Andrea Yates--Insuring her kids go to heaven?

[_sock puppet]

No, liz, Andrea Yates was not Mormon. She was a fundamentalist christian of another stripe.

You're right, Rockslider, this thread I started is tacky. As DrW said, it makes a reader uncomfortable.

I suppose if JSJr has not been asked about what happens to the souls of little children that die without having had the opportunity to be baptized until after he'd thought up the millennium to follow the resurrection, and baptism for the dead and that the dead would be given the opportunity in the spirit world to accept/reject that ordinance, JSJr would not have proclaimed that such children had an E ticket to the CK.

[_Yoda]

You guys are really grasping at the ridiculous. The Church does not teach that you should kill your children before they reach the age of 8.

The Church teaches that if a child dies before he/she reaches the age of 8, they are automatically saved in the CK. Frankly, I can't think of a sin big enough to keep a child out of the CK who is PAST the age of 8.

Considering that the Catholic church believes that any child who dies before their infant baptism is sentenced to hell, the LDS teaching is quite positive.

[_Some Schmo]

I don't see what the big deal is with religion, even if it's all bull. It's not like it could lead to anything bad, right?

[_Yoda]

I don't see what the big deal is with religion, even if it's all bull. It's not like it could lead to anything bad, right?

Smart ass! :P

[_Doctor CamNC4Me]

Wouldn't the children go to Spirit Paradise in order to receive the Gospel, and the ensuing ordinances? They would also need to be tested when Satan is "loosed for a season", no? I was under the impression once you make it to the CK you've been exalted (for example, Mopologists here have told me Joseph Smith hasn't been exalted yet).

The other question is troubling because as mentioned before Andrea Yates' sacrifice was greater than that of the Lord's. The Lord, once he was done committing suicide by Infidel, got to be exalted and now enjoys eternal bliss. While I'm sure his experiencing being raped by a million penises was uncomfortable, the fact of the matter (from a theological standpoint) was that He ensured his own salvation by carrying out His mission. Now He's happy.

Ms. Yates is either going to Hell for eternity, or will be relegated to a lower kingdom. That presumes her repenting of the sin of murder won't be washed away by the atonement, and if it does then that's even more troubling from a theological perspective. You can murder your infants, pray for forgiveness, and receive it because the atonement cleanes you of your sin. Wow. That's disturbing.

- VRDRC

[Guest]

You guys are really grasping at the ridiculous. The Church does not teach that you should kill your children before they reach the age of 8.

The Church teaches that if a child dies before he/she reaches the age of 8, they are automatically saved in the CK. Frankly, I can't think of a sin big enough to keep a child out of the CK who is PAST the age of 8.

Considering that the Catholic church believes that any child who dies before their infant baptism is sentenced to hell, the LDS teaching is quite positive.

I agree that it is grasping at the ridiculous - until a young Mormon mother throws her two young sons off of a bridge to save their souls. Then it is not so much ridiculous as tragic.

Nobody is claiming that the Church teaches that one should kill their children to send them to the CK. The problem is that the logical and well founded conclusion that one comes to when they consider this doctrine and take the teachings of the LDS Church at face value is that the eternal benefits of such action for the children involved could well outweigh the eternal downside for the parent.

From the Chapter in Ann Rule's book describing the incident:



Such are the unintended consequences of ad hoc and off-the-wall doctrine that arise from the imagination of a 19th century conman and his successors.

[_DarkHelmet]

The Yates story depresses me. Such a sad situation. If I recall correctly, she was suffering from PPD. I was TBM at the time, and I don't remember any crazy theories from my TBM friends and relatives. It was just a horrible tragedy.

[_Buffalo]

The idea that kids automatically go to heaven when they die as children is comforting to parents, but the implications, as already discussed here, are troubling. In fact I know an LDS woman who dealt with panic attacks in her pregnancy that focused on this issue. It made her afraid to even read scriptures, because the would give her the idea that she should kill her child to make him go to the celestial kingdom.