Today we’re taking a look at some of the context in Mark Petersen’s speech given at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level in Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954.
The reason I’m posting this part of the apostle’s speech is because of some comments and e-mails I’ve been receiving from angry members of the LDS Church lately.
Several people have told me that I was not taught that dark skinned people sinned in the pre-existence as I’ve stated many times here on the blog and on our ministry website.
Once again I will emphatically state that when I grew up in Ogden, Utah in the ‘60’s and ‘70’s the ward I belonged to taught members that dark skinned people sinned in the pre-existence and therefore were cursed. Because of this sin they should be looked down upon with the understanding it was okay to discriminate against them because of their lesser intellect caused by their own poor decisions before coming here to earth.
The name of Mr. Petersen’s speech is “Race Problems as they Affect the Church”. So here we go – let’s take a look at what the Mormon god inspired apostle had to say;
“…Since the gospel is eternal and God is the same yesterday, today, and forever, and since He is dealing with the same group of spirits, meaning you and me and the rest of us on earth, both in the pre-existent state as well as here, is there any reason why the Lord’s method of dealing with sinners and saints in the pre-existence should be different from His method of dealing with them here?…”
Question #1 –
Why would there be sinners in heaven? Isn’t heaven perfect? We’ll forego the whole pre-existence subject for now and just think upon the idea there were sinners in heaven…
Does the Bible tell us there are/were/will be sinners in heaven?
Mr. Petersen’s speech was, let’s say lengthy, thus our limited references to his comments, but let’s see what else he said –
“…can we account in any other way for the birth of some of the children of God in darkest Africa, or in flood-ridden China, or among the starving hordes of India, while some of the rest of us are born here in the United States? We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in our pre-existance some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Indians, some as Negroes, some as Americans, some as Latter-day Saints. These are rewards and punishments, fully in harmony with His established policy in dealing with sinners and saints, rewarding all according to their deeds…”
Question #2 –
Explain my life and scenario if the above teaching is true.
I was born into the “elite status” of a multi-generational Mormon family in Utah no less.
I was born in the US.
I was born into a family on my mother’s side who is fair skinned from a Northern European ancestry.
I was also born into a family on my father’s side who is from Northern Europe, but some of them were black.
How could I have been born into an LDS “choice and favored” family and still have African ancestry?
To date my research and answers to this “all important” question remains unanswered – all I hear is crickets.
Why isn’t the race issue a big thing now in the Church when they’ve contradicted themselves by leaving their racist doctrines in their canon?
See Book of Abraham and Doctrine and Covenants – and most certainly the Book of Mormon with stories of “dark and loathsome Lamanites and their “white and delightsome” Nephite relatives.
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