Mormons Necro-Dunk Obama’s Mama

Old news, no matter how old, sometimes carries new meaning - especially in an election year. Here is an old Huffington post originally reported on June 6, 2009 and updated May 25, 2011:

Mormons Baptized Obama's Mother: CONFIRMED 

ABC News has confirmed reports that Mormons posthumously baptized President Obama's mother five months before the election. 

(…) 

Last June 4 -- the day after then-Sen. Obama secured enough delegates to win the Democratic presidential nominee -- someone had the president's mother Stanley Ann Dunham, who died in 1995 of cancer, baptized. 

The baptism was first reported by AMERICAblog's John Aravosis, who found an ordinance record on the Mormon genealogical Web site, FamilySearch.org.

To an atheist, a posthumous baptism may seem silly, inconsequential and harmless. However, the concept is downright disrespectful and offensive to practitioners of another faith – especially to the families of Jewish Holocaust victims. You don’t necessarily need to be a religious Jew to understand the seriousness of the offense. If your ancestors lived as Jews, were persecuted as Jews, and died as Jews, you want your ancestors to be remembered as Jews – not as posthumous Mormons. It defiles the meaning of the Holocaust.

Regardless, this post is not about Jews or Mormons or posthumous baptisms but about annoying and cloying manifestations of exceptionalism. What gives anyone the right to assert the superiority of his or her religion, political affiliation, ethnicity, custom, or nationality over mine, or over anyone else for that matter.

No, America is NOT the greatest nation in the world. It depends on what you call "great." For food, I prefer France. For food and clothing, I prefer Italy. For beer and bratwurst, I prefer Germany. For a stiff upper lip, go to England.  Want to save my immortal Seoul?  Go to Korea.