A pleasantly entertaining op-ed piece from the Belfast Telegraph: “What if Mormons are right and Catholics and Protestants are wrong?” Not only does the writer cover in short order the ancient Christian tradition of baptism for the dead and why its practice by modern Latter-day Saints shouldn’t really bother anyone … hey, it’s just fun to read Irish! As in this closing line: “If, on the other hand, it isn’t the Mormons at all, those who turn out to have been right can wave a merry farewell to the crestfallen followers of Brigham Young as they trundle downwards to their eternal comeuppance.”

Here are a couple of paragraphs that lay out the author’s basic points.

Indeed, given that all Christian Churches believe that the soul lives on after death and retains understanding and consciousness of self, doesn’t it make more sense to baptise dead adults than live babies?

Apart from which, if the Catholic bishops hold that the beliefs of the Mormons are pure baloney (as they must), and their rituals therefore perfectly meaningless, how can it matter to them what mumbo-jumbo Mormons might mutter over Catholic cadavers?

And just so no one gets the wrong idea, I’ll add that neither the doctrine nor the practice involves cadavers of any denomination or faith.