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HuffPo News Flash: Mormons Don't Think Jesus was Black
NewsBusters.org ^
| Sept 10, 2012
| Matthew Philbin
Posted on 09/12/2012 9:20:59 PM PDT by Alex Murphy
Finding racism in ridiculous places: It isn’t just for MSNBC anymore. The Huffington Post has performed a neat trick, exercising its own religious bigotry by accusing someone else of racism. The result is a breathtakingly inane article. (The crusade to re-elect Obama has spurred his media acolytes to heroic exertions, hasn’t it?)
Writing in HuffPo on Sept. 9, Paul Harvey and Edward J. Blum broke incredible news: Mormon iconography commonly includes a statue of a white Jesus! And that white statue first appeared in Salt Lake City in 1966, “the middle of the Civil Rights movement.”
The image, called Christus, is “based upon an old Danish statue from 1821,” according to Harvey and Blum. “He became even more poignant of a symbol after 1978, the year Mormon leadership lifted its bans on people of color from the priesthood.” Poignancy must be in the eye of the beholder.
The kicker here is that Harvey and Blum claim to be exploring why Christus hasn’t caused a “cultural firestorm” the way “Jeremiah Wright’s sermons about a black Jesus killed by white Romans” did in 2008. Wright’s black Christ“nearly derailed his former parishioner Barack Obama's candidacy.”
This is laughable on two counts. First, if the Wright revelations ever posed a danger to Obama’s campaign, it had nothing to do with the media. Second, what bothered those who actually knew about Rev. Wright were statements like “God damn America,” and the one about 9-11 being “America’s chickens coming home to roost.” Wright’s radical Anti-Americanism was troubling, not his ideas about Christ’s race.
So why aren’t Americans scandalized by the LDS Jesus? Again, Messrs Harvey and Blum brought this stunning revelation: we’re used to it.“Simply put: the black Jesus of American history historically has been threatening, while white Jesus imagery, at least since about the 1830s, has been so normative and dominant that it is assumed to be accurate,” wrote the authors, and thank goodness they put it simply. A concept that complex is tough to get one’s arms around.
Let’s see. Yes, the Christ on the cross in Catholic churches is whitish. And, sure, Hollywood seems to turn to white actors when portraying the Nazarene. And Greek icons make Him look, well, Greek. He’s black in some Ethiopian Christian depictions.
Since there are no photographs or contemporary descriptions of Christ, each culture imposes its own physical ideas onto Him, and in representations He ends up looking like a member of that culture.
Salt Lake City is only about 2.5 percent African-American today. And it’s not exactly synonymous with the racial turmoil of the Civil Rights era. Chances are, a Jesus statue erected there in 1956 or 1976 would be just as white as Christus.
“Even in the age of multiculturalism and a plethora of challenges to the historic iconography of the American Jesus, the white Jesus remains the norm, unnoticed and uncontroversial,” Harvey and Blum wrote. And it raises a question: If it’s uncontroversial, why write about it, except to slime Mormons and help your guy keep his office?
TOPICS: Ministry/Outreach; Moral Issues; Other Christian; Religion & Culture
KEYWORDS: inman; mormon; mormonism
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To: Alex Murphy
“Mormons Don’t Think Jesus was Black”
Neither do I.
To: UCANSEE2
Democrats are already being 'cultivated' in the Arab Spring Project.MORMONs are highly 'cultivated' in their outreach to Muslims.
http://www.google.com/search?q=mormorm+muslim+studies&sourceid=ie7&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-Address&ie=&oe=&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475#hl=en&rls=com.microsoft:en-us%3AIE-Address&rlz=1I7ADRA_enUS475&sclient=psy-ab&q=byu+islam+studies&oq=byu+islam+studies&gs_l=serp.3..0i13j0i13i30j0i8i13i30l2.25974.31874.1.32192.11.11.0.0.0.0.142.1010.9j2.11.0.les%3B..0.0...1c.1.0hzrr_opakY&pbx=1&bav=on.2,or.r_gc.r_pw.r_qf.&fp=8d2d863d0bcf941a&biw=1366&bih=599
42
posted on
09/13/2012 3:50:25 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: going hot
They are bound and determined, and believe they have the power and the right, to completely and utterly destroy this country as we know it. Ma'am; Joseph Smith did not destroy Christianity; he RESTORED it!
43
posted on
09/13/2012 3:53:12 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Cronos
If Jesus ‘ appearance was remarkably different from the other Israelis around him, it’s likely one of the Gospel writers would have mentioned it.
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Mormons Dont Think Jesus was Black.Do y'all know what MORMONism has said ABOUT Blacks???
"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:
"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." "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 said, "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."
We are told that on June 8, 1978, it was 'revealed' to the then president, Spencer Kimball, that people of color could now gain entry into the priesthood. According to the church, Kimball spent many long hours petitioning God, begging him to give worthy black people the priesthood. God finally relented.
|
Sometime before the 'revelation' came to chief 'Prophet' Spencer Kimball in June 1978, 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)
Yeah; Native Americans are althroughout the Book of MORMON; too.
I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today ... they are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.... For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised.... The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation.
At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter were present, the little member girl-sixteen-sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parentson the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather.... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness.
One white elder jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated.
(Improvement Era, December 1960, pp.922-23). (p. 209)
45
posted on
09/13/2012 3:56:52 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: GeronL
Maybe we could find someone who can write a tiny program, an applet or something. Just like a slot machine but it randomly throws together liberal enemies, buzzwords, scenarios et al. Calling Baghdad Bob. Please pick up the white courtesy phone.
46
posted on
09/13/2012 3:58:19 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Alex Murphy
,,,,,, let's see ,, in my picture Jesus appears to have an olive complexion . Problem solved !!!!
47
posted on
09/13/2012 4:01:55 AM PDT
by
Lionheartusa1
(-: Socialism is the equal distribution of misery :-)
To: GeronL
Maybe we could find someone who can write a tiny program, an applet or something. I had one on my old computer that mocked old Bob; but it has gone to the Land of Failed Disc Drives...
48
posted on
09/13/2012 4:04:38 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Elsie
“Do y'all know what MORMONism has said ABOUT Blacks???”
Well, most of those quotes are from years ago, even during the years of the Civil War.
10s of thousands of people were saying those kinds of things during the time frames mentioned in your post. Others of your quotes do not have years listed.
I haven't heard or saw written by Mormons any recent denigration of blacks.
No, I'm not Mormon. I'm, for lack of a better word, a freelancer. :-)
I'm not defending Mormons but everyone deserves a fair shake. Using quotes from the Civil War era is not a fair shake, is it? Heaven forbid anyone should quote anything I said even 50 years ago. People change. :-)
Recently, the CEO of a Japanese auto manufacturer said that blacks work slowly and are lazy and stupid. Are we going to condemn all Japanese because of one CEO? Condemn the Japanese for WWII but not all of them for one CEO. :-)
To: Guardian Sebastian
“Im in shock that the HuffPo believes that Jesus was real.”
You just stuck the knife into HuffPo, twisted it and kept on twisting it.
GOOD JOB!
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Well, most of those quotes are from years ago, even during the years of the Civil War.MORMONism's 'god' continued to hold that view unti 1978 - when Mitt was 32 years old.
I imagine that he FULLY held the same view until then; since disagreeing with what the MORMON leaders have said on a subject is akin to APOSTACY.
Amazingly, about the exact same time was when BYU was getting in hot water over black athletes.
Official Declaration2
To Whom It May Concern:
On 30 September 1978, at the 148th Semiannual General Conference of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the following was presented by President N. Eldon Tanner, First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church:
In early June of this year, the First Presidency announced that a revelation had been received by President Spencer W. Kimball extending priesthood and temple blessings to all worthy male members of the Church. President Kimball has asked that I advise the conference that after he had received this revelation, which came to him after extended meditation and prayer in the sacred rooms of the holy temple, he presented it to his counselors, who accepted it and approved it. It was then presented to the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, who unanimously approved it, and was subsequently presented to all other General Authorities, who likewise approved it unanimously.
President Kimball has asked that I now read this letter:
June 8, 1978
To all general and local priesthood officers of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints throughout the world:
Dear Brethren:
As we have witnessed the expansion of the work of the Lord over the earth, we have been grateful that people of many nations have responded to the message of the restored gospel, and have joined the Church in ever-increasing numbers. This, in turn, has inspired us with a desire to extend to every worthy member of the Church all of the privileges and blessings which the gospel affords.
Aware of the promises made by the prophets and presidents of the Church who have preceded us that at some time, in Gods eternal plan, all of our brethren who are worthy may receive the priesthood, and witnessing the faithfulness of those from whom the priesthood has been withheld, we have pleaded long and earnestly in behalf of these, our faithful brethren, spending many hours in the Upper Room of the Temple supplicating the Lord for divine guidance.
He has heard our prayers, and by revelation has confirmed that the long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood, with power to exercise its divine authority, and enjoy with his loved ones every blessing that flows therefrom, including the blessings of the temple. Accordingly, all worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color. Priesthood leaders are instructed to follow the policy of carefully interviewing all candidates for ordination to either the Aaronic or the Melchizedek Priesthood to insure that they meet the established standards for worthiness.
We declare with soberness that the Lord has now made known his will for the blessing of all his children throughout the earth who will hearken to the voice of his authorized servants, and prepare themselves to receive every blessing of the gospel.
Sincerely yours,
Spencer W. Kimball
N. Eldon Tanner
Marion G. Romney
The First Presidency
Recognizing Spencer W. Kimball as the prophet, seer, and revelator, and president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is proposed that we as a constituent assembly accept this revelation as the word and will of the Lord. All in favor please signify by raising your right hand. Any opposed by the same sign.
The vote to sustain the foregoing motion was unanimous in the affirmative.
Salt Lake City, Utah, September 30, 1978.
51
posted on
09/13/2012 11:13:58 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
I haven't heard or saw written by Mormons any recent denigration of blacks.Recent?
Many are from their SCRIPTUREs.
Surely they believe what their Prophet had translated; right?
52
posted on
09/13/2012 11:16:30 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Others of your quotes do not have years listed.But they DO have links/references; so if the years are really that important, at least someone has a place to start.
I've challenged MORMONs on these threads to come up with anything later than these statements to show progression of MORMON thinking; but so far; I've read nothing along those lines other than OD2.
53
posted on
09/13/2012 11:18:59 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
I'm, for lack of a better word, a freelancer. :-)I like that!
It kinda represents all of us who were NOT born into a 'religious' home; that had to come to a decision on our own.
54
posted on
09/13/2012 11:20:37 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
People change. :-) True dat!
But, a religion that CLAIMS to have 'restored' Christianity back to PURITY of Jesus' time, shouldn't; right?
55
posted on
09/13/2012 11:21:53 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Heaven forbid anyone should quote anything I said even 50 years ago.(If anyone has the nerve to dig into my past and repeat something I said last week; I'll deny it like crazy!)
56
posted on
09/13/2012 11:23:10 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: spel_grammer_an_punct_polise
Here are some 'dates' for you; straight from LDS.org
2 Nephi Chapter 5
The Nephites separate themselves from the Lamanites, keep the law of Moses, and build a templeBecause of their unbelief, the Lamanites are cut off from the presence of the Lord, are cursed, and become a scourge unto the Nephites. About 588559 B.C.
Alma Chapter 3
The Amlicites had marked themselves according to the prophetic wordThe Lamanites had been cursed for their rebellionMen bring their own curses upon themselvesThe Nephites defeat another Lamanite army. About 8786 B.C.
57
posted on
09/13/2012 11:29:45 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Elsie
...speaking of translation...
"Now the way he translated was he put the urim and thummim into his hat and Darkned his Eyes than he would take a sentance and it would apper in Brite Roman Letters. Then he would tell the writer and he would write it. Then that would go away the next sentance would Come and so on. But if it was not Spelt rite it would not go away till it was rite, so we see it was marvelous. Thus was the hol [whole] translated."
---Joseph Knight's journal.
"In writing for your father I frequently wrote day after day, often sitting at the table close by him, he sitting with his face buried in his hat, with the stone in it, and dictating hour after hour with nothing between us."
(History of the RLDS Church, 8 vols.
(Independence, Missouri: Herald House,1951),
"Last Testimony of Sister Emma [Smith Bidamon]," 3:356.
"I, as well as all of my father's family, Smith's wife, Oliver Cowdery and Martin Harris, were present during the translation. . . . He [Joseph Smith] did not use the plates in translation."
---(David Whitmer,
as published in the "Kansas City Journal," June 5, 1881,
and reprinted in the RLDS "Journal of History", vol. 8, (1910), pp. 299-300.
In an 1885 interview, Zenas H. Gurley, then the editor of the RLDS Saints Herald, asked Whitmer if Joseph had used his "Peep stone" to do the translation. Whitmer replied:
"... he used a stone called a "Seers stone," the "Interpreters" having been taken away from him because of transgression. The "Interpreters" were taken from Joseph after he allowed Martin Harris to carry away the 116 pages of Ms [manuscript] of the Book of Mormon as a punishment, but he was allowed to go on and translate by use of a "Seers stone" which he had, and which he placed in a hat into which he buried his face, stating to me and others that the original character appeared upon parchment and under it the translation in English."
"Martin Harris related an incident that occurred during the time that he wrote that portion of the translation of the Book of Mormon which he was favored to write direct from the mouth of the Prophet Joseph Smith. He said that the Prophet possessed a seer stone, by which he was enabled to translate as well as from the Urim and Thummim, and for convenience he then used the seer stone, Martin explained the translation as follows: By aid of the seer stone, sentences would appear and were read by the Prophet and written by Martin and when finished he would say 'Written,' and if correctly written that sentence would disappear and another appear in its place, but if not written correctly it remained until corrected, so that the translation was just as it was engraven on the plates, precisely in the language then used."
(Edward Stevenson, "One of the Three Witnesses,"
reprinted from Deseret News, 30 Nov. 1881
in Millennial Star, 44 (6 Feb. 1882): 86-87.)
In 1879, Michael Morse, Emma Smith's brother-in-law, stated:
"When Joseph was translating the Book of Mormon [I] had occasion more than once to go into his immediate presence, and saw him engaged at his work of translation. The mode of procedure consisted in Joseph's placing the Seer Stone in the crown of a hat, then putting his face into the hat, so as to entirely cover his face, resting his elbows upon his knees, and then dictating word after word, while the scribes Emma, John Whitmer, O. Cowdery, or some other wrote it down."
(W.W. Blair interview with Michael Morse,
Saints Herald, vol. 26, no. 12
June 15, 1879, pp. 190-91.)
Joseph Smith's brother William also testified to the "face in the hat" version:
"The manner in which this was done was by looking into the Urim and Thummim, which was placed in a hat to exclude the light, (the plates lying near by covered up), and reading off the translation, which appeared in the stone by the power of God"
("A New Witness for Christ in America,"
Francis W. Kirkham, 2:417.)
"The manner in which he pretended to read and interpret was the same manner as when he looked for the money-diggers, with the stone in his hat, while the book of plates were at the same time hid in the woods."
---Isaac Hale (Emma Smith's father's) affidavit, 1834.
58
posted on
09/13/2012 11:31:06 AM PDT
by
Elsie
(Heck is where people, who don't believe in Gosh, think they are not going...)
To: Elsie
Dude.... Better get your story right...man!
59
posted on
09/13/2012 11:36:25 AM PDT
by
Utah Binger
(Southern Utah where the world comes to see America)
To: Elsie
“On 30 September 1978”
Still over 30 years ago. Do you have something from this week?
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