Political Wire: Gawker: Romney Converted His Father-in-Law After He Died

[flpoljunkie]

Romney Converted His Father-in-Law After He Died

Gawker: "Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney's militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as 'hogwash.'"

http://politicalwire.com/archives/2012/01/27/romney_converted_his_father-in-law_after_he_died.html

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. This does not surprise me. It's one of the reasons the LDS has kept such great genealogical records,

to convert people after the fact.

I think in Mitt's case it was very disrespectful to his FIL's beliefs, but I suppose if he was desperately worried about not seeing his FIL in heaven someday, I can see why he might have done it. (Or maybe it was just a power play where he got in the last word?)

[Zambero]

3. Did Pops-in-law leave a sizable estate?

Perhaps this sort of posthumous "conversion" is a means for the Mormon church to tithe the dead!

[malaise]

5. Ihave long been convinced that all religion requires some element of madness

but how the fugg do you convert the dead?

[HockeyMom]

10. As a genealogist and athiest, I could care less

I weclome their records and don't care that apparently somebody is the family is "baptizing" my dead realtives into their faith. As long as they don't baptize a LIVING ME into it.

[JBoy]

2. "It was surprisingly easy to convince him," said Romney.

[flpoljunkie]

4. Indeed!

[Hepburn]

6. My father detested the Catholic Church...

...as he lay dying the asshole niece of his deceased wife had him baptized as a Catholic. Did not ask me about it, but went ahead and did it on her own.

Now that takes balls.

[Enrique]

7. they can do that?

whats to stop the athiests from converting him back?

[flpoljunkie]

9. Apparently, they do.

[Firebrand Gary]

18. Yes, they do in fact do that.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002222086

[CanonRay]

8. He couldn't convert any living French people

so he resorts to robbing graveyards. Class Act, Rmoney.

[jwirr]

11. That is what baptizing the dead is all about in the Mormon religion. In fact that is also what

genealogy is all about. And it does not matter if you want your relatives in their religion or not.

[HeiressofBickworth]

13. That is what Mormon genealogy is all about

For the rest of us who do genealogy research, it is merely a hobby. It provides a combination of curiosity satisfaction and a bit of history. I've been doing it for nearly 40 years (off and on) and I'm an athiest with no intent to change anyone's designated religion. When I run across a Mormon record of someone who was born and died long before the invention of the Mormon religion, I merely laugh at the absurdity and arrogance of it. I think that baptism is meaningful only for the person who has been baptized, or not. For example, I'm 66 years old, I was born in a Catholic hospital and at that time, it was routine to baptize all new-born babies. Does it mean anything to me? Of course not. Nor did it mean anything to my parents.

[jwirr]

14. That is how I learned about what it is all about. I have been doing genealogy since 1965 for fun.

[HeiressofBickworth]

15. I learned from a friend at work

She invited me to her place for dinner one evening. When I walked into the living room, I saw a large collection of antique photographs of people on the walls. I asked her about the photos, she showed me her research notebook and I was instantly hooked. Here it is nearly 40 years later, she and I are best friends (she lives in Calif. and I'm in Wash.) and about 10 years ago we discovered that we are 8th cousins.

[jwirr]

16. Neat.

[dimbear]

12. Proxy baptism is insulting but does no real damage. It's not like pins in a voodoo doll. Exactly.

No known cases of complaints by zombies either.

[customerserviceguy]

17. That's what I've long felt

Had an ex-girlfriend whose son converted to the Mormon faith, and finally took an interest in his own geneology. It freaked her out that he wanted to baptize dead forebears in his church, but I said that it was really no different from a Catholic person praying for a Jewish person's soul at the latter's funeral.

Either the Mormons are wrong, and it doesn't do squat, or they're right, and it offers a second chance at a decent afterlife. I find their religion intriguing in that it is the only Western faith tradition I'm aware of that doesn't insist that you get right with its invisible skyfather before you croak.