I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t know a lot about the Mormon religion, but from what I do know, they are quite evangelical and why not? As religions go, they’re new and that’s how new religions grow, through recruitment. But when I read this story, I couldn’t help but feel, well…creeped out.
From Gawker:
Ann Romney’s Welsh-born father (Mitt’s father-in-law who Mitt mentioned in last night’s debate to shore up his pro-immigrant bona fides) was an engineer, inventor, and resolute atheist who disdained all organized religion and raised his children accordingly. Davies, his son Roderick told the Boston Globe in 2007, regarded the faithful as “weak in the knees.” But when Mitt began seeing Davies’ daughter Ann, the Romney family launched a concerted effort to convert not only Ann but her entire family to Mormonism. And they were wildly successful: Within a year of meeting Ann, Mitt and his father had converted all three of Edward Davies’ children. Days before she died in 1993, Ann Romney’s mother asked to be converted as well. Edward Davies was the only member of his clan whose soul the Romneys never claimed for their church.
Edward Davies was an atheist. He spent his life hating religion. He died hating religion. That apparently wasn’t good enough for the Romney family. A bit over a year after he died, Davies was sealed to his Mormon spouse in the Salt Lake Temple.
One of Gawker’s Mormon readers described the ceremony as:
[A] canonical series of rituals that Mormons undergo (in life or death) in order to qualify for admission to heaven, including baptism, confirmation, “washings and anointings,” endowment, and, in the case of men, ordination to two levels of priesthood. The description seems to indicate that certain family members were present for all these rituals, in which a living male would have stood in “for and in behalf of” the late Mr. Davies.
For those of us who call ourselves agnostic or atheist, we know that this sort of ceremony is for the living…that the dead don’t care. But it would be hard to argue that the practice isn’t disrespectful to the deceased, as well as just simply creepy.
For those who didn’t live their lives as non-believers, the practice is far worse. The Mormon church found itself in some hot water when they posthumously baptized Jewish victims of the Holocaust.
Even more recently, they mistakenly baptized Stanley Ann Dunham, the mother of President Obama.
In and of itself, this disturbing practice might not be enough to disqualify Romney for the Presidency, but it does point to a kind of arrogance that we see time and time again on the campaign trail. Mitt Romney, the Presidential candidate seems so removed from what people actually care about. Statements like, “Corporations are people, my friend,” ”I’ll tell you what, ten-thousand bucks? $10,000 bet,” and ”I should tell my story. I’m also unemployed” are statements made by a person who simply cannot see outside his narrow world view. So is it a surprise that Mitt Romney, the Mormon Bishop, would have trouble respecting that someone would have religious views that differ from his?
I finally found something to like about Romney… I get to have my own planet, thought the special underwear thing was interesting, my own planet? how “cool”!!!
“This is what we believe and this is how we do it; we don’t care how you feel or think, we’re gonna do it anyway”.
That is Religion.
The Catholics also believe some pretty weird stuff, such as transubstantiation (the changing of the elements of the bread and wine, when they are consecrated in the Eucharist, into the body and blood of Christ ). Cannibalism is just as weird as baptizing the dead.
“Karma:”
Although I can understand and accept your line of reasoning, I contend that Catholicism is still within the realm of “Christianity.” As with mainline Protestants, Catholics profess the 2 main creeds of the Christian Faith – that being, the Apostle’s Creed and Nicene Creed. Mormons can’t subscribe to these creeds as they are way off the “chart.” Be definition and substance, Mormons, are not “Christian:”
As an emeritus Christian pastor and hospice volunteer, standing beside Catholics in their last days, I have never witnessed those souls basing their Christian faith upon Catholic church tradition. Having stated, thus, Mormons do not have the same substance, even though they [falsely] claim to wear the Christian mantle.
http://www.thechristianmessage.org/2010/10/christian-creeds.html
No worries. I baptized and converted all Mormons, living or otherwise, into the “First Church Of The Flying Pink Unicorn.” This action, once taken, cannot be reversed.
~ awesome!
LOL Love it! Make sure you remember to baptize and convert me when I die.
I’d rather have a repentant Catholic Christian as US president, than a Mormon of certain peculiarity.
Why don’t the media take time to zero in on Romney’s adherence to a religion which possesses some rather strange beliefs? It needs to take some time to reflect that there is a character question which arises out of Romney’s adherence to his religion.
Mormonism has it that when a Mormon believer dies, that person is qualified to own and reign on his own planet. If that is not fanatical, then tell me what is!
Furthermore, if you don’t believe what I just mentioned, go to Christian Apologetics Research Ministry – carm.org and computer mouse click, “Mormonism.”
Finally, I think it would be safe to say that our nation would be better off, with a repentant Catholic Christian leading it, rather than a Mormon who fantasizes that someday in his hereafter, he will be riding hee haw on some distant planet.
Gee Nate, great job of being a religious bigot. No, I am not defending the mormon idiot or the catholic jackass(former protestant douchbag) Wonder which cult you belong to.