Sashan
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Mahatma Gandhi, who employed nonviolent civil disobedience to lead India to independence after more than a century of British rule, was posthumously baptized by proxy by a member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, according to information provided to The Huffington Post.
Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who has until now has focused on researching incidents of proxy baptisms being proposed for or performed on dead Jews, discovered the Gandhi records on February 16 in a genealogical database restricted to Mormons. She was prompted to search for his name after seeing a statement by a Nevada-based Hindu activist, Rajan Zed, who expressed concern the practice might be performed in the name of many Hindus.
A screen shot of the database page sent to HuffPost by Radkey shows a proxy baptism for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was completed in a Salt Lake City Temple on March 27, 1996. The record has since been removed and Radkey said a subsequent search came up with "Unknown Name."
A request to a church spokesman for comment on the alleged baptism by proxy of Gandhi was not immediately returned.
Arun Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who lives in Rochester, N.Y., said he was " surprised" to hear about the posthumous baptism. "It bothers me in the sense that people are doing something when a person is dead and gone and there is nobody to answer for that person. That’s not the right thing to do," said Gandhi, an activist who teaches nonviolence. He also noted that his grandfather was against proselytizing of any kind, whether it involved Hindus or others. "He thought people must decide for themselves which religion they want to follow and they should follow that religion. It's not up to others to force them. He was respectful of all the religions."
Zed, who lives in Reno and runs a group called the Universal Society of Hinduism, told HuffPost that the posthumous proxy baptism of Gandhi is “appalling" and that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas Monson should personally apologize. The church should give an accounting of how many Hindus have had the ritual performed on their behalf and outline steps to assure it doesn't happen in the future, Zed said.
Hindus do not mark death as the end of existence but rather believe that the soul is reincarnated into different physical bodies through cycles of birth and death. To perform proxy baptism to a Hindu is "deeply offensive" because of the belief in rebirth, said Suhag Shukla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation and now its managing director and legal counsel.
"Each of us is innately divine, which is diametrically opposed to this concept that we are innately sinful and needing to accept Jesus as our savior in order to cleanse our soul," she said in an interview. "We do not believe there is only one way to salvation."
The history of British colonialism in India was inextricably tied to Christian missionaries who viewed Hindus and other non-Westerners as "heathens languishing in religions other than Christianity," Shukla said. She said many Hindus view missionaries -- whether Mormon or from other groups, as unwelcome "church-planting" operations.
"The irony is that Mahatma had some very specific criticisms about conversion and missionary activities, or "predatory proselytization," Shukla said. "He felt it was at the root of all conflict," she said. "He was interested in interfaith engagement and peace between religions. But he felt it was very important you have respect for other religions and not be coming in with this attitude that mine is better than yours."
According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon might propose the baptism of another person posthumously. The church has explained that it conducts the practice of proxy baptisms "because all who have lived on the earth have not had the opportunity to be baptized by proper authority during life on earth, baptisms may be performed by proxy, meaning a living person may be baptized in behalf of a deceased person. Baptisms for the dead are performed by Church members in temples throughout the world."
"The person acting as a proxy uses only the name of the deceased," according to the church, leaving the "mortal remains of the deceased" undisturbed. "To prevent duplication the Church keeps a record of the deceased persons who have been baptized."
Just because a name of an individual is submitted for a proxy baptism doesn't mean that the ritual takes place. "Such baptisms can only be performed in special fonts in Mormon Temples," the BBC has reported. "Women act as proxies for women and men for men. There are witnesses present and a proper record is kept, although the ceremony does not make the person for whom the baptism is performed a Mormon."
And as the church points out: "There is nothing in Mormonism that states that the person who is being baptized by proxy must accept this ordinance; he or she is simply given the opportunity to choose."
Mormon author Samuel Brown has written in The Huffington Post that Mormon proxy baptism is a solution to "Christianity's 'scandal of particularity' because it enables Christ to "be brought to everyone in the afterlife." Still, he wrote that he understands how the idea could offend members of other religious groups who do not consider Jesus as essential to their salvation.
Last week, HuffPost reported that teen diarist and symbol of the Holocaust Anne Frank had been baptized this month for at least the ninth time since she died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel, who is still alive, also was targeted for "posthumous" baptism, as were the murdered parents of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesel demanded Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speak out about the practice. Romney, has performed the ritual of proxy baptism in the past, but has referred questions about the ritual to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Negotiations between Mormon and Jewish leaders led to an agreement in 1995 for the church to stop the posthumous baptism of all Jews, except in the case of direct ancestors of Mormons. After this, Radkey found that members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had failed to adhere to the agreement. A subsequent 2010 pact resulted in a promise by the church to at least prevent inappropriate proxy baptism requests for Holocaust victims -- although not of all Jews.
Mormon Proxy Baptism Was Performed On Mahatma Gandhi, Researcher Says
Very interesting read and couldn't help chuckle.
Another article ----
Prominent People Mormons Have Baptized by Proxy
According to Collected Discourses, Vol.3, Appendix, Wilford Woodruff, December 13, 1893, the following men were baptized by proxy in the St. George Temple on August 21, 1877:
All the Signers of the Declaration of Independence except John Hancock and William Floyd.
("Proxy work for both William Floyd and John Hancock had been performed by relatives previous to this work by President Woodruff. William Floyd (Floid) was baptized 13 March 1877, with the Endowment work being performed on 22 August 1877 with Addison Everett acting as proxy in both instances. The baptismal work for John Hancock was performed 29 May 1877." Benjamin Franklin was ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
Also receiving proxy baptisms in August of 1877:
•Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Military Leader)
•Lord Henry Brougham (British reformer, lawyer, and politician)
•Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer (English member of Parliament and author)
•Robert Burns (Scottish Poet)
•Lord George Gordon Byron (English Poet)
•John Calwell Calhoon(US Senator and Vice-President)
•Count Camillo Bonso di Cavour (Italian Statesman)
•Thomas Chalmers (Scottish theologian and philanthropist)
•Henry Clay (US Senator)
•Richard Cobden (British reformer)
•Christopher Columbus (Explorer - Ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
•Daniel O. Connell (First Catholic member of British Parliament)
•Michael Faraday (English chemist and physicist)
•David Glascoe Farragut (American Civil War naval officer)
•David Garrick (English actor and stage manager)
•Edward Gibbon (Historian and author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
•Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Writer and poet)
•Oliver Goldsmith (Author, playwright, poet)
•Henry Grattan(Irish orator and member of Irish Parliament)
•Washington Irving (Author)
•Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (Confederate general in the American Civil War)
•Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer, essayist, poet, and critic)
•Benito Juarez (Mexican President)
•John Philip Kemple (English actor)
•Baron Justus von Liebig (German chemist)
•David Livingstone (Christian Missionary)
•Thomas Babington Macauley (English historian, essayist, and statesman)
•Lord Horatio Nelson (British naval admiral)
•George Peabody (American Philanthropist)
•Frederick II - A.K.A. "Frederick the Great" (King of Prussia)
•Hiram Powers (American sculptor)
•Sir Joshua Reynolds (English portrait painter)
•Frederick Von Schiller (German poet, dramatist, philosopher, and historian)
•Sir Walter Scott (Scottish novelist and poet)
•William Henry Seward (US Senator)
•George Stephenson (English inventor and engineer)
•William Makepeace Thackeray (English novelist)
•Frederick Henry Alexander Von Humboldt (German naturalist, explorer)
•Daniel Webster (American Statesman)
•John Wesley (Christian Evangelist/Pastor - ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
•William Wordsworth (English poet)
Between August 22-23, 1877 all of the remaining US Presidents were baptized by proxy except James Buchannan, Martin Van Buren, and Ulysses S. Grant. President Grant was still alive, but "President Woodruff declined the performance of the Temple work for these two deceased Presidents due to the actions they performed against the Saints during their administrations. The baptism for President James Buchanan was performed 4 June 1932 in the Salt Lake Temple, and endowments were given 19 October 1932 (#20580, Book 4T, pg. 924). Baptismal work for President Martin Van Buren was performed 4 May 1938 in the Salt Lake Temple, and endowments were given 21 June 1938 (#4564, Book 6H, pg. 203)" (Collected Discourses, Vol.3, Appendix, Wilford Woodruff, December 13, 1893).
According to the Salt Lake Tribune (8/17/91, p.A6) the following have also been baptized Mormon:
•Abigail Adams (Wife of US President John Adams)
•Louise Adams (Wife of US President John Quincy Adams)
•Dwight Eisenhower (US President)
•Patrick Henry (American Statesman)
•Thomas Kearns (US Senator)
•Abraham Lincoln (US President)
•Miguel Pro (Catholic Priest)
•Paul Revere (American patriot and silversmith)
•William Shakespeare (Playwright)
•Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)
The May 2, 2001 edition of the Mormon-owned Deseret News reported that following people of Jewish descent were also baptized by proxy in Mormon temples. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (named after the famous Nazi hunter) has asked that several names be taken off LDS records. The following are among that list. (Would a Mormon assume that just because a name has been stricken from the record that the work already done had no effect?)
•David Ben Gurion (Israel's first prime minister)
•Menachem Begin (Prime minister)
•Moshe Dayan (Military hero)
•Golda Meir (Prime minister)
•Theodore Hertzel (Zionism founder)
•Anne Frank and several of her family members (Holocaust victim and autobiographer)
•Zacharias Frankel (Father of the Conservative Jewish movement)
•Sigmund Freud (Father of psychoanalysis)
•Albert Einstein (Scientist)
•Marek Edelman* (Leader of Warsaw ghetto uprising)
•Leopold Page* (The man who brought the story of Oskar Schindler to the world)
The Jewish community has often expressed its outrage over the proxy baptisms of holocaust victims. Despite numerous apologies and promises from the Mormon leadership to the Jewish community, proxy baptisms for holocaust victims continue. "Over the years, they've duly held baptism ceremonies for around 650,000 Holocaust victims, along with countless late celebrities, including John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. Thanks to her prominence, Ms Frank is believed to have been baptised at least nine times."
ABC News reported in 2009 that "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."
Let's not forget Adolph Hitler (German dictator), who was baptized and endowed by proxy on December 10, 1993 and sealed to his parents (Alois Hitler and Klara Poelzl) on March 12, 1994; all of which took place in the London LDS temple.
If you know of other prominent people who have been baptized by proxy in an LDS temple, please send documentation to contact@mrm.org or Mormonism Research Ministry, PO Box 1746, Draper, Utah 84020-1746.
* These men were still alive when someone was baptized on their behalf.
Prominent People Mormons Have Baptized by Proxy | Mormonism Research Ministry
Lincoln, Hitler, Golda Meir etc etc. all are mormons
Helen Radkey, a former Mormon who has until now has focused on researching incidents of proxy baptisms being proposed for or performed on dead Jews, discovered the Gandhi records on February 16 in a genealogical database restricted to Mormons. She was prompted to search for his name after seeing a statement by a Nevada-based Hindu activist, Rajan Zed, who expressed concern the practice might be performed in the name of many Hindus.
A screen shot of the database page sent to HuffPost by Radkey shows a proxy baptism for Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi was completed in a Salt Lake City Temple on March 27, 1996. The record has since been removed and Radkey said a subsequent search came up with "Unknown Name."
A request to a church spokesman for comment on the alleged baptism by proxy of Gandhi was not immediately returned.
Arun Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatma Gandhi who lives in Rochester, N.Y., said he was " surprised" to hear about the posthumous baptism. "It bothers me in the sense that people are doing something when a person is dead and gone and there is nobody to answer for that person. That’s not the right thing to do," said Gandhi, an activist who teaches nonviolence. He also noted that his grandfather was against proselytizing of any kind, whether it involved Hindus or others. "He thought people must decide for themselves which religion they want to follow and they should follow that religion. It's not up to others to force them. He was respectful of all the religions."
Zed, who lives in Reno and runs a group called the Universal Society of Hinduism, told HuffPost that the posthumous proxy baptism of Gandhi is “appalling" and that Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints President Thomas Monson should personally apologize. The church should give an accounting of how many Hindus have had the ritual performed on their behalf and outline steps to assure it doesn't happen in the future, Zed said.
Hindus do not mark death as the end of existence but rather believe that the soul is reincarnated into different physical bodies through cycles of birth and death. To perform proxy baptism to a Hindu is "deeply offensive" because of the belief in rebirth, said Suhag Shukla, co-founder of the Hindu American Foundation and now its managing director and legal counsel.
"Each of us is innately divine, which is diametrically opposed to this concept that we are innately sinful and needing to accept Jesus as our savior in order to cleanse our soul," she said in an interview. "We do not believe there is only one way to salvation."
The history of British colonialism in India was inextricably tied to Christian missionaries who viewed Hindus and other non-Westerners as "heathens languishing in religions other than Christianity," Shukla said. She said many Hindus view missionaries -- whether Mormon or from other groups, as unwelcome "church-planting" operations.
"The irony is that Mahatma had some very specific criticisms about conversion and missionary activities, or "predatory proselytization," Shukla said. "He felt it was at the root of all conflict," she said. "He was interested in interfaith engagement and peace between religions. But he felt it was very important you have respect for other religions and not be coming in with this attitude that mine is better than yours."
According to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a Mormon might propose the baptism of another person posthumously. The church has explained that it conducts the practice of proxy baptisms "because all who have lived on the earth have not had the opportunity to be baptized by proper authority during life on earth, baptisms may be performed by proxy, meaning a living person may be baptized in behalf of a deceased person. Baptisms for the dead are performed by Church members in temples throughout the world."
"The person acting as a proxy uses only the name of the deceased," according to the church, leaving the "mortal remains of the deceased" undisturbed. "To prevent duplication the Church keeps a record of the deceased persons who have been baptized."
Just because a name of an individual is submitted for a proxy baptism doesn't mean that the ritual takes place. "Such baptisms can only be performed in special fonts in Mormon Temples," the BBC has reported. "Women act as proxies for women and men for men. There are witnesses present and a proper record is kept, although the ceremony does not make the person for whom the baptism is performed a Mormon."
And as the church points out: "There is nothing in Mormonism that states that the person who is being baptized by proxy must accept this ordinance; he or she is simply given the opportunity to choose."
Mormon author Samuel Brown has written in The Huffington Post that Mormon proxy baptism is a solution to "Christianity's 'scandal of particularity' because it enables Christ to "be brought to everyone in the afterlife." Still, he wrote that he understands how the idea could offend members of other religious groups who do not consider Jesus as essential to their salvation.
Last week, HuffPost reported that teen diarist and symbol of the Holocaust Anne Frank had been baptized this month for at least the ninth time since she died in a Nazi concentration camp in 1945.
Nobel Peace Prize winner Elie Weisel, who is still alive, also was targeted for "posthumous" baptism, as were the murdered parents of Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal. Wiesel demanded Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney speak out about the practice. Romney, has performed the ritual of proxy baptism in the past, but has referred questions about the ritual to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
Negotiations between Mormon and Jewish leaders led to an agreement in 1995 for the church to stop the posthumous baptism of all Jews, except in the case of direct ancestors of Mormons. After this, Radkey found that members of the the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had failed to adhere to the agreement. A subsequent 2010 pact resulted in a promise by the church to at least prevent inappropriate proxy baptism requests for Holocaust victims -- although not of all Jews.
Mormon Proxy Baptism Was Performed On Mahatma Gandhi, Researcher Says
Very interesting read and couldn't help chuckle.
Another article ----
Prominent People Mormons Have Baptized by Proxy
According to Collected Discourses, Vol.3, Appendix, Wilford Woodruff, December 13, 1893, the following men were baptized by proxy in the St. George Temple on August 21, 1877:
All the Signers of the Declaration of Independence except John Hancock and William Floyd.
("Proxy work for both William Floyd and John Hancock had been performed by relatives previous to this work by President Woodruff. William Floyd (Floid) was baptized 13 March 1877, with the Endowment work being performed on 22 August 1877 with Addison Everett acting as proxy in both instances. The baptismal work for John Hancock was performed 29 May 1877." Benjamin Franklin was ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
Also receiving proxy baptisms in August of 1877:
•Charles Louis Napoleon Bonaparte (Military Leader)
•Lord Henry Brougham (British reformer, lawyer, and politician)
•Edward George Earl Lytton Bulwer (English member of Parliament and author)
•Robert Burns (Scottish Poet)
•Lord George Gordon Byron (English Poet)
•John Calwell Calhoon(US Senator and Vice-President)
•Count Camillo Bonso di Cavour (Italian Statesman)
•Thomas Chalmers (Scottish theologian and philanthropist)
•Henry Clay (US Senator)
•Richard Cobden (British reformer)
•Christopher Columbus (Explorer - Ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
•Daniel O. Connell (First Catholic member of British Parliament)
•Michael Faraday (English chemist and physicist)
•David Glascoe Farragut (American Civil War naval officer)
•David Garrick (English actor and stage manager)
•Edward Gibbon (Historian and author of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire)
•Johann Wolfgang Goethe (Writer and poet)
•Oliver Goldsmith (Author, playwright, poet)
•Henry Grattan(Irish orator and member of Irish Parliament)
•Washington Irving (Author)
•Thomas Jonathan "Stonewall" Jackson (Confederate general in the American Civil War)
•Samuel Johnson (English lexicographer, essayist, poet, and critic)
•Benito Juarez (Mexican President)
•John Philip Kemple (English actor)
•Baron Justus von Liebig (German chemist)
•David Livingstone (Christian Missionary)
•Thomas Babington Macauley (English historian, essayist, and statesman)
•Lord Horatio Nelson (British naval admiral)
•George Peabody (American Philanthropist)
•Frederick II - A.K.A. "Frederick the Great" (King of Prussia)
•Hiram Powers (American sculptor)
•Sir Joshua Reynolds (English portrait painter)
•Frederick Von Schiller (German poet, dramatist, philosopher, and historian)
•Sir Walter Scott (Scottish novelist and poet)
•William Henry Seward (US Senator)
•George Stephenson (English inventor and engineer)
•William Makepeace Thackeray (English novelist)
•Frederick Henry Alexander Von Humboldt (German naturalist, explorer)
•Daniel Webster (American Statesman)
•John Wesley (Christian Evangelist/Pastor - ordained an LDS High Priest by proxy on August 22-24)
•William Wordsworth (English poet)
Between August 22-23, 1877 all of the remaining US Presidents were baptized by proxy except James Buchannan, Martin Van Buren, and Ulysses S. Grant. President Grant was still alive, but "President Woodruff declined the performance of the Temple work for these two deceased Presidents due to the actions they performed against the Saints during their administrations. The baptism for President James Buchanan was performed 4 June 1932 in the Salt Lake Temple, and endowments were given 19 October 1932 (#20580, Book 4T, pg. 924). Baptismal work for President Martin Van Buren was performed 4 May 1938 in the Salt Lake Temple, and endowments were given 21 June 1938 (#4564, Book 6H, pg. 203)" (Collected Discourses, Vol.3, Appendix, Wilford Woodruff, December 13, 1893).
According to the Salt Lake Tribune (8/17/91, p.A6) the following have also been baptized Mormon:
•Abigail Adams (Wife of US President John Adams)
•Louise Adams (Wife of US President John Quincy Adams)
•Dwight Eisenhower (US President)
•Patrick Henry (American Statesman)
•Thomas Kearns (US Senator)
•Abraham Lincoln (US President)
•Miguel Pro (Catholic Priest)
•Paul Revere (American patriot and silversmith)
•William Shakespeare (Playwright)
•Leo Tolstoy (Russian novelist)
The May 2, 2001 edition of the Mormon-owned Deseret News reported that following people of Jewish descent were also baptized by proxy in Mormon temples. The Simon Wiesenthal Center (named after the famous Nazi hunter) has asked that several names be taken off LDS records. The following are among that list. (Would a Mormon assume that just because a name has been stricken from the record that the work already done had no effect?)
•David Ben Gurion (Israel's first prime minister)
•Menachem Begin (Prime minister)
•Moshe Dayan (Military hero)
•Golda Meir (Prime minister)
•Theodore Hertzel (Zionism founder)
•Anne Frank and several of her family members (Holocaust victim and autobiographer)
•Zacharias Frankel (Father of the Conservative Jewish movement)
•Sigmund Freud (Father of psychoanalysis)
•Albert Einstein (Scientist)
•Marek Edelman* (Leader of Warsaw ghetto uprising)
•Leopold Page* (The man who brought the story of Oskar Schindler to the world)
The Jewish community has often expressed its outrage over the proxy baptisms of holocaust victims. Despite numerous apologies and promises from the Mormon leadership to the Jewish community, proxy baptisms for holocaust victims continue. "Over the years, they've duly held baptism ceremonies for around 650,000 Holocaust victims, along with countless late celebrities, including John Lennon, and Albert Einstein. Thanks to her prominence, Ms Frank is believed to have been baptised at least nine times."
ABC News reported in 2009 that "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."
Let's not forget Adolph Hitler (German dictator), who was baptized and endowed by proxy on December 10, 1993 and sealed to his parents (Alois Hitler and Klara Poelzl) on March 12, 1994; all of which took place in the London LDS temple.
If you know of other prominent people who have been baptized by proxy in an LDS temple, please send documentation to contact@mrm.org or Mormonism Research Ministry, PO Box 1746, Draper, Utah 84020-1746.
* These men were still alive when someone was baptized on their behalf.
Prominent People Mormons Have Baptized by Proxy | Mormonism Research Ministry
Lincoln, Hitler, Golda Meir etc etc. all are mormons
