Posted on 12/10/2013 5:21:52 AM PST by Colofornian
...Latter-day Saint scripture and teachings affirm that God loves all of His children and makes salvation available to all. God created the many diverse races and ethnicities and esteems them all equally...
...for much of its history—from the mid-1800s until 1978—the Church did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances.
SNIP
In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost. Following the death of Brigham Young, subsequent Church presidents restricted blacks from receiving the temple endowment or being married in the temple. Over time, Church leaders and members advanced many theories to explain the priesthood and temple restrictions...
The curse of Cain was often put forward as justification for the priesthood and temple restrictions. Around the turn of the century, another explanation gained currency: blacks were said to have been less than fully valiant in the premortal battle against Lucifer and, as a consequence, were restricted from priesthood and temple blessings.13
SNIP
13. Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, for example, wrote in 1907 that the belief was “quite general” among Mormons that “the Negro race has been cursed for taking a neutral position in that great contest.” Yet this belief, he admitted, “is not the official position of the Church, [and is] merely the opinion of men.” Joseph Fielding Smith to Alfred M. Nelson, Jan. 31, 1907, Church History Library, Salt Lake City.
(Excerpt) Read more at lds.org ...
So when is Brigham Young University's name going to be changed? Why honor an open racist?
The article makes minute footnoted reference of an "apostle-turned-prophet" -- Joseph Fielding Smith, who was the great nephew of Joseph Smith -- holding opinionated racist beliefs and openly propagating them in his writings. (Certainly this is progress because previously the Mormon Church would never point exact fingers at exactly what they were supposedly repudiating!)
Hence, the Internet has served to chase away many Mormons once they discover their leaders' history...Once they see for themselves what these 11 "prophets" and their general authorities proclaimed as God's view on the matter -- and as being the ONLY OFFICIAL divine vocal chords on the face of the earth!
For example, see Brigham Young's message here:
Journal of Discourses: Volume 7, pp. 282-291: Intelligence, Etc.:
Brigham Young speaking as God's supposed ONLY "prophet" on earth in October 1859:
"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 anyone 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; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree. How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam's children are brought up to that favorable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like proportion." (Brigham Young)
So Mormons...again...when will BYU undergo a complete "rebranding" by ridding its name forever of this "Racist-in-chief?"
....for much of its history—from the mid-1800s until 1978—the Church did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances...In 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood...
Here Mitt Romney was, at age 30, belonging to such an organization...and somehow the GoP thought that younger voters in particular might look the other way.
Complete nonsense!
A word of explanation about the statement:
...did not ordain men of black African descent to its priesthood...
...the Mormon "ordination" process is simply laying hands on a 12-year-boy and praying over them...that's the extent of their ordination process for the "Aaronic priesthood." And then ALL Mormon men are to move on into the "Melchizedek" priesthood in basically the same manner.
The Mormon priesthood is not "clergy."
The Mormon priesthood is not the equivalent of "Catholic priesthood."
So, what the Mormon church is saying is: "Yeah, we denied blacks privileges to what any 12-year-old white boy had. And we were still doing this in 1978."
Well, Nelson Mandela spent all Summer in a hospital with a reoccurring lung infection; and then was back in the hospital by Nov. 13. His health has been continually in decline this year.
And this was regularly conveyed in the media.
I believe the PR folks @ Salt Lake City realized that one day soon Mandela would pass away. And so they drafted and redrafted and redrafted and redrafted and redrafted a very fine-tuned "crafted" message that would toss their own historical guilt right alongside the white guilt of South Africa. They were simply waiting for Mandela to die.
That way, in coming out of the racist closet, they wouldn't have to "be alone." They wouldn't be bare naked. They could "atone" for their corporate sin without somebody doing it bloodily...
Besides...people are quite busy in December...pre-occupied with other things...it's the "Friday afternoon" of the 12-month calendar.
Colvin's blog excerpt:
Call me cynical but the timing of the Race and the Priesthood statement from the LDS Newsroom; the PR department; the First Presidency, or wherever it came from appears to be an effort, in light of Mandela’s death, to mitigate for the church being positioned on the bad side history. Or perhaps it’s just a coincidence. Either way, as a church we have no right to effuse over Mandela’s Long Walk to Freedom...
Cont'd: His greatest work was as a political subversive and in his challenge to the racial, political and economic order of things, the very things our church has historically excommunicated for – calling it ‘apostasy’. So we don’t get to join hands with the rest of the world in celebrating a figure who would have been deprived of influence, priesthood, and even membership had he been a Mormon. And notwithstanding the long awaited honesty of the Race and the Priesthood statement, we are not yet that church that was once racist, and is no longer. Yet more needs to be said and done.
Cont'd:
Firstly, an apology is in order. The lives of faithful people both black and white were destroyed, upended, devastated by this doctrine. There are generations and generations of Black and Coloured folk who have had to wonder who they are in God’s eyes because church leaders sustained a discourse that blatantly positioned them as inferior. They need an apology.
Cont'd:
There were those who were excommunicated for their outspoken criticism of the church’s position on the divine order of mortal color – have they received an apology and a reinstatement– even posthumously? They deserve an apology. And there are white folk who have been lead astray be a vicious doctrine upheld by white men. White priesthood leaders who have not had to think about what their own race means in the order of Godly things and have apparently privileged their own credibility as inspired religious leaders above their need to put things right, and they have not put things right when they could have been put right – white folk deserve an apology for being lead to believe things that are simply not true.
And this admission has taken a long, long time, too long in fact – a wait that deserves an apology in and of itself.
Secondly, this is not something for the newsroom alone. This is not an incidental explanation that gets to sneak in quietly on a discrete webpage. The racial theories of the past were declared, understood and promulgated as doctrines and thus need to be officially repudiated in General Conference, as letters to be read by Bishoprics to their congregations, in addendum documents provided with curriculum materials. This statement should have come with an explanatory letter from the First Presidency, signed by the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and backed up with procedures for dealing with those who continue to teach and preach these spurious doctrines. There must be some protection for those who will continue to be affected by those who cling to these false doctrines, and feel justified in preaching them in church. Will those who refuse to part with their racist accounting of the order of heaven be treated as harshly as those who had in the past raised the voice of protest to those racist doctrines?
Thirdly...there are huge implications in this admission of wrong that now need to be tackled; 1) Those we had thought were talking to God, had in fact made a God of their culture, their politics, their privilege, their race. They were wrong. What else have they been wrong about?
2) Given that they were wrong and it has taken the Brethren this long to admit it, what do we accept now as doctrine that might be repudiated in a few years time?
3) Where are the curriculum lessons that address our need to deal with institutional and even prophetic error?
Bingo...
This Mormon blogger is starting to "get it."
Who trumps who in the Mormon hierarchy? The PR Boys? Or "prophets" like Gordon B. Hinckley?
COMPASS INTERVIEW WITH PRESIDENT GORDON B. HINCKLEY: Aired: November 09, 1997:
Excerpt of that interview:
RB: Now up until 1978 I understand Blacks were not allowed to be priests in your Church?
GBH: That is correct. Although we have Black members of the Church. They felt that they would gain more in this Church than any other with which they were acquainted and they were members of the Church. In 1978 we (the president of the Church) received a revelation under which all worthy men would receive all the blessings of the Church available to them as well as to any others. So across the world now we are teaching the Gospel to Blacks, Whites, everyone else who will listen.
RB: So in retrospect WAS THE CHURCH WRONG IN THAT?
GBH: NO I DON'T THINK IT WAS WRONG. It things, various things happened in different periods. There’s a reason for them.
RB: WHAT WAS THE REASON FOR THAT?
GBH: I DON'T KNOW WHAT THE REASON WAS. But I know that we’ve rectified whatever may have appeared to be wrong at that time.
***********************
So, as BGood Mormon poster on Ldsfreedomforum.com explained in citing the above:
Race and Priesthood: Church Disavows Past Theories:
"So whatever 'may have appeared to be wrong' has been changed but nothing was really wrong. Also Hinckley brings up that 'there's a reason' for past LDS racism but he doesn't know what the reason was."
And...apparently...now the Mormon Church knows what some -- but not the main reasons -- are...
Somehow, it wasn't their Lds "prophets" and "apostles" and General Authorities leading them astray, despite frequent assurances to the contrary.
Who gives a crap?
Only from lao will come remarks calling their own prophets words “bashing”
Maybe, just maybe, one day instead of the ad hominem, libel and personal attacks, scales will drop from eyes and the deceived will one day see.
That they may one day see that exposing the deceitful teachings and doctrine of a false religion “led” by false “prophets” is not bigotry, smears, innuendo, distortion or fabrication, no matter how much one may wish it to be so.
The words, pages and utterings of their own “leaders” betray them, yet there is such a state of denial,as evidenced by the very words of this sect’s followers and their supporters, that it can only be explained by one thing; satan.
Praying for the people who display such characteristics that are in common with those deceived minions of a sect that persistently encourages deceit by its members.
Barak: the early years...
You must; or else you would not have typed: "Who gives a crap?"
But it's FOUNDATIONAL in Mormonism...
How can a DAMNED mormon worry about someone ELSE's religion??
"Now if any of you will deny the plurality of wives, and continue to do so, I promise that you will be damned;
and I will go still further and say, take this revelation, or any other revelation that the Lord has given,
and deny it in your feelings, and I promise that you will be damned.
Brigham Young - JoD 3:266 (July 14, 1855)
Like the ABOVE???
(I don't know...I'm not "into" tracking toilet deposits or such "contributions"...apparently, tho, that's uppermost on your mind, eh?)
Did you ever object to that?
Or did you just go along to get along?
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