If it was about 'denying the Priesthood' to blacks, then they would have just treated blacks like they treat women. So they could have still entered the temple. But since they discriminated against all blacks, not just by denying them the priesthood, but by also treating them like they were no different than dirty animals
There's nothing in the scriptures that talks about restricting blacks from the temple.
Mormons have since been forced to admit that there was no scriptural basis for denying worthy black males the priesthood and black women from the temple and that it was not 'official' doctrine.
Before 1978 I was Mormon and I was brainwashed to believe all kinds of racist myths unique to MORmONism. I was actually brainwashed to believe that Joseph's Myth explained why Indians were so dark, since they were Jews who fled the Middle East and then got cursed by God with dark skin for being Lamanites, descendants of Laman, the Jewish prophet who sailed across the sea and who's whole story is told in the Book of Mormon. I believed blacks were cursed with black skin for having been descended from Cain, who was cursed for killing Able. I was taught that both races were still cursed with dark skin. I was raised to believe my Lamanite and black friends at school had black skin because they were 'fence sitters' in the pre-existence and the reason we treated them like filthy animals was because God was still mad at them for what their ancestor did way back when it was just Adam and Eve and their one kid, Cain.
Fortunately for me my Mother wasn't Mormon and she didn't buy the whole "Adam and Eve" thing. She was pretty sure her Biology, Archeology and Anthropology professors in college were not lying about evolution or the ancient origins of our species, or our kin, chimpanzees and other apes and other animals. So she taught me that and took me to college with her and I retained everything I heard, in great detail. From when I was 2 years old and my older sister was there and she was 4.
But she didn't really have any kind of an organized belief system. She was just more spiritual than my Mormon Dad, who was a typical Mormon, who accepted science and was a stoic pantheist, who believed in Einstein's God. He never lied to us, he just never said anything about religion.
But he was a bit of an old school racist/sexist/homophobe, like most men in his generation. He told racist jokes, just like he told sexist and homophobic jokes. Almost everybody did back then. So it seemed to make sense that God would still be mad at these races of people who were obviously inferior to us.
My father's stoicism didn't hold much meaning for me as a young man and when I started to think about my future, I imagined I'd have a family and I'd want them to have some kind of a structure in their lives, with a common system of belief that they could share with their community. So naturally, I was attracted to the only real religion our family had, which was Mormonism.
One thing led to another and next thing you know I'm a Return Missionary with a whole tribe of kids and a Molly MORmON wife at home barefoot and pregnant, dropping kids left and right.
And the internet came along.
The first card to fall for me was when I started really trying to answer the questions I'd been asked on my mission that I never really felt like I was able to answer satisfactorily. And I refused to lie to my kids. Or the kids I was teaching in Sunday School, who were really smart teenagers. One of whom was in school in Germany studying nano physics technology, in German. He wanted to know where I stood on the issue of our origins. Did we really come from Adam and Eve? How did the Curse of Cain survive the flood?
I didn't know. I told him that. And I told him I'd research it and get back to him. I was honest. I did research it.
I wanted to follow the evidence to where it led and let the consequences follow. I was going to be honest.
When DNA testing of Native Americans came back negative for Semetic DNA it kind of blew my mind. I had built my whole world view on Joseph's Myth and now, the leaders of my church are threatening to excommunicate a Mormon anthropologist colleague of mine for publishing his doctoral thesis on the Genetic Evidence proving Joseph's Myth is based upon 19th Century racist myths used to justify enslaving and displacing two whole races of people, Africans and Americans.
I supported my friend. I really wanted to go to the temple and protest his "Court of Love" which I adamantly opposed. But I had a real problem. I had a ward Leadership party to attend with my Molly Mormon wife. The head of our 'Activities Committee' was active in subversive internet forums and I suspected he was on to me from complaining about my abusive CULT on the internet. He fancied himself as a "Latter-day Danite" and came to boards like this one pretending to be a disaffected Mormon, but really digging up information on fellow Mormons who hadn't resigned and blackmailing them to resign or he'd turn in their names to the Mormon Mafia. I was already on thin ice for asking questions about the racism in the Mormon church with my Bishop. So the activity the activities director chooses is a debate about the authenticity of the Book of Mormon vs. the DNA evidence that has been recently published. And he wants me to argue for the Book of Mormon and our Bishop to argue for the DNA evidence, with about 40 people watching, all the Ward leaders and their wives or husbands. I about had a panic attack.
I knew this guy knew all about me and had everything I'd ever written on the internet on a thumb drive in his vest pocket.

I can't believe how many people believe the modern church claim that denying people of African descent was never official doctrine. The First Presidency, under George Albert Smith, issued an official statement stating "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 gaslighting of the church, and the fact that so many fall for it, is absolutely astounding.

>> I can't believe how many people believe the modern church claim that denying people of African descent was never official doctrine.

Blacks and the priesthood? Official doctrine.

Drinking caffeinated soft drinks? Not official doctrine.

I learned that at a very young age from my TBM dad.

by a policy, you don't look too closely at it. Like my Catholic friends said about priest sexual abuse, "It is unfortunate." Nope, it isn't unfortunate when it happens to you or your child.

When my then boyfriend and current boyfriend came up to my desk at work and told me that it had just been announced on the radio that Blacks would now be eligible to receive the priesthood, I was thrilled. He wasn't sure how I'd react. I said, "It's about time." Even my dad, who was bigoted in many ways, was really angry when some mormons took out a page ad in the tribune with their signatures coming out against this change.

OF COURSE it was an official doctrine. WE WERE RAISED BEING TAUGHT IT.

Growing up in the Mormon church I really thought "The Glory of God is Intelligence" meant researching and learning for yourself.
Little did I suspect that in the modern church all that really means is being obedient and believing whatever current church leaders tell you.

The emphasis on learning was perhaps the greatest cross-over dribble in church history. It left all of us with broken ankles

schrodingerscat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> One thing led to another and next thing you know
> I'm a Return Missionary with a whole tribe of kids
> and a Molly MORmON wife at home barefoot and
> pregnant, dropping kids left and right.


Does that mean that you were impregnating her left and right ?
You make her sound like a poor dumb animal.

> Does that mean that you
> were impregnating her
> left and right ?


I thought it was 'up and down'...!?

That depends.

Now if one is listening to Barry Manilow. . .

Hold my beer and watch this!

Watch?

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

kathleen Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
>
> Does that mean that you were impregnating her left
> and right ?
> You make her sound like a poor dumb animal.


I don't mean to make her sound dumb, we were both deceived, by lies, for many years. That was just cutting to the chase and I shouldn't have made her sound like breed stock, but the point is that we followed the program and it didn't lead to happiness.
It led to misery and cognitive dissonance, which is what eventually resulted in us finding the exit, together.
It wasn't until after we left th at she decided that she wanted to make up for lost time and start acting like a drunk sorority girl at a frat party.

schrodingerscat Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> kathleen Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> >
> >
> > Does that mean that you were impregnating her
> left
> > and right ?
> > You make her sound like a poor dumb animal.
>

> It wasn't until after we left th at she decided
> that she wanted to make up for lost time and start
> acting like a drunk sorority girl at a frat party.


You never disappoint me. But why the “whore” at the end of “Kori-whore” ?

kathleen Wrote:
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> You never disappoint me. But why the “whore”
> at the end of “Kori-whore” ?

Koriwhore may or may not be dead, depending upon whether or not you are observing.

This is an excellent point, and one I had not considered before.

I was reading recently about Mormons and racism and came across a TBM blog that regurgitated the whole "Joseph ordained a black priesthood holder" thing to prove he wasn't racist, etc. The problem is, this position isn't borne out by the rest of the evidence; it's equivalent to the modern, "Well, I have a black friend, so I can't possibly be racist!" fallacy.

Joseph Smith wrote a book that attributed the color of one's skin to the righteousness of a person or their ancestors. That's racism, plain and simple. There was no physical evidence to suggest that, and he pulled it out of his ass. That in turn laid the foundations for Brigham Young's gross racism; growing up in the early 19th century, he was probably already predisposed to racism, but after discovering the Book of Mormon now he had a religious foundation upon which to build his prejudices and formally institutionalize them when he took control of the Church. And it wasn't until social pressure built up to such an extreme that ChurchCo could no longer ignore it that their official position changed; that's how ingrained it was.

Exactly. If MORmONs were serious and honest about denouncing racism, past and present, they'd start by denouncing their racist scriptures, which you cant open without finding blatantly racist bogus myths common in the 19th Century, that have long since been thoroughly debunked. The ONLY reason they refuse to die is because they were given new life by Joseph' Myth. MORmONs are like Flat Earthers of religion.

The church only changed because of political and social pressure. The Book of Mormon still says black people are cursed and the LDS still believe the book is God’s true word.

what surprises me is that nobody asked how the debate with my Bishop went.
It was a trip.