http://news.yahoo.com/romney-faces-mormon-faith-185221865.html
Mitt Romney was asked today about racial statements in the Book of Mormon. He avoided answering the question.
The church, according to this article, claims they don't know why blacks were denied the priesthood nor do they know much about it. They just know they put a stop to it "decades ago."
Well, "true prophets" were the ones who did it and no matter what they say, it makes them look bad. In the end, true prophets of god were extremely racist and no amount of "we don't know" explaining it away will help.
The Book of Mormon strongly condones racial separation. Nephi describes how his two older brothers were cursed with a dark skin because of their wickedness. This must mean the Mormon god condones this as well.
Alma 3:6
And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.
Given this clear teaching in the Book of Mormon, it is no surprise that blacks were denied the priesthood. I grew up being taught that the more white a person is, the more valiant they were in the pre-existence. I literally thought that, since I was born white and into a Mormon home, that I was one of the very elite.
Brigham Young said that if blacks and whites should mingle, it was "death on the spot."
Early church teachings also held that very few people of color could make it to the Celestial Kingdom, and of those few that did, they would be servants to the whites.
The LDS church has a long history of racism, and they conveniently deny knowing anything about it.
Shameful...
10 comments:
Coincidentally, I had a facebook discussion with a Mormon the other day.
Part of it:
Me: "Somewhere around $20 million was used to ensure that gay people didn't have marriage rights in California, via Prop 8. People can believe whatever they want but when an organization prevents other people from acquiring the same rights as others, this is not love."
Her: "So the church was standing up for what it believes. Why is that wrong?"
Me: "Belief that people are inferior to you is hate. Like these quotes from Brigham Young from the Journal of Discourses:
"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind....Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin."
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so."
It wasn't until 1978 that the LDS church gave black Mormons the same priesthood rights as everyone else and abandoned the Negro Doctrine.
In the 1970s the church even experimented with aversion therapy at Brigham Young University (BYU), setting up a center where it tried to "cure" homosexuality. The so-called therapy consisted of taping electrodes to the groin, thigh, chest and armpits of gay men and subjecting them to painful electric shocks while showing them pornographic photographs of nude men.
And women in the LDS church are not allowed to be ordained to any priesthood office. Saying the genders are equal in the same breath as saying one gender isn't allowed to have a job or responsibility only designated for the other is directly contradictory.
This is wrong. I speak out against people being told they are inferior and laws being enacted that promote this kind of reasoning because NO ONE should be made to feel inferior or less-than. A strongly held religious belief does not make it right. "
Her: "On this new subject I will not get involved with. I am sorry that you dont believe in God. It is God who said marriage is between a man and a woman. I believe in God and I believe that what our proplets teach us is true. I have no more to say on any subject that you are against because it obviously will only make you dislike me and thats not what I want."
But I was staying on topic... she not only denied the hate, she blatantly IGNORED it and lied saying I changed the topic.
I'm ashamed sometimes to be of the same species.
Thanks for this post! I always enjoy what you have to say, but I double-dig it if it's negative about Willard Romney!
Shannon, I feel your pain. I wish there was one thing you could say or one piece of evidence you could share that would convince them of the fraud... but it doesn't exist. It amazes me that we live in the information age and we can do incredible things that Biblical people would have never understood, let alone even imagine.
Joe, glad you liked it. I haven't followed Romney much but I probably should. I didn't vote for Obama, but I'd rather vote for him than have a Mormon in the Whitehouse.
Yo 411, if you wanna rap about the Alma 3:6 dark skin curse some time I'd be happy to. I don't think it directly reflects a racist god. Nor do I feel that the denial of Priesthood to black members was a doctrinal teaching set forth by the Book of Mormon.
The church has put politics before belief in the past. Take giving up polygamy so Utah could become a state. In Brigham's time Mormons were getting lynched just for being Mormon. Joseph died in 1844, the emancipation proclamation wasn't until 1863. and even after that things weren't equal. In fact it took another 100+ years until Rosa Parks and MLK could even stand up for civil rights.
If Blacks and Whites mingled in Brigham's time it would have been death on the spot.
I'm not saying some Mormons aren't racist.
I'm also not saying that some Mormons may interpret the BoM dark skin parts as meaning all dark skinned people are cursed.
I'm just saying it's a racist world, and Utah is mostly white people. Anytime a place is mostly anything racism will be higher!
I agree with you mostly, Jack. The entire country, not just the Mormons were racist in their thinking and statements. And even after the Emancipation Proclamation it took almost 100 years before real change started taking place.
However, that does not excuse a true prophet of god. As such, one would expect their teachings and behaviour to reflect a loving god, not a racist god.
The Mormons have always had the attitude of "Its not okay to do it just because everyone else is." There is really no excuse for their racism.
Everyone who has ever lived or will live on the earth is a child of God. A loving, God who wants us to live with him again...
So how does racism fit in with the above? It sounds like Brigham didn't really understand the 'we are all children of God' - unless he believed that blacks were not human. It just doesn't make sense that a all loving God would 'curse' his own children if the plan of salvation was valid. It doesn't make sense that a loving God would speak through his prophet to make such statements.
I don't believe in God. So let's think rationally. Here we have a human being projecting his own beliefs or the beliefs of the time.
If you too are an atheist then you understand that right now we're debating something like "Why does Santa give out coal"
I think we can all agree that racism was the norm back then. But it's too bad that a church that claims to be the truth - the restored gospel didn't quite grasp their own teachings.
411, i'm not saying it excuses the prophet, i'm saying that the so called curse in the BoM and the black prieshood issue are unrelated. they both might be considered racist, but i find it doubtful that the BoM affected the priesthood issue. i'm saying church leaders are affected by politics more than they are racist.
Diary, hahaha why does Santa give out coal? (the dick!) also, god loves to play favorites! he did it when lucifer got kicked out, he did it with cane, he did it with ishmael. Islam is based on the concept that god's favortism just went a different way than the Jews said it did. i've said it before, god is a facist!
honestly the current race issue doesn't bother me nearly as much as the homosexuality issue!
I'm so glad you escaped Mormonism, but please do not give up on God. Please, please give your heart to the Jesus who died on the cross for your sins, was buried, and then rose from the grave three days later. Don't give up your precious soul by denying God altogether. He wants you to live. You'll find that life in Christ. Connie
http://bringingallthingsunderchrist.blogspot.com/
Diary, yes it sounds like we're pretty much on the same page.
Jack, I think you're right as well. While the references in the Book of Mormon to "white and delightsome" and "dark and loathsome" don't help their case, I think these statements and those made by prophets reflect the attitude of the time, which only further suggests that the Book of Mormon is fiction written in the nineteenth century.
Connie, hi and welcome. I will gladly give my heart to Jesus the moment he tells me to. But as long as the word of god keeps coming through human beings, all bets are off. Heroes dying to save mankind is a common theme for a myth. There is no truth to the Jesus story when it starts involving stuff that obviously isn't true, like dead people coming back to life. Through what I have read and seen, I could concede that Jesus was, at most, an actual person, but not divine and certainly not the son of god.
If Jesus really cares that much about me, then let him tell me so himself. I'll be the first on my knees when that happens.
Amen
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