Heaven

[asterroc]

I don't know which bothers me more: religious people saying that so-and-so will never get to Heaven because they aren't of their religion, or smug assurance that the soul of so-and-so will or did see the light and turn from their religion to the proper one and thus *will* be in Heaven. Along with the latter is the Mormon practice of baptism for the dead. In this practice, the living vicariously baptize the dead, regardless of the religion and wishes of the dead person while living, and then supposedly God then gives the dead soul the opportunity to accept the Gospel of Christ. *Grr*

Comments

[sammka.livejournal.com]

If the Mormon belief system was all true, wouldn't you want to get out of Hell?

And wasn't Beethoven a Christian to begin with?

[the-xtina.livejournal.com]

I went to Temple once (local, not SLC) to do the baptism for the dead thing.  In my defense, I was 12.

[sclerotic-rings.livejournal.com]

At work, we're now getting calls from Southern Baptists who fake problems with making payments solely so they can ask us "Are you sure that you're going to heaven?" I've had four this week already, and I'm going to ask my supervisor for permission to tell these folks what I really think.

[blue102.livejournal.com]

Baptism for the dead assumes, in my opinion, that God can't handle his own paperwork. If various Jewish organizations have requested numerous times that the LDS church stop baptizing Holocaust victims by proxy, then they should cease and desist. IF (and it makes my stomach churn to even make this assumption) the Mormons are "right", then why couldn't things just get sorted out afterwards? The end of the world comes, Armageddon, yada-yada-yada... you go to Chava and say "Dear, we weren't allowed to baptize you out of an Earthly respect for your people, would you like to take the Big Bath now?" What's the rush?

But there I go, applying logic to an illogical process.

On an academic note, the LDS belief is that if you've never heard of the Mormon church, you're off the hook. You get to hear about it in Heaven's Waiting Room, where it's assumed you'll Choose The Right. ;) If you don't, then you get sorted out with everyone else according to what you did in life, and if you haven't murdered anyone or "denied the spirit", you get to go to a middle-heaven, which is a bit nicer than Earth but you don't get a piece of God-front property. Not sure if he ever vacations to visit his mildly-wayward children, but I kind of like the middle-ground concept... as much as I can like anything related to church.