July 20, 2009 12:15 PM

Will Mother's Baptism Come Up At Obama's Mormon Meeting?

By
Brian Montopoli
Topics
In The News
(CBS/Dan Baruch)
Updated 3:35 p.m. ET

President Obama will meet Monday afternoon with Thomas Monson, the head of the Mormon church, also known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS).*

The chair of the church's genealogical committee, Elder Dallin Oaks, will also be present at the meeting, CBS News White House correspondent Mark Knoller reports. According to the White House, LDS leaders have in the past offered presidents detailed records of their family history.

But there is a bit of family history that might be glossed over at the meeting: The posthumous baptism of the president's mother, Stanley Ann Dunham, into the Mormon faith.

Dunham died of cancer in 1995. Blogger John Aravosis, using the LDS Web site FamilySearch.org, discovered records earlier this year indicating that someone had baptized Dunham into the church on June 4th of last year, the day after Mr. Obama secured the Democratic presidential nomination.

The church later confirmed that the baptism had taken place, but said that it had been improper; LDS spokeswoman Kim Farah emailed a statement to news organizations saying that baptizing the dead "is a sacred practice to us" but that "it is counter to Church policy for a Church member to submit names for baptism for persons to whom they are not related."

"The Church is looking into the circumstances of how this happened and does not yet have all the facts," she added. "However, this is a serious matter and we are treating it as such." The White House declined to comment on the issue at the time.

Indeed, the church says that while posthumous baptisms are longstanding practice, church members are only supposed to request the baptisms for relatives. Yet that did not stop someone from performing the baptism and temple rites for Dunham at the LDS temple in Provo, Utah, according to the Provo Daily Herald.

These so-called "baptisms of the dead" have prompted anger from Jewish groups objecting to the baptism of Jewish Holocaust victims into the Mormon faith. The church announced in November that it is changing its geological database to make posthumous baptisms of Holocaust victims more difficult.

Mormons believe that souls cannot enter heaven without being baptized and undergoing other sacraments.

*UPDATE, 3:35 p.m. ET: The president issued a statement following the meeting that, unsurprisingly, made no mention of his mother's baptism.

"I enjoyed my meeting with President Monson and Elder Oaks," he said. "I'm grateful for the genealogical records that they brought with them and am looking forward to reading through the materials with my daughters. It's something our family will treasure for years to come."

Add a Comment See all 21 Comments
by borisgodanov August 3, 2009 7:19 AM EDT
This is reprehensible. If they were to try something like that with MY family, they would be entering the afterlife a lot sooner.

I also fid it telling, as to the kind of people who who do such a thing, that they did not baptize the President's black father just his white mother. Racist thugs.
Reply to this comment
by bca80 July 22, 2009 2:15 AM EDT
Since the church gave Pres Obama his genealogy, I wonder if they put asterisks next to all of his ancestors who could not hold the priesthood of the church simply because they were black. My guess....no full disclosure.
Reply to this comment
by BillKilpatrick July 21, 2009 11:53 PM EDT
It is a misstatement to say that Mormons believe a soul must be baptized to go to Heaven. The Mormon view of the afterlife is more complex than Heaven and Hell. With the exception of a few individuals reserved for "Outer Darkness," Mormons actually believe that all people will go to Heaven. Where, in Heaven, they go will depend on how they live their life. Baptism, which is a ritual symbolizing a commitment to follow Christ, is considered necessary to achieve one's full potential. A news organization should do its homework to get the story right.
Reply to this comment
by mbmadden77 July 20, 2009 10:53 PM EDT
I can't believe Obama's mother's proxy baptism is the headline for this story that has almost nothing to do with that. That's some grade-A quality journalism, nice job! Also, the idea that performing a proxy baptism on behalf of a dead person "makes" that person a Mormon is laughable, even to Mormons, and misses the point entirely. Anyone who did even a little bit of research knows that. Again, congratulations on the grade-A journalism!

I truly don't get what is offensive about proxy baptism for the dead, when you really think about it. Either the following is true, or it's not: baptism by proper athority is essential for salvation, and therefore a great gift to the departed soul who chooses to receive it as well as a benevolent act by the living proxy. If you believe that to be true, then obviously there would be no objection. If you believe that to be a fairy tale, then it's nothing worse than a well-meaning yet ultimately meaningless warm bath that caused no-one any harm. Why on earth does anyone get upset about it? Why is Brian Montopoli still obsessing over it to the point that it's the centerpiece of an unrelated Mormon-themed story months later?
Reply to this comment
by mbmadden77 July 20, 2009 11:16 PM EDT
Also: being a rational and intelligent man, Barack Obama probably understands this and didn't take any real offense to it, if he even gave it any thought at all... despite how earth-shatteringly important Brian Montopoli clearly thinks it is.
by Rathje July 20, 2009 8:13 PM EDT
#1, Obama's mom isn't a Mormon unless she CHOOSES to be one in the afterlife. Same goes for dead Jews or whoever else. A Mormon temple baptism doesn't automatically make you a Mormon.

#2, If your dead grandma decides she wants to sign up with the Mormon Church in the afterlife, that's really none of your business.

No one died and made you or me queen of the dead. If the dead want to be Mormons, that's their own damn business.

The end.
Reply to this comment
by McStevenF July 20, 2009 7:14 PM EDT
Although Mormons practice proxy baptisms and other ordinances for those that have passed on, they believe that the ordinances do not take effect without the consent of those they are preformed for. Although some may be offended at the gesture, I personally find it a much more sensible doctrine than condemning those that have not been baptized to hell including children who die in infancy.
Reply to this comment
by Yeah-Me July 20, 2009 6:21 PM EDT
What... no news of the second "Kiss-in"?
Reply to this comment
by gramto8 July 20, 2009 1:16 PM EDT
Do you people complaining about the name get all upset when Massachusetts isn't referred to by its full name of Commonwealth of Massachusetts? Get over it already!
Reply to this comment
by byudude123 July 20, 2009 1:28 PM EDT
The name of the church is important because Brian Montopoli left Jesus Christ out of the name. Christ is central to our belief and as well as to the title of the church.
by bmontopoli July 20, 2009 1:36 PM EDT
I have changed the post to reflect the full name, including "Jesus Christ." Thank you.
by byudude123 July 20, 2009 1:08 PM EDT
The name of the church is "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints" you should check the church's official style guide for journalists at http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/style-guide
Reply to this comment
by stillwaters6 July 20, 2009 1:04 PM EDT
WHAT IN THE WORLD...

MITCH ROMNEY...you got some xplaining to do...
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