Racial Divisions
1 Nephi 13:15; “And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people before they were slain.”
Acts 10:34-35; “Then Peter opened his mouth, and said, Of a truth I perceive that God is no respecter of persons: 35 But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.”
Shockingly enough, Joseph Smith’s writings assert the theory God is disgusted with what He created.
By claiming a group of people were changed into a particular color shade based on behavior isn’t just heretical, but obscene as well and the reason I say this is threefold.
To begin with there are no past indicators in the Bible, or otherwise, proving that an entire people group suddenly changed colors. The only time this can happen is when someone like my youngest daughter who has a very fair complexion stays in the sun too long. However, God didn’t do that to her – she did it to herself.
Secondly, there are no past indicators or historical evidence of God behaving this way. The reason there’s no evidence of this is because God doesn’t react. To react means to act in response to something that has taken place.
God gave rules and people react to them in whatever form or manner they choose. If this was the result of their sin, where in the 613 rules God gave to man to obey is this located? Where does He tell us that we’re going to turn dark and loathsome because of sin?
Furthermore, I know many Native Americans who believe in the Lord and their skin is still as dark as it was the day they got saved – why is that? The same can be said of my Latino friends, my Asian friends, my African American friends…none of my non-white friends changed colors when they got saved. Not one.
Dark skin is a blessing from the Lord! Dark skin protects from UV rays which causes skin cancer. Darker skin obviously contains more melanin which affects lipids that hold moisture. Because of this, the outer layer of darker skinned people holds more moisture which protects skin from drying, cracking and aging.
Lastly, racism is not only unbiblical, but it’s also not historically proven to be part of human behavior until well into the fifth century AD.
Before this time people groups took other people groups into captivity based on things outside of skin color. People were taken into slavery based on the god they worshipped or the land they occupied. The real estate was important for a variety of reasons so let’s take a quick look at what those are.
1. Political purposes – strategically benefitted the country from neighboring countries and protected them with mountainous regions or simply land mass.
2. Water rights – people herded animals at that time for food, clothing, tools, etc. They needed large areas of land with flowing water to both feed and hydrate the animals.
3. Minerals like gold, silver or jewels – this should be obvious but for the sake of clarification, gold, silver and jewels meant money for trading.
4. If the group that worshipped a certain god or types of gods had a large population they’d be looked upon as a possible threat to neighboring countries. Their gods could also be seen as a threat to the gods of the country forcing them into slavery.
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