Mormons proxy-baptize serial killer Ted Bundy

The Mormon Church has once again gotten itself into a controversy surrounding its peculiar doctrine of baptism for the dead. The last controversy was when Mormons proxy-baptized Jews who were murdered by Hitler and his Nazi henchmen after the LDS Church’s 1995 agreement not to perform their rites for Jews killed in Nazi concentration camps.

The latest controversy involves notorious serial killer, Ted Bundy, who was the recent recipient of proxy-baptism (baptism for the dead) performed on his behalf in the Jordan River Utah Temple owned and operated by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Interestingly, Bundy was baptized as a Mormon in 1975 and was later excommunicated by the LDS Church. In Mormonism baptism for the dead is performed by living Mormons for deceased non-Mormons who rejected the Mormon Gospel (a.k.a. the Restored Gospel) in mortality. Bundy, however, given the severity of his actions could be labeled a "Son of Perdition" in Mormonsim and could therefore end up in "Outer Darkness" for eternity.

On the doctrine of baptism for the dead, Mormon Prophet, Gordon B. Hinckley stated,

“But there are uncounted millions who have walked the earth and who have never had the opportunity to hear the gospel. Shall they be denied such blessings as are offered in the temples of the Lord? Through living proxies who stand in behalf of the dead, the same ordinances are available to those who have passed from mortality. In the spirit world these same individuals are then free to accept or reject those earthly ordinances performed for them, including baptism, marriage, and the sealing of family relationships. There's no compulsion in the work of the Lord, but there must be opportunity. This vicarious work constitutes an unprecedented labor of love on the part of the living in behalf of the dead.”

Clearly, the LDS Church has some explaining to do because undoubtedly the church’s actions have reopened some very painful wounds for many families traumatized by Bundy.