A question of faith

While checking out yesterday's news headlines, I was captivated by this article: "Jewish Group Wants Mormons To Stop Proxy Baptisms." From the Associated Press, the article reports on recent statements issued by Ernest Michel, honorary chairman of the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors. "We are not going to continue meeting with the Mormon Church," he declared after claiming that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints has not upheld its agreement to prevent the proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims, made in 1995. Michel cited the research of an independent contractor, Helen Radkey, whose findings indicated that resubmissions and new entries of names of Dutch, Greek, Polish and Italian Jews have occurred since 2005.

The Church defended its position by pointing out that their end of the agreement has been upheld, which was to limit the circumstances that allow for the proxy baptisms of Holocaust victims. Since 1995, the Church has researched and removed more than 260,000 names from the genealogical index at their own expense. They are also finishing six years of work on a new genealogical database, New Family Search, which will discourage the submission of large lists of unrelated individuals. It will also separate names intended for temple rites from those submitted purely for genealogical purposes, as well as flag Jewish names as ineligible for temple ordinances. I am very familiar with the Church's policy on the submission of family names for temple ordinances - members should not submit names of deceased individuals they are not related to, nor should they submit large lists of names without first confirming their relationship to each individual. Yes, there are members who ignore the Church's policy and submit names of non-relatives (and even Holocaust victims), the Church's new database will prevent these well-meaning but inappropriate submissions.

In regard to Helen Radkey's findings, I discovered another article that shed more light on what she actually found: "Her research of the Church's database uncovered the names of about 19,000 who had a 40 to 50 percent chance of having 'the potential to be Holocaust victims...in Russia, Poland, France, and Austria.'" I don't think her findings could ever constitute a flagrant and willful violation of the Church's agreement with the Jews not to baptize Holocaust victims. First, she has not proven that those individuals were indeed victims of the Holocaust, nor has she determined that those names were submitted by non-descendants (as names of Holocaust victims may be submitted for proxy baptism by descendants who are members of the Church). Second, she has not proven that Church officials were aware of an approved the submission of those names. It seems a little early to make sensitive and inflammatory accusations based on such evidence.

Any thoughts from my readers?

P.S. Here are some interesting links to articles:

"Jews Want Mormons To Stop Proxy Baptisms" http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27647809/

"Should Mormons Baptize Dead Jews?" http://newsblogs.chicagotribune.com/religion_theseeker/2008/11/should-mormons.html
An interesting perspective on the issue from a Jewish religion columnist.

"Mormonism And Judaism" http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mormonism_and_Judaism