The most recent religious controversy in the Romney campaign cropped up late last month when it was reported that some Mormons were posthumously baptizing Jewish Holocaust victims. Elie Wiesel, the Nobel Prize laureate and prominent Holocaust survivor, found this practice so egregious that he has actually publicly asked Mitt Romney to denounce it altogether. Luckily, Stephen Colbert was able to reverse the damage by posthumously circumcising all dead Mormons...or at least the ones who were Jewish to begin with. But just in case this ritual en mass didn't soothe your fears, here are a few things you should know about Mormons and the practice of baptizing those who have died.
Baptism for Mormons, like for other Christian-based religions, is a saving ordinance. It is through certain ordinances, baptism being one of them, that we gain individual salvation. Baptism also ties that salvation to membership in a larger spiritual community. Mormon children are baptized at age eight (the age of presumed accountability) to pattern our lives after Jesus Christ, who was also baptized.
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