How can the LDS defend their doctrinal prejudice toward dark skinned people during the early Mormon years?

Question

Some of you will try to deny this fact by attempting to twist the texts, so look here:
http://christiandefense.org/mor_black.htm

Answer 1

Wow. I answered this for Resis. At the risk of being repetative, here's the text:
First of all, there is a big difference in what mormons think they believe and what was acually taught by early apostles and prophets. Most mormons today are unaware of their church history and would be shocked at some of the pronouncements made in regard to blacks.

Unfortunately, because many of these writings are preserved, the church’s unwillingness to admit any errancy, and the general assumption that anything uttered or written by an apostle is absolute truth, there is an unwritten feeling that blacks are unwelcome. This is less of a problem with younger members, but those born before 1978 remember Bruce E McConkie’s endless tirade against “the *****”. Many of these later assessments of the condition of blacks are still substantiated by the interpretation of the Bible, Book of Mormon, and Pearl of Great Price. It was, and remains critical of blacks. Refer to http://www.ils.unc.edu/~unsworth/mormon/... as a start to understand the church teachings behind this.

Since the mormon church claims to be the ONLY One and True Church on the face of the world, it’s leaders and prophets must be infallible when it comes to god’s word. Because the early church leader were bigots and racists, those opinions made it into canon and doctrine. The church does not deny it, but does not acknowledge it either. Until mormons remove portions of there dogma, and the state of Utah becomes less of a theocracy, blacks will never feel welcome or an integral part of their faith.

Answer 2

First of all, none of that stuff was doctrine. Doctrine is found in the scriptures, not in talks by past presidents. Everything that was quoted in that article was doctored, spun or totally mis-interpreted.

I could spend the next hour explaining, but then, I doubt it would do any good in your case.

BTW, back then, it WAS against the law for blacks to marry whites. When Brigham Young said that if the white seed of the chosen race, he was not talking marriage, he was talking about those men who took advantage of blacks slaves. And it was ONLY the white men of the chosen seed who were deserving of punishment, NOT the blacks! They were not in power. Did you know that in that SAME talk, Brigham Young also said that the white man would be cursed as long as he treated the black man as a slave.

That part about the war in heaven, that's theory only.

And the part about his talks being AS GOOD AS scripture, Here is the rest of that quote:

<>

He never proofed any of the talks published in the Journals of Discourses. He never was able t make any corrections.

And besides, we don't use any of those books as scripture.

dog snee, that was proven to be a hoax, a forgery by Mark Hoffman, and he admitted that.

faked z, we DO deny it.

Answer 3

Or about the fact that Joseph Smith had a large number of wives who were either under the age of 16 or were already married to other men. Or the fact that Parley P. Pratt was "assasinated in cold blood" because he was a martyr for the religion, when in reality he was assinated by the husband of one of the women he shacked up with. Denial ain't just a river in Egypt!

One thing that I forgot to add is that the LDS church claims that God gives continual inspiration, which is why black men in the U.S. and around the world were allowed the priesthood. The reality is that the church holds onto racist, sexist, homophobic views for as long as it can, until they start to become just a little too peculiar for the rest of society, and make some modifications. The BYU honor code (a university owned by the church) was recently modified for homosexuals. Before homosexuals were told that if they even claimed their homosexuality, it was grounds for being expulsed. Now they can claim their homosexuality they just can't practice it. The church changes with the times and not with revelation.

Answer 4

How do the Southern Baptists and most other denominations defend slavery in the past? I don't have to defend something I had nothing to do with.

Answer 5

The same way that Christians defend their god's pronouncements on the proper treatment of one's slaves. That's how it was back then - right?

Answer 6

Probably the same way they deal with the letter about Joseph Smith finding a talking salamander.

Deny it.

Answer 7

They cant do it except to deny that it happened and that you dont know what you are talking about.

Answer 8

MOR MON. . FACT. DENY IT.