Modern church spin doctors can spin all they want. The fact will remain that Mormon prophets and apostles for decades spewed the most insulting, racist nonsense imaginable.

Modern spin doctors now glibly dismiss this nonsense as merely a reflection of the prejudices of the times. Well, yes - exactly. Crucially, what that means is that Mormon prophets and apostles have no greater insight into the nature of abiding truths than anyone else, and are just as susceptible to the whims of prejudices as anyone else. Only the addled mental state of a cult apologist could escape realizing that this "defense" is actually an admission that Mormonism is a fraud.

So what exactly did Mormon leaders teach? Well, they taught - for decades - that there was a giant battle in heaven before we came to earth, and that those born black here were (as pre-mortal spirit warriors) not as "valiant" as those born white. They taught that God did not want blacks even to pass around a piece of bread in a Mormon sacrament meeting. They taught, echoing the Book of Mormon, that Native Americans were inherently lazy and corrupt. They endorsed the Book of Mormon teaching that Jews were "stiffnecked" and stubborn, and were responsible for Christ's death, and that the Holocaust was something like divine retribution for that spiritual crime.

One paradox in all this is that it would be hard to imagine any group of people more ignorant and stupid - more benighted and "loathsome" - than the largely uneducated buffoons making these pronouncements from Mormon pulpits. While they were, Louis Armstrong was revolutionizing jazz and popular song, Einstein was revolutionizing our understanding of space, time, and energy, and Jim Thorpe was winning gold Olympic medals. More broadly, blacks were overcoming 400 years of slavery, moving into productive jobs, making massive contributions to popular culture (like inventing rock and roll, and 8000 other things), and increasingly joining the military to defend a country which still denied them equal rights. Native Americans were recovering from the near-total destruction of their millenia-old culture. Jews were making massive contributions in science, the arts, all kinds of stuff.

If Mormonism were true, it would not now have to try to explain away a once-official racism it now disavows. It would have never promulgated an inane, Klan-style racist mythology. It would have stood as a beacon of acceptance and understanding (as other churches did) during an era of widespread racial discrimination, based on revelations of Christ's enduring love for all people. That it remained a crabbed, institutionally racist organization until a year before Ronald Reagan was elected really should tell us all we need to know about its "one true church" bona fides.

Just my two cents.

All of the above are remnants from 19th Century American racism. It's no surprise that 19th Century LD$ inc incorporated them into it's foundational myths--if for no other reason than to appear less cult-like. What is surprising, however, is how long it is taking to purge these. (Note the use of present tense here).

I see the biggest challenge for LD$ inc is how to try to control the fascist/bigoted statements made by earlier prophets when the quotes are so easily obtainable. If the prophets weren't speaking the truth, wouldn't Elohim have stricken them down?

The Boner

Clearly you're mistaken on this. Did you not see the "No More Strangers" article in the Ensign. Here is an excerpt:

https://www.lds.org/ensign/2000/09/no-more-strangers?lang=eng

"How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations. President Spencer W. Kimball stated the Church’s position well: “We do wish that there would be no racial prejudice. … Racial prejudice is of the devil. … There is no place for it in the gospel of Jesus Christ” (The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, ed. Edward L. Kimball [1982], 236–37)."

So yeah, the TSCC has never been racist and has always stood strongly against it in all its various forms.

(On a side note, Eurasia has always been at war with Oceana, it has always been that way and will always be that way, don't ask questions)



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 07/23/2014 05:10PM by brucermalarky.

Would have been a much more credible claim of prophecy had they joined the millions of people, including American Christians and atheists that were supportive of emancipation in the 1830's, 1840's, and 1850's.

I maintain one of the reasons why Mormons got entrenched and ignored they way they were during this time is they went to Utah Territory and the US government was fixated on States Rights and slavery-related issues.

Once those were addressed, polygamy and Mormonism were dealt with pretty aggressively as the second immorality in the United States. Slavery being the first.

What disgusts me is the lasting effects of teaching children racism. I lived in NZ as a child in the 70s in a Lehite family. We actually believed that Maori were Nephites, descendants of Hagoth, but SWK declared them to be Lamanites, based on skin color, I guess. But there was no doubt that Africans were cursed, and attitudes to them were not just shucked off in 1978.

NZ Mormons were huge supporters of the 1981 Springbok tour at a time when all other countries were boycotting the country over apartheid. Our Mormon minister of police introduced long batons and the red squad for dealing with protesters. In spite of most non Mormon Maori opposing the tour, Mormons were right behind it. Boys from CCNZ would travel into Hamilton with the stated purpose of beating up protesters (I was at CCNZ then).

It was an ugly time in our history, and the Mormons were mostly right on the wrong side. When people point to the Maori who supported the tour as some sort of justification for holding it in the first place, it is mostly Mormon Maori they are pointing to.