Yep.
Posted on 01/02/2014 9:42:29 AM PST by Anton.Rutter
The Mormon Church has officially renounced the belief that dark skin is a sign of disfavor, or curse.
On the official website for The Mormon Church, www.lds.org, a statement has been posted titled "Race and the Priesthood," where blame for the belief that dark skinned people were inferior to whites is placed on the establishment of the church coming in 1830, a time of great racism in the United States.
The Church points out how previous leaders, most notably President Brigham Young, restricted Blacks from priesthood in the Church, receiving the temple endowment, or allowing them to be married in the temple. Theories to explain why the restrictions existed have been developed over time, but according to "Race and the Priesthood," "None of these explanations is accepted today as the official doctrine of the Church."
AlterNet points out that the biblical text, The Book of Mormon, teaches that "dark skin is a sign of God’s curse, while white skin is a sign of his blessing." With 15,000,000 members worldwide, the teachings of such racism and segregation from inception into the Church strikes a sour chord with modern belief systems of equality amongst all people. It has been a struggle to overcome this part of their heritage for the Mormon Church, according to AlterNet.
The Mormon Church acknowledges in "Race and the Priesthood" the origin stories of said belief in their scripture, but concludes that the Church today "disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."
The decision to abandon the beliefs of inferiority for those with dark skin to white is a large step forward for The Mormon Church, and as Margaret Blair Young, an adjunct professor at Brigham Young University who has focused her documentary work on profiling the untold stories of Black Mormons, told The Guardian it is "a miracle."
Yup, & JWs like to say their bible is progressive. The 1984 version of the NWT labeled apostates as “mentally diseased” while the 2013 version has called them “obsessed”.
Isn’t progressively revealed religion a wonderful thing? /s
The Bible does not mention what skin color Cain had. Neither does it mention what skin color Adam had.
> ever heard of Cain?
Please show us from the Bible where it says that Cain had dark skin?
Read what God thinks about prejudice based on skin color in Numbers chapter 12. Here’s a synopsis. Miriam and Aaron murmered against Moses because he had married an Ethiopian woman. God was unhappy with this and struck Miriam with leprosy, “white as snow”, as the Bible puts it. A bit of irony for her.
God Gave Us Reason, Not Religion
Have you ever read the signed First Presidency letter on this topic, dated August 17, 1949?
A clarification? So they went back to the original tablets of gold and discovered that Joseph Smith had translated the text incorrectly?
Soon the mormon temple rites will be the subject of a "revelation" giving homosexuals the opportunity to be married/sealed together and accorded all the "blessings" of the "priesthood"....that is, of course as long as the requirement for the 10% tithing is met.
The only question is whether the butch lesbians will be given the "priesthood".
Soon, they’ll fully accept gays and women in leadership.
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first the Mormons have to put blacks into leadership...
there are none...
Yep.
Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
connection to the reason Willard’s family has adopted a black baby...boy of course... ???
Political expediency ???
Jimmy Carter made them accept black men (only men) as full members in 1978...
for which they punished their good liberal Democrat bosom buddy by voting for the much hated (shudder) Ronald Reagan in 1980 ...
but in 35 years, no black member of the Mormon religion has ever been allowed into the inner circle of the Mormon secret society..
just like Woodruff’s 1890 “proclamation” about polygamy, the 1978 change about the “sons of Cain” was a faust..
only meant for political gain..
Now The Mormons are attempting to help Willard’s next campaign by trying to stomp out 180 years of racial discrimination and bigotry..
Brigham Young took his black slaves to the Utah territory in 1846 and before that Joey Smith didn’t have much to say in favor of black skin..
_____________________________________________________
Smith’s View on Race and Skin Color
The first instance of racism in Smith’s new religion can be found in the Book of Mormon, published in 1830.[11] Here we find the story of a group of Israelites who migrate to America at approximately 600 BC. They soon divide into two groups—the righteous Nephites are described as “white” and “delightsome” while the rebellious Lamanites are cursed by God with a “dark” skin, also referred to as a “skin of blackness”:
2 Nephi 5:21-23: And he [God] had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. . . . wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. . . . And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done.”
Jacob 3:5: Behold, the Lamanites your brethren, whom ye hate because of their filthiness and the cursing which hath come upon their skins. . .
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 the transgression and their rebellion. . .
The descendants of these rebellious people were believed by the early Mormons to be the American Indian.[12] While their dark skin was seen as a sign of God’s curse on them, Indians were allowed to join Mormonism and be ordained to its priesthood.
Soon after starting his church in 1830, Joseph Smith began a revision of the Bible. Without knowing either Hebrew or Greek, Smith supposedly relied on divine guidance in correcting the text. Part of his revision is printed in the Pearl of Great Price as the Book of Moses, where we find the scriptural roots of the LDS concept of the origin of black people:
Moses 7:8: . . . and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.
Moses 7:12: . . . Enoch continued to call upon all the people, save it were the people of Canaan, to repent . . .
Moses 7:22: And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them.
Smith seems to have been adapting the racial arguments of his day, which were used to justify slavery, when formulating his teaching that blacks were under the curse of Cain.[13]
When Mormons started settling in Missouri in the early 1830’s their attitude toward Native Americans and blacks became a concern of their neighbors. Many Missourians worried that Smith’s church, founded in New York, was anti-slavery. After the Mormons published an article “Free People of Color”[14] in their Evening and Morning Star, the non-Mormons worried that it was meant to encourage blacks to immigrate to the Mormon settlement in Independence, Missouri. To calm local fears, the Mormons immediately printed an “Extra” sheet for the paper, in which they announced:
Having learned, with regret, that an article entitled FREE PEOPLE OF COLOR, in the last number of the Star, has been misunderstood, we feel in duty bound to state, in this Extra, that our intention was not only to stop free people of color from emigrating to this state, but to prevent them from being admitted as members of the Church.[15]
After a few abolitionists came to the Mormon settlement at Kirtland, Ohio, in 1836, Smith was concerned that this would cause problems between the Mormons and the Southerners. In an article for the Messenger and Advocate, Smith laid out his lack of support for the abolitionists and his views on slavery. He wrote:
I have learned by experience that the enemy of truth does not slumber, nor cease his exertions to bias the minds of communities against the servants of the Lord, by stirring up the indignation of men upon all matters of importance or interest; therefore I fear that the sound might go out, that “an Abolitionist” had held forth several times to this community, . . . all, except a very few, attended to their own vocations, and left the gentleman to hold forth his own arguments to nearly naked walls. . . .
It is my privilege then to name certain passages from the Bible, pronounced by a man who was perfect in his generation, and walked with God. And so far from that prediction being averse to the mind of God, it remains as a lasting monument of the decree of Jehovah, to the shame and confusion of all who have cried out against the South, in consequence of their holding the sons of Ham in servitude. “And he said, Cursed be Canaan: a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.” “Blessed be the Lord God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.” (Gen. 9:25,26). . . . What could have been the design of the Almighty in this singular occurrence is not for me to say; but I can say, the curse is not yet taken off from the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great a power as caused it to come; . . . I do not believe that the people of the North have any more right to say that the South shall not have slaves, than the South have to say the North shall. . . . All men are to be taught to repent; but we have no right to interfere with slaves, contrary to the mind and will of their masters.[16]
On Tuesday, January 25, 1842, Joseph Smith commented “that the Indians have greater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites, than the negroes, or sons of Cain.”[17] A year later, January 2, 1843, Joseph Smith gave this assessment of blacks:
At five went to Mr. Sollars’ with Elders Hyde and Richards. Elder Hyde inquired the situation of the negro. I replied, they came into the world slaves, mentally and physically. . . . Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization.[18]
Ironically, right at the time Joseph Smith was developing his racial doctrines he allowed the ordination of a black man named Elijah Abel.[19] 1Abel was “ordained an elder on March 3, 1836, and a seventy April 4, 1841.”[20]
In 1842 Smith published his new scripture, the Book of Abraham, in the Times and Seasons, the LDS newspaper in Nauvoo, Illinois. This has since been canonized in the Pearl of Great Price and reflects Smith’s growing racist attitude towards blacks and priesthood:
Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the loins of Ham, and was a partaker of the blood of the Canaanites by birth.
From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the Canaanites was preserved in the land.
The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;
When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.
Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal.
Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.
Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain claim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry. (Pearl of Great Price, Book of Abraham, 1:21-27)
LDS author Stephen Taggart observed:
With the publication of The Book of Abraham all of the elements for the Church’s policy of denying the priesthood to Negroes were present. The curse of Canaan motif borrowed from Southern fundamentalism was being supported within the Church by a foundation of proslavery statements and attitudes which had emerged during the years of crisis in Missouri. . . . [21]
When a reporter asked LDS President David O. McKay in 1961 about the basis for the policy of restricting blacks from priesthood, “he replied that it rested solely on the Book of Abraham. ‘That is the only reason,’ he said. ‘It is founded on that.’ “[22] Even though the LDS Church now denounces racism, how are readers to interpret racial statements in the LDS scriptures?[23]
It should be noted that the story of Noah’s curse on Ham and Canaan in Genesis, chapter nine, never connects the curse to race, skin color or to Africa. The same can be said of the curse on Cain in Genesis, chapter four. The Bible does not identify the mark placed on Cain as being a black skin. These interpretations arose centuries later in an attempt to justify slavery.
http://www.utlm.org/newsletters/no118.htm
600bc the early book of Mormon people were Isrealites
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Prove it...
Source ???
The Endnotes for the UTLM article in my #33
[11] Changing World, p. 406, citing Davis Bitton, “Joseph Smith in the Mormon Folk Memory,” The John Whitmer address, delivered at the Second Annual Meeting of the John Whitmer Historical Association, Lamoni, Iowa, September 28, 1974, unpublished manuscript, p. 16.
[12] FAIR article: [link] Hereafter referred to as, Criticism—One Nation.
[13] Changing World, pp. 405-406.
[14] FAIR, Criticism—One Nation.
[15] History of the Church, footnote, vol. 5, pp. 85-86.
[16] See “Anson Call-Excerpts from his Autobiography.”
[17] Criticism—One Nation.
[18] This material is only included in the Appendix to Wilford Woodruff’s Journal as published on the New Mormon Studies CD-ROM, Signature Books, 2009. It was not included in the 1985 printing of the Wilford Woodruff’s Journal published by Signature Books.
[19] Ibid.
[20] FAIR, Criticism—One Nation.
[21] B. H. Roberts, New Witnesses for God, Deseret News, 1911, vol. 1, ch. 22, pp. 302-303.
[22] A Lecture Delivered by Elder Andrew Jenson before the Students’ Society, in the Social Hall, Salt Lake City, Friday Evening, January 16, 1891. Brian Stuy, Collected Discourses, vol. 2, p. 161.
[23] LDS Conference Report, April 1916, p. 66.
This is far more significant than that. It's one thing to have a god who changes his mind about whether or not something he did way back when should continue to keep people out of the priesthood. It's quite another to proclaim that he never did such a thing in the first place. That completely denies the Book of Mormon text and about 150 years worth of pronouncements by their "prophets." They've tried their best to ignore these things, but such a public change of position only draws attention to them and now poses a problem to members who have continued to believe but kept it to themselves for pragmatic reasons.
Yes...they changed ONLY one verse in 1981...from “white and delightsome” to “fair and delightsome”...I guess joseph smith “mistranslated” the book of mormon if its unknown later editors needed to revise it
The late 70s was simply a new stance...no explanation ever given for past...the mormon leaders also have to keep reiterating these changes...polygamy brakes applied 1890...yet after many more 1890 to 1904...lds “prophet” had to issue yet another manifesto in 1904
So Headquarters now 'officially' announces that GOD had nothing to do with those 'beliefs' - that they were
What spineless little weasles these folks are!
"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.
The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. 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. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants', and they will be, until that curse is removed."
Brigham Young-President and second 'Prophet' of the Mormon Church, 1844-1877- Extract from Journal of Discourses.
Here are two examples from their 'other testament', the Book of Mormon.
2 Nephi 5: 21 'And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'
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.'
August 27, 1954 in an address at Brigham Young University (BYU), Mormon Elder, Mark E Peterson, in speaking to a convention of teachers of religion at the college level, said: "He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage." "That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, 'First we pity, then endure, then embrace'...." (Rosa Parks would have probably told Petersen under which wheel of the bus he should go sit.)
1967, (then) Mormon President Ezra Taft Benson "The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder."
"The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent.I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after."
said,
General Authority, Bruce R McConkie had said:
"The Blacks are denied the Priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty.
The Negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow there from, but this inequality is not of man's origin, it is the Lord's doings."
(Mormon Doctrine, pp. 526-527).
When Mormon 'Apostle' Mark E Petersen spoke on 'Race Problems- As they affect the Church' at the BYU campus in 1954, the following was also said:
"...if the negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."
When Mormon 'Prophet' and second President of the Church, Brigham Young, spoke in 1863 the following was also said:
"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."
(Journal of Discourses, Vo. 10, p. 110)
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