Revulsive antipathy to the mormons

I object when someone approaches me and suggests

you need to be saved

I object when someone approaches me and suggests that my grandparents and great grandparents right up to Aaron the Cohen Gadol,

all need to be saved

I object when someone feels the need to attempt to convert a Jew to their belief system, either in this world or posthumously.

One of my colleagues at work likes to drop in almost each day to discuss his bible reading. He is what you’d call an Erliche Xtian. The problem is that it’s not simply about his bible reading. Subliminally, he feels that somewhere along the line he might be able to interest me in his parroted interpretations.

Yes, I could say “live and let live” in the way that Rabbi Levi Brackman suggested in this article. I have been too nice; that’s why he still comes. From now on, I will put a stop to it, in very genial terms, but he will know exactly why.

I reject Brackman’s view in the context of that article, in the strongest possible terms. I cannot accept that Brackman wants us to turn a blind eye to their shenanigans simply because the souls they seek, are in another world.

I agree with live and let live. My colleague can both

1. go on practicing his xtian beliefs and wag his tongue in tongues
2. try to discuss his ideas with me

But, and this is my limit, if I recommend him that I do not wish to discuss his beliefs and I do not want him to approach me anymore in this regard, then he must desist—that is also live and let live.

The Mormons are a rather odd Xtian cultic sect. They have great power and are expanding. They are rejected as lunatics by the mainstream Xtian Church. Mormons love genealogy. They love family trees because they can examine your family tree and then conduct services to baptise your relatives after they have passed away. Indeed, here is an interesting Halachic question: is one permitted to make their family tree accessible on the internet to anybody, given that Mormons may use this and perform idolatrous practices (at least D’Rabbonon) because of the information that you passively allow them to see. I will ask R’ Schachter this question next time I speak with him.

Rabbi Levi Brackman is entitled to his opinion, however, I reject it in the strongest terms. Every Jewish soul is precious. They are precious both in this life time and in the world to come. Some souls, such as those belonging to those who were murdered in the Holocaust and other anti-semitic events through our history, are special: they are Kedoshim. Whether the souls are Kedoshim, or just the normal variety like you and I, it is offensive in the extreme for any religion to leech onto their souls, so to speak, and attempt to involve those souls in a “religious” service which converts them to Mormonism (against their will).

The symbolism of such conversion post death, is enormous, when and if Jews remain silent about it, or adopt the Brackman approach of turning his right cheek and exclaiming “live and let live”.

Yes, it’s about “live and let live”. That dictum demands that they leave people alone, both in life and in death.

I agree with the calls to Mitt Romney (a card carrying Mormon) to disavow this protest and to suggest that they leave Holy Jewish Souls out of their rituals.

How dare they attempt to touch the soul of Anne Frank, or any other Kodosh?

Author: pitputim

I've enjoyed being a computer science professor in Melbourne, Australia, as well as band leader/singer for the Schnapps Band. My high schooling was in Chabad and I continued at Yeshivat Kerem B'Yavneh in Israel and later in life at Machon L'Hora'ah, Yeshivas Halichos Olam. View all posts by pitputim