14 December 2013

Further to the 11 December post below, having now read through the actual Mormon Church article in detail, I have posted an additional note to the TMD fb page similar to this:

Claims from the Mormon Church article regarding racism.

See the complete ‘Race and the Priesthood’ essay here.

Some of the things the article claims…

“God created the many diverse races and ethnicities and esteems them all equally. As the Book of Mormon puts it, “all are alike unto God.””

Really? The very same Book of Mormon declares: “…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” (2 Nephi 5:21). Emphasis added.

“According to one view, which had been promulgated in the United States from at least the 1730s, blacks descended from the same lineage as the biblical Cain, who slew his brother Abel. Those who accepted this view believed that God’s “curse” on Cain was the mark of a dark skin. Black servitude was sometimes viewed as a second curse placed upon Noah’s grandson Canaan as a result of Ham’s indiscretion toward his father.”

‘One view?’ It was Joseph Smith’s own god’s view! “And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them” (Book of Moses 7.22). Emphasis added. So much for “esteems them all equally.”

“Church leaders pondered promises made by prophets such as Brigham Young that black members would one day receive priesthood and temple blessings.”

They didn’t say which ‘day’ Young expressly stated that it would be (it was to be after everyone else), and they certainly didn’t ‘ponder’ much else that Brigham Young said, especially:

“…What is that mark? You will see it on the countenance of every African … the Lord told Cain that he should not receive the blessings of the priesthood nor his seed, until the last of the posterity of Abel had received the priesthood, until the redemption of the earth…” (Brigham Young’s Speech on Slavery, Blacks, and the priesthood.  Brigham Young Addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, 5 Feb 1852, Church Historical Department). (Emphasis added). Full speech available online at UTLM.

‘Cherry picking’ is a favourite game with Mormon Church leaders, along with ‘lying for the Lord’ (during earliest polygamy; the 1890 Manifesto etc.,) and ‘pretending things never happened’ (Adam-God doctrine and blood atonement for example).

“Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form.”

They didn’t ‘ponder’ this from Brigham Young either then:

“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.” (Brigham Young. JD. V. 10:110. The Tabernacle. 8 Mar 1863). (Emphasis added). So, death on the spot – and it will always be so. The article quotes Brigham Young as saying “black members would one day receive priesthood and temple blessings” yet conveniently disregards his confirmation that it would be after everyone else – not 1978.

Notwithstanding the fact that of course everyone should always have been treated equally, it takes religion to make up reasons for such things as colour when slavery abounds. Then they are stuck with outdated and unacceptable previously established ‘doctrines’ (pretending they were just ‘theories’) when the tide of public opinion turns. How do you get your god to change his unchangeable mind? Just make up more nonsense and tell more lies and the problems of the past will magically go away. (Or not, as the case may be). They simply cannot sustain “prophets such as Brigham Young”, to quote the article, when it suits them, and condemn his doctrines when it doesn’t.

The article concludes with this (unreferenced) quote from the Book of Mormon, in evidence of the Mormon god’s fairness. (It is actually from 2 Nephi 26:33).

“[The Lord] denieth none that cometh unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; . . . all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.”

I do find it strange that there are so many references to ‘Jew and Gentile’ in the BOM when they were supposedly a Christian people by that stage and essentially they themselves would have been ‘gentiles’ to Jews, had there been any there. Elsewhere in the Book of Mormon, the Mormon god actually says that the ‘all are alike’ idea only applies if they are ‘for him’ – if not, there is hell to pay.

2 Nephi 10:16. “Wherefore, he that fighteth against Zion, both Jew and Gentile, both bond and free, both male and female, shall perish; for they are they who are the whore of all the earth; for they who are not for me are against me, saith our God.” The Mormon god is like every other god – anyone who isn’t ‘for’ him ‘shall perish’. The Mormon god is not just a racist god, he is positively evil if he is going to essentially condemn some ninety-eight percent of the world population who won’t accept him.

Well, they certainly weren’t “all alike unto God” in Smith’s Book of Moses, and they don’t explain contradicting Book of Mormon verses such as 2 Nephi 5:21 (above), where this same “Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.” The Mormon god has firmly established himself as racist, in so-called scripture no less. There is no getting away from that. Nothing is ‘marvellous’, about the article, or the Mormon past, it is pathetic and horrible, and the shameful musings of men have come back to bite them, yet again. They cannot condemn past doctrine without admitting that a god was never involved with Mormonism and that it was a complete hoax. There are no excuses.

I can confirm that following the release of the Church statement, and earlier ones admitting to such things as multiple and conflicting versions of Joseph Smith’s First Vision, which only appeared some twelve to eighteen years after the claimed date of the event (see ‘The First Vision’ article on the side bar), many more Mormons have admitted (to ex Mormon friends) their loss of faith and proposed exit from the Church – including a serving Bishop and Stake President, who reported they are now facing the biggest dilemma of their lives. Exposing the truth from within the Church of course confirms everything I have published, but members face shock and distress, as the admissions also confirm that for many decades their Mormon leaders have constantly lied in a conspiracy to deceive them.

11 December 2013

In the most monumentally insane and preposterous attempt to obliterate problems of the past, the Mormon Church is pretending that things were not the case, despite being emphasized and reemphasized by several modern day prophets – in addition to Mormon scripture penned by Smith himself. They are actually attempting to get members to ignore the truth completely.

http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/news/57241071-78/church-lds-says-mormon.html.csp

Notwithstanding Joseph Smith’s own words in his Book of Moses (7.22) “And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them”, and his Book of Mormon claims (2 Nephi 5:21) “…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”, the Church wants members to believe otherwise – claiming it all started with Brigham Young and that it was never doctrinal.

Unfortunately, they cannot undo the teachings of the past. See in particular the First Presidency statements of August 17th 1949 and December 15th 1969 (at 6.25 to 8.00 mins) in the following video (recently shared by Jeff Ricks). You cannot ignore the facts.

Notwithstanding all that, consider for a moment that when the Church issued its ‘revelation’ in 1978, that the Lord had revealed all people could then hold the priesthood (rather than having all the white people get it first, and others waiting until the millennium for their turn) – the Mormon god neglected at that time to say what he clearly should have said: – by the way, it was never really my idea in the first place!

Many of us have already seen Mormonism for what it is and have left the fold – it is now surely time for the rest of the members to vote with their feet, if they have any sense. There is no question but that this is a vain attempt to rewrite unchangeable history and Mormon scripture as well. To try to just wipe out almost two centuries of a once completely understood and accepted eternal doctrine finally takes the Church into the realms of utter Mormon madness. If members swallow this nonsense without checking their history and scriptures (and then rejecting their Church), there is no hope for them. From now on, the Church will simply pretend it never happened – just as it always does with its problematic past.

I wrote about the ‘Black and Cursed’ doctrine in The Mormon Delusion, Volume 2, in Chapter 13, pp. 250-260 (following the ‘White and Delightsome’ debate I had with a FARMS editor on pp. 243-250) and I have posted a couple of quotes from twentieth century apostles in a note under ‘Black and Cursed’.

December 2013

Last month, I commented on accusations of Mormon Church organised and financed interference in the Hawaii debate on same sex marriage. (See ‘November 2013’). The Mormon Church involvement did not pass unnoticed – especially as they had claimed to back off such interference following getting caught and fined for illegally financing Prop 8 in California previously.

In the UK, The Guardian newspaper investigated the Hawaii episode and their reporter, Fred Karger, is now awaiting a response from the Hawaii Ethics Commission: “…it gets complicated when an official religious organization meddles and lobbies so prominently in politics. I sent a letter to the Hawaii Ethics Commission asking them to investigate whether there were Mormon church employees who had worked over five hours in a month to defeat the bill, or if the church had spent more than $750 on lobbying expenses. If the church met either threshold, they would be required to register more of their employees as lobbyists. We are awaiting the results of that investigation.”

The Guardian: The Mormon Church Won’t Drop its Opposition to Gay Marriage.

There are several worthwhile links in the article itself and this is a direct link to a pdf file of the leaked Mormon Church documents that The Guardian references which evidence many years of high-level committee organised ongoing interference in affairs that should not concern a religion.

Karger concludes: “It is astounding that the Mormon church appears to use tax deductible donations given to the church to lobby and run political issue campaigns. Official LDS church documents show the measures the LDS church took to keep its involvement secret and obscure the source of its funds.

Perhaps it’s time that the US Department of Justice and the IRS take a closer look at the Mormon church’s political activities to determine if its tax-exempt status allows for this. If the Mormon church wants to act like a corporation and not a religion, then its income should likely be taxed.”