Washington Post: What baptism for the dead means to Mormons

Toward the end of May, 1970, I stood waist high in water in a baptismal font of a temple in Hamilton, New Zealand, while the name of my deceased father was read aloud. Moments later, on his behalf, I was buried in the biblically mandated full-immersion baptism that is so powerfully symbolic of rebirth and entry into the kingdom of God. That first visit to a temple of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints --and my first experience of what Mormons call “baptism for the dead”--was one of the most intensely significant religious experiences of my life.