Perpetual polygamy by the LDS?

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints uses genealogy for its religious beliefs, hence its monumental efforts with the FamilySearch.org website and many other impressive projects. The Daily Mail has an article today on how this is being politicised in the United States just now, as part of the process to elect a Republican candidate for the forthcoming presidential election campaign. The target is Mitt Romney, who is apparently a Mormon.

Personally I couldn't care less about the church's religious beliefs, or any church's religious beliefs for that matter, as I am not at all religious - my idea of an afterlife is the preservation of the family history for future generations, so I am on a messianic mission of my own to find it all before I pop my clogs! I do, however, have a heck of a lot of admiration for what the Mormon church is doing in terms of its genealogical programme, as they kindly make their findings available for free. I am fascinated by the workings of churches, and their histories, however, and if the article is right, I've learned something new about the Latter Day Saints.

I know the Mormons believe in 'sealing ordinances', a ritual whereby family relationships are preserved for all eternity - a married couple can have their relationship 'sealed', for example, but a child can also be 'sealed' to its parents. They also have a programme of 'vicarious baptism', the process of posthumously baptising the dead by the use of modern day proxies, in order to guarantee that a soul can gain entry into Heaven etc. To find out who all these people are, they need to do the research - hence the interest in genealogy.

Another fact that is often quoted about Mormons is the use of polygamous marriages, which certainly used to be the case in the 19th century, though no longer the case today. According to the Mail, however, the church is posthumously marrying couples long after they have died, and more than once, with many different partners! I have no idea if this is the case, or whether the reporter has been mixing up his sealing ordinances - I certainly don't recall seeing any plural marriages on the IGI for my tree that weren't backed up with the right certificates!

In any case, it's an interesting article in the 'newspaper' (sorry, it is the Mail!), but has a slight whiff of with JFK being the first Catholic president, now it's the Mormons' turn. Read it for yourself at www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2107396/How-Diana-baptised-Mormon.html - oh, and as it's the Mail, it obviously features Diana in the headline! :)

Chris