Mormons Baptized Obama's Mother: CONFIRMED

ABC News has confirmed reports that Mormons posthumously baptized President Obama's mother five months before the election.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints confirmed Tuesday afternoon that someone improperly, posthumously baptized the late mother of President Obama into the Mormon faith.

Last June 4 -- the day after then-Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nominee -- someone had the president's mother Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995 of cancer, baptized.

On June 11, she received the endowment.

The baptism was first reported by AMERICAblog's John Aravosis, who found an ordinance record on the Mormon genealogical Web site, FamilySearch.org.

Mormon Church spokeswoman Kim Farah said that "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. The Church is looking into the circumstances of how this happened and does not yet have all the facts. However, this is a serious matter and we are treating it as such."

According to "doctrinal background" from an LDS spokesman, "well-meaning Church members sometimes bypass this instruction and submit the names of non-relatives for temple baptism. Others -- perhaps pranksters or careless persons -- have submitted the names of unrelated famous or infamous people, or even wholly fictitious names. These rare acts are contrary to Church policy and sometimes cause pain and embarrassment."

Comments

[b430skel]

03:07 PM on 05/06/2009

melfaun asked if this was worth reporting and I say you need to know some of the context here.

The LDS church has a long history of baptising people with no connection to there "church". Not many years ago they were sued by the JADL because they were baptisin holocaust victims. The Mormons are so arrogant they can not leave anyones religion alone. They talk as if any religion is good but actively work, through this method and others, to swell their list of "baptised Mormons". I lived in SLC for some time and the since of entitlement these people have is shocking. Lets hope they will lose their tax exempt status over their Prop 8 activities.

[Mr Croman]

06:37 AM on 05/23/2009

Wouldn't it be more constructive to hope they come around to your way of thinking, instead of revoking their tax exempt status?

[finishcurve]

03:04 PM on 05/06/2009

Religion is Dungeons and Dragons for people who never want the game to end.

[scully05]

02:44 PM on 05/06/2009

Would Mitt want some kind of link to President Obama???

[melfaun]

02:42 PM on 05/06/2009

Is this really worth reporting?

[pueblocolorado]

02:50 PM on 05/06/2009

Yes. This is very much worth reporting. If you or your family or ancestors belonged to a different faith, would you want the Mormon's to be baptising them? If I had relatives that died in the death camps of Europe, I would sure as hell not want the Mormon's staking claim on their souls. This is one of the most obnoxious things the Mormon religion does.

[Chromedome27]

08:09 PM on 05/16/2009

Don't forget that people outside the Church have and continue to submit names for Temple Ordinance work to embarrass the Church. They have no ties to the Church other than to give it bad publicity. By the way, Mormons do not "Stake their claim" on anyone's soul, but do this work as a way of allowing all to choose for themselves. It carries no efficacy if the individuals involved reject it.

[chicagomike]

02:40 PM on 05/06/2009

Oh, well...Mormons will be Mormons. They get their jollies from this. Let them play silly games.

[courtreporter]

02:29 PM on 05/06/2009

can someone tell me why this is a story?????????????

[Topfeeder]

02:22 PM on 05/06/2009

This just in, the Mormons baptized the doody that passed form my heiny yesterday.

[Topfeeder]

02:20 PM on 05/06/2009

Those wacko Mormons would baptize a Popsicle. This means nothing.

[tailgateshirts]

01:47 PM on 05/06/2009

"perhaps pranksters or careless persons -- have submitted the names of unrelated famous or infamous people, or even wholly fictitious names."

Great Vetting! Must take alot to join that religion.....

[shel3364]

02:06 PM on 05/06/2009

Eggs & sperm are about the only requirements.

If you can procreate, you're in.

[Chromedome27]

08:10 PM on 05/16/2009

Being a liberal Mormon, it is sure nice to see how well the liberals in this country can so easily go to such bigoted hyperbole.

[rosiebond007]

01:38 PM on 05/06/2009

I guess you can fudge the numbers of Mormons on the Planet -

Bizarre habit - must check with Romney .....................

[hip dibler]

01:33 PM on 05/06/2009

if they were satanists i would still fail to see how this matters.

[shel3364]

01:26 PM on 05/06/2009

IMHO, they can "baptize" all the deceased people they want, but its not going to matter if the person didn't believe in it while they were alive.

However, it is offensive to have someone you don't know from a religion you don't subscribe to thinking they have the right to dick around with your immortal soul.

[Iceman3711]

02:01 PM on 05/06/2009

Immortal Soul? Kind of ridiculous...you think?

[shel3364]

02:07 PM on 05/06/2009

no.

[pueblocolorado]

02:50 PM on 05/06/2009

No.

[hunt49]

02:46 PM on 05/06/2009

Actually, they would agree with you - all they believe they are doing is making it available if the person wants it. It's still up to the individual to accept or reject it. So in that sense, no one's self-determination is being violated (that being, of course, if you believe in an afterlife).

[Marie62866]

01:22 PM on 05/06/2009

Another non story on HP!

[swan1]

01:08 PM on 05/06/2009

I like their "special " underwear and talking to" Lincoln" and other dead people in the Temple. I got away from them, when I found out some of the spooky secrets.

[llisa]

01:06 PM on 05/06/2009

The only people who would care if their loved ones are posthumously baptized by Mormons would be those who believe that this will actually change their dead loved ones in any way.

Since this is all utter nonsense, it is only the Mormons who are fooling themselves.