Deseret News published an article on Saturday (27 February) about “An evening with a General Authority” (Elder Ballard), who spoke to Seminary teachers on Friday 26th.
Seminary teachers are to indoctrinate the youth with new and completely different ideas to the ones with which older members are so familiar. Simon Southerton posted a succinct response to Ballard’s nonsense. The Church is in panic mode – trying to ‘save’ the next generation from the truth. Simon says:
“Elder Ballard gave a talk yesterday to CES teachers. He instructed them to learn the answers to difficult church issues that are presented in the 12 essays on the LDS website. He said it is crucial that teachers “know the content in these essays like you know the back of your hand” so that they can “inoculate” the youth against the information they will encounter when they Google.
Here is a snippet of the inoculation that is found in the essays.
Book of Mormon and DNA Studies.
In this essay the youth will learn that essentially all Native American DNA is derived from people who migrated to the Americas thousands of years ago from Asia, and that DNA of Book of Mormon people has not been found. But that’s OK because their DNA could have gone extinct or we may not be able to recognize it. This last bit is not really true because we know what Middle Eastern DNA looks like and it is not found in Native Americans.
Book of Mormon Translation.
Virtually all pictures the church has produced of the translation process show Joseph Smith reading from the gold plates. All those who witnessed the process said Joseph placed a seer stone in a hat and read the words as they appeared on the stone. This same stone was used by Joseph Smith to find buried treasure prior to the arrival of the Book of Mormon. This was illegal and Joseph had previously been arrested for carrying out this practice.
Plural Marriage in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
For most of church history it was believed Joseph Smith was only married to one wife. Indeed the 1990 film “legacy” portrays Joseph’s faithful and loving relationship with his first wife Emma. In this essay, the youth will learn that Joseph Smith married about 34 women, some as young as 14, and 11 women married to living men. Joseph had sent some of these men on missions and secretly married their wives while they were away.
Race and the Priesthood.
In this essay the youth will learn that it was never doctrine that skin colour was a sign of a curse from God. The essay teaches the restriction on Blacks receiving the priesthood was a result of the racist environment that influenced early church leaders. Earlier generations may have been taught that the less valiant in the pre-existence were cursed with a dark skin, but this was never doctrine.
Translation and Historicity of the Book of Abraham.
The Book of Abraham has long been regarded as a faithful translation from an Egyptian papyrus scroll that Joseph Smith purchased. Translations of the hieroglyphics on the papyrus fragments do not match any of the text of the Book of Abraham. In this essay the youth learn that the Book of Abraham was inspired by, rather than a direct translation from the papyrus. This is in spite of the fact that Joseph Smith said it was a translation in the introduction to the book.
(Simon Southerton).
This is the Church link to the essay list mentioned.
I was part of the generation that was taught skin colour was a curse from God. Regardless of what Ballard or the Church may now claim, the doctrine is still encapsulated in Mormon scripture and was taught by General Authorities from the pulpit when I was young. So much for God not allowing prophets to lead us astray. If it was never doctrine, Joseph Smith deliberately led us all astray.
“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). Inspired ‘scripture’ by Joseph Smith.
“The land of Egypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden; When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land. Now the first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal… Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of Priesthood,…” (Book of Abraham 1:23-27). Direct translation; now claimed as ‘inspired’ instead, despite Smith claiming several times that he ‘translated’ it).
Note that not only was it doctrine, the naïve Joseph Smith thought ‘Pharaoh’ was the given name of the eldest son of Egyptus rather than a title. Nonsense knows no bounds in Mormonism. Smith made everything up as he went along; today, the Church is floundering, rewriting the past – again making things up as they go along, attempting to survive in the modern day.
In his talk, Ballard admits that the youth have all the information in the world available at their fingertips. Those with enquiring minds will not be fooled by this attempt to indoctrinate them with new and changed ideas. The original doctrines and facts are still available and will remain so. More and more members are discovering the truth; now, many will also discover the new lies and deceptions and see through them. You can’t hide the facts – moreover, you can’t change the past and expect to get away with it either. It is all so obvious.
I have covered the area of ‘Black and Cursed’ previously (see 11th and 14th December 2013). I have also posted a Black and Cursed article derived from TMD Volume 2.
Jim Whitefield 