Elie Wiesel calls out Mitt Romney on dead Jew baptisms.

[Admiral Yi]

dropped the whole 'Jews killed Jesus' stuff, but in some ways this could be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history. 

OK on the continuum from neutrality to what the Nazis it isn't very far along at all, but it's a bit nearer to the Saudis bulldozing all remaining archaeological evidence of Jewish settlements in the Arabian peninsula

In what ways could it be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history?

[mongers]

dropped the whole 'Jews killed Jesus' stuff, but in some ways this could be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history. 

OK on the continuum from neutrality to what the Nazis it isn't very far along at all, but it's a bit nearer to the Saudis bulldozing all remaining archaeological evidence of Jewish settlements in the Arabian peninsula

In what ways could it be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history?

The way I described.

edit:
really the only valid answer to the question, it to ask our elderly nazi hunter what he feels about that view.

I'm just guessing having had large members of your extended family murdered because of their faith/ethnicity and places of worship, records, religious books and cemeteries destroyed, then this might be seen as a continuation of that process in some way.

[Admiral Yi]

So, the Mormon baptism of Mr. and Mrs. Weisel destroyed evidence of their Jewishness?

[Viking]

Don't think Mitt can do anything about this. 

Apart from having been a Bishop in an organisation that does stuff like that and not resigning there isn't much he can do about that. But he can do something about this...

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2093241/Mitt-Romneys-family-baptized-Ann-Romneys-atheist-father-Mormon-church-year-AFTER-death.html

More questions are being raised about presidential candidate Mitt Romney's religion after it was revealed that he helped baptise his adamantly atheist father-in-law years after the man had died.

Edward Roderick Davies was Ann Romney's father and died in 1992 after living as a staunch atheist all his life.

Recently-discovered records show that, in keeping with their controversial tradition of posthumously baptising non-Mormons, a ceremony was held to invite Mr Davies into the Church of Latter Day Saints one year after he died.

The practice of performing baptisms for the dead has drawn criticism after the Mormon church began doing so for well-known Catholics- including former popes- and Jews- including Holocaust survivors.

According to the religion's official website, the baptisms are seen as a way to offer those souls an option of joining the Church even once they have died. A key point is that it is seen as an option- as the souls are believed to have the ability to either accept or reject the baptism.

Mitt's wife Ann converted to Mormonism when she was 17 years old, shortly after she had started dating her husband-to-be.

Because Mitt was in France doing his missionary work at the time, his father George Romney helped usher Ann into the religion and arranged for missionaries to teach her about the faith.


Edward Davies, shown here in his youth, was a staunch atheist and believed organized religions to be 'hogwash'


Shortly after Ann converted, her two brothers followed suit and converted as well.

Mr Davies died in 1992 and his wife died a year later. When she was on her deathbed, however, she asked her sons to help her convert to Mormonism, and she was baptised just before she died.

Unlike his wife, Mr Davies had no such last-minute requests for religious salvation.

He remained true to his convictions and considered organized religion 'drudgery' and 'hogwash'.

Ann's brother Roderick is quoted as saying that their father 'considered people who were religious to be weak in the knees'.

His well-known distaste for religion didn't stop members of his family from baptising him by proxy a year after he died, however.

The proxy baptisms are typically done with a member of the dead subject's family standing in for them at the ceremony and going through the actions on the deceased person's behalf.

Because all three of Mr Davies' children had been long-time members of the religion at that point, any of them could have been the proxy.

Little else is known about the specifics of the 'special family meeting' which resulted in Mr Davies' baptism, except that it took place in the famed Salt Lake Temple in Utah on September 13, 1993. Whether or not Mitt Romney was present is unknown, but it seems likely that his wife Ann certainly was.

The Romney family's pride in converting members of the Davies family to their religion is well-documented.

When Mitt was disheartened after having a difficult time converting the French to Mormonism while he was doing his missionary work, his father George wrote him a letter saying that their work with the Davies family was more important anyhow.

'I was thrilled to stand in for you in connection with (Ann's brother) Jim's baptism,' the elder Mr Romney wrote on March 6, 1967.

'This makes two converts here that are certainly yours so don't worry about your difficulty in converting those Frenchmen!

'I am sure you can appreciate that Ann and Jim are each worth a dozen of them, at least to us.'

So, yes, If you think it is ok to baptize dead atheists into mormonism I don't think you object to baptizing dead joos into mormonism.

[Razgovory]

I'm with Yi here.  Also I thought Wiesel was dead.

[Eddie Teach]

Personally, I'm cool with members of any and every faith letting me into their heaven.

[PDH]

I think they should stop because it is stupid.

[Sheilbh]

I can see how it's pretty offensive.

[garbon]

I can see how it's pretty offensive.

I think it is a lot less offensive than the default of damning nonbelievers to hell.

[Josephus]

Which is more offensive...this or marines posing in front of SS banners? Let's ask Berkut.

[DGuller]

I don't see what the big deal is.  It seems like Mormons are giving people a second chance in case they got the whole religion thing wrong during their lives.

[Razgovory]

I could see how some Jewish people would object, it could be seen as a denial of their faith.

Newsflash mongers: eveything about Christianity is a denial of their faith.

Yes, but this is in a way an active denial of their faith, modern Christians claim to be tolerant and for the most part have dropped the whole 'Jews killed Jesus' stuff, but in some ways this could be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history. 

OK on the continuum from neutrality to what the Nazis it isn't very far along at all, but it's a bit nearer to the Saudis bulldozing all remaining archaeological evidence of Jewish settlements in the Arabian peninsula

They aren't Christians.

[Sheilbh]

I can see how it's pretty offensive.

I think it is a lot less offensive than the default of damning nonbelievers to hell.

Yeah but that doesn't exist in Mormonism.  I think the Jewish view would be that they weren't damned to hell and died for their Jewishness only for that to be kind of desecrated after the event.  It's the spiritual equivalent of exhuming your nan from a Jewish cemetery.

Also Mormon's don't have hell, they've got Perdition but I think there are 6 people in there - like Judas.  They've a very attractively wide and liberal idea of redemption.  Their afterlife is a multi-tiered heaven.  The lowest level was so glorious that Joseph Smith said if people saw it they'd kill themselves to get there.

[garbon]

I can see how it's pretty offensive.

I think it is a lot less offensive than the default of damning nonbelievers to hell.

Yeah but that doesn't exist in Mormonism.  I think the Jewish view would be that they weren't damned to hell and died for their Jewishness only for that to be kind of desecrated after the event.  It's the spiritual equivalent of exhuming your nan from a Jewish cemetery.

Also Mormon's don't have hell, they've got Perdition but I think there are 6 people in there - like Judas.  They've a very attractively wide and liberal idea of redemption.  Their afterlife is a multi-tiered heaven.  The lowest level was so glorious that Joseph Smith said if people saw it they'd kill themselves to get there.

Then they are grabbing everyone up to heaven anyway.  Not something to actively care about let alone get vocally offended unless one wants to score political points.

[garbon]

dropped the whole 'Jews killed Jesus' stuff, but in some ways this could be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history. 

OK on the continuum from neutrality to what the Nazis it isn't very far along at all, but it's a bit nearer to the Saudis bulldozing all remaining archaeological evidence of Jewish settlements in the Arabian peninsula

In what ways could it be seen as actively rewriting the Jewish faith out of history?

The way I described.

edit:
really the only valid answer to the question, it to ask our elderly nazi hunter what he feels about that view.

I'm just guessing having had large members of your extended family murdered because of their faith/ethnicity and places of worship, records, religious books and cemeteries destroyed, then this might be seen as a continuation of that process in some way.

Perhaps in an emotional way but certainly not from a rational point of view.  Sure you might not like a group of people telling you that you had it wrong all along - but to equate people who are still taking steps to secure your "eternal salvation" as equivalent to Nazis who wanted to wipe out your existence?