In a now-closed thread, RfM poster "mogambo" notes:
“As a Middle Eastern guy and former investigator (I was never baptized) in an all-white LDS ward, the attitude of the Church towards interracial relationships always interested me. From what I could tell the Church seemed to feed its young members covert racial purity doctrine.
“I experienced an example of what I felt was hidden racist teachings during the Eternal Marriage class. The teacher was telling the story of a female missionary from the U.S. who after returning from her mission, married a guy from another culture (without specifying what he meant by 'another culture'). He said the guy ended up lying to her and cheating on her. The teacher was speaking directly to the girls in the class and warning them to be careful about cultural differences.
“Notice the subtle message he was sending the girls. He was implying that if they marry a guy from another culture,they will be lied to and cheated on; as if things like that do not happen all the time in relationships between people of the same ethnic and cultural background. Consider why he was not warning the guys to be careful about cultural differences when choosing a girlfriend or wife. Because it is my impression Mormons do not mind when white men marry non-white women, since it seems they secretly consider light-skinned people superior to dark-skinned people. It is only the combination of a white woman and a "colored" man they do not like.
"When questioning Mormons why they and their Church seem opposed to interracial relationships and marriage,they strongly denied any such opposition and were happy to give me examples:
-"'Our stake president is married to an Asian woman!'
-"'Our bishop's wife is Hispanic!'
-”'"My cousin is dating a black girl!'
“They just forget all those examples involve white men dating or married to non-white women. It seems as far as the other way around goes, white women dating or marrying non-white men, is where the LDS Church draws the line.
“At the local LDS ward I was an investigator at for six years, I saw several examples of white guys dating non-white girls among the Young Single Adults, but never once saw any example of the opposite, white girls dating non-white guys, and it made me wonder why interracial relationships are so rare among Mormons, and even when you find them, they always involve white men dating or marrying interracially.
“Maybe the secret racial purity indoctrination the church feeds the young women from an early age got to their head, and the young white women believe it is their duty to keep their race "white and delightsome" by exclusively dating and marrying all, blonde-haired, blue-eyed white males, whereas the Church being a male-dominated Church, gives its men the freedom to marry interracially if they choose.
“After all, the LDS Church is essentially a white Church. It is all about being white and right.
(“Interracial Relationships and Marriage in the LDS Church,” by 'mogambo,” on “Recovery from Mormonism” discussion board, 6 October 2013, at:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,1043703)
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--The Mormon Church's Official Discouragement of Interracial Marriage is Rooted in Its First-Presidency-Endorsed Anti-Black Priesthood Ban
While the poster quoted above makes many keen observations, the official position of the Mormon Church remains as follows: Regardless of whether it is a white man initiating marriage to a non-white woman, the Mormon Church institutionally discourage--to this day—the practice of interracial marriage within its ranks. This official Mormon Church discouragement of interracial marriage is rooted in the official, historic, anti-black tradition and doctrine of the Mormon Church. To be sure, the Mormon Church's anti-black doctrine was officially acknowledged by the First Presidency itself as having originated with Mormonism's inventor, Joseph Smith. First Presidency's officially-stated position anti-Black priesthood doctrine, which it traced directly back to Smith . In an officially signed statement pronouncement, the First Presidency declared that “from the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith even until now, it is has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel." Here is the background to the release of that official-position statement:
On 17 July 1947, the LDS First Presidency wrote the following to Lowry Nelson, Mormon professor at Utah State Agricultural College regarding the status of Blacks in the eyes of the Mormon God:
"Dear Brother Nelson:
". . . The basic element of your ideas and concepts seems to be that all God's children stand in equal positions before Him in all things. Your knowledge of the Gospel will indicate to you that this is contrary to the very fundamentals of God's dealings with Israel dating from the time of His promise to Abraham regarding Abraham's seed and their position vis-a-vis God Himself. Indeed, some of God's children were assigned to superior positions before the world was formed.
"We are aware that some Higher Critics do not accept this, but the Church does. Your position seems to lose sight of the revelations of the Lord touching the pre-existence of our spirits, the rebellion in heaven, and the doctrines that our birth into this life and the advantages under which we may be born, have a relationship in the life heretofore. From the days of the Prophet Joseph Smith even until now, it is has been the doctrine of the Church, never questioned by any of the Church leaders, that the Negroes are not entitled to the full blessings of the Gospel.
"Furthermore, your ideas, as we understand them, appear to contemplate the intermarriage of the Negro and White races, a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people from the ancient patriarchs till now. God's rule for Israel, His Chosen People, has been endogamous [meaning 'marriage within a specific tribe or similar social unit']. Modern Israel has been similarly directed. We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in this are, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine.
"Faithfully yours,
[Mormon Church president] George Albert Smith
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
David O. McKay"
Lowry responded on 8 October:
"The attitude of the Church in regard to the Negro makes me very sad. I do not believe God is a racist."
The First Presidency answered:
"We feel very sure that you are aware of the doctrines of the Church. They are either true or not true. Our testimony is that they are true. Under these circumstances we may not permit ourselves to be too much impressed by the reasonings of men, however well founded they may seem to be. We should like to say this to you in all sincerity, that you are too fine a man to permit yourself to be led off from the principles of the Gospel by worldly learning.
"You have too much of a potentiality for doing good and we therefore prayerfully hope that you can re-orient your thinking and bring it in line with the revealed Word of God."
_____
--The Mormon Church Continues to Lie through Its Teeth About Its Official;y-Sanctioned Anti-Intermarriage Position
Despite historic documentation to the contrary, the Mormon Church has persisted in making false claims its still-in-place official opposition to race-mixing marriage. 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 dishonest 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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--Eventual President of the Mormon Church, Spencer W. Kimball, Underscored that the LDS Church]s Highest Leaders are of the View that Crossing Racial Lines in marriage is Bad for the Breed
From the mouth of Kimball, , Mormonism's Bigot of the Lord:
“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)
_____
--Fast Forward to the Present: The Mormon Church's Official 1978 Reaffirmation of Its Anti-Interracial Marriage Position, Made (Strangely Enough) in Conjunction with Its Official Anti-Black Priesthood Ban Retraction the Same Year
Significantly, the anti-interracial marriage sentiments of eventual LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball were reprinted in the Mormon Church-owned "Deseret News" on 17 June 1978, as part of the LDS Church's official announcement of its 180-degree reversal on Mormonism's long-standing anti-Black priesthood ban. To this day, Kimball's anti-interracial marriage statement stands officially unrevoked. It reads as follows (as reported and requoted in June 1978 in the "Church News" section of the "Deseret News," where the LDS Church first published its announcement on the lifting of its priesthood ban against Blacks):
“In an address to seminary and institute teachers at [BYU] . . . President Kimball, then a member of the Council of the 12, said: '. . . [T]here is one thing that I must mention & that is interracial marriages. When I said you must teach your young people to overcome their prejudices & accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage.’"
Allow historians Jerald and Sandra Tanner to reiterate the point:
“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)
_____
--The History Mormon Utah’s Anti-Interracial Marriage Law, as Even Admitted by the Mormon Church-Owned “Deseret News”
In the heart of God's Kingdom, Utah at one time made it a crime to racially intermarry:
“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)
Notice how Trotter conveniently leaves out the fact that in abandoning its historic, anti-Black priesthood ban, the Mormon Church explicitly noted it was retaining its historic, official stand discouraging interracial marriage.
_____
--How the Mormon Church Today Writes Its Bigoted Brand of Anti-Interracial Marriage Racism into Its Contemporary Teaching Manuals
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. From the officially-authorized Church Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3, Lesson 31, entitled “Choosing an Eternal Companion” (p. 127ff), it quotes, in black and white, the anti-race-mixing views of Kimball:
“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)
In order to remove all doubt that the Mormon Church still opposes in concept interracial marriage, that same Aaronic priesthood manual cited above (under the heading "Quotation and discussion"), contains the following explicit and correlated instructions given by the LDS lesson-plan writers to Aaronic priesthood lesson teachers about how to drum into the minds of Mormon young men Kimball's anti-interracial marriage teachings.
What follows is the actual teaching recommendation from the LDS Church's official website on how to prepare, outline and present the Aaronic Priesthood lesson plan objective on marrying members of the same race--all in its own, exact words, as bullet-pointed under the capital-lettered heading, "SUGGESTED LESSON DEVELOPMENT" (emphasis added}. As you read it, take note of how the Mormon Church young men's priesthood manual sneakily sets up the race bait for the taking by the class's susceptible teenage boys by first listing some generic, reasonable, agreeable-sounding points necessary in the "extremely important" search for in an "eternal companion," then slips in Kimball's prejudiced quote and finally follows with a summation that craftily redefines "racial" as "cultural." (The bigoted Mormon cult is as manipulative and deceptive as they come):
"Chalkboard discussion
"Explain that choosing a companion for eternity is an extremely important decision but is sometimes based on a very narrow understanding of love. A person who responds only to infatuation or romantic love might overlook many important qualities when choosing someone with whom to spend eternity.
"What characteristics of young women are socially and spiritually appealing to you?
"Write the young men’s answers on the chalkboard, such as—
"1. Is unselfish.
"2. Shows respect for me.
"3. Has initiative.
"4. Is considerate of others.
"5. Shows patience in stressful situations.
"6. Is an active Church member.
"7. Has a testimony of the gospel and obeys the commandments.
"8. Maintains a healthy outlook toward life.
"9. Possesses values and goals similar to mine.
"Ask each young man to select what he thinks are the three most important attributes on the chalkboard. Take a vote to determine which areas the young men consider most important. Discuss why they voted the way they did."
(Note: Here comes Kimball's racist attack on “mixed” marriages, drilled into the minds of the class by having fellow classmate read it aloud to his peers):
"Quotation and discussion
"Compare the results of the vote with the following statement by President Spencer W. Kimball. Have a young man read it.
“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” ('Marriage and Divorce,' in 1976 Devotional Speeches of the Year [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1977], p. 144).
(Note: Then, the wrap-up with the word “racial” now inoculously and subtley re-defined as “cultural”--all in the midst of a stark warning about marriage break-ups being caused by partners who are of the same background):
"Why is it so important for a couple to be worthy members of the Church? Ensure that the following points are discussed:
"1. Exaltation cannot be attained without celestial marriage.
"2. Religious values are powerful, and conflicting values can cause continual stress.
"3. President Kimball quoted a survey showing that 'only about one out of seven non-member spouses would be converted and baptized into the Church' ('Marriage and Divorce,' p. 152).
"4. When one spouse is not converted to the gospel, the children are caught between the differing values of the parents.
"Why is it important for a couple to have a similar economic, educational, and cultural background?"
(“Choosing an Eternal Companion,” Lesson #31, in "Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3," "Published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints 1995, All rights reserved, Printed in the United States of America, English approval: 1/92," pp. 127ff, at:
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?hideNav=1&locale=0&sourceId=1f4fa41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=198bf4b13819d110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD and "Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3," Table of Contents and Publication Notes, at:
http://lds.org/ldsorg/v/index.jsp?locale=0&sourceId=402da41f6cc20110VgnVCM100000176f620a____&vgnextoid=c3dcf4b13819d110VgnVCM1000003a94610aRCRD; access denied without permission)
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So, there you have it: The deliberate, covert, soft-sell war of race hate being waged today against eternal marriage-destroying "conflicting values" supposedly fatally harbored by individuals of different skin colors.
Brought to you by the White Supremacist Mormon Church.
Grab your children and run.
Edited 5 time(s). Last edit at 02/23/2015 01:05AM by steve benson.