I began to think about this after the Mitt Romney inspired "Mormon Moment" that attempted to mainstream a fringe cult version of American protestant Christianity.

But, a decade later, what common cause keeps them them together?

Underneath all the religious mumbo-jumbo about revelations, fake pre-Columbian history of the Americas, Kolob, the War In Heaven, men becoming gods, etc, post WW2 Mormonism has had another purpose shared with their Evangelical co-conspirators: preservation of the predominance of a "white" America and the heterosexual, cisgendered, classical nuclear biologcal family in the face of vast social and demographic change.

I put "white" in quotes because it is an artificial social concept that has been expanded over the last couple of hundred years. Likewise, the modern concept of "family" has also changed to include people who are not biologically related to each other. It's a common theme in film and television -- a father figure, a substitute mom, kids, etc. all bond together as a family -- so why the hue and cry when this happens in real life?


They are fighting a losing battle and they know it. Fifty years from now, no one is going to care about who dates whom, who marries whom, what colour they are, what genitals they had or have and they will be able, if they wish, to reproduce at will by any number of means. Humans will still be human and how they bond together with each other will be different -- and there will still be families. There always will be.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2021 10:42AM by anybody.

... Kids nowadays!!

They don’t want to separate families. They want to keep them together (in cages on our southern border).

A deal with the devil can be very useful. Not sure which entity is the devil this time though.

anybody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> But, a decade later, what common cause keeps them
> them together?

Political power, which, unfortunately for the rest of us, worked to get their village idiot elected 4yrs ago. White evangelical was the only demographic that voted for Trump more than MORmONs.

> Underneath all the religious mumbo-jumbo about
> revelations, fake pre-Columbian history of the
> Americas, Kolob, the War In Heaven, men becoming
> gods, etc, post WW2 Mormonism has had another
> purpose shared with their Evangelical
> co-conspirators: preservation of the predominance
> of a "white" America and the heterosexual,
> cisgendered, classical nuclear biologcal family in
> the face of vast social and demographic change.

> I put "white" in quotes because is an artificial
> social concept that has been expanded over the
> last couple of hundred years.

Try selling that to the US census bureau. They will call you and insist you identify yourself in racial terms. I put down ‘other’ and wrote in ‘not a racist’ and they called me up and made me identify as white, based upon my last name. I asked them why they called me if they were going to judge my skin color based upon my name?

that's what "race" is.

Friends from Europe tell me that the thing about America that struck them the most was the American obsession about race and racial categories. As long as systemic racism exists, people need racial classification to both oppress and exclude and also to inform and to fight injustice. Weird, isn't it?


The "Book Of Mormon" authors tried to explain and codify early 19th century American style racism and racial hierarchy thinking that it would never change. Well, things have changed, and they're stuck.



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2021 10:54AM by anybody.

anybody Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> that's what "race" is.
>
> Friends from Europe tell me that the thing about
> America that struck them the most was the American
> obsession about race and racial categories. As
> long as systemic racism exists, people need racial
> classification to both oppress and exclude and
> also to inform and to fight injustice. Weird,
> isn't it?

True, we are 99.9% genetically identical, but that .1% difference makes a huge difference, genetically. Take any genetic test and it will tell you exactly what race you are, what country your ancestors came from, how much Neanderthal DNA you have, what genetic predisposition you have. That’s testable and predictable, not a social construct.
White supremacy/racism is a social construct that does need to be dismantled.

> The "Book Of Mormon" authors tried to explain and
> codify early 19th century American style racism
> and racial hierarchy thinking that it would never
> change. Well, things have changed, and they're
> stuck.

True.

anybody Wrote:
- The "Book Of Mormon" authors tried to explain and
> codify early 19th century American style racism
> and racial hierarchy thinking that it would never
> change.

This from the guy who thinks nuclear families are only a "white" thing. Check yourself!

Go rake some maple leaves. . .



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2021 02:26PM by Lot's Wife.

Tom Morello-Cherry Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> anybody Wrote:
> - The "Book Of Mormon" authors tried to explain
> and
> > codify early 19th century American style racism
> > and racial hierarchy thinking that it would
> never
> > change.
>
> This from the guy who thinks nuclear families are
> only a "white" thing. Check yourself!

You still don't get it, so I will spell it out for you:

"for reference sake, isn't the old notion of 'nuclear family' just ma & pa, a few kidlets, but all related to each other?

maybe g.ma & g.pa like in 'Man's Search For Happiness'?"

I'm glad GNPE mentioned "Man's Search For Happiness." That film was selling Mormonism as a nice place in the turbulent 1960s to get away from all the "bad" (i.e. non-white people of colour) folks so come and join us in Mormon-land.

Non-white and mixed-race nuclear families don't produce "white" offspring. They don't think gay families will have kids who will follow the party line (i.e. who don't have biological kids who will be raised to be racist bigots). The goal is to get more white people to have more white babies. The Nazis say this stuff up front. Mormons and Evangelicals are just more subtle about it.

Promoting the "traditional" family, pro-life movement, anti-LGBTQIA+, etc. all share in common the fear of white racial extinction.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 03/08/2021 02:41PM by anybody.

for reference sake, isn't the old notion of 'nuclear family' just ma & pa, a few kidlets, but all related to each other?

maybe g.ma & g.pa like in 'Man's Search For Happiness'?


then, when divorce's became acceptable in Morland, the step-wife, step-mothers came into the scene.

(no word yet on step-husband, step-father)