-- Feb 7, 2006
by Helen Radkey
Proxy Baptism of Jews: The Splash Goes On
Behind closed temple doors, and unquestionably in defiance of the May 1995 agreement between Mormons and Jews, in which the LDS Church promised to cease temple ordinances for deceased Jews who are not direct ancestors of living Mormons, the practice never stopped. Since 1995, Mormons have performed proxy ordinances for most Jewish notables, including prominent Israeli political figures: Yitzhak Rabin, Moshe Sharett, Golda Meir, David Ben-Gurion and Theodor Herzl--along with hundreds of thousands of other Jews, including multitudes of Jews in the arts, the sciences and in the entertainment field--such as Gilda Radner, the Marx Brothers and the Three Stooges. Even Jews on the Titanic, who went into the icy waters of the North Atlantic with the Jewish Shema prayer on their lips, spoken with their last breath, have been proxy baptized and proclaimed as members of the LDS Church.
... The baptismal and confirmation prayers used by Mormons in their temples are explicit in their content. Deceased parties are baptized by proxy without the option to decline. They are then confirmed as members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints by proxy and supposedly given the gift of the Holy Ghost, again without the option to decline. If Mormons, in general, are so adamant that the dead always have the opportunity to accept or reject these posthumous ordinances--then why is this choice not reflected in the wording of their baptismal and confirmation prayers?...
Mormons may have removed many names of Jews from their IGI records, currently available for public viewing, but the LDS Church maintains private ordinance lists. And, once performed, no LDS ordinance is ever undone, nor is there any procedure by which an ordinance can be reversed, despite vehement protest.
... Some of these Holocaust victims, murdered as young teenagers, have no direct descendants, yet the Mormon faithful submit their names anyway, falsely claiming descendancy. Zealous Mormons are still pouring names of Jewish Holocaust victims into the LDS temple system. ... (1)
-- Jul 2, 2006
Nu What's Nu?: News About Jewish Genealogy From Avotaynu
Vol. 7, No. 10, (Excerpt)
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
London Birth Records Extracted
In the 1960s, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, representing themselves as the Genealogical Society of Utah, approached the Beit Din of London and offered to preserve the birth records of the Jewish community on microfilm. The Jewish group consented. The agreement made no mention of using the records for Mormon rituals. After the microfilm reached Salt Lake City, the contents were distributed to Mormon volunteers who extracted the information, and the Church posthumously baptized hundreds of Jews identified on the birth records. In 1994, Charles Tucker, archivist for the Beit Din, wrote to me and said had they known the information would be used for Mormon religious purposes, they would never have consented to the microfilming of the records. (1)
-- Aug 27, 2006
Nu? What's New?: News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Vol. 7, No. 13
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
Mormon/Jewish Controversy: The Problem That Won't Go Away
[August 7, 2006 meeting between officials of the Mormon Church and representatives of the Jewish Organizations] ... The meeting ended with handshakes, not because the parties agreed that the matter has been solved, but more that each group better understood the position of the other. ....
These were my conclusions of what happened. This is emes [truth].
Members of the Mormon faith will continue to posthumously baptize any person related to them no matter how distantly related. This is Church policy and they will not yield on this point even though the 1995 agreement limited the practice on baptizing Jews to direct ancestors. I stated to the senior Church official at the meeting that I have spent the past 25 years documenting the Mokotow family and placed all the names and vital information--a total of 1,200 people--on the Internet at the Family Tree of the Jewish People site on JewishGen. Was he saying that if my fourth cousin twice removed converted to the Mormon faith, it would be proper for this distant relative to use my research to posthumously baptize all deceased persons on my family tree who were born more than 95 years ago? The official said "yes."
...A new rule of the Church is that individual Mormons will be limited to performing temple ordinances on relatives only. A relative is any descendant of an ancestor. Previously, Mormons would submit lists of people not related to them for temple ordinances. .... Still open for discussion is the practice by individual Mormons to baptize all deceased persons with the same surname from the same small town on the grounds that, while it cannot be proved they are related, it is assumed they are because of the identical surname. I noted to one of the Mormon officials this does not necessarily apply to Jews. Since Jewish surnames are a relatively new phenomenon--less than 200 years old--two Jews named Schneider from a small town in Eastern Europe are not necessarily
related but may merely represent that they are descended from two men who were tailors ("schneider" means "tailor" in Yiddish).
The Church is serious about these new restrictions on members of their faith. The acts of individual Mormons in baptizing non-related persons are the ones that make the news media and are an embarrassment to the Church who considers posthumous baptism a sacred doctrine.
The Church plans to enforce these rules through education and discipline. ... Most importantly, members of the faith who violate the rules will be disciplined if they fail to follow the rules. .... In the past, it was generally agreed by non-Mormons that the rules were often ignored. ....
In reality, this probably represents less than 5% of the deceased persons on whom temple ordinances are performed. The vast majority of people are affected by the Church's Extraction Program. .... Here is how the Extraction Program affects deceased Jews.
The Church still plans to acquire Jewish records, but they will not be used as part of their Extraction Program. They state this was stopped immediately after the signing of 1995 agreement. Jews posthumously baptized through the Extraction Program were found as late as 2004. The Church explained that they were individuals for whom the extraction process started prior to May 1995 and that the total process can, indeed, take years. It appears they made not attempt to recall records after signing the agreement.
At the meeting, the senior Church official noted that the Church recognized that Jews are particular sensitive to the posthumous baptism of Jews murdered in the Holocaust. They stated that the 95-year rule would apply to any Holocaust victim independent of when the victim was born. Therefore, a Mormon who had relatives murdered in the Holocaust must get permission of the closest living relatives of the victim before baptism can be performed. If this rule is strictly adhered to, few Holocaust victims would be baptized. .... It was suggested that the IGI be purged of all persons whose death place was shown as a concentration camp site such as Auschwitz, Sobibor, etc. The Mormon participant who had the most technological knowledge claimed it could not be done. I disagreed, and nothing was formally concluded.
The Church will continue its practice of removing from the IGI Jews who are non-relatives of Mormons if a request is sent to them. The Church will research how the name got into the system, and if it violated any of the rules noted above or reached the IGI through the Extraction Program, the name will be removed.
The Church has future plans to combine their religious index (IGI) with their genealogical collections in what is being called the Combined Index. In 2005 the Church stated that it would be possible for a non-Mormon to tell whether a temple ordinance was performed on their relative because those entries would be flagged in the Combined Index. The Church is now saying this may not be true in the final system due to considerations that have nothing to do with the Mormon/Jewish controversy.
Why did the Church refuse to honor its commitment made in the 1995 agreement to limit baptisms to direct ancestors? In my opinion, it was because they came to realize they should never have signed the agreement in the first place. The 1995 agreement violates Church doctrine and policy, and no religion will violate its doctrine and policy.
This Mormon/Jewish controversy has not been put to rest; it is still a burning ember. It is highly likely that, in the near future, an incident will occur, such as the baptism of Holocaust victims which triggered the current controversy. It will fan the flames again. The Church will claim at that time that the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution gives it the right to involve other people's families in the Mormon religion, because their stated mission is the salvation through Jesus Christ of the entire human race both living and dead. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Dec 18, 2005
-- Dec 18, 2005
Nu? What's New? Vol. 6, No. 18
News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
Mormons Baptize Their Relatives As Well As Their Ancestors
For the past 20 years, I have encouraged Jewish genealogists to place a copy of their family history research with the Family History Library. I consider it the repository of the Family Tree of the Human Race. I have always cautioned that by doing so, if any of their relatives now or yet to be born converted to the Mormon faith, their research could be used to baptize their ancestors (my definition of "ancestors", that is, those from whom you are descended). Few have considered this an obstacle and they submitted their research to the Library.
During the negotiations between the Mormon and Jewish communities regarding practice of posthumous baptism, the Church disclosed that in the late 1940s they issued a directive to members of their faith that it was proper for them to baptize their relatives as well as their ancestors. Specifically, once a Mormon has gone back in time as far as possible, it was expected that s/he would then come forward and baptize all the deceased descendants of that most distant ancestor.
This came as a shock to the Jewish group because this practice has never appeared, to my knowledge, in public literature. Typical of the statements of the Church is the one here which states "In holy temples, members of the Church can perform these ordinances on behalf of their ancestors who have died." Note the absence of the word "relative." Further evidence that the Church distinguishes between "ancestors" (those from whom you are descended) and "relatives" (those who are descendants of an ancestor) is a statement at the Brigham Young University site which describes the process of bringing names to the Temple to perform ordinances: "Everyone whose name you submit should be an ancestor or close relative."
This creates an interesting dilemma for Jewish genealogists who object to the Mormon practice of baptizing Jews. Many Jewish genealogists, including myself, have contributed their published family histories to the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library. The practice of baptizing any relative of a Mormon means the Church considers it entirely proper for some distantly related Mormon to use my genealogical research donated to the Family History Library to perform posthumous baptism on the more than 1,000 deceased persons on the Mokotow family tree.
A problem in theory only? Don't tell that to Judy Baston of California who found out a distantly related cousin posthumously baptized her mother. Jewish genealogists may want to consider this matter before they donate their family histories to the [LDS] Library. (1)
-- May 26, 2006
Associated Press
by Jennifer Dobner
Mormon baptism database in dispute: Holocaust survivors are listed in it despite agreement, Jews say
Jewish leaders in a dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its practice of posthumous baptisms say there is new evidence that the names of Jewish Holocaust victims continue to show up in the church's vast genealogical database.
"We've been dealing with it for 11 years, since 1995, and we continue to deal with it," said Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor and founding member of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
A cross-referencing of more than 1,500 Dutch Jews whose names should have been deleted from the church's International Genealogical Index remain in the database, Michel said.
Over the past three months, the entries were matched by Salt Lake City researcher Helen Radkey against a 1995 list of deleted names provided by church leaders to Michel's organization, which has contracted with Radkey for research services since 1999.
Michel, whose parents were posthumously baptized, said Wednesday he is in talks with church leaders and is working on setting up a July meeting to discuss the latest findings.
Mormon church spokesman Mike Otterson said Friday that no meeting had been scheduled, but that Michel is encouraged to bring his concerns before a working group of church staff and Jews set up in April 2005 to continue to work out database issues.
"One of the benefits of previous meetings is that we established an ongoing joint working group that would address what would appear to be any anomalies, or anything that appears to be slipping through our screening process," Otterson said. "That committee continues to meet and continues to be the best place for addressing these concerns."
Posthumous baptism is a sacred rite practiced in Mormon church temples for the purpose of offering membership in the church to the deceased. Church members are encouraged to conduct family genealogy research and forward their ancestors' names for baptism.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has said the baptismal rite is only an offer of membership that can be rejected in the afterlife by individuals.
"So, there's no injury done to anybody," Hinckley told the AP in an interview last November.
But Jews are offended by the practice and in 1995 signed an agreement with Mormon leaders that should have prevented the names of Holocaust victims from being added to the genealogical index. The agreement would also have limited entries of other Jewish names to those persons who are direct ancestors of current Mormons.
Also that year, church family history officials gave Michel a compact disc, which they said contained 380,000 Holocaust victims' names which had been removed from church records.
An analysis of the CD by New Jersey-based Jewish genealogy expert Gary Mokotoff, however, showed the CD contained only 247,479 names, of which 31,688 were duplicates.
Since then Radkey has documented thousands of database entries that indicate the practice of adding names has not stopped. In April 2005 five boxes of Radkey's research - more than 5,700 entries - were given to Mormon leaders during a meeting with Michel and others from his organization in Salt Lake City.
Afterward, D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the church's leadership group called the Presidency of the Seventy, said the two groups would work toward an arrangement that would not "compromise our core beliefs and practices," while "still addressing the concerns of Jewish leaders."
The most recent 1,500 names of Dutch Jews are only a sampling, Radkey said. But the numbers are sufficient to raise questions about whether Jewish names were ever removed from the index, or have been re-entered into the system, which has an estimated 400 million records, she said. She also believes the church is ignoring the "direct ancestor" portion of the agreement.
"The sheer volume of entries in the IGI of Jewish, Yiddish names is overwhelming," said Radkey, who also noted nearly 1,000 marriage records that raise similar questions. "You can't have that number of obvious Jewish Holocaust victims and say that all of them are related to Mormons."
Michel said he has a good personal relationship with Mormon leaders and appreciates that they continue to discuss the issue.
"But they did sign (the agreement) and I think they've regretted it ever since," Michel said. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Nu? What's New? Vol. 6, No. 18
News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
Mormons Baptize Their Relatives As Well As Their Ancestors
For the past 20 years, I have encouraged Jewish genealogists to place a copy of their family history research with the Family History Library. I consider it the repository of the Family Tree of the Human Race. I have always cautioned that by doing so, if any of their relatives now or yet to be born converted to the Mormon faith, their research could be used to baptize their ancestors (my definition of "ancestors", that is, those from whom you are descended). Few have considered this an obstacle and they submitted their research to the Library.
During the negotiations between the Mormon and Jewish communities regarding practice of posthumous baptism, the Church disclosed that in the late 1940s they issued a directive to members of their faith that it was proper for them to baptize their relatives as well as their ancestors. Specifically, once a Mormon has gone back in time as far as possible, it was expected that s/he would then come forward and baptize all the deceased descendants of that most distant ancestor.
This came as a shock to the Jewish group because this practice has never appeared, to my knowledge, in public literature. Typical of the statements of the Church is the one here which states "In holy temples, members of the Church can perform these ordinances on behalf of their ancestors who have died." Note the absence of the word "relative." Further evidence that the Church distinguishes between "ancestors" (those from whom you are descended) and "relatives" (those who are descendants of an ancestor) is a statement at the Brigham Young University site which describes the process of bringing names to the Temple to perform ordinances: "Everyone whose name you submit should be an ancestor or close relative."
This creates an interesting dilemma for Jewish genealogists who object to the Mormon practice of baptizing Jews. Many Jewish genealogists, including myself, have contributed their published family histories to the LDS (Mormon) Family History Library. The practice of baptizing any relative of a Mormon means the Church considers it entirely proper for some distantly related Mormon to use my genealogical research donated to the Family History Library to perform posthumous baptism on the more than 1,000 deceased persons on the Mokotow family tree.
A problem in theory only? Don't tell that to Judy Baston of California who found out a distantly related cousin posthumously baptized her mother. Jewish genealogists may want to consider this matter before they donate their family histories to the [LDS] Library. (1)
-- May 26, 2006
Associated Press
by Jennifer Dobner
Mormon baptism database in dispute: Holocaust survivors are listed in it despite agreement, Jews say
Jewish leaders in a dispute with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints over its practice of posthumous baptisms say there is new evidence that the names of Jewish Holocaust victims continue to show up in the church's vast genealogical database.
"We've been dealing with it for 11 years, since 1995, and we continue to deal with it," said Ernest Michel, a Holocaust survivor and founding member of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors.
A cross-referencing of more than 1,500 Dutch Jews whose names should have been deleted from the church's International Genealogical Index remain in the database, Michel said.
Over the past three months, the entries were matched by Salt Lake City researcher Helen Radkey against a 1995 list of deleted names provided by church leaders to Michel's organization, which has contracted with Radkey for research services since 1999.
Michel, whose parents were posthumously baptized, said Wednesday he is in talks with church leaders and is working on setting up a July meeting to discuss the latest findings.
Mormon church spokesman Mike Otterson said Friday that no meeting had been scheduled, but that Michel is encouraged to bring his concerns before a working group of church staff and Jews set up in April 2005 to continue to work out database issues.
"One of the benefits of previous meetings is that we established an ongoing joint working group that would address what would appear to be any anomalies, or anything that appears to be slipping through our screening process," Otterson said. "That committee continues to meet and continues to be the best place for addressing these concerns."
Posthumous baptism is a sacred rite practiced in Mormon church temples for the purpose of offering membership in the church to the deceased. Church members are encouraged to conduct family genealogy research and forward their ancestors' names for baptism.
Church President Gordon B. Hinckley has said the baptismal rite is only an offer of membership that can be rejected in the afterlife by individuals.
"So, there's no injury done to anybody," Hinckley told the AP in an interview last November.
But Jews are offended by the practice and in 1995 signed an agreement with Mormon leaders that should have prevented the names of Holocaust victims from being added to the genealogical index. The agreement would also have limited entries of other Jewish names to those persons who are direct ancestors of current Mormons.
Also that year, church family history officials gave Michel a compact disc, which they said contained 380,000 Holocaust victims' names which had been removed from church records.
An analysis of the CD by New Jersey-based Jewish genealogy expert Gary Mokotoff, however, showed the CD contained only 247,479 names, of which 31,688 were duplicates.
Since then Radkey has documented thousands of database entries that indicate the practice of adding names has not stopped. In April 2005 five boxes of Radkey's research - more than 5,700 entries - were given to Mormon leaders during a meeting with Michel and others from his organization in Salt Lake City.
Afterward, D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the church's leadership group called the Presidency of the Seventy, said the two groups would work toward an arrangement that would not "compromise our core beliefs and practices," while "still addressing the concerns of Jewish leaders."
The most recent 1,500 names of Dutch Jews are only a sampling, Radkey said. But the numbers are sufficient to raise questions about whether Jewish names were ever removed from the index, or have been re-entered into the system, which has an estimated 400 million records, she said. She also believes the church is ignoring the "direct ancestor" portion of the agreement.
"The sheer volume of entries in the IGI of Jewish, Yiddish names is overwhelming," said Radkey, who also noted nearly 1,000 marriage records that raise similar questions. "You can't have that number of obvious Jewish Holocaust victims and say that all of them are related to Mormons."
Michel said he has a good personal relationship with Mormon leaders and appreciates that they continue to discuss the issue.
"But they did sign (the agreement) and I think they've regretted it ever since," Michel said. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Spring 2004
-- During Spring 2004
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy
Volume XX, No. 1
by Sallyann Amdur Sack, Editor
As I See It
A major cluster of stories in this issue [pp37-40] ... concerns the Mormon practice of baptizing deceased Jews. In 1995 the LDS Church and representatives of the Jewish people signed an agreement that many thought would end the practice. Apparently it has not. Wayne Metcalf, a representative of the LDS church explains why the Mormons do posthumous baptisms; Gary Mokotoff details some history and the nature of the agreement, and Bernard Kouchel presents evidence that terms of the agreement are not being observed. (1)
-- Apr 11, 2005
Jews, Mormons to Examine Proxy Baptisms
Jews, Mormons Agree to Study Database of Those Who Received Posthumous Proxy Baptisms
By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY Apr 11, 2005 Jews and Mormons decided Monday to jointly scrutinize a Mormon database that includes the names of thousands of deceased Jews including Holocaust victims who were given unwanted, posthumous baptisms.
A committee with members of both religions will study how names get into the massive International Genealogical Index which has an estimated 4 million entries what processes are followed, and how greater order can be brought to the unwieldy listing.
The move lets Mormons "see what we can do that doesn't compromise our core beliefs and practices" while still addressing the concerns of Jewish leaders, said D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, a high-ranking church leadership body. "We're going to do a lot of fact finding, and we will go from there."
"The church did not compromise its principles. The Jewish community didn't compromise its concerns," said David Elcott, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee in New York, one of five leaders who met with Mormon officials Sunday and Monday.... (1)
-- Apr 12, 2005
National Public Radio
Morning Edition
by Howard Berkes
Mormons Aim to Stop 'Baptism' of Holocaust Victims
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes another [failed] attempt to address concerns of Jewish groups ... (1)
-- During Fall 2005
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy
by Sallyann Amdur Sack, Editor
Mormon/Jewish Controversy: An Update
....Increasingly, however, rumbles began to be heard in the Jewish community to the effect that names removed from the IGI in 1995 were once more appearing on this list. As examples multiplied, Helen Radkey, a former Mormon living in Salt Lake City, began to research the IGI and to investigate the charges that the Mormons were failing to observe the agreement, sending her findings to Ernest Michel of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Michel was the person who negotiated the 1995 agreement with the Church.
In March 2005, Michel and three other representatives of Jewish organizationsDr. David Elcott of the American Jewish Committee, AVOTAYNU publisher Gary Mokotoff and Herbert Kronish, a lawyer friend of Micheltraveled to Salt Lake City to present Radkey's evidencethree large crates with a total of 5,000 namesto 10 officials of the LDS (Mormon) Church. The Church asked for time to analyze the items, and both sides agreed to establish a six-person ad hoc committee (three Jews and three Mormons) to study the results of the analysis and to make recommendations to the principals. Mokotoff was selected to create the Jewish contingent. He tapped AVOTAYNU editor Sallyann Amdur Sack and JewishGen vice-president Carol Skydell as the other two Jewish members. In May 2005, the ad hoc committee met in Salt Lake City. The Mormon members were David E. Rencher, Director of the Records and Information; Wayne J. Metcalfe, Director of Acquisitions; Paul Starkey, Manager of Official Temple Records.
Starkey is directly responsible for the IGI. Church Extraction Program
The Mormons clarified their use of names extracted from genealogical records. The vast majority of deceased persons for whom ordinances such as baptism are performed are not related to Mormons. The ordinances are performed as the result of the Church's Extraction Program in which the names of persons from collections they have acquired are submitted for ordinances. An example of this is a current project to extract and seal all persons married in Manhattan (New York) since marriage records were created in this locale. Jews who had ancestors married by 1910 in Manhattan will find their names in the IGI. Another example of the Extraction Program is all Jews born in London, England, in the 19th century, whose births were recorded in the Hambro Synagogue, were baptized by the Church. This occurred prior to the 1995 agreement. What the Church has ceased to do, in accordance with the 1995 agreement, is to initiate projects to extract specifically Jewish records, such as the Hambro
Synagogue birth records.
Still at issue is the statement in the 1995 agreement that the Church would ...discontinue any future baptisms of deceased Jews...where identified or known as Jews.... Consider the marriage record of Fanny Goldberg and Morris Bernstein in New York City. Do their names identify them as Jews? Not necessarily to the thousands of Mormons extracting records at the request of the Church, because they are not familiar with Jewish names. But if the officiant at the marriage is identified as a rabbi, does that identify the couple as Jewish? Similarly, if a Morris Bernstein is among the death records for Massachusetts, his name may not identify him as Jewish, but the fact that he is buried in Beth Moses Cemetery does. These are the problems the ad hoc committee is supposed to resolve. Names Submitted by Individual Mormons
Names may reach the IGI not only because of formally organized Church projects, but because they have been submitted by individual Mormons who are fulfilling their religious obligation to submit names of their own ancestors for what is called church work.
At this point in the ad hoc committee meeting, David Rencher, who was explaining the various practices, dropped a bombshell on the Jewish members of the task force. Rencher explained that the LDS Church interprets the phrase direct ancestors in the 1995 agreement to include all descendants of an ancestor and had done so for decades prior to the 1995 agreement. A Church member can baptize his great-great-great-grandfather (if that person is known) and all of the descendants of that great-great-great-grandfather even though he is not a direct ancestor as the term is generally used.
Thus, when Sallyann Amdur Sack discovered that all of the sons of Rabbi Israel of Rhuzhany, martyred in 1659, had been baptized, she requested that these names be removed. As readers can see from the following correspondence, this was not done.
(From Sack to Paul Starkey, June 5, 2005). I took your advice and managed to find many of the Zaks listed in the IGI even without access to the full list [a computer glich prevents access to the full listEd.]. Attached is a family tree I constructed from the Zak and related Zakheim entries in the IGI.
You recall I had questions about the inclusion of Chaim Zak and Chaim Zakheim. You answered that they had been submitted by a Jewish convert to your church who is now on a mission overseas. Although you apparently have not spoken (or written) to her, you have concluded that the entries must have come as a result of her personal genealogical research.
Please look at the attached tree. You will see that Chaim Zak and Chaim Zakheim descend from two different sons of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhany. This means that both men cannot be your submitter's direct ancestor as required by the 1995 agreement. She may be descended from one of the menfrom either Chaim Zak or Chaim Zakheimbut clearly she cannot be a direct descendant of both men.
In accordance with the 1995 agreement, I request that you delete from the IGI all of the Zak and Zakheim individuals who are not direct ancestors of your submitter.
(Letter to Sallyann Sack from Wayne Metcalfe, June 6, 2005) Thank you for providing the information. The issue of direct has come up in previous instances that I have discussed with Gary. As he and I discussed, according to our beliefs, the family is the core element of our religion. We have always encouraged Church members to submit names in family groups. Thus the two sons of this particular Rabbi would have been submitted in the family grouping per the teachings we have espoused since the submission of names began. Gary didn't agree with the interpretation but did understand the rationale and thought it was consistent with what we believed.
Until we have information from the submitter, I believe that it would be unfair to the submitter to summarily delete these names without further information. I would suggest that we wait until we have that information from the submitter.
(Sallyann Sack to Wayne Metcalfe June 7, 2005) I have shared your message with Gary and Carol. They join me in this reply.
We understand well your position about baptism and about families. David read the Church's policy to us at our May 9 [2005] meeting. We are not questioning it.
Rather, I am simply saying that, under the terms of the 1995 memo, your Church agreed to impose a restriction upon itself when it comes to Jews. Although your policy may be to baptize all of the descendants of an individual's progenitor, under the terms of the 1995 memo, you may not do this when it comes to Jews. In the case of Jews, only direct ancestors may be baptized.
Actually, the word direct is redundant. By definition, ancestor is direct. As any dictionary (or person in the street) will tell you, an ancestor is someone from whom one descends, period.
If youor the Churchdisagrees with this definition, please tell us your definition of direct ancestor.
In other words, if a Mormon claims descent from Rashi or from King David, the LDS Church considers it within the bounds of the 1995 agreement to baptize posthumously every descendant of Rashi or of King David. In June 2007, a family reunion of descendants of King David will convene in Jerusalem. Among those expected to attend are descendants of European royalty which based its claim to rule on the divine right of kings acceding to it from its ancestry with the House of David.
Even if the Church does not attempt to posthumously baptize all descendants of King David or of Rashi, it may create a large loophole to the agreement by virtue of its vigorous proselytizing efforts. The Church has converted a number of Jews who may do as the convert did with the descendants of Rabbi Israel of Rhuzhany. An undated Mormon pamphlet entitled Missionary Training Manual: For Use in the Jewish Proselyting Program shows that the Church has a specific program for this purpose. Among other things, it says in the brochure, Because Jews know so little about their religion, they are easy to convert.
Wayne Metcalfe responded to Sack's June 7 message thanking her for the clarity with which she stated the Jewish committee members' opinion, explaining that resolution of the issue was beyond the purview of the ad hoc committee and noting that it would need to be addressed by the committee headed by Elder Marlin K. Jensen, executive director of the Family and Church History Department and Ernest Michel. In turn, Jensen has referred the matter to the top leadership of the Church. Current Status
As of mid-November, the governing body of the Mormon Church, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is still wrestling with the matter of direct ancestors. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy
Volume XX, No. 1
by Sallyann Amdur Sack, Editor
As I See It
A major cluster of stories in this issue [pp37-40] ... concerns the Mormon practice of baptizing deceased Jews. In 1995 the LDS Church and representatives of the Jewish people signed an agreement that many thought would end the practice. Apparently it has not. Wayne Metcalf, a representative of the LDS church explains why the Mormons do posthumous baptisms; Gary Mokotoff details some history and the nature of the agreement, and Bernard Kouchel presents evidence that terms of the agreement are not being observed. (1)
-- Apr 11, 2005
Jews, Mormons to Examine Proxy Baptisms
Jews, Mormons Agree to Study Database of Those Who Received Posthumous Proxy Baptisms
By MARK THIESSEN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
SALT LAKE CITY Apr 11, 2005 Jews and Mormons decided Monday to jointly scrutinize a Mormon database that includes the names of thousands of deceased Jews including Holocaust victims who were given unwanted, posthumous baptisms.
A committee with members of both religions will study how names get into the massive International Genealogical Index which has an estimated 4 million entries what processes are followed, and how greater order can be brought to the unwieldy listing.
The move lets Mormons "see what we can do that doesn't compromise our core beliefs and practices" while still addressing the concerns of Jewish leaders, said D. Todd Christofferson, a member of the Presidency of the Seventy, a high-ranking church leadership body. "We're going to do a lot of fact finding, and we will go from there."
"The church did not compromise its principles. The Jewish community didn't compromise its concerns," said David Elcott, director of interreligious affairs for the American Jewish Committee in New York, one of five leaders who met with Mormon officials Sunday and Monday.... (1)
-- Apr 12, 2005
National Public Radio
Morning Edition
by Howard Berkes
Mormons Aim to Stop 'Baptism' of Holocaust Victims
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints makes another [failed] attempt to address concerns of Jewish groups ... (1)
-- During Fall 2005
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy
by Sallyann Amdur Sack, Editor
Mormon/Jewish Controversy: An Update
....Increasingly, however, rumbles began to be heard in the Jewish community to the effect that names removed from the IGI in 1995 were once more appearing on this list. As examples multiplied, Helen Radkey, a former Mormon living in Salt Lake City, began to research the IGI and to investigate the charges that the Mormons were failing to observe the agreement, sending her findings to Ernest Michel of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. Michel was the person who negotiated the 1995 agreement with the Church.
In March 2005, Michel and three other representatives of Jewish organizationsDr. David Elcott of the American Jewish Committee, AVOTAYNU publisher Gary Mokotoff and Herbert Kronish, a lawyer friend of Micheltraveled to Salt Lake City to present Radkey's evidencethree large crates with a total of 5,000 namesto 10 officials of the LDS (Mormon) Church. The Church asked for time to analyze the items, and both sides agreed to establish a six-person ad hoc committee (three Jews and three Mormons) to study the results of the analysis and to make recommendations to the principals. Mokotoff was selected to create the Jewish contingent. He tapped AVOTAYNU editor Sallyann Amdur Sack and JewishGen vice-president Carol Skydell as the other two Jewish members. In May 2005, the ad hoc committee met in Salt Lake City. The Mormon members were David E. Rencher, Director of the Records and Information; Wayne J. Metcalfe, Director of Acquisitions; Paul Starkey, Manager of Official Temple Records.
Starkey is directly responsible for the IGI. Church Extraction Program
The Mormons clarified their use of names extracted from genealogical records. The vast majority of deceased persons for whom ordinances such as baptism are performed are not related to Mormons. The ordinances are performed as the result of the Church's Extraction Program in which the names of persons from collections they have acquired are submitted for ordinances. An example of this is a current project to extract and seal all persons married in Manhattan (New York) since marriage records were created in this locale. Jews who had ancestors married by 1910 in Manhattan will find their names in the IGI. Another example of the Extraction Program is all Jews born in London, England, in the 19th century, whose births were recorded in the Hambro Synagogue, were baptized by the Church. This occurred prior to the 1995 agreement. What the Church has ceased to do, in accordance with the 1995 agreement, is to initiate projects to extract specifically Jewish records, such as the Hambro
Synagogue birth records.
Still at issue is the statement in the 1995 agreement that the Church would ...discontinue any future baptisms of deceased Jews...where identified or known as Jews.... Consider the marriage record of Fanny Goldberg and Morris Bernstein in New York City. Do their names identify them as Jews? Not necessarily to the thousands of Mormons extracting records at the request of the Church, because they are not familiar with Jewish names. But if the officiant at the marriage is identified as a rabbi, does that identify the couple as Jewish? Similarly, if a Morris Bernstein is among the death records for Massachusetts, his name may not identify him as Jewish, but the fact that he is buried in Beth Moses Cemetery does. These are the problems the ad hoc committee is supposed to resolve. Names Submitted by Individual Mormons
Names may reach the IGI not only because of formally organized Church projects, but because they have been submitted by individual Mormons who are fulfilling their religious obligation to submit names of their own ancestors for what is called church work.
At this point in the ad hoc committee meeting, David Rencher, who was explaining the various practices, dropped a bombshell on the Jewish members of the task force. Rencher explained that the LDS Church interprets the phrase direct ancestors in the 1995 agreement to include all descendants of an ancestor and had done so for decades prior to the 1995 agreement. A Church member can baptize his great-great-great-grandfather (if that person is known) and all of the descendants of that great-great-great-grandfather even though he is not a direct ancestor as the term is generally used.
Thus, when Sallyann Amdur Sack discovered that all of the sons of Rabbi Israel of Rhuzhany, martyred in 1659, had been baptized, she requested that these names be removed. As readers can see from the following correspondence, this was not done.
(From Sack to Paul Starkey, June 5, 2005). I took your advice and managed to find many of the Zaks listed in the IGI even without access to the full list [a computer glich prevents access to the full listEd.]. Attached is a family tree I constructed from the Zak and related Zakheim entries in the IGI.
You recall I had questions about the inclusion of Chaim Zak and Chaim Zakheim. You answered that they had been submitted by a Jewish convert to your church who is now on a mission overseas. Although you apparently have not spoken (or written) to her, you have concluded that the entries must have come as a result of her personal genealogical research.
Please look at the attached tree. You will see that Chaim Zak and Chaim Zakheim descend from two different sons of Rabbi Israel of Ruzhany. This means that both men cannot be your submitter's direct ancestor as required by the 1995 agreement. She may be descended from one of the menfrom either Chaim Zak or Chaim Zakheimbut clearly she cannot be a direct descendant of both men.
In accordance with the 1995 agreement, I request that you delete from the IGI all of the Zak and Zakheim individuals who are not direct ancestors of your submitter.
(Letter to Sallyann Sack from Wayne Metcalfe, June 6, 2005) Thank you for providing the information. The issue of direct has come up in previous instances that I have discussed with Gary. As he and I discussed, according to our beliefs, the family is the core element of our religion. We have always encouraged Church members to submit names in family groups. Thus the two sons of this particular Rabbi would have been submitted in the family grouping per the teachings we have espoused since the submission of names began. Gary didn't agree with the interpretation but did understand the rationale and thought it was consistent with what we believed.
Until we have information from the submitter, I believe that it would be unfair to the submitter to summarily delete these names without further information. I would suggest that we wait until we have that information from the submitter.
(Sallyann Sack to Wayne Metcalfe June 7, 2005) I have shared your message with Gary and Carol. They join me in this reply.
We understand well your position about baptism and about families. David read the Church's policy to us at our May 9 [2005] meeting. We are not questioning it.
Rather, I am simply saying that, under the terms of the 1995 memo, your Church agreed to impose a restriction upon itself when it comes to Jews. Although your policy may be to baptize all of the descendants of an individual's progenitor, under the terms of the 1995 memo, you may not do this when it comes to Jews. In the case of Jews, only direct ancestors may be baptized.
Actually, the word direct is redundant. By definition, ancestor is direct. As any dictionary (or person in the street) will tell you, an ancestor is someone from whom one descends, period.
If youor the Churchdisagrees with this definition, please tell us your definition of direct ancestor.
In other words, if a Mormon claims descent from Rashi or from King David, the LDS Church considers it within the bounds of the 1995 agreement to baptize posthumously every descendant of Rashi or of King David. In June 2007, a family reunion of descendants of King David will convene in Jerusalem. Among those expected to attend are descendants of European royalty which based its claim to rule on the divine right of kings acceding to it from its ancestry with the House of David.
Even if the Church does not attempt to posthumously baptize all descendants of King David or of Rashi, it may create a large loophole to the agreement by virtue of its vigorous proselytizing efforts. The Church has converted a number of Jews who may do as the convert did with the descendants of Rabbi Israel of Rhuzhany. An undated Mormon pamphlet entitled Missionary Training Manual: For Use in the Jewish Proselyting Program shows that the Church has a specific program for this purpose. Among other things, it says in the brochure, Because Jews know so little about their religion, they are easy to convert.
Wayne Metcalfe responded to Sack's June 7 message thanking her for the clarity with which she stated the Jewish committee members' opinion, explaining that resolution of the issue was beyond the purview of the ad hoc committee and noting that it would need to be addressed by the committee headed by Elder Marlin K. Jensen, executive director of the Family and Church History Department and Ernest Michel. In turn, Jensen has referred the matter to the top leadership of the Church. Current Status
As of mid-November, the governing body of the Mormon Church, the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, is still wrestling with the matter of direct ancestors. (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, May 5, 1995
-- May 5, 1995
Associated Press Newswire
By Richard Pyle
Mormons, Jews Sign Agreement On Baptizing Holocaust Victims
NEW YORK (AP) Mormons who baptized 380,000 Holocaust victims posthumously were motivated by love and compassion and did not understand their gesture might offend Jews, a church official said.
Mormon record-gatherers who performed the baptisms "were deeply moved by the tragedy of that terrible, terrible event," said Monte J. Brough, a member of the Mormon Church's Presidency of the Seventy. But he said they did not realize that what they intended as a "Christian act of service" was "misguided and insensitive."
Brough spoke Wednesday as Jewish and Mormon leaders signed an agreement to remove the Holocaust victims' names from the church lists of people who have been baptized as Mormons after death.... (1)
-- During June 1996
News clipping, unknown source
Holocaust Victims Names Deleted From IGI
As part of the landmark May 3, 1995 agreement between the Mormon Church and the Jewish community, the LDS Family History Department has completed the removal of the names of Jewish holocaust victims from their International Genealogical Index (IGI) database. New copies of the IGI delivered to the 2800 LDS family history centers in June 1996 reflect the deletions.
The deleted names were saved on compact disks [CD-ROMs] and have been sent to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Yad Vashem, Simon Wiesenthal Center and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (1)
-- Jul 14, 1997
CD-ROM
Victims Of The Holocaust
Copies of the CD-ROM Victims Of The Holocaust (1997) produced by The LDS, were distributed by the Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies to member JGS societies.... (1)
-- May 3, 2001
New York Times (www.nytimes.com)
More Names Found
After a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has promised to remove the names of more than 200 Jews, including Albert Einstein and Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, from the church's genealogical records. Church officials said that after a 1995 agreement with Jewish organizations, the names of several hundred thousand Holocaust victims had been removed from its genealogical database. But others remained. "It's insulting," said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Wiesenthal Center. (1)
-- Jul 27, 2001
Forward (www.forward.com)
By Ami Eden
Sister Golda, Brother Bashevis: Mormon Baptizers At It Again
Despite a historic agreement with the Jewish community, members of the Mormon Church have posthumously baptized several late prime ministers of Israel and at least 200 other Jewish luminaries. (1)
-- Apr 22, 2003
Press Release, Armenian News Network (excerpts)
Armenian Church Condemns Actions of Mormons
The recent report of the Mormon sect's `baptizing' notable Armenians is ludicrous, laughable and truly scandalous behavior. They have no right nor authority to 'baptize' any deceased Armenian Christian. ...
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, on behalf of the worldwide Armenian Church, condemns this practice in the strongest possible terms. In a statement from the Department of Inter-Church Relations of the Armenian Church, it is noted: `We call on the Mormon authorities to immediately cease this damaging and outrageous behavior. These actions are a violation against common decency. (1)
-- May 11, 2003
Nu? What's New?
[Online] News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
The Problem That Won't Go Away
First American Jewish Families Used for Posthumous Baptisms
It has been discovered that yet another major Jewish work has been used by the Mormon Church for posthumous baptisms. Most deceased persons identified in Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern's book, First American Jewish Families--some 30,000 persons--have been discovered in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). ... (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Associated Press Newswire
By Richard Pyle
Mormons, Jews Sign Agreement On Baptizing Holocaust Victims
NEW YORK (AP) Mormons who baptized 380,000 Holocaust victims posthumously were motivated by love and compassion and did not understand their gesture might offend Jews, a church official said.
Mormon record-gatherers who performed the baptisms "were deeply moved by the tragedy of that terrible, terrible event," said Monte J. Brough, a member of the Mormon Church's Presidency of the Seventy. But he said they did not realize that what they intended as a "Christian act of service" was "misguided and insensitive."
Brough spoke Wednesday as Jewish and Mormon leaders signed an agreement to remove the Holocaust victims' names from the church lists of people who have been baptized as Mormons after death.... (1)
-- During June 1996
News clipping, unknown source
Holocaust Victims Names Deleted From IGI
As part of the landmark May 3, 1995 agreement between the Mormon Church and the Jewish community, the LDS Family History Department has completed the removal of the names of Jewish holocaust victims from their International Genealogical Index (IGI) database. New copies of the IGI delivered to the 2800 LDS family history centers in June 1996 reflect the deletions.
The deleted names were saved on compact disks [CD-ROMs] and have been sent to the Museum of Jewish Heritage, the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, Yad Vashem, Simon Wiesenthal Center and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. (1)
-- Jul 14, 1997
CD-ROM
Victims Of The Holocaust
Copies of the CD-ROM Victims Of The Holocaust (1997) produced by The LDS, were distributed by the Association of Jewish Genealogical Societies to member JGS societies.... (1)
-- May 3, 2001
New York Times (www.nytimes.com)
More Names Found
After a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has promised to remove the names of more than 200 Jews, including Albert Einstein and Israel's first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, from the church's genealogical records. Church officials said that after a 1995 agreement with Jewish organizations, the names of several hundred thousand Holocaust victims had been removed from its genealogical database. But others remained. "It's insulting," said Rabbi Marvin Hier of the Wiesenthal Center. (1)
-- Jul 27, 2001
Forward (www.forward.com)
By Ami Eden
Sister Golda, Brother Bashevis: Mormon Baptizers At It Again
Despite a historic agreement with the Jewish community, members of the Mormon Church have posthumously baptized several late prime ministers of Israel and at least 200 other Jewish luminaries. (1)
-- Apr 22, 2003
Press Release, Armenian News Network (excerpts)
Armenian Church Condemns Actions of Mormons
The recent report of the Mormon sect's `baptizing' notable Armenians is ludicrous, laughable and truly scandalous behavior. They have no right nor authority to 'baptize' any deceased Armenian Christian. ...
The Mother See of Holy Etchmiadzin, on behalf of the worldwide Armenian Church, condemns this practice in the strongest possible terms. In a statement from the Department of Inter-Church Relations of the Armenian Church, it is noted: `We call on the Mormon authorities to immediately cease this damaging and outrageous behavior. These actions are a violation against common decency. (1)
-- May 11, 2003
Nu? What's New?
[Online] News About Jewish Genealogy from Avotaynu
Gary Mokotoff, Editor
The Problem That Won't Go Away
First American Jewish Families Used for Posthumous Baptisms
It has been discovered that yet another major Jewish work has been used by the Mormon Church for posthumous baptisms. Most deceased persons identified in Rabbi Malcolm H. Stern's book, First American Jewish Families--some 30,000 persons--have been discovered in the International Genealogical Index (IGI). ... (1)
Endnotes:
1 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Oct 15, 1987
-- Oct 15, 1987
William Law: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 14 July 1987, and priesthood was restored to him before proxy endowment 15 Oct. 1987 (1)
-- Apr 1, 1988
William E Mclellin: Baptized by proxy, into LDS church 1 Apr. 1988 and restored to priesthood before his proxy endowment on 6 Apr. (1)
-- During July 1989
John C Gaylord: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 25 June 1981, and priesthood restored before proxy! endowment 19 July 1989. (1)
-- Oct 26, 1991
Benjamin L Clapp: Baptized by proxy again 30 Apr. 1991 and priesthood again restored before proxy endowment 26 Oct. 1991. (1)
-- During March 1994
Bernard Kouchel writes to Stephen Kendall, Director, Family History Library decrying the baptism of Holocaust victims. (2)
-- During Spring 1994
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy.
Mormons Baptize Holocaust Victims Letters exchanged by Gary Mokotoff and Church Elder J. Richard Clark.
[Gary Mokotoff] "Baptism is a Christian ceremony that is particularly repugnant to Jews. It reminds us of the centuries of persecution against Jews where our ancestors were given a choice; be baptized or suffer death."
[Elder J. Richard Clarke] "In light of the concerns raised in your letter, we have reviewed our procedures regarding temple ordinances for the dead and have adopted the following refinements: first, that temple ordinances be performed only at the request of family members; and second, that family members wishing to perform such ordinances also have permission from the nearest living relative before proceeding." (2)
-- Jul 8, 1994
Jewish Forward, New York City.
Front page article by free lance writer Bill Gladstone, former president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada. The article was also published in The Canadian Jewish News, the leading Jewish newspaper in Canada.
[The issue of posthumous baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims now becomes a nationally publicized issue.] (2)
-- During September 1994
The reply to Bernard Kouchel in response to his March letter to the Church decrying the baptism of Holocaust victims.
"The church is keenly aware of those not of our faith who are concerned over the practice of temple ordinances for the dead. The First Presidency of the Church has asked members, as far as possible, to honor and protect individual privacy. In 1972 they wrote: "Persons submitting names for other than direct ancestors [should] have obtained direct approval from the closest living relative of the deceased before submitting records pertaining to persons born in the past ninety-five years." Reminders of this policy appear each time Church computer programs and our other resources are used."
/s/ A. Gregory Brown
Manager, Communications
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2)
-- Apr 28, 1995
News Release -- Salt Lake City, Utah and New York, New York
Joint News Release by The Church of The Latter-day Saints and The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors have reached an agreement over the issue of the posthumous baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The final agreement will be signed at the New York Office of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday, May 3, 1995, at which time a press conference will be held by the leaders of both groups.
"The issue came to the attention of the Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors as a result of an article in a Jewish newspaper which stated, correctly that a Jewish Holocaust victim who was killed in Gurs (France) concentration camp was posthumously baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," said Ernest Michel, Chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and an authorized representative of the American Gathering. [ED: Jewish genealogical community activists had much earlier discovered the baptisms, and brought it to Michel's attention.]
As a result of this article, Mr. Michel in behalf of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, initiated discussions with the Church which extended over a period of several months.
"From the very beginning these discussions were conducted in a positive and friendly manner," Michel said. "They concluded in today's agreement between the Church and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors," he added.
In a statement issue today, the Church agreed, among other actions to be taken, to remove from the next issue of its International Genealogical Index the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims who are not ancestors of living members of the Church. The American Gathering agreed to communicate with and inform major Jewish organizations as to its agreement with the Church. Four other major Jewish organizations have also approved this agreement.
"For more than a century the First Presidency of the Church has taught that members of the Church have a solemn responsibility to identify their deceased forebears and to provide temple ordinances for them regardless of ethnic background or origin," said Elder Monte J. Brough of the Church's Presidency of the Seventy and executive director of its Family History Department.
"However, in violation of Church policy, lists of Jewish Holocaust victims and other non-related groups and individuals have been submitted for temple ordinances. The First Presidency directed in March 1991 that temple ordinances for Jewish Holocaust victims be discontinued," Elder Brough said.
"Unfortunately, subsequent submissions of lists of Jewish Holocaust victims were made by certain individuals and posthumous baptisms in contravention of Church policy occurred," he added.
As a consequence of these discussions and the First Presidency's directive, the Church has agreed to:
* Remove from the next issue of the International Genealogical Index the names of all known posthumous baptized Jewish Holocaust victims who are not direct ancestors of living members of the Church.
* Provide a list of all Jewish Holocaust victims whose names are to be removed from the International Genealogical Index to the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Commission, the N.Y. Holocaust Memorial Commission, the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, and confirm in writing when removal of such names has been completed.
* Reaffirm the policy and issue a directive to all officials and members of the Church to discontinue any future baptisms of deceased Jews, including all lists of Jewish Holocaust victims who are known Jews, except if they were direct ancestors of living members of the Church or the Church had the written approval of all living members of the deceased's immediate family.
* Confirm this policy in all relevant literature produced by the Church.
* Remove from the International Genealogical Index in the future the names of all deceased Jews who are so identified if they are known to be improperly included counter to Church policy.... (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
William Law: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 14 July 1987, and priesthood was restored to him before proxy endowment 15 Oct. 1987 (1)
-- Apr 1, 1988
William E Mclellin: Baptized by proxy, into LDS church 1 Apr. 1988 and restored to priesthood before his proxy endowment on 6 Apr. (1)
-- During July 1989
John C Gaylord: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 25 June 1981, and priesthood restored before proxy! endowment 19 July 1989. (1)
-- Oct 26, 1991
Benjamin L Clapp: Baptized by proxy again 30 Apr. 1991 and priesthood again restored before proxy endowment 26 Oct. 1991. (1)
-- During March 1994
Bernard Kouchel writes to Stephen Kendall, Director, Family History Library decrying the baptism of Holocaust victims. (2)
-- During Spring 1994
Avotaynu: The International Review of Jewish Genealogy.
Mormons Baptize Holocaust Victims Letters exchanged by Gary Mokotoff and Church Elder J. Richard Clark.
[Gary Mokotoff] "Baptism is a Christian ceremony that is particularly repugnant to Jews. It reminds us of the centuries of persecution against Jews where our ancestors were given a choice; be baptized or suffer death."
[Elder J. Richard Clarke] "In light of the concerns raised in your letter, we have reviewed our procedures regarding temple ordinances for the dead and have adopted the following refinements: first, that temple ordinances be performed only at the request of family members; and second, that family members wishing to perform such ordinances also have permission from the nearest living relative before proceeding." (2)
-- Jul 8, 1994
Jewish Forward, New York City.
Front page article by free lance writer Bill Gladstone, former president of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada. The article was also published in The Canadian Jewish News, the leading Jewish newspaper in Canada.
[The issue of posthumous baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims now becomes a nationally publicized issue.] (2)
-- During September 1994
The reply to Bernard Kouchel in response to his March letter to the Church decrying the baptism of Holocaust victims.
"The church is keenly aware of those not of our faith who are concerned over the practice of temple ordinances for the dead. The First Presidency of the Church has asked members, as far as possible, to honor and protect individual privacy. In 1972 they wrote: "Persons submitting names for other than direct ancestors [should] have obtained direct approval from the closest living relative of the deceased before submitting records pertaining to persons born in the past ninety-five years." Reminders of this policy appear each time Church computer programs and our other resources are used."
/s/ A. Gregory Brown
Manager, Communications
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (2)
-- Apr 28, 1995
News Release -- Salt Lake City, Utah and New York, New York
Joint News Release by The Church of The Latter-day Saints and The American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors
The Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors have reached an agreement over the issue of the posthumous baptisms of Jewish Holocaust victims by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The final agreement will be signed at the New York Office of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations on Wednesday, May 3, 1995, at which time a press conference will be held by the leaders of both groups.
"The issue came to the attention of the Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors as a result of an article in a Jewish newspaper which stated, correctly that a Jewish Holocaust victim who was killed in Gurs (France) concentration camp was posthumously baptized by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints," said Ernest Michel, Chairman of the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and an authorized representative of the American Gathering. [ED: Jewish genealogical community activists had much earlier discovered the baptisms, and brought it to Michel's attention.]
As a result of this article, Mr. Michel in behalf of the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, initiated discussions with the Church which extended over a period of several months.
"From the very beginning these discussions were conducted in a positive and friendly manner," Michel said. "They concluded in today's agreement between the Church and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors," he added.
In a statement issue today, the Church agreed, among other actions to be taken, to remove from the next issue of its International Genealogical Index the names of all known Jewish Holocaust victims who are not ancestors of living members of the Church. The American Gathering agreed to communicate with and inform major Jewish organizations as to its agreement with the Church. Four other major Jewish organizations have also approved this agreement.
"For more than a century the First Presidency of the Church has taught that members of the Church have a solemn responsibility to identify their deceased forebears and to provide temple ordinances for them regardless of ethnic background or origin," said Elder Monte J. Brough of the Church's Presidency of the Seventy and executive director of its Family History Department.
"However, in violation of Church policy, lists of Jewish Holocaust victims and other non-related groups and individuals have been submitted for temple ordinances. The First Presidency directed in March 1991 that temple ordinances for Jewish Holocaust victims be discontinued," Elder Brough said.
"Unfortunately, subsequent submissions of lists of Jewish Holocaust victims were made by certain individuals and posthumous baptisms in contravention of Church policy occurred," he added.
As a consequence of these discussions and the First Presidency's directive, the Church has agreed to:
* Remove from the next issue of the International Genealogical Index the names of all known posthumous baptized Jewish Holocaust victims who are not direct ancestors of living members of the Church.
* Provide a list of all Jewish Holocaust victims whose names are to be removed from the International Genealogical Index to the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Commission, the N.Y. Holocaust Memorial Commission, the Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles and Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial in Jerusalem, Israel, and confirm in writing when removal of such names has been completed.
* Reaffirm the policy and issue a directive to all officials and members of the Church to discontinue any future baptisms of deceased Jews, including all lists of Jewish Holocaust victims who are known Jews, except if they were direct ancestors of living members of the Church or the Church had the written approval of all living members of the deceased's immediate family.
* Confirm this policy in all relevant literature produced by the Church.
* Remove from the International Genealogical Index in the future the names of all deceased Jews who are so identified if they are known to be improperly included counter to Church policy.... (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - A chronicle of the Mormon-Jewish controversy; The LDS Agreement: A JewishGen InfoFile, http://www.jewishgen.org/infofiles/ldsagree.html
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Oct 1968
-- During Oct 1968
[Nauvoo General] Announcement of a plan to partially restore the Nauvoo Temple appeared in the Improvement Era: "The temple's footing and floor will be built over the exact spot where once stood the original temple, and will follow the exact measurements of the original build. Indeed, some of the original stone work, including some of the original footings, will be used in the reconstruction. The brick basement floor will also contain some of the original basement bricks. Portions of the legs of the original 12 oxen that surrounded the font will be used in the font restoration. Nearby will be the temple well which provided water for the font. The front facade of the temple is to be rebuilt to the original height of the upper pediment, so that tourists may ascend the stairway and obtain a glimpse of the view that so enchanted early-day Nauvoo visitors." The article included a rendering of the new structure.
This project was never undertaken. (1)
-- Dec 5, 1968
Attention was called to a letter from President Reuel E. Christensen of the Manti Temple reporting that a bishop and stake president in one of the BYU Stakes had inquired if they could send colored people who are members of the Church in good standing residing in their wards to do baptismal work for the dead in the temple. I ruled that worthy negro baptized members of the Church should be permitted to do baptismal work for the dead if they desire to do so. [David O. McKay diary, Dec. 5, 1968; emphasis in original] (2)
-- During Mar. 1969
Brethren who have taken upon themselves the covenants of the temple and who are asked to perform baptisms for the living should not assume, because their clothes will get wet or for any other reason, that they should not wear garments under their white baptismal clothing. Regular garments are to be worn by everyone who has received his temple endowments, while performing baptisms. ... [Priesthood Bulletin, Mar. 1969, 6-7] (2)
-- May 17, 1971
Sidney Rigdon: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 17 May 1971, and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment 21 May (3)
-- During Sept. 1972
Josiah Butterfield: Baptized by proxy again 13 Sept. 1972 (3)
-- During 1972
Enclosed is a copy of the letter dated February 10, 1972 to us from President Harold Glen Clark of the Provo Temple. As you will see, President Clark inquires whether it is permissible for a Negro and his wife to join a group from the Brigham Young University 6th Stake to serve as proxies in the Temple Baptistry. Provided that this couple can meet every requirement for admission to the temple, there would be no reason why they should not be given temple recommends for the limited purpose of serving as proxies in temple baptisms. [Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and N. Eldon Tanner, letter dated Feb. 29, 1972, copy in Buerger Papers] (2)
-- Jan 19, 1977
John E Page: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 19 Jan. 1977 (3)
-- Mar 24, 1977
Hazen Aldrich: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 24 Mar. 1977, priesthood restored before proxy endowment 7 June 1977. (3)
-- Apr 9, 1979
John Gould: Baptized by proxy into the LDS church 9 Apr. 1979 (3)
-- May 14, 1985
John C Bennett: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 23 Apr. 1985, and his priesthood was restored before proxy endowment 14 May 1985. (3)
Endnotes:
1 - Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
[Nauvoo General] Announcement of a plan to partially restore the Nauvoo Temple appeared in the Improvement Era: "The temple's footing and floor will be built over the exact spot where once stood the original temple, and will follow the exact measurements of the original build. Indeed, some of the original stone work, including some of the original footings, will be used in the reconstruction. The brick basement floor will also contain some of the original basement bricks. Portions of the legs of the original 12 oxen that surrounded the font will be used in the font restoration. Nearby will be the temple well which provided water for the font. The front facade of the temple is to be rebuilt to the original height of the upper pediment, so that tourists may ascend the stairway and obtain a glimpse of the view that so enchanted early-day Nauvoo visitors." The article included a rendering of the new structure.
This project was never undertaken. (1)
-- Dec 5, 1968
Attention was called to a letter from President Reuel E. Christensen of the Manti Temple reporting that a bishop and stake president in one of the BYU Stakes had inquired if they could send colored people who are members of the Church in good standing residing in their wards to do baptismal work for the dead in the temple. I ruled that worthy negro baptized members of the Church should be permitted to do baptismal work for the dead if they desire to do so. [David O. McKay diary, Dec. 5, 1968; emphasis in original] (2)
-- During Mar. 1969
Brethren who have taken upon themselves the covenants of the temple and who are asked to perform baptisms for the living should not assume, because their clothes will get wet or for any other reason, that they should not wear garments under their white baptismal clothing. Regular garments are to be worn by everyone who has received his temple endowments, while performing baptisms. ... [Priesthood Bulletin, Mar. 1969, 6-7] (2)
-- May 17, 1971
Sidney Rigdon: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 17 May 1971, and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment 21 May (3)
-- During Sept. 1972
Josiah Butterfield: Baptized by proxy again 13 Sept. 1972 (3)
-- During 1972
Enclosed is a copy of the letter dated February 10, 1972 to us from President Harold Glen Clark of the Provo Temple. As you will see, President Clark inquires whether it is permissible for a Negro and his wife to join a group from the Brigham Young University 6th Stake to serve as proxies in the Temple Baptistry. Provided that this couple can meet every requirement for admission to the temple, there would be no reason why they should not be given temple recommends for the limited purpose of serving as proxies in temple baptisms. [Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and N. Eldon Tanner, letter dated Feb. 29, 1972, copy in Buerger Papers] (2)
-- Jan 19, 1977
John E Page: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 19 Jan. 1977 (3)
-- Mar 24, 1977
Hazen Aldrich: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 24 Mar. 1977, priesthood restored before proxy endowment 7 June 1977. (3)
-- Apr 9, 1979
John Gould: Baptized by proxy into the LDS church 9 Apr. 1979 (3)
-- May 14, 1985
John C Bennett: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 23 Apr. 1985, and his priesthood was restored before proxy endowment 14 May 1985. (3)
Endnotes:
1 - Brown, Lisle (compiler), Chronology of the Construction, Destruction and Reconstruction of the Nauvoo Temple
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Feb 7, 1964
-- Feb 7, 1964
President [N. Eldon] Tanner brought to my attention a question that had been raised regarding temple work for [United States] Presidents Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant. In this connection reference was made to President Wilford Woodruff 's statement that he had done the work for all the presidents of the United States excepting these three. President Tanner referred to information that had been given to him by Henry Christiansen of the Genealogical Society to the effect that in the case of James Buchanan the records indicate that baptism was performed for him and he has been sealed to his parents, this work having been done by relatives. In the case of Martin Van Buren, baptismal work was done for him August 9, 1876 in the Endowment House, which apparently was not known to President Wilford Woodruff at the time he had the work done for the other presidents. Subsequently, the baptism was done again for Martin Van Buren in 1948 and was followed by endowments, but he is not sealed to his parents, nor has there been a sealing between him and his wife. In the case of Ulysses S. Grant, his baptism and endowment work were done in 1926 at the instance of President Heber J. Grant. President Tanner raised the question as to whether, in view of President Woodruff 's attitude, these ordinances should be cancelled or if the necessary additional work should be done in each case. I ruled that we should leave these cases as they are until the Lord gives us further direction in the matter. [David O. McKay diary, Feb. 7, 1964; emphasis in original] (1)
-- Dec 5, 1964
It is deemed necessary that the following instructions should be imparted to the brethren and sisters of the Salt Lake Temple District who intend entering the House of the Lord to attend to ordinance work for themselves or their dead. ... The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean; ... The Saints who come to attend to baptism for the dead should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. ... In the performance of work for the dead the rights of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded, when practicable. When an heir empowers another person to do the work in his or her stead, he or she should give the acting proxy a written authorization to that effect. ... The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m. Monday is devoted to taking the record of Baptisms for the Dead, which are performed on Tuesdays. Baptismal records are not taken after twelve o'clock on Mondays. On Tuesdays all ought to be in the building by 8 a.m. .... [Lorenzo Snow, President of the Salt Lake Temple, "To Whom it may Concern," June 23, 1893, reprinted in the Church News, Dec. 5, 1964] (1)
-- May 13, 1965
First Presidency approves the posthumous rebaptism and restoration of blessings for former apostle John W. Taylor who was excommunicated in 1911. His son Samuel Taylor had requested this two days previously. (2)
-- May 19, 1965
By authorization of First Presidency, ex-apostle John W. Taylor is baptized into LDS church. On May 21 Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith performs proxy ordinance of restoring all priesthood blessings to the deceased apostle. (2)
-- Feb 25, 1966
Doroteo Arango (Pancho Villa) is baptized by proxy in the Arizona Temple. James Elbert Whetton does the endowment work for General Villa a few days later. (3)
-- During 1966
Elder Bruce R McConkie notes in Mormon Doctrine, "there is no need for and no ordinance of rebaptism in the church" (4)
-- During Sept. 1967
Salmon Gee: Baptized by proxy into LDS church and "posthumously reinstated" to all priesthood blessings 14 Sept. 1967 (5)
-- Apr 22, 1968
Baptism of Juliet Hulme in California, despite her confession to LDS authorities that she was imprisoned at age 15 for helping to murder the mother of a girlfriend. Her baptism is significant exception to LDS policies and leadership handbooks which prohibit living baptism (or even baptism for the dead) for anyone convicted of murder. While active in LDS women's auxiliaries, she becomes internationally famous as Anne Perry, author of murder mysteries. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
2 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
3 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
4 - Quinn, D. Michael, "The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo," BYU Studies (1978), 18:2:226
5 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
President [N. Eldon] Tanner brought to my attention a question that had been raised regarding temple work for [United States] Presidents Martin Van Buren, James Buchanan and Ulysses S. Grant. In this connection reference was made to President Wilford Woodruff 's statement that he had done the work for all the presidents of the United States excepting these three. President Tanner referred to information that had been given to him by Henry Christiansen of the Genealogical Society to the effect that in the case of James Buchanan the records indicate that baptism was performed for him and he has been sealed to his parents, this work having been done by relatives. In the case of Martin Van Buren, baptismal work was done for him August 9, 1876 in the Endowment House, which apparently was not known to President Wilford Woodruff at the time he had the work done for the other presidents. Subsequently, the baptism was done again for Martin Van Buren in 1948 and was followed by endowments, but he is not sealed to his parents, nor has there been a sealing between him and his wife. In the case of Ulysses S. Grant, his baptism and endowment work were done in 1926 at the instance of President Heber J. Grant. President Tanner raised the question as to whether, in view of President Woodruff 's attitude, these ordinances should be cancelled or if the necessary additional work should be done in each case. I ruled that we should leave these cases as they are until the Lord gives us further direction in the matter. [David O. McKay diary, Feb. 7, 1964; emphasis in original] (1)
-- Dec 5, 1964
It is deemed necessary that the following instructions should be imparted to the brethren and sisters of the Salt Lake Temple District who intend entering the House of the Lord to attend to ordinance work for themselves or their dead. ... The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean; ... The Saints who come to attend to baptism for the dead should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. ... In the performance of work for the dead the rights of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded, when practicable. When an heir empowers another person to do the work in his or her stead, he or she should give the acting proxy a written authorization to that effect. ... The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m. Monday is devoted to taking the record of Baptisms for the Dead, which are performed on Tuesdays. Baptismal records are not taken after twelve o'clock on Mondays. On Tuesdays all ought to be in the building by 8 a.m. .... [Lorenzo Snow, President of the Salt Lake Temple, "To Whom it may Concern," June 23, 1893, reprinted in the Church News, Dec. 5, 1964] (1)
-- May 13, 1965
First Presidency approves the posthumous rebaptism and restoration of blessings for former apostle John W. Taylor who was excommunicated in 1911. His son Samuel Taylor had requested this two days previously. (2)
-- May 19, 1965
By authorization of First Presidency, ex-apostle John W. Taylor is baptized into LDS church. On May 21 Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith performs proxy ordinance of restoring all priesthood blessings to the deceased apostle. (2)
-- Feb 25, 1966
Doroteo Arango (Pancho Villa) is baptized by proxy in the Arizona Temple. James Elbert Whetton does the endowment work for General Villa a few days later. (3)
-- During 1966
Elder Bruce R McConkie notes in Mormon Doctrine, "there is no need for and no ordinance of rebaptism in the church" (4)
-- During Sept. 1967
Salmon Gee: Baptized by proxy into LDS church and "posthumously reinstated" to all priesthood blessings 14 Sept. 1967 (5)
-- Apr 22, 1968
Baptism of Juliet Hulme in California, despite her confession to LDS authorities that she was imprisoned at age 15 for helping to murder the mother of a girlfriend. Her baptism is significant exception to LDS policies and leadership handbooks which prohibit living baptism (or even baptism for the dead) for anyone convicted of murder. While active in LDS women's auxiliaries, she becomes internationally famous as Anne Perry, author of murder mysteries. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
2 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
3 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
4 - Quinn, D. Michael, "The Practice of Rebaptism at Nauvoo," BYU Studies (1978), 18:2:226
5 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Aug 11, 1959
-- Aug 11, 1959
James Foster: Baptized by proxy into the LDS church 12 June 1959, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 11 Aug. 1959. (1)
-- Jul 11, 1960
The First Presidency have directed the Presiding Bishopric to instruct bishops that worthy members of the Church, desiring to be baptized for the dead, are to be twelve years of age or older. Worthy bearers of the Aaronic Priesthood 12 to 21 and young women of corresponding ages should especially be encouraged and invited to participate in this vicarious work. [Joseph L. Wirthlin, Thorpe B. Isaacson, and Carl W. Buehner39 to bishops, July 11, 1960] (2)
-- Nov 28, 1960
Inasmuch as our old supply of temple recommends is exhausted, we are now printing and will soon have ready for distribution, a new stock. This has afforded us the opportunity of making some changes in the form which we deem will be helpful and beneficial to the work. Hereafter there will be two forms. It will be necessary for you to have two books, one form for recommending admission to the temple for vicarious baptism for the dead, to be issued only to children between 12 and 21 years of age; the other form to be used by those who are going to the temple for their own endowments or to do work vicariously for the dead. ... On the form for recommending children only[,] we have made an insert to conform to the present ruling of the First Presidency as to the ages of those who are to be baptized for the dead. We are suggesting that this form be used for all members between the ages of 12 and 21 years, and that the regular temple recommend be used for recommending members for baptism for the dead only in cases where the individuals are 21 years of age or older. We think that the comparatively small number of those over 21 doing baptisms for the dead should not necessitate a separate form. We hope that you will find that these new forms and the initialing rather than checking of the specific ordinances to be performed will not only be helpful and protective to you but to the temple workers also. It is our desire that no temple recommend should be issued to persons touring the country to enter the temple merely to view the interior. It is not conducive to temple work to have visitors going through as tourists. [David O. McKay, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and Henry D. Moyle, circular letter, Nov. 28, 1960] (2)
-- During 1960
... Every Church member eight years of age or over must have a recommend to enter the temple. A group recommend may be issued only to holders of the Priesthood and girls of comparable age who desire to go to the temple as a group to do baptismal work for the dead. In all other cases an individual recommend is required for each person. Separate recommends must be given for each temple. * ... Recommends for Wife Only: A wife whose Church-member husband has not received his endowments will not be given a recommend to receive her endowments unless the husband expresses his consent in writing. This certification must be attached to the recommend. Stake presidents will interview such husbands to assure themselves that the husband has no objection to the endowments being given to his wife. Under no circumstances will a recommend be issued for endowments to a wife whose husband is not a member of the Church. This rule does not prevent such a worthy wife, whose husband is willing, from participating in baptisms for the dead in the temples. Women who received their own endowments before this rule was given, or who were endowed before being married even though married to non-members, may still be granted the privileges of going through the temple if they are worthy. .... [General Handbook of Instructions, Number 18 (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1960), 65-70, 74-75; emphasis in original] (2)
-- Apr 20, 1961
First Presidency and Twelve approve rebaptism and full reinstatement of priesthood blessings for John D. Lee, only executed participant in Mountain Meadows Massacre. Ordinances occur on May 8-9, 1961 (3)
-- May 29, 1963
... With the thought in mind of reducing the time spent by bishops, branch presidents and mission presidents in preparing recommends for members of the Church who desire to go to one or more temples, a recommend form has been prepared which may be used for any and all temples. .... [David O. McKay, Henry D. Moyle, and Hugh B. Brown, circular letter, May 29, 1963] (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
James Foster: Baptized by proxy into the LDS church 12 June 1959, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 11 Aug. 1959. (1)
-- Jul 11, 1960
The First Presidency have directed the Presiding Bishopric to instruct bishops that worthy members of the Church, desiring to be baptized for the dead, are to be twelve years of age or older. Worthy bearers of the Aaronic Priesthood 12 to 21 and young women of corresponding ages should especially be encouraged and invited to participate in this vicarious work. [Joseph L. Wirthlin, Thorpe B. Isaacson, and Carl W. Buehner39 to bishops, July 11, 1960] (2)
-- Nov 28, 1960
Inasmuch as our old supply of temple recommends is exhausted, we are now printing and will soon have ready for distribution, a new stock. This has afforded us the opportunity of making some changes in the form which we deem will be helpful and beneficial to the work. Hereafter there will be two forms. It will be necessary for you to have two books, one form for recommending admission to the temple for vicarious baptism for the dead, to be issued only to children between 12 and 21 years of age; the other form to be used by those who are going to the temple for their own endowments or to do work vicariously for the dead. ... On the form for recommending children only[,] we have made an insert to conform to the present ruling of the First Presidency as to the ages of those who are to be baptized for the dead. We are suggesting that this form be used for all members between the ages of 12 and 21 years, and that the regular temple recommend be used for recommending members for baptism for the dead only in cases where the individuals are 21 years of age or older. We think that the comparatively small number of those over 21 doing baptisms for the dead should not necessitate a separate form. We hope that you will find that these new forms and the initialing rather than checking of the specific ordinances to be performed will not only be helpful and protective to you but to the temple workers also. It is our desire that no temple recommend should be issued to persons touring the country to enter the temple merely to view the interior. It is not conducive to temple work to have visitors going through as tourists. [David O. McKay, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and Henry D. Moyle, circular letter, Nov. 28, 1960] (2)
-- During 1960
... Every Church member eight years of age or over must have a recommend to enter the temple. A group recommend may be issued only to holders of the Priesthood and girls of comparable age who desire to go to the temple as a group to do baptismal work for the dead. In all other cases an individual recommend is required for each person. Separate recommends must be given for each temple. * ... Recommends for Wife Only: A wife whose Church-member husband has not received his endowments will not be given a recommend to receive her endowments unless the husband expresses his consent in writing. This certification must be attached to the recommend. Stake presidents will interview such husbands to assure themselves that the husband has no objection to the endowments being given to his wife. Under no circumstances will a recommend be issued for endowments to a wife whose husband is not a member of the Church. This rule does not prevent such a worthy wife, whose husband is willing, from participating in baptisms for the dead in the temples. Women who received their own endowments before this rule was given, or who were endowed before being married even though married to non-members, may still be granted the privileges of going through the temple if they are worthy. .... [General Handbook of Instructions, Number 18 (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1960), 65-70, 74-75; emphasis in original] (2)
-- Apr 20, 1961
First Presidency and Twelve approve rebaptism and full reinstatement of priesthood blessings for John D. Lee, only executed participant in Mountain Meadows Massacre. Ordinances occur on May 8-9, 1961 (3)
-- May 29, 1963
... With the thought in mind of reducing the time spent by bishops, branch presidents and mission presidents in preparing recommends for members of the Church who desire to go to one or more temples, a recommend form has been prepared which may be used for any and all temples. .... [David O. McKay, Henry D. Moyle, and Hugh B. Brown, circular letter, May 29, 1963] (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - Advent Adam website (defunct) - based on http://amzn.to/originsofpower
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Mar 12, 1937
-- Mar 12, 1937
Josiah Butterfield: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 5 Sept. 1936, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 12 Mar. 1937 (1)
-- Jun 21, 1937
Pres[ident] [David O.] McKay also said that he would formulate a letter to all Stake Presidents informing them that living baptisms in the Temples should be discontinued. I suggested that Temple Presidents be also notified. [George F. Richards diary, June 21, 1937] (2)
-- Jun 25, 1937
Reports received at this office indicate that there is an increasing practice in some districts of baptizing and confirming children and adults in temples even where baptismal fonts are conveniently accessible. This matter was recently considered by members of the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve, and after due deliberation it was unanimously decided to confirm a former ruling that baptisms for the living should not be performed in any temples where there is a convenient place for baptisms outside of the temple, and that temple fonts, excepting in case of real necessity, be used only for the purpose of baptizing for the dead. Will you please give this information to the Bishoprics in your Stake so that they may govern themselves accordingly. It is understood of course that there may be exceptions to this rule, for example, where there [is] no baptismal font within a convenient distance, or when extreme cold weather might justify a modification of this recommendation. In general, however, the instructions given above should be carefully followed. [David O. McKay to "Dear Brethren", June 25, 1937] (2)
-- During Jan. 1941
There appears to be some confusion as to the course which Presidents of Stakes, Bishops, Presidents of Branches and Presidents of Mis sions should follow with reference to making out, signing, and delivering the new temple recommends. In the following instructions- Presidents of Independent Branches will follow the procedure laid down for Bishops. ... . The only exception to individual recommends is where groups of children are sent to the temples to do baptismal work for the dead. There the regular group form of recommend may still be used. However, in this case the Bishop should satisfy himself that each child recommended is a good child who is exemplary in his life and is attending to such Church duties as are incident to his age. Great care should be taken to see that the children of apostates, as also children of parents belonging to or affiliating with apostate groups, are not included in such groups nor given individual recommends.... [Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and David O. McKay, circular letter, Jan. 6, 1941, in Progress of the Church, Jan. 1941, 47] (2)
-- Mar 21, 1949
John F Boynton: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 20 July 1946, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 21 Mar. 1949. (1)
-- During 1956
Based on individual worthiness and other specified qualifications as set forth herein under the general heading "Temple Recommends," the following members of the Church may be given recommends to enter the temple: ... 10. Baptized members desiring to be baptized for the dead. ... (2)
-- Thu Dec 12, 1957
[David O. McKay Office Journal] Council Meeting--S.L. Temple Re: Baptism of Negro President Joseph Fielding Smith said that he had received a letter marked personal in which the statement is made that someone had reported to the writer that President McKay had given consent that the temple endowment work be performed for a negro who is dead, and that therefore we were doing work for negroes in the temple. I related the following facts for the information of the Brethren, and said that I felt sure that I had previously brought this matter to the Council. A negro woman had called at the office some few years ago, she having her residency in Ogden. I stated that I think she said she was a Methodist; that her church could not do anything for her husband who was dead, and that before he died he wanted to join our Church; that inasmuch as our Church is the only Church that can do baptismal work for him, and he had requested that she see that his baptism was attended to if he did not recover from his illness, she wanted to have it done. I told her that that could be done. She explained that she knew that he could not receive the Priesthood. She said that the Ward teachers would do the work for him. I said that the thought came to me as to whether they could be baptized for him, and the matter was discussed in Council later. I gave consent for the Ward teacher to be baptized for this negro lady's husband. Now the report comes that the temple work was done for that negro, and therefore he was ordained an Elder. The facts are that the ward teachers were authorized to do baptism work for a colored man who had become converted but died before baptism could be performed, and there is no truth to the statement that he was ordained an Elder or permitted to have his endowments. At Council meeting today I made the following remarks to the brethren, it being the last meeting before the Christmas holidays. I have something to say to you personally as we approach the Holidays and close the year's work. First, I wish to express appreciation and deep appreciation for the companionship and loyalty of President Richards and President Clar, particularly during the last few months as we have sat together in counsel considering weighty problems that affect the Church, not only presently but in the future. My heart has been filled with consolation, and I may say pride and admiration, for their wise counsel. There is a freedom in our council which is unlimited. I am sure they feel free to express their opinions, as they should, and under the inspiration of their callings they contribute to decisions which I am sure are approved of our Father in Heaven. I do not know what other Presidents of the Church have had in their counselors; undoubtedly they have had inspirational help. They have, but I shall say this: that no other President has had greater strength in counselors who exercise greater wisdom than these two Brethren who complete the Presidency of the Church. (3)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - McKay, David O., Office Journal
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Josiah Butterfield: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 5 Sept. 1936, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 12 Mar. 1937 (1)
-- Jun 21, 1937
Pres[ident] [David O.] McKay also said that he would formulate a letter to all Stake Presidents informing them that living baptisms in the Temples should be discontinued. I suggested that Temple Presidents be also notified. [George F. Richards diary, June 21, 1937] (2)
-- Jun 25, 1937
Reports received at this office indicate that there is an increasing practice in some districts of baptizing and confirming children and adults in temples even where baptismal fonts are conveniently accessible. This matter was recently considered by members of the First Presidency and Council of the Twelve, and after due deliberation it was unanimously decided to confirm a former ruling that baptisms for the living should not be performed in any temples where there is a convenient place for baptisms outside of the temple, and that temple fonts, excepting in case of real necessity, be used only for the purpose of baptizing for the dead. Will you please give this information to the Bishoprics in your Stake so that they may govern themselves accordingly. It is understood of course that there may be exceptions to this rule, for example, where there [is] no baptismal font within a convenient distance, or when extreme cold weather might justify a modification of this recommendation. In general, however, the instructions given above should be carefully followed. [David O. McKay to "Dear Brethren", June 25, 1937] (2)
-- During Jan. 1941
There appears to be some confusion as to the course which Presidents of Stakes, Bishops, Presidents of Branches and Presidents of Mis sions should follow with reference to making out, signing, and delivering the new temple recommends. In the following instructions- Presidents of Independent Branches will follow the procedure laid down for Bishops. ... . The only exception to individual recommends is where groups of children are sent to the temples to do baptismal work for the dead. There the regular group form of recommend may still be used. However, in this case the Bishop should satisfy himself that each child recommended is a good child who is exemplary in his life and is attending to such Church duties as are incident to his age. Great care should be taken to see that the children of apostates, as also children of parents belonging to or affiliating with apostate groups, are not included in such groups nor given individual recommends.... [Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark Jr., and David O. McKay, circular letter, Jan. 6, 1941, in Progress of the Church, Jan. 1941, 47] (2)
-- Mar 21, 1949
John F Boynton: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 20 July 1946, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 21 Mar. 1949. (1)
-- During 1956
Based on individual worthiness and other specified qualifications as set forth herein under the general heading "Temple Recommends," the following members of the Church may be given recommends to enter the temple: ... 10. Baptized members desiring to be baptized for the dead. ... (2)
-- Thu Dec 12, 1957
[David O. McKay Office Journal] Council Meeting--S.L. Temple Re: Baptism of Negro President Joseph Fielding Smith said that he had received a letter marked personal in which the statement is made that someone had reported to the writer that President McKay had given consent that the temple endowment work be performed for a negro who is dead, and that therefore we were doing work for negroes in the temple. I related the following facts for the information of the Brethren, and said that I felt sure that I had previously brought this matter to the Council. A negro woman had called at the office some few years ago, she having her residency in Ogden. I stated that I think she said she was a Methodist; that her church could not do anything for her husband who was dead, and that before he died he wanted to join our Church; that inasmuch as our Church is the only Church that can do baptismal work for him, and he had requested that she see that his baptism was attended to if he did not recover from his illness, she wanted to have it done. I told her that that could be done. She explained that she knew that he could not receive the Priesthood. She said that the Ward teachers would do the work for him. I said that the thought came to me as to whether they could be baptized for him, and the matter was discussed in Council later. I gave consent for the Ward teacher to be baptized for this negro lady's husband. Now the report comes that the temple work was done for that negro, and therefore he was ordained an Elder. The facts are that the ward teachers were authorized to do baptism work for a colored man who had become converted but died before baptism could be performed, and there is no truth to the statement that he was ordained an Elder or permitted to have his endowments. At Council meeting today I made the following remarks to the brethren, it being the last meeting before the Christmas holidays. I have something to say to you personally as we approach the Holidays and close the year's work. First, I wish to express appreciation and deep appreciation for the companionship and loyalty of President Richards and President Clar, particularly during the last few months as we have sat together in counsel considering weighty problems that affect the Church, not only presently but in the future. My heart has been filled with consolation, and I may say pride and admiration, for their wise counsel. There is a freedom in our council which is unlimited. I am sure they feel free to express their opinions, as they should, and under the inspiration of their callings they contribute to decisions which I am sure are approved of our Father in Heaven. I do not know what other Presidents of the Church have had in their counselors; undoubtedly they have had inspirational help. They have, but I shall say this: that no other President has had greater strength in counselors who exercise greater wisdom than these two Brethren who complete the Presidency of the Church. (3)
Endnotes:
1 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
3 - McKay, David O., Office Journal
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Jan. 5, 13, 20, 1934
-- Jan. 5, 13, 20, 1934
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PREPARATION OF TEMPLE SHEETS 1. Recommends. (a) All persons eight years of age and over are required to present a Temple recommend (or, for adults, a properly dated admission card) to the door-keeper before entering the Temple. (b) When a recommend has been secured from the Bishop, or Branch or District President, the holder must get it signed by the Stake President or Mission President before it will be accepted at the Temple. In wards using group recommends, members are required to make application to the Bishop each year to have their names included on the list. Recommends are now issued annually and are in force during year of issue only, expiring December 31st. * 2. Donations. Donations are accepted at the door of the Temple. A consistent donation by couples being married, who can afford it, would be the amount of the fee required for a civil ceremony. 3. Living Endowments and Sealings. Members going to the Temple for their own endowments should obtain, if possible, before leaving home, all of the data called for on the reverse side of their recommends. The Bishop or Ward Clerk can often times assist the individual members by supplying the needed information from the Ward records. Baptism dates (day, month and year) must be obtained without fail. Members who are already endowed and who are going to the Temple for marriage or sealing must have their own endowment date (day, month and year). * 9. Paid Work. When proxies have to be obtained to act in endowments for the dead, it is customary to pay 50 cents for a male name and 40 cents for a female name. * 12. Heir. The full name of the proper heir is required on every sheet. The name should be written the same each time. Initials only are not sufficient. If the heir is dead indicate it thus[:] (d). The heir should be determined according to the following rule: "The oldest male in that direct (blood) line to have joined the Church in life." If there is no male in the line, who was baptized in life, then the oldest female to have joined the Church in life in that direct (blood) line may be designated as heir, using her full maiden name. If she has been sealed to her husband, then (and then only), add her married name to her full maiden name. Be careful to keep different lines under their proper heirship. Any question on establishing an heir may be submitted to the Temple Recorder. If it becomes necessary to change the heir on your line or lines, notify the Recorder of the Temple at once. Special signed permission from the Temple Presidency is required to make a non-member the heir. 13. Relationship. The relationship of the heir to each individual must be stated, using [the] exact relationship, if possible; for example, if the heir is John Henry Jones and you are giving the names of his grandparents and aunts and uncles, the relationship would be given respectively as grandson, nephew, etc., in the right hand column. Always state what relation the heir is to the dead and not the relationship of the dead to the heir. If [the] exact relationship is not known then use relative or relative-in-law[,] but care should be taken to keep within the rule covering the use of such names. Relationship[s] may be dittoed. 14. Work for Friends. Ordinance work for "friends" cannot be performed without permission from the Presidency of the Temple. Such permission and the written approval on the sheet should be obtained before presenting such sheet to the Temple Index Bureau for checking. 15. Infants Exempt. Children under eight years of age are not eligible for baptism and endowments[,] and their names should not be entered on these sheets. * 43. Year must elapse. One year should elapse from date of death before Temple ordinances are given if the individual heard the Gospel and did not accept it, or if a member of the Church and did not take advantage of the privilege to have his own endowments. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the Presidency of the Temple. * 58. Rule of Sealing. In sealing the dead, a woman is to be sealed to her first husband; any exceptions to this rule must be by permission of the Temple Presidency. 59. Must have been married in life. Only those who were married in life should be sealed. Sealings of persons who were not married in life cannot be performed, except by the permission of the Temple Presidency. * 68. Data for children. The names of all the children who are to be sealed at the same time must be placed in the order of their birth (oldest first), whether they are living or dead. If they are eligible for baptism and endowment those ordinances should be attended to first with the complete endowment date given as required. State sex of each child as indicated in the column following the name. 69. Complete family. All members of one family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. * 71. Ordinances required. The dead who lived to the age of eight years or over are eligible for baptism and also endowments. Living males 21 years and over, or living females 18 years and over are to receive their own endowments before being sealed to their parents. 72. Adoptions. If the intended sealing of a child is to a person other than the natural father or mother, this fact must be explained to the Temple Presidency and answered by them. * 74. Respect rights of others. Sealings should not be performed for [anyone] other than relatives. (See paragraph 14.) 75. Bring nurse. When children are brought to the Temple for sealing, the parents should provide a nurse, if possible, who is properly recommended to the Temple, to care for the small children. In no case are children to be brought to the Temple except when required for their own sealings to parents. (This does not include children eight years of age and over who are brought in as proxies for baptisms for the dead on baptismal days.) [Salt Lake temple presidency, Jan. 1, 1934; published in the Deseret News, Jan. 5, 13, 20, 1934, emphasis in original] (1)
-- During 1934
... Bishops are authorized to issue temple recommends to all faithful members of the Melchizedek Priesthood and adult women members of their wards. Recommends for the performance of the ordinance of baptism for the dead may also be issued to exemplary young people. .... [Handbook of Instructions, Number 15 (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1934), pp. 10-11] (1)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
OFFICIAL INSTRUCTIONS ON THE PREPARATION OF TEMPLE SHEETS 1. Recommends. (a) All persons eight years of age and over are required to present a Temple recommend (or, for adults, a properly dated admission card) to the door-keeper before entering the Temple. (b) When a recommend has been secured from the Bishop, or Branch or District President, the holder must get it signed by the Stake President or Mission President before it will be accepted at the Temple. In wards using group recommends, members are required to make application to the Bishop each year to have their names included on the list. Recommends are now issued annually and are in force during year of issue only, expiring December 31st. * 2. Donations. Donations are accepted at the door of the Temple. A consistent donation by couples being married, who can afford it, would be the amount of the fee required for a civil ceremony. 3. Living Endowments and Sealings. Members going to the Temple for their own endowments should obtain, if possible, before leaving home, all of the data called for on the reverse side of their recommends. The Bishop or Ward Clerk can often times assist the individual members by supplying the needed information from the Ward records. Baptism dates (day, month and year) must be obtained without fail. Members who are already endowed and who are going to the Temple for marriage or sealing must have their own endowment date (day, month and year). * 9. Paid Work. When proxies have to be obtained to act in endowments for the dead, it is customary to pay 50 cents for a male name and 40 cents for a female name. * 12. Heir. The full name of the proper heir is required on every sheet. The name should be written the same each time. Initials only are not sufficient. If the heir is dead indicate it thus[:] (d). The heir should be determined according to the following rule: "The oldest male in that direct (blood) line to have joined the Church in life." If there is no male in the line, who was baptized in life, then the oldest female to have joined the Church in life in that direct (blood) line may be designated as heir, using her full maiden name. If she has been sealed to her husband, then (and then only), add her married name to her full maiden name. Be careful to keep different lines under their proper heirship. Any question on establishing an heir may be submitted to the Temple Recorder. If it becomes necessary to change the heir on your line or lines, notify the Recorder of the Temple at once. Special signed permission from the Temple Presidency is required to make a non-member the heir. 13. Relationship. The relationship of the heir to each individual must be stated, using [the] exact relationship, if possible; for example, if the heir is John Henry Jones and you are giving the names of his grandparents and aunts and uncles, the relationship would be given respectively as grandson, nephew, etc., in the right hand column. Always state what relation the heir is to the dead and not the relationship of the dead to the heir. If [the] exact relationship is not known then use relative or relative-in-law[,] but care should be taken to keep within the rule covering the use of such names. Relationship[s] may be dittoed. 14. Work for Friends. Ordinance work for "friends" cannot be performed without permission from the Presidency of the Temple. Such permission and the written approval on the sheet should be obtained before presenting such sheet to the Temple Index Bureau for checking. 15. Infants Exempt. Children under eight years of age are not eligible for baptism and endowments[,] and their names should not be entered on these sheets. * 43. Year must elapse. One year should elapse from date of death before Temple ordinances are given if the individual heard the Gospel and did not accept it, or if a member of the Church and did not take advantage of the privilege to have his own endowments. Exceptions to this rule must be approved by the Presidency of the Temple. * 58. Rule of Sealing. In sealing the dead, a woman is to be sealed to her first husband; any exceptions to this rule must be by permission of the Temple Presidency. 59. Must have been married in life. Only those who were married in life should be sealed. Sealings of persons who were not married in life cannot be performed, except by the permission of the Temple Presidency. * 68. Data for children. The names of all the children who are to be sealed at the same time must be placed in the order of their birth (oldest first), whether they are living or dead. If they are eligible for baptism and endowment those ordinances should be attended to first with the complete endowment date given as required. State sex of each child as indicated in the column following the name. 69. Complete family. All members of one family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. * 71. Ordinances required. The dead who lived to the age of eight years or over are eligible for baptism and also endowments. Living males 21 years and over, or living females 18 years and over are to receive their own endowments before being sealed to their parents. 72. Adoptions. If the intended sealing of a child is to a person other than the natural father or mother, this fact must be explained to the Temple Presidency and answered by them. * 74. Respect rights of others. Sealings should not be performed for [anyone] other than relatives. (See paragraph 14.) 75. Bring nurse. When children are brought to the Temple for sealing, the parents should provide a nurse, if possible, who is properly recommended to the Temple, to care for the small children. In no case are children to be brought to the Temple except when required for their own sealings to parents. (This does not include children eight years of age and over who are brought in as proxies for baptisms for the dead on baptismal days.) [Salt Lake temple presidency, Jan. 1, 1934; published in the Deseret News, Jan. 5, 13, 20, 1934, emphasis in original] (1)
-- During 1934
... Bishops are authorized to issue temple recommends to all faithful members of the Melchizedek Priesthood and adult women members of their wards. Recommends for the performance of the ordinance of baptism for the dead may also be issued to exemplary young people. .... [Handbook of Instructions, Number 15 (Salt Lake City: Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1934), pp. 10-11] (1)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Jan 18, 1923
-- Jan 18, 1923
Correction of custom of temple baptisms and administrations for illness-- Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
It is evident from this letter sent to all Stake Presidencies that a similar letter of instructions had been sent to all Temple Presidents on December 15, 1922.
The subject of this letter is the discontinuance of a custom that had evidently grown up in the Church among some members of going to the Temples to be baptized for their health or for administrations for illness.
The custom was said to prevail "to some extent in our temples" and its discontinuance was called for by the First Presidency. It was labeled as "a departure from the way instituted of the Lord" for the care and healing of the sick.
This letter might well be studied in connection with other instructions issued by the First Presidency on the same subject of healing the sick, during the period 1914-1924.
On October 3, 1914, the First Presidency had written (see MFP 4:312-317):
"It must always be borne in mind that this administering to the sick by the sisters is in no sense a temple ordinance, and no one is allowed to use the words learned in the temple in washing and anointing the sick."
In October, 1922 the First Presidency had written (see earlier in this volume):
"The custom which is growing in the Church to dedicate those who appear beyond recovery, to the Lord, has no place among the ordinances of the Church."
These three examples provide an excellent illustration of the eternal vigilance exercised by the First Presidency lest apostasy or perversions of the ordinances of the gospel gradually enter the Church by custom, rather than having changes occur by revelation and by the authority of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. The three messages constitute calls to return to the principles and practices enjoined in the original revelation given on the subject through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Edward H. Anderson summed it all up, perhaps, when he wrote, following publication of the October 1922 statement: "Plain and instructive information on how to deal with the sick is also given of the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 42:43-48."
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Office of the First Presidency Salt Lake City, Utah January 18, 1923 Prest. Joseph E. Cardon and Counselors
Dear Brethren:
The following paragraph is part of a letter dated December 15th, 1922, from the First Presidency to Presidents of Temples:
"We feel constrained to call your attention to the custom prevailing to some extent in our temples of baptizing for health, and to remind you that baptism for health is no part of our temple work, and therefore to permit it to become a practice would be an innovation detrimental to temple work, and a departure as well from the provision instituted of the Lord for the care and healing of the sick of His Church. And in this connection we desire to say that the practice of Church members going to temples to be administered to is a departure from the way instituted of the Lord, and we are desirous that these things should be corrected and receive attention of the proper authorities in the branches, Wards and Stakes of the Church where they belong, and it will be for you to so inform your temple workers and those who may come to you from time to time for baptism for health and to be administered to."
The Presidency would thank you to convey the information contained in the foregoing paragraph to your Bishops with the request that they issue no more recommends for baptisms for health or administrations to the sick.
Your brother, ANTHONY W. IVINS, In behalf of First Presidency. {1923-January 18-Original circular letter. Church Historian's} (1)
-- Dec 9, 1930
Sylvester Smith: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 9 Dec. 1930 and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment 10 Dec. (2)
-- May 6, 1931
Lyman E Johnson: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 27 Jan. 1931, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 6 May 1931 (2)
-- Aug 25, 1932
William Smith: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 21 June 1932, and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment on 25 Aug. 1932 (2)
-- Apr 12, 1933
Lyman Wight: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 27 Aug. 1932, and priesthood restored to him before his proxy endowment on 12 Apr. 1933. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)
2 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Correction of custom of temple baptisms and administrations for illness-- Library, Salt Lake City, Utah.
It is evident from this letter sent to all Stake Presidencies that a similar letter of instructions had been sent to all Temple Presidents on December 15, 1922.
The subject of this letter is the discontinuance of a custom that had evidently grown up in the Church among some members of going to the Temples to be baptized for their health or for administrations for illness.
The custom was said to prevail "to some extent in our temples" and its discontinuance was called for by the First Presidency. It was labeled as "a departure from the way instituted of the Lord" for the care and healing of the sick.
This letter might well be studied in connection with other instructions issued by the First Presidency on the same subject of healing the sick, during the period 1914-1924.
On October 3, 1914, the First Presidency had written (see MFP 4:312-317):
"It must always be borne in mind that this administering to the sick by the sisters is in no sense a temple ordinance, and no one is allowed to use the words learned in the temple in washing and anointing the sick."
In October, 1922 the First Presidency had written (see earlier in this volume):
"The custom which is growing in the Church to dedicate those who appear beyond recovery, to the Lord, has no place among the ordinances of the Church."
These three examples provide an excellent illustration of the eternal vigilance exercised by the First Presidency lest apostasy or perversions of the ordinances of the gospel gradually enter the Church by custom, rather than having changes occur by revelation and by the authority of the Prophet, Seer, and Revelator. The three messages constitute calls to return to the principles and practices enjoined in the original revelation given on the subject through the Prophet Joseph Smith.
Edward H. Anderson summed it all up, perhaps, when he wrote, following publication of the October 1922 statement: "Plain and instructive information on how to deal with the sick is also given of the Lord in the Doctrine and Covenants, Section 42:43-48."
Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints Office of the First Presidency Salt Lake City, Utah January 18, 1923 Prest. Joseph E. Cardon and Counselors
Dear Brethren:
The following paragraph is part of a letter dated December 15th, 1922, from the First Presidency to Presidents of Temples:
"We feel constrained to call your attention to the custom prevailing to some extent in our temples of baptizing for health, and to remind you that baptism for health is no part of our temple work, and therefore to permit it to become a practice would be an innovation detrimental to temple work, and a departure as well from the provision instituted of the Lord for the care and healing of the sick of His Church. And in this connection we desire to say that the practice of Church members going to temples to be administered to is a departure from the way instituted of the Lord, and we are desirous that these things should be corrected and receive attention of the proper authorities in the branches, Wards and Stakes of the Church where they belong, and it will be for you to so inform your temple workers and those who may come to you from time to time for baptism for health and to be administered to."
The Presidency would thank you to convey the information contained in the foregoing paragraph to your Bishops with the request that they issue no more recommends for baptisms for health or administrations to the sick.
Your brother, ANTHONY W. IVINS, In behalf of First Presidency. {1923-January 18-Original circular letter. Church Historian's} (1)
-- Dec 9, 1930
Sylvester Smith: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 9 Dec. 1930 and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment 10 Dec. (2)
-- May 6, 1931
Lyman E Johnson: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 27 Jan. 1931, after which his priesthood was restored before his proxy endowment 6 May 1931 (2)
-- Aug 25, 1932
William Smith: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 21 June 1932, and priesthood restored to him before proxy endowment on 25 Aug. 1932 (2)
-- Apr 12, 1933
Lyman Wight: Baptized by proxy into LDS church 27 Aug. 1932, and priesthood restored to him before his proxy endowment on 12 Apr. 1933. (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Clark, James R., Messages of the First Presidency (6 volumes)
2 - Quinn, D. Michael, The Mormon Hierarchy: Origins of Power, Appendix 6, Biographical Sketches of General Officers of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1830-47, http://amzn.to/origins-power
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Jan 10, 1912
-- Jan 10, 1912
President [David H.] Cannon spoke concerning shoes worn while receiving endowments. He said, put your moccasins on over your shoes. This is the word from the Authorities. A sample of this was given by President [Brigham] Young; he wore his moccasins over his shoes when receiving endowments for [the] deceased and we should follow his example. Baptisms cannot be administered by persons standing out of the water. Innovations must not creep in, in any manner of thing. [The] speaker said, "It is my business to see that right is maintained here no matter what is done elsewhere. If what is done is done right, they, the dead[,] and we can pass to our exaltations, otherwise not." [Temple Minute Book, St. George, Jan. 10, 1912] (1)
-- Jan 19, 1912
President [David H.] Cannon remarked that yesterday in the prayer circle held by the brethren a question arose as to the requirements made by the Doctrine and Covenants of the recorder at the baptismal font. I hold the right in this temple to decide that matter and President Joseph F. Smith has the right to reverse my conclusions on this or any other point whatever. He [Cannon] read of Doctrine and Covenants, Sec[tion] 127, sixth verse and from [the] 128[th] Section regarding the duties of the Recorder at the baptismal font and said, The Lord has never given a revelation to his people that the terms thereof could not be carried out in the spirit thereof. The witnesses to the baptisms in this temple faced the east end of the font. The candidate for that ordinance is brought by the baptisor with his face toward the witnesses and is placed under the water eastward * the baptisor standing between the applicant and the Recorder [and] mak[ing] it impossible for the Recorder to see that the applicant is completely immersed. The Recorder however should distinctly call [out] in the hearing of the Administrator and see the person or proxie answering thereto. [He should] see that the person baptizing repeats the name without variation. The witnesses should be satisfied that the person is totally immersed; then in confirmation the name given should be distinctly heard by the Recorder and he records the baptism and confirmation of the said person[,] [and] the name of the person administering in each ordinance[,] the names of witnesses[,] and his own name as Recorder are attached. This[,] President Cannon said[,] is the plain duty of the Recorder and constitutes the eye and ear witness [ * ] at the Baptismal Font. [Temple Minute Book, St. George, Jan. 19, 1912] (1)
-- Sep 11, 1913; Thursday
The following is the report of the regular meeting of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles held this morning in the Temple at 10:30. ...
The question had arisen as to the origin of Baptism for health by Bro[ther]. Hyrum M. Smith, seeking information on this subject.
President Smith remarked that it had been customary to baptize for health from the early rise of the Church, and he related specific incidents showing the good effects resulting therefrom.
Pres[iden]t. Lund also related incidents of a like character which had taken place in the Manti temple, and remarked that there evidently exists some connection between forgiveness of sin and healing, and that this understanding obtained in the days of the Savior and the Apostles afterwards. And while he felt that we should not encourage the idea of baptism for health, he felt that we should not discourage it when the desire was prompted by those asking permission to be baptized for their health. ... (2)
-- 2nd Decade of the 20th Century
Uncertainty about baptism for health arose in the second decade of the twentieth century. With improvements in modern medical science and Mormonism's more general integration into the larger society, Church leaders began to avoid ritualistic practices that, in turn, appeared increasingly magical. Consequently, the therapeutic use of oil, notably manifest in repeat anointings, anointing the area of affliction, and drinking consecrated oil fell out of favor. These rationalizations of the healing liturgy spilled over into a debate surrounding baptism for health; and Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund, both of the First Presidency, emerged as defenders of the practice. (3)
-- Apr 26, 1916
Joseph F. Smith rules that Salt Lake temple have daily limits for proxy ordinances: 240 endowments and 1,200 baptisms for the dead. As example of changes in that policy, Salt Lake temple performs 4,718 endowments on May 21, 1967. (4)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
2 - First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes
3 - Stapley, Jonathan & Wright, Kristine, '"They Shall Be Made Whole": A History of Baptism for Health,' Journal of Mormon History, Fall 2008
4 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
President [David H.] Cannon spoke concerning shoes worn while receiving endowments. He said, put your moccasins on over your shoes. This is the word from the Authorities. A sample of this was given by President [Brigham] Young; he wore his moccasins over his shoes when receiving endowments for [the] deceased and we should follow his example. Baptisms cannot be administered by persons standing out of the water. Innovations must not creep in, in any manner of thing. [The] speaker said, "It is my business to see that right is maintained here no matter what is done elsewhere. If what is done is done right, they, the dead[,] and we can pass to our exaltations, otherwise not." [Temple Minute Book, St. George, Jan. 10, 1912] (1)
-- Jan 19, 1912
President [David H.] Cannon remarked that yesterday in the prayer circle held by the brethren a question arose as to the requirements made by the Doctrine and Covenants of the recorder at the baptismal font. I hold the right in this temple to decide that matter and President Joseph F. Smith has the right to reverse my conclusions on this or any other point whatever. He [Cannon] read of Doctrine and Covenants, Sec[tion] 127, sixth verse and from [the] 128[th] Section regarding the duties of the Recorder at the baptismal font and said, The Lord has never given a revelation to his people that the terms thereof could not be carried out in the spirit thereof. The witnesses to the baptisms in this temple faced the east end of the font. The candidate for that ordinance is brought by the baptisor with his face toward the witnesses and is placed under the water eastward * the baptisor standing between the applicant and the Recorder [and] mak[ing] it impossible for the Recorder to see that the applicant is completely immersed. The Recorder however should distinctly call [out] in the hearing of the Administrator and see the person or proxie answering thereto. [He should] see that the person baptizing repeats the name without variation. The witnesses should be satisfied that the person is totally immersed; then in confirmation the name given should be distinctly heard by the Recorder and he records the baptism and confirmation of the said person[,] [and] the name of the person administering in each ordinance[,] the names of witnesses[,] and his own name as Recorder are attached. This[,] President Cannon said[,] is the plain duty of the Recorder and constitutes the eye and ear witness [ * ] at the Baptismal Font. [Temple Minute Book, St. George, Jan. 19, 1912] (1)
-- Sep 11, 1913; Thursday
The following is the report of the regular meeting of the First Presidency and Twelve Apostles held this morning in the Temple at 10:30. ...
The question had arisen as to the origin of Baptism for health by Bro[ther]. Hyrum M. Smith, seeking information on this subject.
President Smith remarked that it had been customary to baptize for health from the early rise of the Church, and he related specific incidents showing the good effects resulting therefrom.
Pres[iden]t. Lund also related incidents of a like character which had taken place in the Manti temple, and remarked that there evidently exists some connection between forgiveness of sin and healing, and that this understanding obtained in the days of the Savior and the Apostles afterwards. And while he felt that we should not encourage the idea of baptism for health, he felt that we should not discourage it when the desire was prompted by those asking permission to be baptized for their health. ... (2)
-- 2nd Decade of the 20th Century
Uncertainty about baptism for health arose in the second decade of the twentieth century. With improvements in modern medical science and Mormonism's more general integration into the larger society, Church leaders began to avoid ritualistic practices that, in turn, appeared increasingly magical. Consequently, the therapeutic use of oil, notably manifest in repeat anointings, anointing the area of affliction, and drinking consecrated oil fell out of favor. These rationalizations of the healing liturgy spilled over into a debate surrounding baptism for health; and Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund, both of the First Presidency, emerged as defenders of the practice. (3)
-- Apr 26, 1916
Joseph F. Smith rules that Salt Lake temple have daily limits for proxy ordinances: 240 endowments and 1,200 baptisms for the dead. As example of changes in that policy, Salt Lake temple performs 4,718 endowments on May 21, 1967. (4)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
2 - First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve minutes
3 - Stapley, Jonathan & Wright, Kristine, '"They Shall Be Made Whole": A History of Baptism for Health,' Journal of Mormon History, Fall 2008
4 - On This Day in Mormon History, http://onthisdayinmormonhistory.blogspot.com
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Jan 12, 1909
-- Jan 12, 1909
[Apostle George Albert Smith Journal] "Was present in Temple when Father baptized F.M. Lyman for his father and Pres Jos F. Smith restored his rights etc in the Priesthood. My Grandfather Lorin Farr, died in the bath at the Hot Springs North of Ogden 88 years old. He was alive at the time but was probably stricken with apoplexy. He has spent the latter part of his life working in the Temple." (1)
-- Tuesday, Jan 12, 1909
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
At 4 p.m. I baptised Prest. Francis M. Lyman for his father Amasa M. Lyman. Confirmed by Prest. Jos. F. Smith.
We received the sad news that Father Lorin Farr had died of heart failure at the Ogden hot springs. Geo. A. went to Ogden. (2)
-- Nov 10, 1910; Thursday
Letter read from President B[righam]. A. Hendricks of the South African Mission, dated October 4, addressed to President Rudger Clawson, stating in substance that a serious race question was confronting himself and associates, missionaries, on account of the doctrine having been taught to some of the negro saints that they could perform certain ordinances in the House of the Lord, and he desired an answer to this question: "Is it possible for a promiscuously bred white and negro to be baptized for the dead?" adding that a great many blacks had become members of the Church in South Africa, and were good, honest people. President Hendricks also stated that by asking this question he did not wish it to be inferred that he and his fellow missionaries were directing their work among the white race.9
President [Joseph F.] Smith remarked that he saw no reason why a negro should not be permitted to have access to the baptismal font in the temple to be baptized for the dead, inasmuch as negroes are entitled to become members of the Church by baptism.
9This letter reads, in part: "A serious question is confronting us in this land in regard to the race question. There are many of our black saints who have been taught that they can perform certain ordinances in the Temples for their dead ancestors. I know it is impossible for a negro to hold the priesthood. ... Is it possible for them to be baptized for their dead?" (Brigham A. Hendricks, letter to Rudger Clawson, October 4, 1910, LDS Archives). In response, Clawson wrote: "No work is being done in the Temples at present neither has any been done in the past for the negro saints. Priesthood cannot be given to a negro and this rule apears to hold good regarding other ordinances of the Temple.
(3)
-- Nov 18, 1910; Friday
This is in answer to President B[righam]. A. Hendricks' letter to you of the 4th ult. with respect to the right of Negroes to be baptized in behalf of their deceased ancestors. It is true, as intimated in yours of Oct[ober]. 25th to President Hendricks that no ordinances are being performed in the temple in behalf of deceased Negroes, neither can temple ordinances be performed in behalf of the Negro race involving the bestowal of the holy priesthood upon them. But inasmuch as Negroes living in the flesh can become members of the Church through baptism, we do not hesitate to say that Negroes may be baptized and confirmed in behalf of their kindred dead, which is all that can be done for tem until the Lord shall direct otherwise.
But in thus answering we do not wish President Hendricks or his successors in office to encourage the Negro saints of South Africa to emigrate to Zion in order that they may be in a position to do temple work in behalf of their dead. In fact, the same general instructions apply to our elders with respect to the Negro race as applies to them with respect to the whites, and that is not to preach the gathering or encourage any to emirate, but rather to leave this entirely with the saints themselves, so that they cannot truthfully blame the Church should any of them come here and become dissatisfied and want to return.
We note that President Hendricks says in his letter to you in effect that the labors of himself and elders are among the white class of people, and not the blacks. This is as it should be, and we trust that this understanding will be clearly had by all of our missionaries laboring in South Africa, and who may be called to labor there hereafter. In the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price) Chapter 7, verse 12, we learn that Enoch in his day called upon all the people to repent save the people of Canaan, and it is for us to do likewise. But at the same time where honest-hearted
Negroes who perchance hear the gospel preached, become pricked in their hearts and ask for baptism, it would not by becoming in us to refuse to administer that ordinance in their behalf. And where such brethren and sisters desire to have their temple work done in behalf of their deceased kindred, let them furnish the Mission President with the names of their dead, together with the genealogy, as fully as they may be able to give it, who may forward the same to us, and we will see that baptism is performed in their behalf, and we will instruct the temple recorder to inform the Mission President when the work shall have been done. (4)
Endnotes:
1 - Journals of George Albert Smith
2 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
3 - Excerpt from the Minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
4 - Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund to Rudger Clawson, LDS Archives
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
[Apostle George Albert Smith Journal] "Was present in Temple when Father baptized F.M. Lyman for his father and Pres Jos F. Smith restored his rights etc in the Priesthood. My Grandfather Lorin Farr, died in the bath at the Hot Springs North of Ogden 88 years old. He was alive at the time but was probably stricken with apoplexy. He has spent the latter part of his life working in the Temple." (1)
-- Tuesday, Jan 12, 1909
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
At 4 p.m. I baptised Prest. Francis M. Lyman for his father Amasa M. Lyman. Confirmed by Prest. Jos. F. Smith.
We received the sad news that Father Lorin Farr had died of heart failure at the Ogden hot springs. Geo. A. went to Ogden. (2)
-- Nov 10, 1910; Thursday
Letter read from President B[righam]. A. Hendricks of the South African Mission, dated October 4, addressed to President Rudger Clawson, stating in substance that a serious race question was confronting himself and associates, missionaries, on account of the doctrine having been taught to some of the negro saints that they could perform certain ordinances in the House of the Lord, and he desired an answer to this question: "Is it possible for a promiscuously bred white and negro to be baptized for the dead?" adding that a great many blacks had become members of the Church in South Africa, and were good, honest people. President Hendricks also stated that by asking this question he did not wish it to be inferred that he and his fellow missionaries were directing their work among the white race.9
President [Joseph F.] Smith remarked that he saw no reason why a negro should not be permitted to have access to the baptismal font in the temple to be baptized for the dead, inasmuch as negroes are entitled to become members of the Church by baptism.
9This letter reads, in part: "A serious question is confronting us in this land in regard to the race question. There are many of our black saints who have been taught that they can perform certain ordinances in the Temples for their dead ancestors. I know it is impossible for a negro to hold the priesthood. ... Is it possible for them to be baptized for their dead?" (Brigham A. Hendricks, letter to Rudger Clawson, October 4, 1910, LDS Archives). In response, Clawson wrote: "No work is being done in the Temples at present neither has any been done in the past for the negro saints. Priesthood cannot be given to a negro and this rule apears to hold good regarding other ordinances of the Temple.
(3)
-- Nov 18, 1910; Friday
This is in answer to President B[righam]. A. Hendricks' letter to you of the 4th ult. with respect to the right of Negroes to be baptized in behalf of their deceased ancestors. It is true, as intimated in yours of Oct[ober]. 25th to President Hendricks that no ordinances are being performed in the temple in behalf of deceased Negroes, neither can temple ordinances be performed in behalf of the Negro race involving the bestowal of the holy priesthood upon them. But inasmuch as Negroes living in the flesh can become members of the Church through baptism, we do not hesitate to say that Negroes may be baptized and confirmed in behalf of their kindred dead, which is all that can be done for tem until the Lord shall direct otherwise.
But in thus answering we do not wish President Hendricks or his successors in office to encourage the Negro saints of South Africa to emigrate to Zion in order that they may be in a position to do temple work in behalf of their dead. In fact, the same general instructions apply to our elders with respect to the Negro race as applies to them with respect to the whites, and that is not to preach the gathering or encourage any to emirate, but rather to leave this entirely with the saints themselves, so that they cannot truthfully blame the Church should any of them come here and become dissatisfied and want to return.
We note that President Hendricks says in his letter to you in effect that the labors of himself and elders are among the white class of people, and not the blacks. This is as it should be, and we trust that this understanding will be clearly had by all of our missionaries laboring in South Africa, and who may be called to labor there hereafter. In the Book of Moses (Pearl of Great Price) Chapter 7, verse 12, we learn that Enoch in his day called upon all the people to repent save the people of Canaan, and it is for us to do likewise. But at the same time where honest-hearted
Negroes who perchance hear the gospel preached, become pricked in their hearts and ask for baptism, it would not by becoming in us to refuse to administer that ordinance in their behalf. And where such brethren and sisters desire to have their temple work done in behalf of their deceased kindred, let them furnish the Mission President with the names of their dead, together with the genealogy, as fully as they may be able to give it, who may forward the same to us, and we will see that baptism is performed in their behalf, and we will instruct the temple recorder to inform the Mission President when the work shall have been done. (4)
Endnotes:
1 - Journals of George Albert Smith
2 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
3 - Excerpt from the Minutes of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles
4 - Joseph F. Smith and Anthon H. Lund to Rudger Clawson, LDS Archives
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Friday, Mar 29, 1907
-- Friday, Mar 29, 1907
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
My son Joseph Harmon Smith was rebaptised to day at the Baptistry by John W. Grace. (1)
-- Wednesday, Apr 10, 1907
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
My son Joseph Harmon was born December 17th, 1884. Baptised and confirmed by me April 4th, 1892. Rebaptised March 29th by John W. Grace and reconfirmed by me Sunday March 31st.
To day John Royman, Prest. of the Elders Quorum, and myself, me being Mouth Ordained him an Elder. (1)
-- Apr 20, 1907
No member of the Church, male or female, who, after leaving off his or her garments, would be justified in putting them on again without consent of the proper authority, and that authority is the First Presidency of the Church; and this consent would, as a general thing, involve the renewal of covenants by baptism. Where sisters cast off their garments, and give themselves in marriage to non-members of the Church, they must not, under any circumstances, be permitted to wear their garments again while living in such marriage relationship, and therefore all such sisters must be content to continue to live without wearing the garment of the holy priesthood during the existence of their present marital relationships. This practice obtains in the stakes of Zion and must be strictly adhered to in the missions. [Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund to Nephi Pratt, Apr. 20, 1907] (2)
-- During 1908
... INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SAINTS WHO ARE PRIVILEGED TO ENTER THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE At least one year should be allowed to elapse after the death of individuals before Temple ordinances are performed in their behalf, unless it is known the deceased were prepared to obey the Gospel before their death. . . . Baptisms, or other ordinances, must not be performed in behalf of any individual whose death is not positively known, except one hundred years has elapsed from date of birth. When there is no evidence of the dead having reached a sufficient age[,] endowments should not be performed in behalf of such persons. . . . The dead who have been endowed can only be represented in any vicarious work by those who have themselves been endowed. A living person cannot be represented by proxy. Before children are sealed to parents or adopted, all the other ordinances to which they are eligible should first be attended to. All the members of a family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. If the sealing is to another person than the father or mother, that fact must be stated. No person should have the ordinances of Sealing to Parents, or Adoptions, performed for those who are not of their own lineage. Those who do Temple work, or get it done, should be careful to designate their proper relationship to each one of the dead. A clear distinction should be made between blood kindred and those to whom they are married; the latter are known as relatives in law, thus, a man is nephew in law to his uncle's wife, cousin in law to his cousin's wife, etc. If the dead are known to be blood relations, but the degree of relationship cannot be stated, the word Relative is to be given. When there is no family connection the word Friend should be used. The relatives, or friends, of a wife should be listed separately from those of her husband, and the work for her kindred should be at the instance of her eldest brother, if he is a member of the Church, or of her eldest son. . . . The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean, and those who feel it necessary to renew their covenants before beginning their work ought to attend to this previous to entering the Temple, it being in the nature of a preparation. Males should be ordained Elders before they come to the Temple to receive endowments. The Saints who attend to baptisms for the dead, should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. All participants in the ordinance of sealing children should also be dressed in white. Males over 21 or females over 18 years of age, are not permitted to witness or take part in any Temple ordinances until they have received their own endowments. . . . Couples who come to the Temple to be married (sealed), must bring Licenses issued by County Clerks of this State. When this is not complied with the ceremony will not be performed. Those who have been legally married before do not require such licenses. Husbands and wives must be sealed before their children can be sealed to them. In the performance of work for the dead, the right of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded. When practicable, relatives should represent the dead. When an heir empowers another person to do the work in his or her stead, he or she should give the acting proxy a written authorization to that effect. The name of the individual at whose instance the work is done, and his, or her, relationship to each of the dead is required for [the] record. As a rule, heirship is determined by the patriarchal order, the eldest son. Individuals, or families, who cannot conveniently attend personally to the performance of Temple work in behalf of their dead kindred, or friends, can make arrangements to have such work done at their instance. The necessary instructions regarding this matter will be imparted on application to the Recorder. When baptisms have been attended to, the other ordinances to which the individuals are eligible should be performed without delay. . . . Those who do ordinance work have not the right to make matches between people who are deceased, except in cases of persons who were married in life. In all other instances the President of the Temple must be consulted. Persons who committed murder or suicide, or who apostatized or were excommunicated from the Church, cannot be officiated for except by special permission of the President of the Temple. He should be appealed to in all matters involving doubt or complications. The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m., and all ought to be in the building not later than 8:30. Monday is devoted to taking the record of Baptisms for the dead, which are performed on Tuesday. Baptismal records are not taken after eleven o'clock Mondays. The higher ordinances are attended to on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The record of this work is taken between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. of the day it is performed. The earlier the Saints come to give in [their] record[s] the better. All who enter the Temple must observe good order and proper decorum; loud and irrelevant conversation should be avoided. All who come to the Temple to perform ordinance work are expected to make donations according to their circumstances, to aid in meeting necessary expense, but the poor who have nothing to give are equally welcome. Recommends for the privilege to work in the House of the Lord must be renewed every six months. Each individual needs a recommend, including children over eight years of age. [Joseph F. Smith, signed statement, ca. 1908; emphasis in original] (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
My son Joseph Harmon Smith was rebaptised to day at the Baptistry by John W. Grace. (1)
-- Wednesday, Apr 10, 1907
[Apostle John Henry Smith Diary] Salt Lake City
My son Joseph Harmon was born December 17th, 1884. Baptised and confirmed by me April 4th, 1892. Rebaptised March 29th by John W. Grace and reconfirmed by me Sunday March 31st.
To day John Royman, Prest. of the Elders Quorum, and myself, me being Mouth Ordained him an Elder. (1)
-- Apr 20, 1907
No member of the Church, male or female, who, after leaving off his or her garments, would be justified in putting them on again without consent of the proper authority, and that authority is the First Presidency of the Church; and this consent would, as a general thing, involve the renewal of covenants by baptism. Where sisters cast off their garments, and give themselves in marriage to non-members of the Church, they must not, under any circumstances, be permitted to wear their garments again while living in such marriage relationship, and therefore all such sisters must be content to continue to live without wearing the garment of the holy priesthood during the existence of their present marital relationships. This practice obtains in the stakes of Zion and must be strictly adhered to in the missions. [Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund to Nephi Pratt, Apr. 20, 1907] (2)
-- During 1908
... INSTRUCTIONS TO THE SAINTS WHO ARE PRIVILEGED TO ENTER THE SALT LAKE TEMPLE At least one year should be allowed to elapse after the death of individuals before Temple ordinances are performed in their behalf, unless it is known the deceased were prepared to obey the Gospel before their death. . . . Baptisms, or other ordinances, must not be performed in behalf of any individual whose death is not positively known, except one hundred years has elapsed from date of birth. When there is no evidence of the dead having reached a sufficient age[,] endowments should not be performed in behalf of such persons. . . . The dead who have been endowed can only be represented in any vicarious work by those who have themselves been endowed. A living person cannot be represented by proxy. Before children are sealed to parents or adopted, all the other ordinances to which they are eligible should first be attended to. All the members of a family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. If the sealing is to another person than the father or mother, that fact must be stated. No person should have the ordinances of Sealing to Parents, or Adoptions, performed for those who are not of their own lineage. Those who do Temple work, or get it done, should be careful to designate their proper relationship to each one of the dead. A clear distinction should be made between blood kindred and those to whom they are married; the latter are known as relatives in law, thus, a man is nephew in law to his uncle's wife, cousin in law to his cousin's wife, etc. If the dead are known to be blood relations, but the degree of relationship cannot be stated, the word Relative is to be given. When there is no family connection the word Friend should be used. The relatives, or friends, of a wife should be listed separately from those of her husband, and the work for her kindred should be at the instance of her eldest brother, if he is a member of the Church, or of her eldest son. . . . The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean, and those who feel it necessary to renew their covenants before beginning their work ought to attend to this previous to entering the Temple, it being in the nature of a preparation. Males should be ordained Elders before they come to the Temple to receive endowments. The Saints who attend to baptisms for the dead, should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. All participants in the ordinance of sealing children should also be dressed in white. Males over 21 or females over 18 years of age, are not permitted to witness or take part in any Temple ordinances until they have received their own endowments. . . . Couples who come to the Temple to be married (sealed), must bring Licenses issued by County Clerks of this State. When this is not complied with the ceremony will not be performed. Those who have been legally married before do not require such licenses. Husbands and wives must be sealed before their children can be sealed to them. In the performance of work for the dead, the right of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded. When practicable, relatives should represent the dead. When an heir empowers another person to do the work in his or her stead, he or she should give the acting proxy a written authorization to that effect. The name of the individual at whose instance the work is done, and his, or her, relationship to each of the dead is required for [the] record. As a rule, heirship is determined by the patriarchal order, the eldest son. Individuals, or families, who cannot conveniently attend personally to the performance of Temple work in behalf of their dead kindred, or friends, can make arrangements to have such work done at their instance. The necessary instructions regarding this matter will be imparted on application to the Recorder. When baptisms have been attended to, the other ordinances to which the individuals are eligible should be performed without delay. . . . Those who do ordinance work have not the right to make matches between people who are deceased, except in cases of persons who were married in life. In all other instances the President of the Temple must be consulted. Persons who committed murder or suicide, or who apostatized or were excommunicated from the Church, cannot be officiated for except by special permission of the President of the Temple. He should be appealed to in all matters involving doubt or complications. The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m., and all ought to be in the building not later than 8:30. Monday is devoted to taking the record of Baptisms for the dead, which are performed on Tuesday. Baptismal records are not taken after eleven o'clock Mondays. The higher ordinances are attended to on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The record of this work is taken between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. of the day it is performed. The earlier the Saints come to give in [their] record[s] the better. All who enter the Temple must observe good order and proper decorum; loud and irrelevant conversation should be avoided. All who come to the Temple to perform ordinance work are expected to make donations according to their circumstances, to aid in meeting necessary expense, but the poor who have nothing to give are equally welcome. Recommends for the privilege to work in the House of the Lord must be renewed every six months. Each individual needs a recommend, including children over eight years of age. [Joseph F. Smith, signed statement, ca. 1908; emphasis in original] (2)
Endnotes:
1 - Jean Bickmore White (editor), Church, State, and Politics: The Diaries of John Henry Smith, Signature Books in association with Smith Research Associates, Salt Lake City, 1990, http://bit.ly/johnhenrysmith
2 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
Rebaptism, Jun 6, 1905
-- Jun 6, 1905
There is a rule in the temple forbidding girls over years entering that building unless they have either had their endowments or are going there for that purpose, and this rule is being strictly adhered to. But in the case of Sister Christy Ellingson, we thought, under the circumstances, we would make her an exception to the rule. You may therefore issue a recommend in her favor stating thereon the nature of the work to be done by her, namely, to be baptized for her health. [Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund to Andrew Fjeld, June 6, 1905] (1)
-- During ca. 1905
... INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING TEMPLE ORDINANCE WORK At least one year should be allowed to elapse after death of individuals before Temple ordinances are performed in their behalf, unless it is known the deceased persons were faithful members of the Church, or that they were prepared to obey the Gospel before their death. Individuals who were members of the Church, at time of death, do not need to have the ordinance of baptism performed in their behalf, unless they had become unworthy of membership. * A living woman cannot receive endowments while her husband is alive, if the husband has not been endowed. * Baptisms, or other ordinances, must not be performed in behalf of any individual whose death is not positively known, except one hundred years, at least, have elapsed from date of birth. When there is no evidence of the dead having attained a sufficient age in life, (fourteen years or over), ENDOWMENTS should not be performed in behalf of such persons until after the evidence is obtained. The ordinance of endowment must not be repeated in behalf of any individual who has once been endowed, living or dead. * The dead who have been endowed can only be represented in any vicarious work by those who have themselves been endowed. A living person cannot be represented by proxy in any Temple ordinances. When baptisms for the dead have been attended to, the other ordinances to which the individuals are eligible should be performed without delay. Husband and wife, dead, should be sealed on same day they are endowed, if possible. Those who do ordinance work have not the right to make matches between people who are deceased, except in cases of persons who were married in life. In all other instances the President of the Temple must be consulted. Persons who committed murder or suicide, or who apostatized or were excommunicated from the Church, cannot be officiated for except by special permission of the President of the Temple. He should be appealed to in all matters involving doubt or complications. Before children are sealed to parents or adopted, all the other ordinances to which they are eligible should first be attended to. All the members of a family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. If the sealing is to another person than the father or mother, that fact must be stated. Children under eight years of age do not need to have any Temple ordinances performed in their behalf, other than being sealed to parents if they were not born in the Covenant. Those eight years of age must be baptized, and dead children, who attained over fourteen years of age in life, should be endowed before being sealed to parents. No persons should have the ordinance of Sealing of Children performed for those who are not of their own lineage. Those who do Temple work, or get it done, should be careful to designate their proper relationship to each one of the dead. A clear distinction should be made between blood kindred and those to whom they are married; the latter whom are known as relatives in law, thus a man is nephew-in-law to his uncle's wife, cousin-in-law to his cousin's wife, etc. If the dead are known to be blood relations, but the degree of relationship cannot be stated, the word RELATIVE is to be given. When there is no family connection, the word FRIEND should be used. The relatives, or friends[,] of a wife should be listed separately from those of her husband, and the work for her kindred should be at the instance of her brother, if he is a member of the Church, or of her eldest son. In the performance of work for the dead, the right of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded. When practicable, relatives should represent the dead. The name of the individual at whose instance (by whose authorization or permission) the work is done, and his or her relationship to each of the dead is required for [the] record, if the relationship is known. As a rule, the eldest living MALE representative of the family, who is a member of the Church, is the recognized heir. Any individuals who are eligible may act as proxies for the dead but, unless the proxy is the heir, their relationship to the dead, if any, is not to be entered. It is advised that individuals having Temple ordinances performed should limit that work to persons bearing the SURNAMES of their parents and grandparents, and who resided in localities where those ancestors lived; that provides four family lines. To include other lines than those involves the probability of repeating Temple ordinances that individuals representing other families may have a better right to have performed. Every possible precaution should be taken to prevent such undesirable repetition. Temple work may be done for dead individuals who were married to your blood relations, but the family lines of such relatives-in-law must not be included in that work.
The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean. Those who are to be baptized, or officiate in endowments, should each bring a towel for personal use. Shoes worn out of doors should be removed from the feet, in the Temple Annex, and slippers substituted therefor. Males should be ordained Elders before they come to the Temple to receive their own endowments. The Saints who attend to baptisms for the dead should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. All participants in the ordinance of sealing children should also be dressed in white. Males over 21 or females over 18 years of age, are not permitted to witness or take part in any Temple ordinances, except baptism for the dead, until they have received their own endowments. Each individual should be provided with the endowment clothing they need. The garments must be white, and of the approved pattern; they must not be altered or mutilated, and are to be worn as intended, down to the wrist and ankles, and around the neck. These requirements are imperative; admission to the Temple will be refused to those who do not comply therewith. The living who receive their own endowments are required to state their names in full, date and place of birth, date of baptism, and names of parents. Couples who come to the Temple to be married (sealed), must bring Licenses issued by County Clerks of this State; if this is not complied with the ceremony will not be performed. Those who have been legally married before do not require such licenses. Marriages of first cousins are prohibited by state law. Personal permission, or authorization by legal affidavit, of parent or guardian is required by County Clerks before issuing a license for marriage of a man under 21 or a woman under 18 years of age. Marriages can not be performed in the Temple unless the individuals are endowed. Husbands and wives must be sealed before their children can be sealed to them. Individuals, or families, who cannot conveniently attend personally to the performance of Temple work in behalf of their dead kindred, or friends, can make arrangements to have such work done at their instance. There is no charge made by the Temple authorities for performance of the ordinances, but, when proxies have to be obtained to act in endowments for the dead, which occupies the time of an entire session in Temple work, it is customary to pay such proxies a small sum, to partly remunerate them for personal expenses; usually a man receives 75 cents, and a woman 50 cents, for such service. Persons who desire to perform Temple ordinances in behalf of the dead, but have not names of their own kindred, or friends, for that purpose, can be provided with names from lists that are on file in the Temple Recorder's office. The Saints residing in Missions of the Church, who desire to have Temple ordinances performed in behalf of their dead kindred, can have arrangements made therefor by applying to their respective Mission Presidents. Those who reside in Stakes of Zion are advised to have their Temple work performed in the Temple that is nearest the locality where they reside. * The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m., and all ought to be in the building not later than 8:30. Monday is devoted to taking the record[s] of Baptisms for the dead, which are performed on Tuesday. Baptismal records are not taken after eleven o'clock Mondays. The higher ordinances are attended to on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; the record of this work is taken between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. on the day it is performed. The earlier the Saints come to [turn] in record[s] the better. Children who are to be sealed to parents should not be brought to the Temple before 12 m. [noon] A second company, taking endowments for the dead only, is received in the Temple at 12 m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The morning company includes all who are to receive their own endowments, or who have sealings to perform, and those who reside outside of Salt Lake City. All who enter the Temple must patiently observe good order and proper decorum; loud and irrelevant conversation should be avoided. ALL WHO COME TO THE TEMPLE TO PERFORM ORDINANCE WORK ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE DONATIONS ACCORDING TO THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES, TO AID IN MEETING NECESSARY EXPENSE, BUT THE POOR WHO HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE ARE EQUALLY WELCOME. Recommends for the privilege to work in the House of the Lord must be renewed every six months. Each individual needs a recommend, including children over eight years of age. [Joseph F. Smith, ca. 1905; emphasis in original18] (1)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
There is a rule in the temple forbidding girls over years entering that building unless they have either had their endowments or are going there for that purpose, and this rule is being strictly adhered to. But in the case of Sister Christy Ellingson, we thought, under the circumstances, we would make her an exception to the rule. You may therefore issue a recommend in her favor stating thereon the nature of the work to be done by her, namely, to be baptized for her health. [Joseph F. Smith, John R. Winder, and Anthon H. Lund to Andrew Fjeld, June 6, 1905] (1)
-- During ca. 1905
... INSTRUCTIONS CONCERNING TEMPLE ORDINANCE WORK At least one year should be allowed to elapse after death of individuals before Temple ordinances are performed in their behalf, unless it is known the deceased persons were faithful members of the Church, or that they were prepared to obey the Gospel before their death. Individuals who were members of the Church, at time of death, do not need to have the ordinance of baptism performed in their behalf, unless they had become unworthy of membership. * A living woman cannot receive endowments while her husband is alive, if the husband has not been endowed. * Baptisms, or other ordinances, must not be performed in behalf of any individual whose death is not positively known, except one hundred years, at least, have elapsed from date of birth. When there is no evidence of the dead having attained a sufficient age in life, (fourteen years or over), ENDOWMENTS should not be performed in behalf of such persons until after the evidence is obtained. The ordinance of endowment must not be repeated in behalf of any individual who has once been endowed, living or dead. * The dead who have been endowed can only be represented in any vicarious work by those who have themselves been endowed. A living person cannot be represented by proxy in any Temple ordinances. When baptisms for the dead have been attended to, the other ordinances to which the individuals are eligible should be performed without delay. Husband and wife, dead, should be sealed on same day they are endowed, if possible. Those who do ordinance work have not the right to make matches between people who are deceased, except in cases of persons who were married in life. In all other instances the President of the Temple must be consulted. Persons who committed murder or suicide, or who apostatized or were excommunicated from the Church, cannot be officiated for except by special permission of the President of the Temple. He should be appealed to in all matters involving doubt or complications. Before children are sealed to parents or adopted, all the other ordinances to which they are eligible should first be attended to. All the members of a family should be sealed to their parents at the same time, if possible. If the sealing is to another person than the father or mother, that fact must be stated. Children under eight years of age do not need to have any Temple ordinances performed in their behalf, other than being sealed to parents if they were not born in the Covenant. Those eight years of age must be baptized, and dead children, who attained over fourteen years of age in life, should be endowed before being sealed to parents. No persons should have the ordinance of Sealing of Children performed for those who are not of their own lineage. Those who do Temple work, or get it done, should be careful to designate their proper relationship to each one of the dead. A clear distinction should be made between blood kindred and those to whom they are married; the latter whom are known as relatives in law, thus a man is nephew-in-law to his uncle's wife, cousin-in-law to his cousin's wife, etc. If the dead are known to be blood relations, but the degree of relationship cannot be stated, the word RELATIVE is to be given. When there is no family connection, the word FRIEND should be used. The relatives, or friends[,] of a wife should be listed separately from those of her husband, and the work for her kindred should be at the instance of her brother, if he is a member of the Church, or of her eldest son. In the performance of work for the dead, the right of heirship (blood relationship) should be sacredly regarded. When practicable, relatives should represent the dead. The name of the individual at whose instance (by whose authorization or permission) the work is done, and his or her relationship to each of the dead is required for [the] record, if the relationship is known. As a rule, the eldest living MALE representative of the family, who is a member of the Church, is the recognized heir. Any individuals who are eligible may act as proxies for the dead but, unless the proxy is the heir, their relationship to the dead, if any, is not to be entered. It is advised that individuals having Temple ordinances performed should limit that work to persons bearing the SURNAMES of their parents and grandparents, and who resided in localities where those ancestors lived; that provides four family lines. To include other lines than those involves the probability of repeating Temple ordinances that individuals representing other families may have a better right to have performed. Every possible precaution should be taken to prevent such undesirable repetition. Temple work may be done for dead individuals who were married to your blood relations, but the family lines of such relatives-in-law must not be included in that work.
The Saints who enter the sacred building should be properly prepared. Their bodies should be scrupulously clean. Those who are to be baptized, or officiate in endowments, should each bring a towel for personal use. Shoes worn out of doors should be removed from the feet, in the Temple Annex, and slippers substituted therefor. Males should be ordained Elders before they come to the Temple to receive their own endowments. The Saints who attend to baptisms for the dead should be amply dressed in white before entering the font. All participants in the ordinance of sealing children should also be dressed in white. Males over 21 or females over 18 years of age, are not permitted to witness or take part in any Temple ordinances, except baptism for the dead, until they have received their own endowments. Each individual should be provided with the endowment clothing they need. The garments must be white, and of the approved pattern; they must not be altered or mutilated, and are to be worn as intended, down to the wrist and ankles, and around the neck. These requirements are imperative; admission to the Temple will be refused to those who do not comply therewith. The living who receive their own endowments are required to state their names in full, date and place of birth, date of baptism, and names of parents. Couples who come to the Temple to be married (sealed), must bring Licenses issued by County Clerks of this State; if this is not complied with the ceremony will not be performed. Those who have been legally married before do not require such licenses. Marriages of first cousins are prohibited by state law. Personal permission, or authorization by legal affidavit, of parent or guardian is required by County Clerks before issuing a license for marriage of a man under 21 or a woman under 18 years of age. Marriages can not be performed in the Temple unless the individuals are endowed. Husbands and wives must be sealed before their children can be sealed to them. Individuals, or families, who cannot conveniently attend personally to the performance of Temple work in behalf of their dead kindred, or friends, can make arrangements to have such work done at their instance. There is no charge made by the Temple authorities for performance of the ordinances, but, when proxies have to be obtained to act in endowments for the dead, which occupies the time of an entire session in Temple work, it is customary to pay such proxies a small sum, to partly remunerate them for personal expenses; usually a man receives 75 cents, and a woman 50 cents, for such service. Persons who desire to perform Temple ordinances in behalf of the dead, but have not names of their own kindred, or friends, for that purpose, can be provided with names from lists that are on file in the Temple Recorder's office. The Saints residing in Missions of the Church, who desire to have Temple ordinances performed in behalf of their dead kindred, can have arrangements made therefor by applying to their respective Mission Presidents. Those who reside in Stakes of Zion are advised to have their Temple work performed in the Temple that is nearest the locality where they reside. * The Temple is open on all working days at 7:30 a.m., and all ought to be in the building not later than 8:30. Monday is devoted to taking the record[s] of Baptisms for the dead, which are performed on Tuesday. Baptismal records are not taken after eleven o'clock Mondays. The higher ordinances are attended to on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays; the record of this work is taken between the hours of 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. on the day it is performed. The earlier the Saints come to [turn] in record[s] the better. Children who are to be sealed to parents should not be brought to the Temple before 12 m. [noon] A second company, taking endowments for the dead only, is received in the Temple at 12 m. on Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Fridays. The morning company includes all who are to receive their own endowments, or who have sealings to perform, and those who reside outside of Salt Lake City. All who enter the Temple must patiently observe good order and proper decorum; loud and irrelevant conversation should be avoided. ALL WHO COME TO THE TEMPLE TO PERFORM ORDINANCE WORK ARE EXPECTED TO MAKE DONATIONS ACCORDING TO THEIR CIRCUMSTANCES, TO AID IN MEETING NECESSARY EXPENSE, BUT THE POOR WHO HAVE NOTHING TO GIVE ARE EQUALLY WELCOME. Recommends for the privilege to work in the House of the Lord must be renewed every six months. Each individual needs a recommend, including children over eight years of age. [Joseph F. Smith, ca. 1905; emphasis in original18] (1)
Endnotes:
1 - Anderson, Devery; The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History, http://amzn.to/TempleWorship
LDS History Chronology: Unconventional Baptisms
Mormon History Timeline: Forms of Rebaptism in LDS History
http://lds-church-history.blogspot.com/
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