Sealing of divorced ancestors from abusive relationship

[scotthenrywilkerson]

May it be done, should it be done, if it's already done. Thoughts?

[rmrichesjr]

May it be done, should it be done, if it's already done. Thoughts?

I assume you mean a proxy sealing of deceased spouses who had divorced during mortality after having had an abusive relationship. Please clarify if you're asking about a different situation.

Just one personal opinion without knowledge of any authoritative instruction on the specific topic:

A search of the forums found a lot of discussion about sealings of the living, but I did not find anything that appeared relevant to this specific question. A search on the Church main website for something relevant did not find anything specific. The only search hit that jumped out was this talk by Elder Renlund that says to seek out our ancestors and do the ordinances for them. I did not notice any exceptions mentioned in the talk: https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/stu ... nd-healing All the general counsel I have heard is to do the proxy ordinances and let the Lord and the individuals in question work out the details later.

[sbradshaw]

I also don't have any sources, but I would generally agree with rmrichesjr's approach – to do the sealing work for all of the verified relationships, and let it be figured out on the other side. We don't know, on our side, whether there has been repentance and/or reconciliation on the other side, and even if the two people being sealed may choose not to be with each other in the eternities, they both need the blessings associated with the sealing ordinance, in one way or another.

That said, if I'm aware of close living relatives who feel strongly against the sealing, I would usually respect their wishes.

[russellhltn]

Keep in mind, if they are not sealed, it will show that an ordnance needs to be done on the tree. Sometime in future generations, someone will see that and submit the ordnance.

If you choose not to be a party to that because of what you know, that's fine. It's your choice. Just realize that in all likelihood, at some point it will be done as I don't think the system has any way of marking a couple as "don't seal them".

[hendro]

I think it's important to remember that ALL blessings of the temple are predicated on the faithfulness of those making the covanents. If you listen to each ordinace, inititory, endowment or sealing of couples it specificly states this. So keep that in mind. Sealings of couples is NOT a guarantee that they will be sealed for eternity, but rather they will be if they repent and are faithful. This is true even for those that do not divorce. Those that will receive these blessing will know for sure when they stand before the Savior at the final judgement. So who are faithful? We are not the judge, but we can be agents as best we can, and then let the final outcome be determined by those involved and the true Judge of all men. Also keep in mind that sealings of children cannot be made to just the mother or the father, but to a couple. If the parents are not sealed then you cannot seal the children to them, thus denying this blessing to the children. If the parents are not faithful then the promise is to the child that they WILL be sealed to some worthy couple up their tree. Hope that made sense. This is why I seal divorced couples, so that the children can have the promised blessings. My 2 cents.