Racist principles were taught to older Mormons such as Professor Randy Bott [Admits Lds columnist]

There’s one big reason the usually popular BYU Professor Randy Bott stepped in it big time trying to explain the LDS Church’s longtime denial of priesthood and temple blessings to members of African descent by calling it a “blessing.” (Read, read, and read) Bott and others of that era in the LDS Church were taught these types of condescending “compassionate” racist principles when learning about the LDS Churches ban on blacks decades ago.

Bott was born in 1945 and grew up in Northern Utah. In 1958, the Mutual Improvement Association listed “Choose Ye This Day,” a young adult novel, published by Bookcraft in Salt Lake City, written by Emma Marr Petersen, the wife of LDS Apostle Mark E. Petersen. Ms. Petersen was a popular LDS youth writer. I recall reading some of her books as late as the 1970s.

I have no idea if Bott read “Choose Ye This Day,” but this novel, valued enough by church hierarchy to be recommended to LDS teens, is by any fair definition, riddled with the racism prevalent in that era. Ironically, a few days ago, I read an article in The Journal of Mormon History, “The War in Heaven and Mormon Thought,” by Boyd J. Petersen, that references racist elements in “Choose Ye This Day.” In the novel, two LDS students are debating whether their school football team should accept a black athlete. One student, “Kent,” says that “Even the Church holds out against the Negros(sic).” As Boyd J. Petersen summarizes, another student, “Steve,” wants to play with “Milo,” the black student. The teens consult”Hank Weston,” a hamburger stand owner with a reputation for honesty. From Petersens’ JMH article: “Hank opines that his ‘attitude on this subject is pretty well guided by my religious views … so I hope you won’t mind if I mix a little religion with what I say.’ Hank then teaches the students that blacks are cursed in mortality because they were not as valiant in war in heaven. He confesses, though, that he has ‘heard some of our {Church} leaders teach that even the Negro can go to the celestial kingdom if he is faithful. However, he can only be a servant there.’ He justifies this idea by adding: “That is more than many white people will receive, for many of them will be placed in the lower degrees of glory in the next world, because they did not live righteously. So in some respects, Negroes, if they are faithful, may receive a higher glory in the world to come than those of other races who defile their birthright.” Hank concludes: “Each race may develop within itself. So far as the Negroes are concerned, we will give them every right and privilege within their race that we claim for ourselves within our own race, but we will not become intimate with them in any way, and we will not intermarry with them. … I believe that is a fair position to take, and I believe it squares with the word of God.” Hank’s position is finally summed up by one of the students: ‘So you would be in favor of allowing a Negro to play on our football team, as long as we did not take him so far into our social life that some white girl might become infatuated with him.’ ‘That is just what I believe,’ responds Hank.’”

That’s pretty noxious stuff, and “Hank” is a terrible, racist role model for the two youths. Nevertheless, this book is one that LDS Church leaders were recommending Mormon teens read 50-plus years ago. (To be fair, the list includes a lot of good books, such as “Profiles in Courage,” by John F. Kennedy.)

In the same JMH article, Petersen refers next to a statement made by the LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, who said in 1979, after blacks were granted priesthood blessings, ”Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.”

McConkie was right to say “forget everything” said on that topic, and I assume we can cast “Choose Ye This Day” into a trash can filled with other bigotries. But institutionalized racism is hard to unlearn, as the Bott episode shows. It would be great if today’s LDS Church leaders would offer a public apology for its past racial policies to go along with its recent terse statement of disapproval of what Bott said.

From the column by Doug Gibson, a Utah mormon columnist: There’s one big reason the usually popular BYU Professor Randy Bott stepped in it big time trying to explain the LDS Church’s longtime denial of priesthood and temple blessings to members of African descent by calling it a “blessing.” (Read, read, and read) Bott and others of that era in the LDS Church were taught these types of condescending “compassionate” racist principles when learning about the LDS Churches ban on blacks decades ago.

From the column: ...institutionalized racism is hard to unlearn, as the Bott episode shows. It would be great if today’s LDS Church leaders would offer a public apology for its past racial policies to go along with its recent terse statement of disapproval of what Bott said.

As much as columnist Gibson does a great job of historical research in his columns, I don't think on this note that he quite grasps how many Lds "prophets" and "apostles" this would eviscorate.

When you look @ the Mormon church response -- and the BYU campus response -- to Professor Bott's statements, the emphasis is on blaming Mormon cultural folk doctrine for the obvious racist expression. Iow, they want to pinpoint the "blame" on cultural myths that cropped up.

The problem is that if these were "myths," they were cooked up by prominent Lds leaders. And if what historical Lds leaders said couldn'tor can't be taken at face value, then what can be?

This is indeed a crisis of faith for contemporary Mormons who bother looking into -- with detail -- any & all things their past leaders have said about blacks and Native-Americans.

A Mormon non-profit org leader, Kevin Barney, even conceded this in an online article...though Barney played down its potential scope: "A lot of people have expressed the view that a disavowal would destroy the Church, that there would be massive faith crises. Sure, this would happen on a small scale..."
Source: Thinking Strategically about a Ban Disavowal [Mormon racism re: ban of blacks]

So even Mormon writers like Kevin Barney & Doug Gibson aren't fully aware of the depth and scope of racist comments issued by Mormon leaders. For the Mormon church to apologize for ALL of that...would be like calling the whole lot "false prophets" & "false apostles."

And that, in a nutshell, is the crisis of faith: Do Mormons toss the whole bunch who lauded racism under the bus? And, if so, what about anything else they said as so-called "mouthpieces" of the Mormon overlord?

But if there is no official disavowal -- no repudiation -- from past Mormon policies & past Mormon racist doctrines...then are contemporary Mormons willing to don the reputation of racists-by-association?

Hey, if not a part of the solution, then you're part of the problem.

From the column: ...a statement made by the LDS Apostle Bruce R. McConkie, who said in 1979, after blacks were granted priesthood blessings, ”Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.” McConkie was right to say “forget everything” said on that topic, and I assume we can cast “Choose Ye This Day” into a trash can filled with other bigotries.

Mormons are between a rock and a hard place. They are taught -- brainwashed if you will -- to never (publicly) critique a Mormon leader -- past or present.

So when they condemn racism -- even past & even present racism by Mormons & Mormon leaders...they have to do it vaguely...generically...and not get too specific.

I looked today @ the BYU Daily Universe newspaper to see if the BYU students had enough moral integrity to critique their popular religion prof, Randy Bott, over what he said.

Knowing that the "Opinion" section would be the place to find such critiques, I first looked to see what was covered on the subject itself: I only found a couple of brief letters-to-the-editor -- and one longer editorial.

Not surprisingly, none of these three sources critiqued Bott in any way distinct from the press release issued by the Mormon church on the matter.

Two of the three BYU opinion sources used this same McConkie quote above. It seems that when a Mormon "apostle" like McConkie had to fall on his sword in '79 about racist statements he made pre-1978 change -- well, that at least allows contemporary Mormons a foothold in citing him as part of their generic critique of Mormon history...without showing any individuality as to their personal critiques of the issues.

They are on "safe" ground citing a Mormon "apostle" critiquing himself; beyond that, it's TABOO among Mormons to be too specific in their public critiques.

And that is yet another reason we know that Mormonism is indeed a cult.

Locked-up, lockstep minds are never free.

(I'll let Elsie pull out some of those Peterson racist-central remarks)

At your service +.

"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 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)

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.