The Mormon fondness for genealogy is well known. Not quite so well known is the reason for that fondness.

Some Mormons practice proxy baptism, also called “temple baptism,” a ritual where a living church member may act as a proxy for a deceased relative during baptism. Supposedly this allows a person, who was never been baptized, the opportunity to accept the baptism and convert within the afterlife. Technically, this is only supposed to be done for relatives of the living member, and hence the interest in genealogy. For some reason, this rule is not always followed.

This has gotten the Church in trouble in the past. In 1994, it was discovered that members of the LDS were posthumously baptizing Holocaust victims and other Jewish dead. As a result of the uproar, the LDS agreed to expunge the names and stop the practice of posthumously baptizing Jews. However, the terms of the agreement was not faithfully followed, and the Jewish Genealogist Bernard I. Kouchel accuses members of the LDS church of continuing the practice. See “A Chronicle of the Mormon/Jewish Controversy.”

Well, someone in the Church has added another name to the list of those baptized by proxy: Stanley Ann Dunham. More commonly known as President Obama’s mother. According to the Provo Daily Herald:

Records on the church’s FamilySearch.org genealogical site show that a Stanley Ann Dunham received proxy rites in the Provo temple on June 4 and June 8 of 2008. The birth and death dates of the person for whom the rites were performed match those of Obama’s mother.

This is not a good PR move for the Mormon Church.

As an atheist, I’m not sure how I feel about all this. On one hand, unless you’re a Mormon, the whole practice is meaningless. If you’re an atheist, the whole idea of the afterlife is fairly silly all by itself. I don’t care much for genealogy (or genealogists, for that matter), but if offering temple baptisms for deceased relatives keeps the Mormons busy and away from my door, I’m all for it.

On the other hand, something in me finds this deeply offensive — my first inclination is to start writing up De-Baptism Certificates for deceased Mormons. Turn about is fair play.

But I’d like to think I’m bigger than that. What about you?

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Do you want to have the kind of fun Sister Dalton is talking about — good, clean, wholesome Latter-Day Saints fun?

Gag. The fakeness is just creepy — and even creepier that the teenage masses are excited about whatever it is they’re babbling about!

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Amazingly, they don’t like it! Who would have thought?