Is it a reward to be an LDS member?

Question

What if your Chinese?

At the time George P. Lee was called to be a General Authority in the Mormon Church, Mark E. Petersen was serving as one of the Twelve Apostles. Apostle Petersen, who died in 1984, held some very strong views concerning Indians and other dark-skinned races. In a speech given at the church's Brigham Young University, Apostle Petersen gave the following information concerning the doctrine of pre-existence and how it affected the various races:

"We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in our pre-existence some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as Americans, some as Latter-day Saints. These are rewards and punishments... Is it not reasonable to believe that less worthy spirits would come through less favored lineage? Does this not account in very large part for the various grades of color and degrees of intelligence we find in the earth?...

Answer 1

Again, your ignorance shows in the way you phrase things. sometimes i believe that I was born Mormon because I would have been too stupid to accept it if I had been born outside the religion. See, it really all depends on your point of view.

Answer 2

Every time someone mentions less than favorable statements by leading LDS members, the LDS on this site all claim that the speakers had no real authority...Uh, what? This guy is an Apostle, right? That seems pretty major to me. What about Brigham Young? He says sh!t like this, "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, Quotation from Journal of Discourses. LDS (that I've encountered on this site) respond by saying that the remarks sound racist today, but that they didn't back in the 1800's. His words were the words of God...Was God racist in the 1800's? Why do they defend him with that answer when all they are really doing is claiming that 100 years ago, God was cool with racism?
So, the question...Is it a reward to be LDS? Only in they eyes of very conceited, and apparently only white, humans.

Answer 3

Would you please post the link to the entire article or source? Iwant to see if you have (as many many do) have taken this quote out of it's original context. If it's a 100% accurate statement in your context, then that is an unfortanute thing (but, then again, it is possible he was speaking his own opinion) People like to call us out for going to the "this may have been opinion" card I can see why they would, but my beef with that is this: We have stated many times the best places to find official church doctrines and teachings are 1) in the scriptures 2) in our churches General Conferences held twice a year. This would be past present and future conferences and 3) The monthly Ensighn (LDS Church Magazine published each month) has a message from one of our church leaders in it. Also, LDS.org is a source for official church teachings. As far as the Brigham young stuff: That has been answered too. You all just love to make a racket, re-hashing things that have already been answered.

Answer 4

Yes, I find it very rewarding. I left the church for a few years but I knew the first day that I came back that it was the right thing to do and I have been greatly blessed.

If you don't agree with my religion, that's totally fine. But nothing good comes out of posting several questions against the church, especially when a lot of what's been stated it a lie.

Answer 5

I disagree with his assertion. This is one man's view, and he was not speaking in a role of authority to identify church doctrine. The LDS faith includes several beliefs that I'll bring to bear here:

-- All people existed as spirits before coming to this Earth.
-- All people's spirits are literally spirit children of God.
-- God is a loving Father who wants the best for His children.
-- God sends his spirit children to Earth to learn and to be tested.
-- God wants each of us to return to live with Him when our time on Earth is concluded, contingent upon our choices and performance.

With these assumptions, would it not make the most sense that God would drop us into this mortal life in a place and under conditions that would maximize the probability of us returning to him?

The LDS faith also has another key feature that should be mentioned:

-- Those who do not have an opportunity to learn and accept the Gospel of Jesus Christ in this mortal life may have the opportunity to learn of it and accept it in the afterlife.

With this latter point, it can then be surmised that if a person would be less inclined to accept the Gospel in this life, and more inclined to do so in the afterlife, He would drop a person's spirit into this mortal life in a place and under conditions that would prevent that person from hearing or comprehending the Gospel while here, in favor of hearing it later. This, again, is to maximize the probability of having that person return to God.

Another point:

-- God is all-knowing, all-powerful, and has a plan for all his children that can not be frustrated.

With this last point, God would again drop people into this life not only to maximize the chances for individual souls to return to him, but for all people, collectively, to return to him.

Fascinating topic.

Answer 6

This is racism and religious bigotry at its worse. there are no rewards is being a Mormon---only condemnation. The Mormons use the name of God---Jesus Christ---in vain and therefore are continually in sin. What you quoted also smacks of reincarnation, which is a refuted doctrine by the Christian church. I really do not understand the Mormons' obsession with native America. They seemed focused on the demonic rather than the Godly. They will all have their day before the Lord and none of them will like what he has in store for them.

Answer 7

His statement is true....if you were Hindu and believed in reincarnation. Just further proof that LDS isn't even really Christianity but the funny part is that he didn't realize that being reborn into LDS is actually a punishment worse than the Nine Circles of Dante's Hell.....lower than a maggot ;)