LDS Proxy Marriage Rites Bind Slaves to Slavemasters for Eternity, including Thomas Jefferson...

Yesterday, Religion Dispatches contributor Max Mueller published a piece at Slate detailing posthumous marriage rites performed in LDS temples that have wed Mormon and non-Mormon slaveholders to their former slave concubines—including Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.

The article sheds light on another form of posthumous religious rites performed in LDS temples. In addition to posthumous baptisms, LDS Church members routinely perform proxy temple marriages or “sealings” for their ancestors and other deceased couples. Church doctrine teaches that marriages performed within LDS temples “seal” husband and wife together not only for mortality but for eternity.

Mormonism uniquely emphasizes eternal marriage as a rite necessary to enter the highest levels of heaven. Viewed through this theological prism (and with a generous dose of romantic idealism about the quality of most human marriages), the practice of posthumous sealings has special warmth for LDS people.

But sealing deceased slaves to their slavemasters? Thomas Jefferson to Sally Hemmings? A relationship that emblematizes slavery’s most complicated and intimate forms of exploitation?

Because such relationships entailed coerced concubinage and, often, rape, Mueller writes, “Sealing a slave master to his slave is at least as troubling as the baptism of Holocaust victims, the practice of which the LDS Church has officially condemned.”

I’m not sure how to judge which is more troubling. But I do know that Mueller’s thoughtful, well-researched, carefully composed essay not only hits hot button issues like Mormons’ historic racial discrimination and contemporary racial insensitivity and the doctrinal persistence of polygamy—after all temple sealing policies permitted a polygamous sealing of Jefferson to Martha Jefferson and Sally Hemmings—but also gestures towards profound ethical and religious questions.

For their part, Mormons have tried to answer questions about posthumous baptisms and sealings by explaining that no posthumous rite is considered binding and that the efficacy of all rites depends on acceptance by the soul of the deceased.

But one element that has consistently gone missing from conversations I’ve witnessed in LDS circles is the acknowledgment that other religious traditions also have theological views of memory, the afterlife, and the connection between the dead and the living. From these non-Mormon perspectives, Mormon posthumous rites appear as a presumptuous claim on humanity’s dead.

Can one religion claim humanity’s dead? What if humanity’s dead are a sacred collective resource—a sacred public domain? There are norms of civility and respect that govern religious conduct in public domains, conditions absolutely necessary to the free exercise of religion without the fear of encroachment or imposition. Extraction of the names of strangers from public records for religious rites, as has been historical Mormon practice, may be viewed by non-Mormons as an uneasy fit with commonly held norms of religious freedom, interfaith deference, and cooperation.

What do Mormons owe to the other human beings with whom we share custody for humanity’s dead: human beings who may have similarly strong religious feelings about their ancestors, and who would like to see those ancestors rest in peace, without their names being said by strangers in unwelcome ceremonies? Or to those who would like to see their ancestors travel on, without being summoned by name back to traumatic relationships they did not choose?

Please note: Headline was too long for FR character allowance...Original headline adds: "and Sally Hemings" @ the tail end...which I cut to fit.

From the article: Yesterday, Religion Dispatches contributor Max Mueller published a piece at Slate detailing posthumous marriage rites performed in LDS temples that have wed Mormon and non-Mormon slaveholders to their former slave concubines—including Thomas Jefferson and Sally Hemmings.

Hmmm...Slaves couldn't "consent" to sex, right? That was sexual slavery that Thomas Jefferson was trafficking in, was it not? And yet the Mormon church has supposedly "sealed" them for eternity?

From the article: Mormon posthumous rites appear as a presumptuous claim on humanity’s dead. Can one religion claim humanity’s dead?...To whom do the dead belong?

Tell ya what? What if those who claim to have seances with the dead...did genealogical research on all of the Mormon dead & began having seances with their spirits???

What if they had open seances with Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, and all manner of dead Mormons?...Why, they might have stenographers who could "record" what these dead Mormons supposedly "told" -- or were to "tell" -- these occult specialists.

And I guess just about any transcripts of what the Mormon dead "go on the record" as saying, well...that "must" be "gospel" -- as in the occult "gospel," that is.

Hey, it's open proselyting season on the dead...

From the article: The article sheds light on another form of posthumous religious rites performed in LDS temples. In addition to posthumous baptisms, LDS Church members routinely perform proxy temple marriages or “sealings” for their ancestors and other deceased couples. Church doctrine teaches that marriages performed within LDS temples “seal” husband and wife together not only for mortality but for eternity. Mormonism uniquely emphasizes eternal marriage as a rite necessary to enter the highest levels of heaven.

Well, the bold-faced part here is where the Mormons get downright theologically hypocritical.

Mormons say ONLY those temple-recommend Mormons -- not even the majority of them -- can get into the highest realm of Mormon heaven.

IOW, it's not open to those who were non-Mormons during their lifetime.

So, why seal Jefferson? (He's not even eligible for the Mormon celestial kingdom)

In fact, Mormons have deemed from their get-go that all non-Lds are "apostates"...including all the founding fathers...

So tell us, Mormons...how can an "apostate" make it into the "celestial kingdom," anyway???

Copied someone else’s post. It seems perfect here.

There is a class of colored people who make a business of keeping the troubles, the wrongs, and the hardships of the Negro race before the public. Having learned that they are able to make a living out of their troubles, they have grown into the settled habit of advertising their wrongs-partly because they want sympathy and partly because it pays.

Some of these people do not want the Negro to lose his grievances, because they do not want to lose their jobs.

~ Booker T. Washington (1856-1915.) ~
Educator, Author, Civil Rights Leader

We are being deliberately manipulated to behave, speak and act in certain ways. By withholding critical information or by emphasizing biased viewpoints, we are being jerked around like marionettes on strings, dancing to a tune long ago established by forces beyond our comprehension.

And the media is complicit.

If conservatives here align with the MSM and demorats and let Mormons be pillaged this election cycle, expect it to happen to born again christians next cycle, then catholics, and then we’ll be left with a godless socialist country.

How long have you suffered from basic discernment issues?

Here you use the same kind of reasoning used by Lutheran pastor Martin Niemoller (ALL: Niemoller was a Lutheran leader who opposed Nazism) as if it's somehow some reason we should all be defending Mormons.

I don't think you can use Niemolleresque logic here as such a springboard. Why? Because the Mormons have pillaged Lutherans and the rest of the Christian community, including the Catholics you just referenced.

For example, Mormons have pillaged Christians/Catholics as "apostates" and "corrupt"...here...for precise examples, see this chart below:

Snapshot of Joseph Smith’s Slanderous Invectives vs. Christian Sects	Mormon Source [Note: Most of these are Mormon ‘scriptures'. In fact, First three rows below are Lds 'scripture' & therefore cannot be rug-swept any more than a Jew might try to take three commandments off of the very tablets of stone Moses brought down from the mountain]
“...which of all the sects was right… must join NONE of them, for they were ALL WRONG… those professors were ALL CORRUPT…”	Joseph Smith – History vv. 18-19. – Lds "scripture" Pearl of Great Price
...“which of all the sects was right…ALL their CREEDS were an ABOMINATION* in his sight…they teach for doctrines the commandments of MEN…”*	Joseph Smith – History vv. 18-19. – Lds "scripture" Pearl of Great Price
Mormon church the only ‘Christ-sanctioned’ church on earth: “…the foundation of this [Mormon] church…the ONLY true and living church on the face of the whole earth” [Obvious ‘scorched earth’ implication: All other churches are false and dead]	Lds “scripture” Doctrines & Covenants 1:30
Direct question asked of Joseph Smith: 'Will everybody be damned, but Mormons?" Answer from Lds "prophet" Joseph Smith: 'Yes, and a great portion of them, unless they repent, and work righteousness."	Teachings of the Prophet Joseph Smith, p. 119 [Not “scripture” – but still publicly spoken by the Mormon ‘living prophet’ and published by a later Mormon ‘living prophet,’ Joseph Fielding Smith – via a publisher owned by the Mormon church – Deseret News Press, 1938]
“In 1952…the first official proselyting plan was sent to missionaries throughout the world…It included seven missionary discussions that emphasized…[four topics, one of them being]…THE APOSTASY and Restoration…” [This makes it almost 60 years that Mormon church missionaries, now numbering 52,000, have formally emphasized in its training & door to door saturation a priority in bashing the worldwide Christian church as “apostates” (100% AWOL)]	Our Heritage: A Brief History of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints p. 116, 1996

So...MrShoop...when can we see you chastise the Mormons for the way they have treated Christians/Catholics?

Haven't the Mormons been aligning with the liberals way too long in lambasting Christians??? Or are you two-faced & hypocritical on this?

Besides, MrSharp, the key to using Niemolleresque type of logic is knowing when to apply it...Otherwise, what you get is:

When the Law enforcement folks came for the Planned Parenthood counselors who were telling clients how to get around rape & incest laws,
I remained silent;
For I was not trying to protect a rapist or incest perp.
When they locked up the educators who slept with local students;
I remained silent;
For I was not an abusive educator
When they came for the polygamists marrying underage girls in mock marriage ceremonies;
I remained silent;
I wasn’t a polygamist.
When they came for the abusive Roman Catholic priests
I did not speak out;
For I was not such a priest
When they came for me, even though I was pedophile-free, there was no more pedophiles left to speak out in my defense for my due process & constitutional rights.

Oh, and while we're over-extending Niemolleresque logic here...if a Mormon Smithesque "prophet" comes along in the future, and says Mormons can perform temple proxy honeymoon "endowments" in the future (especially for the more well-endowed)...I guess you won't be able to complain about misusing Niemoller...since you're already guilty of that...

I mean, MrShoop, should you ever find a Mormon bride & if some Mormon dude becomes a honeymoon proxy "stand-in" for ya....somebody could use that Niemoller analogy on you!

Here's what I mean:
First they came for the dead to baptize them,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't dead.

Then they came for the dead to have them married on the
other side of the veil,
and I didn't speak out because I still wasn't dead;
besides, I was already married.

Then they came for the Jewish holocaust victims,
and I didn't speak out because I wasn't a Jewish
holocaust victim.

Then they came for my bride at honeymoon time,
and the Mormons made sure no Gentiles were allowed in
the Mormon temple to speak out for me.

He’s better than Obama. You better rethink your logic. If you’d rather have Obama than Romney, then you are an idiot. An illogical one.

You're an idiot squared if you actually think Romney can win after the MSM & Dems get done with his racist "I'm a god" socialist lite (govt run healthcare) pro-abortion flip-flopping.

Therefore, when you waste your vote on such a loser, you'll have...
...contributed to the mass exodus of the formerly conservative GoP...
...Republicans who realize that when they have so many so-called "conservatives" voting for somebody to the left of Lyndon Johnson...somebody who embraces socialism...
...it's time to "Whig" extinct the GoP...

But, hey...go ahead & sear your conscience once & for all...

And don't ever complain about others voting for socialist healthcare candidates like Obama...when you're willing to do the same...

Go ahead...train the next generation or two to vote for the (R) candidate over the next 24 years...even if they wind up being to the left of Obama. After all, by your own "logic," a 2036 re-reformed GoP candidate to the left of Obama is bound to be better than a (D) candidate, right?

What an idiot squared.

The GoP establishment has you hoodwinked for good...you'll vote all the rest of your lifetime for whatever (r) candidate they would give to you...all because he's "better" than the (d) candidate.

You'd probably vote for a reincarnated Hitler if he was the (r) candidate...running vs. the (d) "anti-Christ."

"Hey," you'll one day be lecturing, "Hitler reincarnated is 'better' than the anti-Christ. You better rethink your logic. If you'd rather have the anti-Christ, then you are an idiot. An illogical one."

You can stuff your immoral panderings in the sewer where it belongs...stop voting for evil candidates...You will one day answer to a Higher Power about how you tried to empower them.

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Snapshot of Joseph Smith’s Slanderous Invectives vs. Christian Sects

Mormon Source