Racism
Race Problems – As They Affect The Church, Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954; “I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn’t just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn’t that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people.
I wonder what this man’s thoughts were twenty four years later when the Church made their big announcement. Would this “man of God” get up and move if an African American came and sat next to him? Would he have gotten up and moved if I had sat next to him in a cafeteria?
The longer this guy went on talking, the worse he sounds. Yet he continued…
“From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, ‘First we pity, then endure, then embrace’.” – Apostle Mark E. Peterson
I still remember the nightly news reports and watching this type of bigotry. The police hosing down demonstrators with fire hoses, the beatings of innocent people and the outright hatred for our fellow countrymen. I can still recall my inner relief that I wasn’t darker than I already was…and how I wouldn’t share personal family information, i.e. pictures at school or church. Most in the family inherited my father’s maternal grandmother’s physical traits; dark eyes, dark olive skin, black curly hair…
For me it was intimidating between the news reports, school, and the Church’s teachings. I can’t imagine what it’d be like for those who were/are darker than me. And then reading the Book of Mormon day after day and year after year was difficult at best.
I’d try to line up the teachings with the Bible and take both books into the bishop or my MIA teacher over the years and they always told me and the entire class that our duty was to obey the prophet’s words. They told us that someday we’d all find out the truth.
The Mormon Church’s Thirteenth Article of Faith serves as a ruse to what’s going on behind the scenes. They say they’re benevolent to other men, but does that speech sound loving? While 1978 came and went with the declaration of the Mormon god saying blacks are now in full fellowship with white Mormons, their scriptures belie their public announcement.
Blacks and other non-whites are still cursed of God –
2 Nephi 5:21; “21 And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; 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.”
Alma 3:6; “And the skins of the Lamanites were dark, according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men.”
3 Nephi 2:14-15; “And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites; 15 And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites.”
Moses 7:8; “For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.”
Moses 7:22; “…for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them.”
Abraham 1:24; “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.”
D&C 3:18-20; “And this testimony shall come to the knowledge of the Lamanites, and the Lemuelites, and the Ishmaelites, who dwindled in unbelief because of the iniquity of their fathers, whom the Lord has suffered to destroy their brethren the Nephites, because of their iniquities and their abominations. 19 And for this very purpose are these plates preserved, which contain these records—that the promises of the Lord might be fulfilled, which he made to his people; 20 And that the Lamanites might come to the knowledge of their fathers, and that they might know the promises of the Lord, and that they may believe the gospel and rely upon the merits of Jesus Christ, and be glorified through faith in his name, and that through their repentance they might be saved. Amen.”
D&C 49:24; “But before the great day of the Lord shall come, Jacob shall flourish in the wilderness, and the Lamanites shall blossom as the rose.”
D&C 109:65-66; “And cause that the remnants of Jacob, who have been cursed and smitten because of their transgression, be converted from their wild and savage condition to the fulness of the everlasting gospel;66 That they may lay down their weapons of bloodshed, and cease their rebellions.”
Pray for those who feel stuck in this that the Lord would give them strength to get out and find the real Jesus!
I absolutely abhor racism! I was in the church for 20 years before I knew what the Mormons really believed about racism! I have a complete chapter dedicated to this entitled “Does God love everyone the same?” in my book Loved into the Light. Praise God I know the truth and I am free from a religion that practiced racism and has never apologized for practicing such a cruel doctrine.
Great article Michelle! Thank you so much for working so diligently on getting out the the Truth of the real Gospel…
“There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Galatians 3:28
LaVonne – I was truly blessed by your book and the chapter “Does God Love Everyone the Same” really hit home for me. I was told growing up that I was a great warrior for Christ in the pre-existence. How did they know that? Well I had what I like to call “the tri-fecta” going for me…
1.) I was born White.
2.) I was born to LDS parents.
3.) I was born in the United States
I look back on my life as a Mormon and am ashamed at the way I viewed Blacks. Of course I didn’t really hear the word “blacks” around my house or at church… and the term “African-American” hadn’t been coined as of yet. No, I knew them as… well, starts with an “N” and rhymes with “bigger”. All the male “role models” in my life referred to any race that wasn’t white by their derogatory name. The only jokes I knew growing up were about other races (especially blacks and people of Polish descent). Some of those male role models are still in the LDS church and still refer to different races by names that make me cringe when I hear them… So much for the 1978 “revelation”, and I remember when Spencer Kimball anounced that new decree… it was like “Great, there goes the neighborhood” reactions all around my family and my ward. I didn’t know then, but have since found out that they were probably all “trippin” because their beloved and revered “prophet” Brigham Young had stated, “The day the negro is allowed to hold the priesthood, the church would be destroyed”.
That was one of the eye-opening facts about the LDS church that led to me to leaving it and asking that my name be removed from their records. I didn’t want anything to do with a religous organization that was racist/prejudiced towards anyone.
Even growing up, the Lord was working on me… I always knew that there was something wrong with the LDS church’s stance and how I was raised to view the “inferior race” (LDS church description of the blacks). I had black friends and most of the music I listened to was performed by black artists (Bob Marley, Michael Jackson, Run-DMC, to name a few) I was always encouraged to invite my white friends to church and MIA, but it was an “understanding” that I didn’t invite any black friends. I remember about a year or so after the 78 decree, a black family showed up at church. They were being shown around by one of the missionaries and my ward was trippin out. “What are they doing here?”… “Look at how they are dressed”… etc. I didn’t see the total lack of the Holy Spirit nor the hypocrisy (much like the Pharisees) that was oozing out of the walls of the church foyer. I was blinded by the god of this world and chimed right in with the rest of the crowd.
PRAISE be to GOD that HE took the scales off of my eyes to see that the LDS church is a whitewashed tomb… beautiful on the facade, but just full of dead men’s bones…
Thanks again Michelle for all you do… and thanks LaVonne for your ministry and excellent book.
Galatians 5:1-14
You folks have not done a complete study of the negro situation. Have you heard about brother Johnson from Ghana, Africa. He ran across pamphlets from “The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS;” prayed about them, and the Lord answered and told him to preach what he had learned. He studied more and began to baptize blacks into “The Church of Jesus Christ of LDS.” He established several congregations of the “Church” in Ghana. He asked for assistance from Salt Lake City, and he got it. Brother Johnson was ordained to the priesthood. His converts were baptized again under proper authority, and your Mormon Church was off and running in Africa. There is no problem finding blacks to join the “Church” in Africa, just a shortage of well trained leaders.
Joseph Smith was an untrained, ignorant, poorly schooled county boy. He was told by Moroni that his name would be known for good and evil among all people (“Pearl of Great Price” ‘Joseph Smith History’ 1: 33) All y’all speak the evil. I speak the good. Fat chance a country bumpkin like Joseph Smith could be known for good and evil throughout the world, but whether you like it or not, so it is. The priests of the day crucified Jesus Christ. Paul was beaten and lied about, so it was with Joseph Smith. They lied about him, beat him, and killed him, but the work of the Lord goes forward regardless of the opposition..
Take a look at Alma 22: 28 & 29. “Now the more idle part of the Lamanites…lived on the west…by the borders of the seashore in the land of Nephi and thus bordering on the sea shore in the place of their fathers first inheritance and thus bordering along by the seashore. (Lehi landed on the west coast, Pacific Ocean) , and their were many Lamanites of the east by the seashore whither the Nephites had driven them”(Alma 22: 28 & 29). Note that the distance between the west sea, Pacific Ocean and the east sea, probably the Caribbean sea, does not appear to have been across what is now the United States. Mormon wrote these verses. Joseph Smith never claimed to have written them. These verses from Alma indicate that Orson Pratt, Joseph Fielding Smith, Rod Meldrum, and many Mormons today are misguided in saying that the Great Plains of the USA are the lands of “The Book of Mormon.” There are many other verses that discount the Great Plains and the Heartland Theory. Moreover, the city of Moroni appears to be inundated under the sea just off from the south coast of Belize, and the Cuchumatanes Mountains appear to be the narrow strip of wilderness that divided the land of Nephi from the land of Zarahemla. It is not proper that I should write a book here, but I have carefully studied the geography as recorded by Mormon in “The Book of Mormon,” and it fits in Mesoamerica. Regardless, some Mormons celebrate the Hill Cumorah pageant at Cumorah, New York, and some of them think that the Nephites of “The Book of Mormon” (Mormon 1-6) were destroyed at the Hill Cumorah in New York. Most early leaders of the “Church” taught the same, and this idea continues today among many Latter-day Saints. However, by careful study I have proved to myself that Joseph Smith and his friends did not have knowledge of the geography, cultures, and rivers of Mesoamerica. Also, the Heartland or Great Plains Theory is dead wrong because Zarahemla was on the bank of the river Sidon. The river Sidon ran northward. The Mississippi runs to the South. The Mississippi is not the Sidon. Joseph Smith and his friends could not have written “The Book of Mormon,” because they did not understand the Pre-classic and Olmec cultures or the geography of the book. This I know for sure. Moreover, I know better than to believe all that is alleged against my people.
Eldon V. Guymon