Monday, February 11, 2008

The Mark of Cain

Jess wrote,

Being a woman, of African descent, who happens to be Mormon, I have tried to keep the issues and the candidate’s qualifications in perspective. I have worked hard to to put affinities aside and focus on the issues. During this election, it does not seem people have studied out the issues and kept things in the proper perspective.


This comment is particularly relevant today in light of this article at the MRM blog today.

Jess said that her LDS faith,
has helped me realize that my Savior loves me, that I am of infinite worth and that he has a perfect plan in place... the plan of salvation.


This seems at odds, to me with statements like these:

“If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a celestial resurrection.” (Race Problems as they Affect the Church) (Mark Petersen, LDS Apostle, 1954)

“And after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain [as evidenced by black skin] was continued through Ham’s wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God.” (Journal of Discourses 22:304)

1 Nephi 12:23: 23 And it came to pass that I beheld, after they had dwindled in unbelief they became a adark, and loathsome, and a bfilthy people, full of cidleness and all manner of abominations.

Mormon 5:15: 15 And also that the seed of athis people may more fully believe his gospel, which shall bgo forth unto them from the Gentiles; for this people shall be cscattered, and shall dbecome a dark, a filthy, and a loathsome people, beyond the description of that which ever hath been amongst us, yea, even that which hath been among the Lamanites, and this because of their unbelief and idolatry.

I would hope, Jess, that you gave serious thought to these teachings. These aren't just opinions, these are your Scriptures and the teachings of your leaders.

Now, its true that Mormonism has tried to minimize these facts in recent years, particularly since 1978. It's also true that Evangelicals have serious problems with racism as well, as seen in the recent discussions around Dwight McKissic's statements about what the highest position occupied by an African American in the Nashville HQ of the SBC is currently (Head of Housekeeping). It's also true that men like John L. Dagg defended slavery.

As Amanda wrote in the comments at MRM:

Actually, history has proven the evangelical tradition to be the racist tradition - in fact- Evangelicals throughout early American history used the bible to justify enslaving other human beings. So if we’re going to discuss racism…let’s not throw stones in your proverbial glass houses. This fact in history is only illuminated more when one visits the south even to this day. Many evangelicals that I have met are still very racist- in my husbands family- and they use the bible to justify their beliefs, beliefs they were taught at church. I have never encountered a teaching or a trend in my LDS upbringing that was even remotely racist.

By way of reply:

Slavery in that age emanated primarily from the Enlightenment not Evangelicalism. Amanda's history is skewed.

Evangelicals never said that blacks would not be equals in the coming kingdom. Indeed, they said they would be equals. Evangelicals, when they support racism, are acting against the Scriptures, not in accordance with them. That's a key point.

Some groups did segregate their congregations. For example, the Charleston Presbytery did that. Two churches would meet in one. The Moravians built separate meeting houses for blacks, both free and slave.
Baptists, however, met as one congregation under one roof, even while defending slavery in the South. True, the slaves sat in the gallery, but, unlike in other denominations, they made efforts to meet as one and not separately.

Today, one of the great tragedies in the South is the separation of Baptist congregations and Presbyterian congregations into "Black" and "White" churches. We all know this should be corrected, but folks on both sides are often reticent to address it. On MJK Sunday at a local AME Zion church here where I live, the pastor, to whom I was listening, said in the broadcast that it was a terrible thing that most the white folks had never been to East Winston (the primarily black neighborhood here), while the blacks left their homes to work in the white neighborhoods all the time. He's right.

However, the reason he's right is because the Bible says that there is no distinction between the races in either the Judgment or Salvation. We are one Church, one People, with One Spirit, One Lord, One Baptism. This is at variance with Mormon teaching.

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