[Avodah] Are there halachic issues with using the Mormon fmaily history web site?

[kennethgmiller at juno.com]

R' Zev Sero made several arguments for Mormons not being Avodah Zara, and thus there being no prohibition of using their resources.

I don't know enough about it to support or dispute what he wrote; I just want to add another factor, and that it to separate what *we* do with the information that *they* make available (which is what RZS wrote about), from what *they* do with the information that *we* make available.

For example, it is my guess that in the course of using their resources, it is likely that at some point one will tell them, "My name is ABC, and I'm looking for information about my father's mother, whose name was XYZ."

I have heard that it is a goal of the Mormon church to accumulate as much of this information as they can, because at a certain point, when they have enough genealogical information about a person, they baptize that person by proxy. To me, this is a good enough reason to avoid giving them any information whatsoever, even if it is mutar to use the information they make available.

It would not be good Public Relations for the Mormons to state their intentions as bluntly as I've put it, but subtly-veiled references to it can be found, if one looks hard enough, for example at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Family_History_Library  (I also concede the possibility that I've been the victim of a nasty urban legend, but I am not sufficiently motivated to bother researching that possibility.)

Akiva Miller



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