Mormons and Racism

On October 19, 1971, the Genesis Group was established as an auxiliary unit to the church. Its purpose was to serve the needs of black members, including activating members and welcoming converts. It continues to meet on the first Sunday of each month in Utah. Don Harwell is the current president.^[13] When asked about racism in the church, he said "Now, is the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints racist? No, never has been. But some of those people within the church have those tendencies. You have to separate the two." [Wikipedia]

This is an amazing statement considering the long history of what the Church has actually stated:

Brigham Young - Second LDS President and "Prophet"

 "You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind …. the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. ... another curse is pronounced upon the same race—that they should be the ‘servant of servants’; and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree." Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, 7:290.

“Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a sin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to. The volition of the creature is free; this is a law of their existence, and the Lord cannot violate his own law; were he to do that, he would cease to be God” (Brigham Young, August 19, 1866, Journal of Discourses11:272).

John Taylor  - Third LDS President and "Prophet"

"I think the most damning statement came from one of the presidents of the church, the third president of the church, John Taylor. Basically, he said that the reason that black people had been allowed to come through the flood, the flood of Noah, was so that Satan would have representation upon the earth, that black folks were here to represent Satan and to have a balance against white folks, who were here to represent Jesus Christ, the savior. How do you damn a people more than to say that their existence upon the earth is to represent Satan?”  (PBS Frontline TV show transcript)

Bruce R McConkie - LDS Scholar, Writer and Historain

There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, "You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?" And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.... We get our truth and our light line upon line and precept upon precept. We have now had added a new flood of intelligence and light on this particular subject, and it erases all the darkness and all the views and all the thoughts of the past. They don’t matter any more.... It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year. (Bruce R McConkie)

The denial that the Mormon Church did not have a doctrine against Black man is endemic within the bsaic character of the Mormon Church.

George Albert Smith—First Presidency

 The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes [blakman] remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the Doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the Priesthood at the present time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: "Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? ..."(George Albert Smith—First Presidency Letter of the First Presidency August 17, 1949)

And yet only 5 years later:

David McKay - President and "Prophet" 

"There is not now, and there never has been a doctrine in this church that the negroes are under a divine curse. There is no doctrine in the church of any kind pertaining to the negro. We believe that we have a scriptural precedent for withholding the priesthood from the negro. It is a practice, not a doctrine, and the practice someday will be changed. And that's all there is to it.’  President David McKay - Sterling M. McMurrin affidavit, March 6, 1979 

Why do they insist on deception and lies to cover up this embarrasing doctrine?  

Ex BYU Professor David Knowlton:

I'm ashamed, frankly, of a church that doesn't want to tell the truth. I'm ashamed of institutional lying."

Boyd Kirkland (Mormon Writer)

his experience with leaders’ deception about the Adam-God doctrine when Spencer W. Kimball was the church president.  He discovered that lying was the method the church used as standard operating procedure to keep from losing its members:

KIRKLAND "Wasn't there concern that some might be dismayed and disillusioned by their church leaders' lack of candor? ...

LEADERS, 'If a few people lose their testimonies over this, so be it; it's better than letting the true facts be known, and dealing with the probable wider negative consequences to the mission of the church." 

(from http://www.lds-mormon.com/boyd.shtml -  Boyd Kirkland Building the Kingdom with Total Honesty: Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought Volume 31, Number 3, Fall 1998 "Letters to the Editor." 

So if Don Harwell believes that there never has been a doctrine, he talks against his own prophets statements, or he has not fully researched his own Church's history.  Also, if we take his viewpoint as being true (in spite of evidence against it), then he admits that people in the church have a tendency for reacism.  The evidence points to it being the very presidency of the LDS Church that is the one that is racist.  The President of which Mormons declare by oath to be the true living prophet of God.  That is a serious indictment against this deceptive cult.

The interesting thing is this: According to Mormon leaders (and as spoken by Brigham Young), God allowed Black people into the priesthood once the fullness of the white man has been attained in the celestial heaven.  Quoting Young again,

And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to.

You can still buy Mormon Tee-Shirts bearing the saying, "Brigham Young Said it. I believe it. That Settles it!" Really?

So the problem now is that if the Mormon Church admits black people into priesthood now, then that means that everyone else (ie, white people) have already received their blessings.   It therefore stands to reason that being a white convert to Mormonism is futile - you have missed the boat.  Then again, since when was the Mormon cult reasonable?  I suggest you try a real church,since their doors are not closed!  

Did you also know... 

...that the LDS Church in the 60s and right through till 2000 had a program called the "Lamanite Placement Program"  (Nicknamed the "Dip and Ship"  -You are baptized first then shipped out).  This program has never officially been terminated.

It aimed to remove American Indian children from their families in the reservations and place them into white Mormon homes.  The intention was to breed the Indian out of them.  They noticed that the children's skin became less black (and therefore more white) which they put down to their removal of the curse of God!  They could not accept that the whitening of skin occurs when you take anyone away from the harsh sunny environment of, say, Navajo, and plonk them in a cold house in Utah.  Technically, the melanin in the skin fades,not their righteousness increasing!

Read a discussion about this Here  For an insight into the damage caused by this program click here

I would like Answers Please

I would appreciate it if a Mormon could explain why in the BoM, the Nephites (who were the righteous bunch of Hebrew (and White) American Indians and therefore right before God), got wiped out but the unrighteous heathen Lamanites (Hebrew (but black) American Indians).  Where is God in all that and why did God allow his chosen tribe, (the Nephites) to be wiped out like this.

Also if you are a Mormon, why is is that despite the doctrine of the Church not allowing blacks into the priesthood, and accepting that they should be the Servant of Servants (Young), did Apostle Peter baptize the Ethiopian Eunuch (A black man) in Acts Chapter 8

Here in Vanuatu I asked an American Mormon Missionary called Elder Wallace what Brigham Young meant by Black Man being cursed.  He said two things that startled me

1.  Young did not mean black man like Ni-Vanuatu (he didn't consider them) but the statement applies to Africans only

2. Many times [our] prophets lied and got it wrong.  There is nothing wrong with that, of course we lie and of course we always get things wrong.  It's not that important.

That is staggering.  Firstly, I wonder what that missionary would say to a bunch of Africans in Nigeria (where the LDS Cult is gaining strength), and secondly, the verification that the Church views lying as par for the course.

This after having been commanded by the Angel of the Lord to go down the road where they met (and for that purpose).  Furthermore,this is the first individual mention of an individual being baptized.  Yes, the first recorded baptism into Christ was a black African man!

Lying for The Lord

I leave the final words to Ken Clark in his article written for MormonThink. Ken worked full time for the LDS Church Education System (CES) for 27 years.  This is an exact copy from the last part of his excellent article "Lying for The Lord."  

In my effort to defend the church from detractors I learned that members get excommunicated precisely because they publish the truth, and refuse to adopt lying, deception, or suppression of facts as an ethical standard. Loyalty is more important in the LDS church than honesty. I found this out the hard way while teaching for the Church Education System. Honesty was referred to as undermining the testimonies of the youth, or undermining the authority of the prophets.

D. Michael Quinn, excommunicated in 1993 said, "The tragic reality is that there have been occasions when Church leaders, teachers, and writers have not told the truth they knew about difficulties of the Mormon past, but have offered to the Saints instead a mixture of platitudes, half-truths, omissions, and plausible denials. Elder [Boyd K.] Packer and others would justify this because "we are at war with the adversary" and must also protect any Latter-day Saint whose "testimony [is] in seedling stage." 

But such a public-relations defense of the Church is actually a Maginot Line of sandy fortifications which "the enemy" can easily breach and which has been built up by digging lethal pits into which the Saints will stumble. A so-called "faith-promoting" Church history which conceals controversies and difficulties of the Mormon past actually undermines the faith of Latter- day Saints who eventually learn about the problems from other sources."

         (On Being a Mormon Historian, A Lecture by D. Michael Quinn, Associate Professor of History at Brigham Young University, Before the Student History Association, Fall 1981;Faithful History: Essays on Writing Mormon History . Edited by George D. Smith.1992.) See also http://www.utlm.org/booklist/titles/onbeingamormonhistorian_ub057.htm)