Mormon Church posthumously baptises Anne Frank…
The Telegraph writes:
Anne Frank, one of the most revered victims of the Holocaust, was posthumously baptised by the Mormon church, according a researcher examining the church’s proxy records.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9102688/Anne-Frank-posthumously-baptised-as-a-Mormon.html
It’s disrespectful, without doubt, but does anyone really care if the Mormons, or anyone else, claim to perform some magic ritual on someone? Like voodoo, it’s all in the mind.
I wave my hands, mumble some nonsense and, tadaaa, I have unbaptised everyone.
Like many aspects of religion this is just silly.
This matters, and not just as an example of religious nonsense.
First, it seems a plausible humanist principle that individuals have a right to the identity they achieve and assert (whether good or bad).
Second, that Ann Frank was a Jew (ethnic and religious) whose writing expressed her fate is a significant part of history and human effort that belongs to all.
Third, the irreligious are constantly rebuked for not showing enough respect to faith. This is a fine demonstration of total disrespect, of self-righteous religious power. The fact that we tend to see it as laughably trivial is to miss the theological point. And the ghastly Mormons now have a Presidential candidate!