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Uneasy Time for Troops In Iraq, Chaplain Says
Military chaplains in Iraq are preparing for Christmas holiday services, although it won't be a holiday for the troops.
Army Col. Michael Hoyt, command chaplain for U.S. and allied forces in Iraq, said there is some added anxiety this Christmas season as President Bush considers a change in strategy in the war. He said the troops are wondering how it will affect them.
Hoyt said that troops who arrive in Iraq as believers generally leave with a deepened faith. Others seek a relationship with God for the first time, he said, although others remain indifferent.
-- Associated Press
Posthumous Baptism Dropped for Nazi Hunter
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints removed the name of Holocaust survivor and Nazi hunter Simon Wiesenthal from a list of those to be posthumously baptized, after the organization bearing his name issued a statement calling for the removal.
On Monday, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, an international Jewish human rights organization based in Los Angeles, issued a statement asking the church to remove Wiesenthal's name from its list of those to receive posthumous ordinances, which include baptism. Later in the day, the church said his name had been removed.
"In response to a request by the Simon Wiesenthal Center and in accordance with the commitments the church made in 1995, no church ordinance was performed for Simon Wiesenthal, and his name was immediately removed from the International Genealogical Index," said Bruce Olsen, a spokesman for the church.
In 1995, the Mormon Church agreed to remove the names of Holocaust victims and Jews from the list of those to be posthumously baptized, unless they were direct ancestors of current church members or there was written permission from all living members of the deceased's family. Wiesenthal died last year at the age of 96.
"It was astonishing to us that they went against the agreement," said Rabbi Marvin Hier, founder and dean of the Wiesenthal center. "We understand that from their point of view, they think they're doing Simon Wiesenthal a good deed. From the Jewish point of view, it's rather an insult because it suggests that there's no other way to get to heaven except through the Mormon Church. We believe that Simon Wiesenthal, who lived a full life with great deeds on behalf of mankind, can get to heaven on his own and doesn't need any assistance."
