Responding to — and explaining — LDS baptisms for the dead

Nobel laureate Elie Wiesel, a Holocaust survivor whose name was inappropriately submitted to a genealogical database from which names are extracted for proxy baptisms in temples of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is outraged.

"I think it's scandalous," Wiesel told the Huffington Post after the story broke earlier this week that his name, along with his father's and maternal grandfather's, appeared on the database. "Not only objectionable, it's scandalous."

The unauthorized appearance of the still-very-much-alive Wiesel's name on an LDS genealogical index reserved for the names of deceased persons contributed to media coverage of LDS baptisms for the dead. Also contributing to that coverage was the inappropriate proxy baptism of the parents of his fellow Holocaust survivor, Simon Wiesenthal.

The LDS Church has publicly apologized for the Wiesenthal baptisms, noting that they were done contrary to church policy that excludes Holocaust victims from eligibility for proxy baptism except if the name is submitted by a direct descendant of the victim. The church has suspended the genealogical access rights of the member who submitted the Wiesenthal names.

As far as the Wiesel name submissions are concerned, a church spokesman said that those names were simply on a database (they have since been removed) and would have been rejected if they had been submitted for proxy baptism.

None of which is adequate to Wiesel. In fact, he wants to take his objections to a higher authority: Mitt Romney.

"I wonder if as a candidate for the presidency Mitt Romney is aware of what his church is doing," Wiesel said. "I hope that if he hears about this that he will speak up."

Not likely, says Buzzfeed's McKay Coppins.

"In fact, Romney holds little authority in the strictly hierarchal LDS Church," Coppins writes, "and any advice he gave to the church's leaders would likely be politely received but not acted on."

Coppins also references a 2007 Newsweek story in which Romney indicates that he has performed baptisms for the dead in LDS temples.

As "a Mormon who has taken part in this ordinance before," Coppins tries to clarify some of the misconceptions this news story has generated in the national media. With clear, concise language he responds to several key questions, including: