Most descendants of the massacre victims feel as I do that it is wrong that the Massacre victims were baptized into the LDS Church posthumously.
The LDS again in this case is looking out for the Church and not the feelings of the descendants in the spirit of forgiveness.
In early October 1993, nearly a 100 descendants of John D. Lee met in the St. George Temple of the Church of Jesus Christ and Latter Day Saints to participate in temple ordinances for the victims of the Mountain Meadows massacre. These ordinances included endowments and sealing. Those facts were published in the St. George Daily Spectrum on October 16, 1993. The news article stated that Ron Loving of the Mountain Meadows Association participated as a representative for the wagon train families. Mr. Loving certainly was not representing any of the wagon train family descendants that I know!
If this is a concern to next of kin to the victims (i.e. Robert Paul Wilson and Mary Tryphena Anderson are grandchildren of a survivor), send a request for removal to:
[email protected] and ask that the person or persons be removed from the IGI and Ordinance Index, and all other LDS records with misleading information about your family members. First, check with the IGI and get file numbers for the individuals to be included in the request. Mail requests may be made to:
Stephen Kendall
Church and Family History Department
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints
35 North West Temple Street
Salt Lake City , Utah 84150-3400
After you submit requests for removal of names, follow up to determine if your request was honored. Requests should be made by next of kin family groups (Baker, Dunlap, Camron, Fancher, Prewitt, Tackitt, etc.) to be effective.
“There are some very key differences to understand between the Mormon Covenant of Baptism and Christian Baptism. As a Christian I have been baptized into Christ, buried with Christ and raised to live in Christ. In Mormonism people are baptized into the Mormon Church:
We Must Be Baptized to Become Members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints.
All those who humble themselves before God, and desire to be baptized ... that. .. have truly repented of all their sins ... shall be received by baptism into his church" (D&C 20:37).3 (italics and emphasis in the original.)" (Page 175 & 176, When Salt Lake City Calls by Rocky Hulse.)
"BAPTISM FOR THE DEAD - This is an ordinance that is performed for those who are dead. Mormonism believes that those who are dead, and not Mormons, are in a spirit world called Spirit Prison. Mormon Missionaries who are also dead, who reside in Paradise, go to the Spirit Prison and preach Mormonism to those who are there. If they decide they want to become Mormons, they cannot until they have been baptized by proxy, by a living person in a Mormon Temple back on earth." (*Page 393, When Salt Lake City Callsby Rocky Hulse, of Mormon Outreach.)
*Portions of this page are taken from the November 7, 2005 MMMF Newsletter, Volume 25 , page 3.
