http://www.nytimes.com/2004/04/11/na...ner=ALTAVISTA1
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has long collected names from government documents and other records worldwide for posthumous baptisms. Church members stand in to be baptized in the names of the deceased non-Mormons, a ritual the church says is required for them to reach heaven.
The practice is primarily intended for the ancestors of Mormons, but many others are included, since the church believes that a person's ability to choose a religion continues after death. Non-Mormon faiths have objected to the baptisms.
"Even if they say they want to do somebody a favor, it's not a symbol of love," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, dean and founder of the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles. "It's a symbol of arrogance."
In 1995, the Mormon church acceded to demands by Jewish leaders that it stop posthumously baptizing Jews. But Helen Radkey, a Salt Lake City researcher, said Friday that she had found posthumous baptism records for 268 Dutch Jews killed in Polish concentration camps, which she described as a "small sampling." All were baptized well after the 1995 agreement.