Jews Cautious

Mormon Proxy Baptism Issue In Limbo

By John Yewell, 4-12-05

Mormon church leaders announced yesterday that a dispute over what are known as "proxy baptisms" had been resolved -- but they notably stopped short of announcing an end to the practice.

Mormons belief that baptism is necessary to enter heaven, and that they can be performed posthumously by proxy for anyone. They further believe that the deceased soul is free to choose whether or not to accept the baptism.

Jews, especially Holocaust survivors and their descendents, have objected for a decade to the practice of baptizing Jews unrelated to the Mormon church members performing the baptisms.

Over the last two days Mormon leaders met with Ernest Michel, chairman of the New York-based World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, to resolved the dispute. They claimed the fault lay in the sheer size of the database of names, and in "overzealous members, according to The Salt Lake Tribune. The two sides agreed to meet again in six weeks.

But in a religion noted for strict hierarchy and a top-down, patriarchal management structure, it stretches credulity that lower level bishops and other members are not heading the directive of church President Gordon B. Hinckley.

Michel seemed to recognize this dichotomy when he told the Deseret Morning News: "We came to convince the church there has to be a change in their attitude about the posthumous baptism of Jews."

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