SALT LAKE CITY, May 7 (UPI) -- Mormon church officials in Utah say they are looking into a researcher's contention President Barack Obama's mother was posthumously baptized into the church.
A spokesman for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints confirmed an unknown person performed two rituals on behalf of Stanley Ann Dunham last June at an LDS temple in Provo, Utah.
Dunham died in 1995.
Scott Trotter told The Salt Lake Tribune the proxy baptism ran counter to church policy, which doesn't allow church members to submit names for baptism for people to whom they aren't related.
"This is a serious matter and we are treating it as such," Trotter said.
The Tribune reported Wednesday the ceremonies were discovered by Salt Lake City researcher Helen Radky, who said she found the matter disturbing.
"It sends out the message that the religion she chose while she was alive was not good enough," she said. "And that spills onto her son, who is our president."
