"Since 1995, everything they have promised to do they have done." Complaints to the contrary "aren't true," he said. Motokoff says he accesses LDS Church records online about 10 times a year and has personally made requests to have Jewish names removed from the records. He knows of others who have done the same. Every time he has checked to see if the names were removed, "I have found they were honoring their agreement" and the names are removed "quite quickly — within days."

Motokoff says he occasionally gets claims from people who say such legendary Jewish figures as David Ben Gurion, Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein are still listed, but "that was only true prior to 1995. There's a misconception that the church is obligated to scour the IGI looking for Jewish names — but the agreement states only that if they are made aware of it they will delete the names."

The church issued its press release early Friday, with a statement from Elder Christofferson saying that "Surely no one believes this practice forces a change in religious identity of any soul, living or dead. We certainly do not claim that."

That statement, and others regarding the doctrinal rationale for LDS proxy baptism, was deleted from a corrected copy of the release issued later in the day.

Few complaints

The Rev. Eileen Lindner, deputy general secretary for research and planning with the National Council of Churches, said she is aware of the protest by Russian Orthodox officials regarding LDS proxy baptism because that church is a member of the council. She believes the protest "is largely due to their acquaintance with Mormon missionaries in Eastern Europe and Russian itself. It's a bigger concern there among Russian Orthodox there than it is here in the U.S."

She said she is unaware of any other faith among the 35-member denominations on the council that has taken an official stance against posthumous baptism by Latter-day Saints for deceased members of their faiths.

The Rev. Lindner said she agreed with LDS spokesman Bills in his characterization that the protest regarding proxy baptism does not represent a new trend among mainstream faiths. "I don't think we see widespread evidence of this . . . Americans have really quite a remarkable elasticity about their concepts of what's intruding."

Bills said the church "has been microfilming family history records around the world for decades. In all of that work, complaints have been few and far between."

As the LDS Church — with more than 11 million members worldwide — continues to grow in size and influence, the Rev. Lindner said proxy baptism and the church's "aggressive proselyting" may "become more of a factor, and we shouldn't be surprised to hear a bit more about it."

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E-mail: carrie@desnews.com