaQuattrano]

10:46 PM on 05/05/2009

What was that group that was going to posthumously convert Mormons to gays?

[Cunningham]

05:31 AM on 05/06/2009

ROFL! I'd donate to any group that did that.

[Bot]

10:22 PM on 05/05/2009

Early Christian churches, practiced baptism of youth (not infants) by immersion by the father of the family. Afterwards, the youth was dressed in a white robe, and anointed with oil and given a new name. This ritual was sacred and not open to non-family members to view. The local congregation had a lay ministry. An early Christian Church has been re-constructed at the Israel Museum, and the above can be verified. http://www.imj.org.il/eng/exhibitions/2000/christianity/ancientchurch/structure/index.html

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?" Baptism for deceased ancestors 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. Deceased persons' spirits had the option of accepting the baptism, or not, just as is the case today.

The Church of Jesus Christ (LDS) continues baptism and a lay ministry as taught by Jesus’ Apostles.

[genia]

12:11 AM on 05/06/2009

WTF?
They.....this dead woman had no rights here......that's ok with you?
I'll tell you what...they came near my dead mother and I'd track them down and ............................
Mormons are on some quest to convert as many souls in their lifetime...or....some..thing...dumb
This is cheating

[yellowdoggie]

07:10 AM on 05/06/2009

They will baptise your dead mother when they have documentation that she has died. No, the dead have no "rights." So you better start tracking, honey, because that is what they do.

Not that I approve, but come on. Do you think what they're doing actually WORKS? That your mother can be made a Mormon after her death?

[minimalist syntax]

03:54 AM on 05/06/2009

Your claims are egregiously inaccurate. The interpretation of 1 Corinthians 15:29, according to the Patristic literature (the early teachings of the Church), is that this is a derisive comment about the practices of the Marcionite heretics (St. John Chrysostom (347-407 C.E.)), or according to Epiphanius (315-403 C.E.) this line refers to a practice of the followers of Cerinthus, another gnostic teacher. The Orthodox church most definitely does NOT baptize the dead. This was considered a heretical practice even in the early Church. (Note the Marcionites were not considered an early Christian group but rather a heretical sect with practices not in keep with the understanding of the early Christians who could trace their traditions directly to the Apostles of Christ. )

As a member of the community of believers (Orthodox Christians) with a direct history to the early church I can emphatically say that it is also not true that the fathers of families traditionally baptized youths. In fact, primarily adults were baptized in the early church. Historically, ordained women deacons played a role in this kind of baptism if the catechumen was a woman. Catechumens were baptized by clergy except under extreme circumstances of life or death in which case a lay person can perform the baptism.

[BuzzingAlong]

09:41 PM on 05/05/2009

There is a lot of interesting info on the Mormon baptizing Jewish people, not just the dead.

Mormon Church will stop baptizing Holocaust dead
AP Jerusalem Post 04-30-1995 SALT LAKE CITY
http://www.encyclopedia.com/doc/1P1-5985340.html

Still at it as of Nov 11, 2008
The Issue of The Mormon Baptisms of Jewish Holocaust Victims And Other Jewish Dead
http://www.jewishgen.org/InfoFiles/ldsagree.html
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27647809

I wonder if Pat Robertson, Jerry Falwell, and Dobson of Focus on the Family have been baptized by the Mormons?

And Sarah Palin? Now this would be a hoot.

[joemondo]

09:10 PM on 05/05/2009

It has no real impact, but it's an offensive, inconsiderate and downright rude thing to do.

[gbrooks]

08:58 PM on 05/05/2009

I'll convert over my dead body!!!

D'OH!

[Rosewren]

08:31 PM on 05/05/2009

What difference does make anyway. It only matters if you can believe in that c**p.

[nate44]

08:59 PM on 05/05/2009

Just reminded me of a "golden calf" That was made and worshiped while Moses was away How can Mormons think they cas pass this stuff as Christain?

[genia]

12:05 AM on 05/06/2009

Difference is ...that we get it out there before the right turns it into an email campaign in yet...another in their endless quest to destroy Obama

[nate44]

08:00 PM on 05/05/2009

Oh By the way they babtize their dead sprits with a live stand in proxy (most often 12-17 year old kids)
and the babtizim is held in a tub held up by a circle of Golden Cows most pictures show this with the white cows but inside the real one is layered in gold--No bull check it out

[AnnoyedCanuck]

07:54 PM on 05/05/2009

The Mormons run a vast genealogy service, which has documented the family trees of tens, perhaps hundreds, of millions of people. 2 Billion separate names have been traced.

This is directly related to the Mormon doctrine of posthumous baptism. What's to stop them from baptizing every person they document? Nothing, really.

More than 10 years ago, it was revealed that the Church had baptized 380,000 Jewish victims of the Holocaust. In 1995, Mormons agreed to stop doing this without permission from families, but it still goes on. Guess what? Within a generation or two, every dead person who ever left a record of their existence could be a Mormon! Hallelluia!!

[TheyCalledMeSandN]

07:51 PM on 05/05/2009

i just took a bath