Wiesel: Stop baptizing dead Jews

soundoff (7 Responses)

1. Spencer
   

   I'm LDS and Mitt Romney is just one person running for office. He doesn't have any say in what the church does, so asking him something like that just shows a lack of understanding.

   February 16, 2012 at 11:12 pm |
   • Jasmaine
     

     Rabbi Mevasair,The world you are describing doesn't exist in rteliay. You talk about equality among peoples . You were in Jerusalem, you tell us how the Arabs treated Jewish rights in Jerusalem during the period they controlled it from 1948-1967. You know they destroyed all the Jewish sites there and they did not allow any Jewish access to them, including the Western Wall, even though they specifically promised to allow such access in the cease-fire agreement they signed.Maybe you believe in Internationlization' of the holy sites, or maybe having neutral' armed forces guarantee' our rights there. But you know we also have experience with this from 1918-1948 during the British Mandate period when neutral British forces were supposed to guarantee our rights there. Naturally, British inclination to do so fell victim to British desires to appease Arab feeling.You also know that ONLY Israeli control of the city can guarantee access for ALL people of all religions to their holy sites in Jerusalem. The fact is that Christian groups throughout the Muslim Middle East are under great pressure and are in decline. If Muslim extremists get influence in Jerusalem, the Christians will be the first to feel the effects.Arabs of Jerusalem have been offered full citizenship and all have residency rights and rights to Israeli social welfare benefits, so this answers the question about their rights . The fact is the Arabs of Jerusalem also want continued Israeli control (even if at the same time they don't like Israel-but that is not a contradiction).There is no way any Israeli gov't can give up east Jerusalem. Period.

     March 23, 2012 at 8:28 pm |
2. William Simmons
   

   Being a former morman I can attest to the fact that names are put into this proxy baptism process as the LDS church stated. I believe Wiesel knows exactly what he's doing; creating more religious turmoil in this already confounding presidential race. If you want to hate on Romney do it because he's a flip flopper of extraordinary proportions, not because the church he chose for himself has a ritual that you don't believe in. Because you don't believe in it. It has no bearing on you and your belief of an afterlife so leave it alone and focus on the facts. Not religion. Religion has no place in politics.

   February 16, 2012 at 11:57 pm |
3. Winnie Green
   

   My father was a Dutch holocaust survivor; The Nazis picked up all the Jewish boys at his boarding school. He was sent in to Germany to what you could call an officers "retreat". Oh yes the master race?

   My father's family half Jewish paid off a farmer to drive by just as a bribed guard lifted the fence for him to crawl under and clime in to a wagon. He was then nailed in to a empty piano crate and put on one of the last ships before the ports of the inhabitants of the Netherlands were taken over / closed by the Nazis. Once out to sea the caption released him and he worked his way on board to NY were his father meet the ship.
   I grow up with the words of places like Dachau, Buchenwald Treblinka Auschwitz. Story's were told of his beautiful young cousins dumped in their front yard their throats cut. Dressed in their white party dresses, they were picked up off the street on their way home from a young girl's party.

   Why do I tell you this? You can't be more of a Jewish then my father.
   He raised me that religion is personal. Even asking questions was seen as prying in to personal feelings. Later in his life his daughter (Me) meet with Elders of the LDS church, I joined and a year later my father did also. Why he felt at home and because the LDS faith believes that the Jews are Gods chosen people. All other "Christian' churches see Jews as the killers of Christ.
   You get that thrown in your face enough times you get a little sour, they might see as a way to show me the error of my faiths history.
   The last Ten years of my father's life was spent doing his genealogy which let me tell you is one miracle at a time since 99% of your family history was wiped out along with your family.

   When he died he left his legacy for me to finish. I'm not going to be told by Wiesel or any other Jew what I can do with my family and my religious right to practice what I believe.
   The Catholic Church is publicly objecting as well. Well I publicly object to them baptizing Innocent babies for being "born in sin". What the heck is that????
   It is my right to finish the task set before me. Next is the Catholic side of the family. We reproduce and propagated like rabbits so complain away. I am a Mormon and I am not going anywhere!

   February 17, 2012 at 3:43 am |
   • duachais
     

     I hope your efforts are very successful. What a wonderfully strong family you must have.

     February 26, 2012 at 6:08 am |
4. Mary Katherine Edwards
   

   Baptism is a Christian sacrament~

   Submergence, sanctification, and
   initiation is a Jewish birth right~ the
   world lost six-million Jewish people~
   this is the loss, and the memory.
   Mary Katherine

   February 19, 2012 at 10:16 am |
5. John
   

   I was surprised Mali was 90% Muslim – that could make for an itinrestneg election dynamic for himHaving lived/traveled in this part of Africa, I had three thoughts. First, tribalism trumps religion, bigtime. One could make the reasonable argument that tribalism and Islam are linked. But at the end of the day it comes down to implied patronage due to tribal affinity.Second, the Islam of this part of Africa is not very strident. I can't think of another region where Islam is more culture and casual. They have their own breweries in Bamako.Third, compared to what the French think, support from Utah is inconsequential. France continues to exert self-serving control over most of African members of the Francophonie. For most French speaking Africans, France remains a Leopold-esque parasite on the continent.

   March 22, 2012 at 11:49 am |