I don’t know if I’m just doing something wrong but I built my family tree and the website seems to have barely any information about my family at all. I found out more just checking out our national archives then what I found on this website. It’s maybe worth noting that I’m not in the US and it does appear to be somewhat US-centric.
The best it could find was a couple of enrollment records for voting and a single immigrant notification in an old newspaper. It didn’t find these either by itself, I had to manually go though the search system to find it. The OCR didn’t even get the spelling of the name correct.
I’m not sure what I expected but it was definitely better than this, especially for all the pay walls they throw up.
Beyond this, they will use the data in their fucked up rituals to “Baptize the dead”. They will take your ancestors names, and retroactively baptize them into their church without consent from the deceased or family.
I was raised LDS, though I had the good fortune to spot the BS as a teenager and haven’t set foot in a church in almost 20 years. I did however, participate in the baptisms for the dead when I was like 16. The theology is bafflingly stupid and cheerfully inconsiderate (a lot like Mormons, LOL, amiright? I’ll be here all week!).
At least when I did it, the notion is that everyone who died without a chance to honestly consider Mormon teachings is in a kind of low-intensity purgatory rather than straight-up Hell. In this place, they will still be pestered by missionaries, but for some reason it’s critical that_ someone’s_ body be physically baptized in their name. Mormons are taught that they should chug along collecting their relatives names so a random teenager in Boise who lied about whether they jerk off can get dunked in an industrial bathtub perched on top of mediocre statues of oxen. This checks the appropriate box on the deceased’s spiritual resume, so if they accept the teachings in the afterlife, the pre-reqs to be fully Mormonized will have been met. The current rules are only to do [edit: submit] names of your actual relatives, but yeah… Familysearch says we’re all related to “Thor Odinson” and Noah.
Of course, if it turned out the Mormons were right, there are some weird knock-on effects. First, why would Earthly missionary efforts be desirable at all? You’re just giving people the chance to potentially doom themselves while they are still subject to bad influences. Second, why is there no accommodation for people whose names are not recorded? Fuck them, right? Third, what on God’s green Kolob is the point of pretending there is a “choice.” I have likely fucked myself, being a dirty quitter (My wife once overheard her parents’ Mormon neighbors describe me as an “apostate”), but if it turns out the Mormons are right, I am gonna feel pretty fuckin’ dumb, and similarly, barring some “The Good Place” shenanigans, literally 100% of the people who are given the chance to accept the “Gospel” after they’re already dead will accept.
Personally, I think the LDS emphasis on genealogy was mostly a way to collect intel to assert control, inflate membership in the early days, create a shared sense of history and connection in Utah where literally none of the members had deep family roots and so many had abandoned their own families for this weird culty church. Then, finally, it gives nosy grandmas a way to do God’s work while pursuing their hobbies. Like so many things in religion generally and Mormonism specifically, it kind of got out of hand.
Huh, that wasn’t the case the one time I was forced by my parents to do it. I didn’t have any names so they just assigned me random names. But I wouldn’t know how it is now.
Lol I literally had the same exact thought when all of this was explained to me. It makes no sense. But that’s par for the course for the entire religion sooooo……
What I meant was they are only supposed to put their own relatives into the system. By the time you get to the assembly line, I agree it’s still 99% going to be randos.
Oh, gotcha. That makes a lot more sense.
That’s good to know. I knew there had to be some sort of catch, but I wasn’t expecting that
Latter-day Saints believe that the deceased may choose to accept or reject baptisms for the dead. There is no “forcing dead people to join the church” going on.
“Dear Angel of the Lord, I am afraid that having died and been sent to spirit prison to be ministered to by the souls of righteous Nephites, I am still not convinced. I am sure that Catholic heaven is just on the other side of those pearly gates, and I formally request a transfer.”
Do you not understand how patently absurd this is for a faith that makes claims of exclusive truth? It’s PR nonsense so that most outside people will shake their heads and back off, and members won’t feel like they’re doing something disrespectful and disturbing.
I’m not sure what point you’re trying to make. Your paragraph of dialog doesn’t make any sense to me.
I’m saying that the church claims to be the one true church with unique access to the entirety of the Gospel. I am further saying that Baptism for the Dead is described as something that the deceased person can choose to accept or reject.
I am then saying that the “choice” to accept truths presented to you after you have died and find you now exist on a supernatural plane in which the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was “correct” is no meaningful choice whatsoever. Presenting it as such is to obfuscate the fact that the Church will continue to heed its own counsel as to what is “a respectful, reverent process that is motivated purely by love,” and that the non-believers need to STFU so the Mormons can get on with the extremely important business of saving souls, but only those whose names were written down somewhere, because apparently the Lord is a stickler for paperwork.
What they believe is irrelevant. It’s disrespectful to the beliefs of the deceased and their loved ones. Do you realize how insulting this would be to a Jewish person? It’s spitting in the face of their own beliefs.
Those who understand the spirit in which vicarious baptism are performed by Latter-day Saints understand that it is a respectful, reverent process that is motivated purely by love. It is not spitting in the face of anyone’s beliefs.