The Latter-day lily-white lies, they just keep on a-comin'.
With a straight, white-and-delightsome face, LDS Church spokesman Mark Tuttle made the palpably false claim to the "Salt Lake Tribune" that "the [Mormon] church has no policy against interracial marriage . . . ."
(Peggy Fletcher Stack, "Mormon and Black," in "Salt Lake Tribune," 6 June 2008, at:
http://www.rickross.com/reference/mormon/mormon520.html)
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Despite all the predictable and dubious denials, the LDS Church as a point of fact officially opposes the race-mixing marriage of (among others) U.S. president Barack Obama’s parents.
Yes, you heard it here (but not first; it's been pointed out before from the Mormon Church's official-position record).
The white-makes-right crowd in High Command of the Mormon Church wants you to listen up, President Barack Obama:
Your parents did not do the advisable thin in racially mixing when they married each other and produced you as their offspring.
Indeed, let the record undeniably demonstrate that according to Spencer W. Kimball in statements he made (which were later officially reaffirmed while he was serving as Mormon Church president in 1978 when its anti-Black policy was amended--statements which to this day stand unrevoked by the Mormon Church), interracial marriage is officially not considered a good thing by the LDS Church.
To be sure, the Mormon Church (on-the record and explicitly) recommends that people do not race-mix through marriage.
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--From Kimball's Own Mouth: The LDS Church's Highest Leaders Are of the View That Crossing Racial Lines is Bad for the Breed--
“Now, the brethren feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial lines in dating and marrying. There is no condemnation. We have had some of our fine young people who have crossed the lines. We hope they will be very happy, but experience of the brethren through a hundred years has proved to us that marriage is a very difficult thing under any circumstances and the difficulty increases in interrace marriages” (Spencer W. Kimball, Brigham Young University devotional, 5 January 1965)
“When I said you must teach your people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage. I mean that they should be brothers, to worship together and to work together and to play together; but we must discourage intermarriage, not because it is sin. I would like to make this very emphatic. A couple has not committed sin if an Indian boy and a white girl are married, or vice versa. It isn’t a transgression like the transgressions of which many are guilty. But it is not expedient. Marriage statistics and our general experience convince us that marriage is not easy. It is difficult when all factors are favorable. The divorces increase constantly, even where the spouses have the same general background of race, religion, finances, education, and otherwise. ” (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball,” p. 302)
“The interrace marriage problem is not one of inferiority or superiority. It may be that your son is better educated and may be superior in his culture, and yet it may be on the other hand that she is superior to him. It is a matter of backgrounds. The difficulties and hazards of marriage are greatly increased where backgrounds are different. For a wealthy person to marry a pauper promises difficulties. For an ignoramus to marry one with a doctor’s degree promises difficulties, heartaches, misunderstandings, and broken marriages.
“When one considers marriage, it should be an unselfish thing, but there is not much selflessness when two people of different races plan marriage. They must be thinking selfishly of themselves. They certainly are not considering the problems that will beset each other and that will beset their children.
“If your son thinks he loves this girl, he would not want to inflict upon her loneliness and unhappiness; and if he thinks that his affection for her will solve all her problems, he should do some more mature thinking.
“We are unanimous, all of the Brethren, in feeling and recommending that Indians marry Indians, and Mexicans marry Mexicans; the Chinese marry Chinese and the Japanese marry Japanese; that the Caucasians marry the Caucasians, and the Arabs marry Arabs.” (Spencer W. Kimball, “The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball,” p. 303)
("Interracial Marriage," at:
http://www.lightplanet.com/family/marriage/interracial_marriage.html)
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--The Mormon Church's Official Reaffirmation of Its Anti-Interracial Marriage Position When Its Anti-Black Priesthood Ban Was Formally Announced--
“In 1958 [Kimball] gave an address which touched on [the]subject [of interracial dating]. President Kimball’s statement was reprinted in the 'Church Section' of the 'Deseret News' on June 17, 1978 [on the heels of the Mormon Church allowing Black males to receive the priesthood] . . .
“The 'Church Section' . . . [on that date] gave this information:
“'In an address to seminary and institute teachers at Brigham Young University on June 27, 1958, President Kimball, then a member of the Council of the Twelve, said:
“‘ . . . [T]here is one thing that I must mention, and that is interracial marriages. When I said you must teach your young people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage.’”
(Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Changing the Anti-Black Doctrine, Chapter 10, Part 2," from "The Changing World of Mormonism," web edition, at:
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech10b.htm and
http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changecontents.htm)
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--Utah’s Anti-Interracial Marriage Law--
“Like most other states, Utah once had a law against interracial marriages. It was passed by the territorial Legislature in 1888 and wasn’t repealed until 1963, said Philip Notarianni, director of the Division of State History.
“‘Utah, both in enacting and repealing it, probably just was going along with the national sentiment,’ he said.
“Race isn’t an issue today for Utah’s predominant LDS faith, church spokesman Scott Trotter said.
“The late President Spencer W. Kimball of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints had cautioned members about interracial marriages, but it was also a revelation issued by President Kimball that opened up the LDS priesthood to worthy black males in 1978.”
(Deborah Bulkeley, "Mixed Marriages on Rise: Acceptance is Growing for Interracial Couples," in "Deseret News," 13 April 2007, at:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/1,5143,660211384,00.html_____
What a guy ol’ saintly Spence was.
Even when he gave the priesthood to Blacks, he couldn’t help himself and had to add that didn’t mean White folks should, you know, like, marry them.
And, by the way, for those out there who may think that the Mormon Church has moved past Kimball’s negative view of interracial marriage, think again. To this day, it’s still quoting him. In its officially-authorized Church Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3, Lesson 31, entitled “Choosing an Eternal Companion” (p. 127ff), it declares in black and white:
“We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question.” (Spencer W. Kimball, “Marriage and Divorce,” in 1976 Devotional Speeches of the Year [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1977], p. 144)
Just thought President Obama should know what the Mormon God still thinks of the race-mixing thing.
Edited 16 time(s). Last edit at 11/15/2010 01:49PM by steve benson.