HBM051: Sister Bethany, Proxy for the Dead
Here Be Monsters
Here Be Monsters Podcast
4.6 • 1.3K Ratings
🗓️ 25 November 2015
⏱️ 22 minutes
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Summary
Bethany Denton was about five years old when she learned that she was a Mormon. When she was eight, she learned that she was an eternal spirit destined for an eternal afterlife. The idea of eternity terrified her, and made her afraid to stargaze into the boundless universe.
When she got older, Bethany was allowed to enter the Mormon temple in Billings, Montana to act as the proxy in baptisms for the dead.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints was founded in 1830, and has practiced baptisms for the dead (or "baptism by proxy") since 1840. This practice intends to give dead people the opportunity to join the church in the afterlife from Spirit Prison, where all souls wind up. Mormon teenagers are eligible to serve as a proxy when they turn twelve years old. Over the course of her adolescence, Bethany was the proxy for about 30 dead people.
When Bethany was seventeen, the late prophet Gordon B. Hinckley tasked the youth of the LDS church to read the Book of Mormon cover to cover. Bethany took him up on his challenge, and started noticing inconsistencies that made her question (and ultimately lose) her faith. She doesn't go to church anymore and hasn't for almost ten years, but she's still a member of the church, and always will be...unless she sends a formal letter of resignation.
Today, Bethany Denton is the Managing Editor of Here Be Monsters and loves to marvel at outer space. She co-produced this piece with Jeff Emtman, along with help from Nick White, our editor at KCRW. Track image by Kyle Keenan.
Music: The Black Spot.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | From the independent producer project of KCRW, this is Here Be Monsters. |
| 0:14.0 | I would say the first time I realized that I was Mormon was less the realization of that phrase |
| 0:27.5 | that I was Mormon and more realization that other people didn't go to the same kind of church |
| 0:32.1 | that I did. My best friend lived |
| 0:36.1 | next door, her name was Erica, and I just remember dinner at her house. Her family would they would all hold hands and they |
| 0:46.0 | said the same prayer. Whereas my family we each individually folded our arms and |
| 0:51.9 | would close our eyes and bow our heads. |
| 0:55.0 | And I think that's when I first realized that the church I went to |
| 1:00.0 | made me a Mormon as opposed to Lutheran or Catholic. |
| 1:07.0 | Genealogy is a very important if not essential facet of the Mormon church. |
| 1:15.0 | Mormons are genealogists. |
| 1:18.0 | The primary reason for this is so that Mormons can procure names of their ancestors to then submit to the |
| 1:26.9 | temple so that sacred ordinances can be done on their behalf. To be saved, to go to the highest level of heaven, you have to |
| 1:36.7 | have been baptized. But the reality is many millions of people were alive before |
| 1:42.4 | the church was established on the earth and |
| 1:45.2 | there are many millions of people who have never and will never hear the gospel. |
| 1:58.3 | So baptism's for the dead or they're now called Baptisms by proxy are a way for the church to provide that sacred ordinance to people who didn't get that opportunity to be baptized |
| 2:04.4 | when they were alive. I have been the proxy for three or four dozen dead people, all women. Here be monsters. |
| 2:24.0 | monsters. Here be monsters, the podcast about. |
| 2:37.0 | Something that you did if you were righteous. |
| 2:39.0 | The podcast about... |
| 2:40.5 | The unknown. One time that I went to perform baptism for the dead, I was probably 14 years old. |
... |
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