Romney's Dead Atheist Father-In-Law Baptised A Mormon

BrandySpears · #1 by **BrandySpears** » Jan 28, 2012 12:25 am

Ann Romney's Welsh-born father (who Mitt mentioned in last night's debate to shore up his pro-immigrant bona fides) was an engineer, inventor, and resolute atheist who disdained all organized religion and raised his children accordingly. Davies, his son Roderick told the Boston Globe in 2007, regarded the faithful as "weak in the knees." But when Mitt began seeing Davies' daughter Ann, the Romney family launched a concerted effort to convert not only Ann but her entire family to Mormonism. And they were wildly successful: Within a year of meeting Ann, Mitt and his father had converted all three of Edward Davies' children. Days before she died in 1993, Ann Romney's mother asked to be converted as well. Edward Davies was the only member of his clan whose soul the Romneys never claimed for their church.

Yes, the Romneys Converted Mitt's Dead Atheist Father-in-Law to MormonismUntil he died. According to this entry in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' genealogical database, Davies was baptized as a Mormon at a "special family meeting" 14 months after his death: "All ordinances except sealing to spouse performed in Salt Lake Temple on 19 Nov 1993 in special family meeting," the entry says. (When we previously asked the church whether Davies had been baptized, a spokesperson told us that the information was available only to his family and church members. But it's apparently right there on the internet for those who know what to look for.)

http://gawker.com/5879888/yes-the-romne ... -mormonism

DougC · #2 by **DougC** » Jan 28, 2012 12:51 am

These people are weird, like resurrectionists for the "soul".

Varangian · #3 by **Varangian** » Jan 28, 2012 1:02 am

Fucking necromancers.

Spearthrower · #4 by **Spearthrower** » Jan 28, 2012 7:30 am

http://gawker.com/5879888/yes-the-romne ... -mormonism

Yes, the Romneys Converted Mitt’s Dead Atheist Father-in-Law to Mormonism

Gawker's substantial Mormon readership has come through for us: Two readers have sent us confirmation that Edward Davies, Mitt Romney's militantly atheist father-in-law, was indeed posthumously converted to Mormonism by his family, despite the fact that when he was alive he regarded all religions as "hogwash."

Ihavenofingerprints · #5 by **Ihavenofingerprints** » Jan 28, 2012 7:52 am

That is just creepy. Religion fucks with peoples heads.

LucidFlight · #6 by **LucidFlight** » Jan 28, 2012 8:10 am

Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints :picard:

Onyx8 · #7 by **Onyx8** » Jan 28, 2012 9:19 am

Now if someone wants to feel offended...

Spearthrower · #8 by **Spearthrower** » Jan 28, 2012 11:19 am

Now, of course, I don't think it matters to the deceased whatever ridiculous pronouncements their family make, but how about a little basic respect for his memory?

dogmadogsh1t · #9 by **dogmadogsh1t** » Jan 28, 2012 11:24 am

Joe09 · **#10** by **Joe09** » Jan 28, 2012 12:23 pm

i disagree with this only so we dont give religious people the ammunition to say 'we have x many who believe even if they are dead!'

otherwise, the guy is dead i severely doubt he cares if a bunch of lunatics baptised his corpse

John P. M. · **#11** by **John P. M.** » Jan 28, 2012 12:39 pm

Well, this is what people do when they're cocksure about their beliefs. I mean they're right, so of course they should baptize the dead to the True religion, in the best interest of the dead person. :smug:

Not that it matters once you're dead, but for those of us still alive, this shows a lack of respect for the stance and thinking of the person in question while he/she was alive.

It also makes me wonder about their conception of their God. What the heck would a God need with a posthumous baptism orchestrated by other people, against the will the person had while he/she was still alive?

chairman bill · **#12** by **chairman bill** » Jan 28, 2012 12:45 pm

It's a salve to the congregation, worried about relatives roasting in eternal hell-fire. It is delusion upon delusion, a compounding of madness.

Maybe we should offer a deconversion & unbaptism of dead theists, in the Church of Atheism.

Xaihe · **#13** by **Xaihe** » Jan 28, 2012 12:55 pm

chairman bill wrote:It's a salve to the congregation, worried about relatives roasting in eternal hell-fire. It is delusion upon delusion, a compounding of madness.

Maybe we should offer a deconversion & unbaptism of dead theists, in the Church of Atheism.

That's automatic for all theists who die. It's not even necessary for anyone to know about the death of the individual. Death is an end to belief in god(s), thus making the deceased an atheist.

This may seem disrespectful, but if you ask the Mormons, there's nothing wrong with it.

Savannah · **#14** by **Savannah** » Jan 28, 2012 1:45 pm

As batshit crazy as this is, it means they have a huge free genealogical database which is quite handy for family tree researchers

Will S · **#15** by **Will S** » Jan 28, 2012 1:49 pm

Well, there is a good side to all this. :angel:

The Mormons, bless their hearts, have made an enormous amount of information publicly available which is very useful to people studying their family history e.g. familysearch.org And if you buy their CDs, there certainly is a religious message attached, but I don't think it's overly prominent.

On family history related web sites, I've even come across messages, posted presumably by earnest non-Mormon religious believers, exhorting us not to use this dreadful Mormon material. That's going a bit far, in my opinion ....

MacIver · **#16** by **MacIver** » Jan 28, 2012 1:53 pm

I wish the Church of Scotland waited until I was dead before baptising me instead of doing it when I was three months old.

Mojzu · **#17** by **Mojzu** » Jan 28, 2012 2:13 pm

This is a pretty standard practice among Mormons, my grandfather spent years of his retirement researching our family history so that he could take lists of relatives to his church to be posthumously baptised. I've asked not to be included, and most of my family is now apathetic to religion but I wouldn't be surprised if my name was already on some similar kind of list or would be put there in the future.

Need some way to artificially inflate the numbers of religious people I suppose.

theropod · **#18** by **theropod** » Jan 28, 2012 2:24 pm

Will,

Your comment, "... bless their hearts," is downright riotously funny. Of course many non-southernUSA'ers will get it. Too bad for them, as your use of the term is fucking brilliant. All I could, or might, have added would have been, "... bless their little hearts."

I can't see buying their CD's or giving them money for any reason. Sorry, that's just me..

The best I can do is expose the stupidity of their position, sort of like "South Park (see "Book of Mormon"), so that's what I do. It's an easy gig.

We don't seem to get many Mormons here, and their flavor of faith isn't any more far fetched than any other, so it deserves it's fair share of ridicule. In fact they are far less radical than some other Christian sects, but they still hold to a deity that cannot be detected, directly. This is a ranged killing field, so I suppose it's for the best they remain sequestered, for the most part.

Still, for some people I can see accessing the available information from this source as worth the price, what ever that might be.

Anyway, your verbiage tickled me. Great work! :lol:

RS

Will S · **#19** by **Will S** » Jan 28, 2012 2:49 pm

theropod -

I fully understand that you, and others, may well have very strong reasons for disapproving of, and disliking, the Mormon church.

My experience of them is very limited indeed; here in the UK they are not very strong, and the LDS seem to me to be one of least harmful religious denominations. (I rather like the silly story of Joseph Smith and the gold plates!) Once, in the distant past, we were visited by a pair of young Mormon missionaries. My wife thought they were quite good-looking, and we both thought they were agreeable, but not very bright or well informed. But that is the full extent of our contact with them.

I suppose that people who buy LDS products, as I have done twice in the past, may be reproached for putting money in their pockets, though, as I recall, the prices were so low that I can't imagine the profit margins could be very high. In view of your vehement response to my message, I will certainly think twice if I ever again consider buying one of their products - though, as it happens for various technical reasons, it's unlikely that I ever will.

However, I see no reason why I should not continue to use some of their on-line facilities. These are free of charge, so this cannot benefit them financially.

I'm sorry if I have inadvertently annoyed you by my comments.

Spearthrower · **#20** by **Spearthrower** » Jan 28, 2012 3:09 pm

There's a LDS Church up the road from me: It's huge, but I can't imagine they get many takers here where most people are highly inculcated into their Buddhist beliefs.

In Thailand, they're pretty well known for offering 'free' English lessons... with complimentary proselytising, of course.