I confess that I’m always a little bit embarrassed by the propensity of
the American leadership of my people (the Jews) to try to get Christians
to grant us admission in the, ah, club. The president of the Southern
Baptist Convention opines that God doesn’t hear our prayers…well, why
should we give a shit? Sorry.

So my feelings are mixed about the agreement announced this week
between the LDS Church and the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust
Survivors and Their Descendants, making Jewish victims of the Holocaust
the only group exempt from the Mormon doctrine permitting the baptism of
the dead, thereby enabling them to win a place in heaven. Unless, I
guess, you’re a Mormon with a forebear who was a Jewish victim of the
Holocaust, in which case you’re entitled to request the baptism. In
Mormonism, Family trumps just about everything.

Over at Religion Dispatches, the estimable Joanna Brooks thinks
this is a good thing. She’s a Mormon woman married to a Jewish man, and
she takes the occasion to wish us all a happy new year. L’shana tova to
you too, Joanna. The hard question has to do with how far and under
what circumstances one religious group should alter or suppress a
teaching or practice or right in deference to the feelings or doctrines
of another group–or to the norms or greater good of society at
large–be it in Salt Lake or in lower Manhattan. And let’s not pretend this is not a hard question.