Friday, April 26, 2024
American University
A project of the Rev. James B. Simpson Fellowship at American University’s School of Communication

These baptisms are insulting. You spend your life as a Jew; you die in part because you’re a Jew, in Pearl’s case and certainly Simon Wiesenthal’s; you hold on to that identity at great personal cost. And then when you’re dead, someone else decides for you that no, actually you’re a Mormon? To hell with that, no pun intended. Religion is exclusive—maybe not Buddhism, but all the other major world religions. You choose to be one thing, not the other, and that is your choice, not some other church’s.

american-unversity
These baptisms are insulting. You spend your life as a Jew; you die in part because you're a Jew, in Pearl's case and certainly Simon Wiesenthal’s; you hold on to that identity at great personal cost. And then when you're dead, someone else decides for you that no, actually you're a Mormon? To hell with that, no pun intended. Religion is exclusive—maybe not Buddhism, but all the other major world religions. You choose to be one thing, not the other, and that is your choice, not some other church's.