[Colofornian]

Please read the blog in its entirety.

From the blog:
Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past...
Funny, I don’t see the word “theory” used here:
...(2 Nephi 5:21).
...“theory” wasn’t used in this statement on the “negro question”: The position of the Church regarding the Negro may be understood when another doctrine of the Church is kept in mind, namely, that the conduct of spirits in the premortal existence has some determining effect upon the conditions and circumstances under which these spirits take on mortality (Statement by the First Presidency, August 17, 1949).
Joseph Fielding Smith didn’t use it here: There were no neutrals in the war in Heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan...The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits (...Doctrines of Salvation).
Bruce...McConkie didn’t use...“theory” here: Those...less valiant in pre-existence and...had certain spiritual restrictions impose on them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God, and his murder of Able being a black skin...the negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned...(Mormon Doctrine, 1966...).

So Brent provides four citations:
* 2 Nephi 5:21 -- from the Book of Mormon. And who, according to Joseph Smith in the Lds "scriptures" Doctrines & Covenants 24:1 wrote the Book of Mormon?

None other than Joseph Smith himself!
1 Behold, thou wast called and chosen to WRITE the Book of Mormon, and to my ministry;
D&C24:1

* He then cites a 1949 Mormon Church statement issued by the highest hierarchy in the Church: The Presidency. And that Presidential statement says its official "position of the Church regarding the negro..." is directly influenced by a "doctrine" of the pre-existent disfavor in pre-mortality being carried out in mortal life.

* Brent goes on to quote Joseph Fielding Smith, who later became the 10th "Prophet" of the Mormon Church;
* and Lds "apostle" Bruce McConkie, whose 1966 Mormon Doctrine book was revised after Lds "Prophet" David McKay had one of his counselors review the book and the other counselor (eventual "prophet" Spencer Kimball) mentor McConkie to ensure changes from the 1958 edition were made. It had the imprimatur of TWO Lds "prophets!"

And, after making this case, the blogger brings home an extremely valid point:

This wasn’t a “cultural” issue. This wasn’t a case of church members making up unauthorized “theories” to explain a problematic policy. This was top-down, from-the-prophet-himself doctrine, and this doctrine is preserved (like an insect in amber) in the historical record. The notion that black skin was a divine curse and ...deserved their state...shows up in official statements from the first presidency...These ideas were preached as doctrine from the pulpit in church-wide conferences...were included in official publications and manuals. And...were perceived (and received) as doctrine by faithful members of the church...

[Alex Murphy]

I wasn't aware that an official declaration and revelation announced by a prophet, recorded as scripture in one of their "four major works", could be considered a "theory":

To Whom It May Concern:

On September 30, 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.

[Zakeet]

Theoretically, the LDS Church sometimes considers tithing important ...

[SkyDancer]

They’re always in denial.

[Colofornian]

And this thread was posted this morning:
Race and the Priesthood [Lds Church attempts to explain its past racist prophets and policies]

[svcw]

THX 1138

[Elsie]

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past...

Funny, I don’t see the word “theory” used here:

Of COURSE you don't!

You're a HATER who does not understand the deep secrets of GOD!

--MormonDude(Don't you realize that they can change meanings of words at will?)

[Elsie]

This was top-down, from-the-prophet-himself doctrine, and this doctrine is preserved (like an insect in amber) in the historical record.

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"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.

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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.'

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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.)

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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."

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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.

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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).

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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."

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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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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 parents—on 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)

 

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[Boogieman]

It seems to me that either they can believe that their “living prophets” are infallible, or that they are just spouting “theories”. You can’t believe both and be consistent.

[Colofornian]

From the Mormon church apologetic:

"Toward the end of his life, Church founder Joseph Smith openly opposed slavery."

Yeah, that must have been mixed in with Jos. Smith's other public policy...stated in January 1843 -- less than 18 mos. before his death...of...

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.

Source: (Lds) History of the Church, Volume 5, pp. 217-218 Copyright page reads:

History of Joseph Smith, the Prophet. By Himself. Volume V. An Introduction and Notes by B.H. Roberts. Published by the Church. By Deseret Book Company Salt Lake City, Utah 1978

Funny...how something republished by the Church 35 years ago...the EXACT same year of the so-called Kimball "revelation" on blacks -- and written by Joseph Smith himself -- gets totally ignored for "study" by their members (& investigators).