Thursday, March 1, 2012

Posthumous Postjewish

In closing my introductory post I mentioned that I would discuss American politics and the accidental suppression of the theocratic state, but then news of the Mormon posthumous baptism of Daniel Pearl came to light this morning, and I thought I would hit on that topic instead.

Ah, Jews. Thanks to the Mormons, more powerful in death than life, the very Jedi of the religious wars. These issues, of course, have come up before, and when they did, the Mormon church backed down at the protests of Jewish advocates. Now, the practice seems to continue against official church doctrine, and LDS representatives scramble to control the damage. Meanwhile, a website has popped up to help anyone with an internet connection to "homofy" dead Mormons. Sadly, the creators stipulated that dead Jews were not eligible to be homofied, and I cry foul on that.

The tide seems to be against the Mormons on this issue, but I, for one, stand with the Mormons' right to practice their useless rituals. And the Jews are being stupid for bothering to complain. I'm sure that everyone understands that if Jewish souls can be turned Mormon-- then living Jews should be converting in droves. But obviously they are not, so it seems to be an issue of respect. Is it disrespectful to baptize dead Jews? Well yes, of course it is. But if they think they're saving souls from hell then the occasional metaphysical faux paus probably isn't at the top of the Mormons' list of concerns. Furthermore, if this information didn't keep getting leaked out, then no Jew would know about it, and they would never know about it because it doesn't do anything. Respect is a moot point.

Unless, that is, Jews believe in the mutual inclusivity of some or all religions. I guess I would feel pretty spooked too if I felt a disturbance in the Force every time my dead uncles flipped to the dark side.

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