Queen Elizabeth's mother has been baptized as a Mormon. The Queen Mother didn't practice the religion when she was alive: she was a faithful member of the Church of England.
Queen Elizabeth and her mother 'Elizabeth I'
But Helen Radkey, a former Mormon herself, discovered the “proxy baptism” of the royal after analyzing the church's public genealogical database, called Family Search. She also found that at least 20 Holocaust victims have been baptized in the past five years in defiance of church rules.
The Mormon practice of baptizing the dead has caused controversy before, and in 1995 the church banned baptisms of victims of the Holocaust, restricting proxy baptisms to family ancestors. Radkey, who was excommunicated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, is the researcher who discovered in 2012 that Anne Frank had been baptized by an LDS church member.
Radkey shared her findings Thursday with the Associated Press. Radkey said celebrities recently baptized by members, apparently without family connection or permission, included Marilyn Monroe and the grandparents of Joe Biden, John McCain, Mike Pence, Carrie Fisher and Kim Kardashian. The deceased grandparents of Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Steven Spielberg have also reportedly been baptized by LDS church members, contrary to Mormon church rules.
"The church cares deeply about ensuring these standards are maintained," church spokesman Eric Hawkins said in a statement to the Associated Press.
Dead persons baptized by proxy don't automatically become members of the church; they can either accept or refuse the offer in the afterlife.
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