Mormons Also Baptized Daniel Pearl

The Mormon Church is already under fire for posthumously baptizing Anne Frank and the parents of Nazi-hunter Simon Wiesenthal, and now it turns out the church did the same thing to Daniel Pearl. The Wall Street Journal reporter, who was killed in Pakistan soon after 9/11, was baptized last year at a temple in Idaho, according to records found by an excommunicated Mormon researcher.

The practice of baptizing deceased non-Mormons is intended to offer those people salvation, but Jewish leaders don't like the practice, the Boston Globe reports. Pearl's parents called his posthumous baptism "disturbing news," and widow Mariane Pearl says it shows "a lack of respect." His parents add, "We appreciate your good intentions but rest assured that Danny’s soul was redeemed through the life that he lived and the values that he upheld. He lived as a proud Jew, died as a proud Jew, and is currently facing his creator as a Jew, blessed, accepted, and redeemed." (More Mormon stories.)