Thursday, March 1

Hitler And Princess Diana Baptised As Mormons

Mormon Joseph Smith having his first vision

I get puzzled by many organised religions. Today it's the Mormon beliefs that I find a little strange.

I'm told that Mormons believe people who have died - and are not members of their faith - must be made Mormons to have an afterlife.

I believe we have everlasting life, but it's not only for people who follow a certain religion, cult or faith. It's for everyone, regardless. How can Mormon's believe that only they will have an afterlife? But it gets stranger still!

It seems that you/we can be converted to the Mormon faith after you/we have died and so, I presume, have an afterlife. But let's take two random people who have been posthumously baptised by them: Princess Diana and Adolf Hitler.

Princess Di okay but: Hitler lives on while that nice, average bloke next door, who wouldn't harm or hurt a fly, doesn't. That doesn't seem quite right.

Let me quote something about Hitler:

"Current IGI TM Addendum temple ordinance entries for Mr. [Adolf] Hiedler (Hitler) show that Hitler was 'baptized' by Mormons on September 30, 1993, and 'endowed' on April 27, 1994, in the Jordan River Temple, Utah. I obtained a copy of this particular record for Hitler from the LDS Family Search Center in the Joseph Smith Memorial Building in downtown Salt Lake City on July 13, 1998, less than two months before Ashton stated that no such IGI record existed for Hitler."**

Also Hitler's mate, Eva Braun, was bapitised:

"Eva Anna Paula Braun, born in Munich, Bavaria, Germany, on February 7, 1912, was 'baptized' by Mormons on October 16, 1964, and 'endowed' on February 5, 1965, in the Los Angeles Temple."**

Let's leave the afterlife and move on to marriage. As most probably know the Mormons were associated with polygamy, though this was banned by the church in 1890 to comply with federal laws. All well and good. The founder Joseph Smith must have got it wrong - even though he is purported to have experienced a divine revelation that polygamy was ordained by God. But it's a mistake any of us could have made, though some researchers have managed to come up with 29 wives for Smith.

It does appear, however, that posthumous plural marriages to dead people can still be made in Temple rituals acted out by stand in brides and grooms. Again very strange.

It's up to us what we decide to believe in life. Just last week a Mormon 'missionary' from the USA was in the town where I live in Cornwall. Very nice, polite young men but how can anyone believe that, in the eyes of God / Universal Consciousness or whatever, we are not all equal and if we don't sign up there's no afterlife. Wonder how the USA president contender, Mitt Romney, squares this with US citizens who are Protestants, Jews, Muslims, atheists and so on?

The photo at the top of the page shows Joseph Smith, Mormon founder, having his first vision.

**See The Mormon Curtain

Further Religion Posts:
The Failed Predictions Of The Jehovah Witness
How Can Man Imagine A God Who Is Undefinable
The Size Of The Human Soul

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6 comments:

  1. you always find interesting stuff mike. didnt know this about mormons you must spend a lot of time researching

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    1. Thanks Tom. I didn't realise much either about the Mormons until recently. Hope all is well with you.

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  2. Montana18:14

    This has been going on too long, it’s a good start but our law enforcement has a long way to go.

    When someone hides behind religion to do or say something that is wrong we should stand up and point it out (right the wrong).

    When I was a kid I lived in Utah, and the Boy Scouts was taken over by Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints (FLDS Church). This, so called religion, practices underage polygamy, they send the boy s off on missions to divide the underage sisters among the dirty old men of the clan. Now when these underage girls get pregnant, these same dirty old men, send them to the state to get their welfare checks. You should see some of the palace homes that are paid with welfare checks. By the way this is the newest religion that was created right here in United States of America.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9iisl-xH3Xs

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    1. Thanks for the detailed comment Montana.

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  3. Anonymous20:30

    *Sigh*

    1- Everyone that has ever lived experiences an afterlife in the LDS world view. The immediate afterlife arrived at once a person dies is the Spirit World, a temporary place where the good wait in Paradise and the wicked wait in Prison for the eventual resurrection of the body, which everyone will able to experience. In Mormonism, baptism by a person with authority (other denomination are seen as not having the proper authority) is a prerequisite for salvation in the Celestial Kingdom, the presence of the Heavenly Father. Those who are never baptized receive a lesser kingdom or are cast into Outer Darkness, depending on their actions and whether or not they accept Christ's Atonement (which they still have the opportunity to do after they die). Vicarious baptism for the dead, a practice that existed within the primitive Christian church (as attested by 1 Corinthians and the Shepherd of Hermas), is offered to those who never had the opportunity to receive it in life. The dead can accept or reject the offer once it is extended; labeling those that have had the work done for them as Mormons is incorrect if we cannot know their reply.

    2- Within the context of Mormonism, Joseph Smith was not "wrong" for re-instituting polygamy, nor was the Church "wrong" for eventually ending the practice. Monogamy is given as the standard marriage form for members to observe within the Book of Mormon, but the text also mentions that God has the choice to allow polygamy at times when He feels it would be the better principle, as was the case in the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Likewise, Joseph Smith was commanded to revive polygamy in his day, and later Wilford Woodruff was commanded to suspend it for the time being. And since the subject interests you, there are smaller figures for the number of women married to Joseph during his life time (and after he died), and many researchers rely on statements made by Joseph's enemies that are of questionable authenticity.

    3- "stand in brides and grooms" implies that vicarious marriages are made for couples. A valid sealing for a dead person requires that the person they are being sealed to is already alive, and since Woodruff policy requires that the people being sealed were married while alive. Members of both genders can indeed be sealed to multiple spouses, but only if the person that's still alive was widowed.

    An understanding of baptism for the dead and the importance of marriage in Mormonism requires being familiar with the concept of sealing, by which families are able to continue on into the next life. Clearly you spent very little time at all researching the topic before making this post.

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    1. Clearly, Mormonism is just like every other religion with its stupendous arrogance and hubris. It wasn’t wrong for polygamy to be ended? It was right for Mormonism to “restart” it? If polygamy is morality, give me immorality. Polygamy is a relic of the past where men had more overt control over the lives of women. Muhammad was also a polygamist. Have Mormons baptized Muhammad as well in the communion of the dead? Mormonism is a patriarchal belief system, which makes it another religion to be swept away with the androcentric traditions of the past.

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