Well, they believe that the after-death baptism is optional for the person baptized -- the dead person, in the afterlife, can decide whether or not to accept it, and what they're doing is giving them the chance.

When challenged on this, LDS get all offended that their "gift" is being seen as an imposition. The next time it comes up, I think I'll say, "So if I signed you up for the newsletter of the Communist party and had it come to your house, you wouldn't mind, because you could just throw it in the trash?"

Yeah, thinking about this led me to thinking about all the people who lived and died without hearing about Jesus, because they were in a pre-European contact area or lived before he was born or were raised in a situation that didn't allow contact with other religions (19th century purdah, etc.). All of them are going to hell for not being washed in the blood of the lamb?

I'm not sure which branch of doctrine this belongs to, but apparently one purpose of Purgatory is for the righteous heathens, the ones like the Ancient Greeks who never had the chance to hear the gospel but who lived good lives. Or maybe it's the first circle of Hell in Dante.

Purgatory is pretty exclusively Roman Catholic. (I can't think of anyone else who has it. And its awfully handy.)

Purgatory is pretty exclusively Roman Catholic.

When I was a wee Catholic school girl, I often wondered if Earth was purgatory. I was a chipper little thing!

Wasn't the harrowing of hell when Jesus (after death, before resurrection) went to hell, pulled out all the good people - whenever they may have lived - and brought them to heaven? or am I mixing up something?

I remember telling my theology 101 prof at Marquette that the good nuns at St. Francis Academy had taught us that original sin and purgatory were outdated aspects of Catholic theology that are no longer strictly adhered to. He told me that the nuns were teaching heresy.

Surprise, surprise, surprise...

Suzi, congrats again on selling your house. I remember being so relieved when our house finally sold. It literally felt as if the house had been lifted off my shoulders.

Thanks Stephanie, and everyone else. It is odd. While I do feel VERY relieved, there is so much other stuff that has been put on hold until "after the house sale is settled" that I'm having a case of "where do we go from here". Plus the not feeling well really isn't helping.

I was a chipper little thing!

Hee!

Yeah, thinking about this led me to thinking about all the people who lived and died without hearing about Jesus

There's another branch too, that believes that those who never had the chance to accept Christ will have the opportunity to do so in the afterlife. Which leads to a conundrum when you're the same age as wee Catholic Glamcookie, something along the lines of, "then shouldn't we try to avoid proselytizing anyone because we surely will do a lousier job of it than Jesus, you know, in the actual afterlife?"

Yeah, the whole thing's complicated and if it seems like most people are just making it up as they go along, they probably are. Which is not to say that there aren't great people of strong faith who do good things.

I have to do a presentation in 40 minutes. DO NOT WANT!!!!

I love discussing obscure Catholic theology. I'd have been a good Jesuit.

Pity I'm a pagan female.

I remember walking down the sidewalk at Marquette with my best friend, and we were discussing the way her roommate/other best friend had completely screwed her over and basically unfriended her in a really harsh way. I was getting a bit loud in my anger at her ex-friend, and said something like, "It's the principle of the thing!!"

This prompted the person walking in front of us to turn around and ask if we were discussing something from philosophy class. It was the president of the university, so I rather disappointed him when I said it was an issue we had with a friend.