President of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles Joseph Fielding Smith, in his book, “Answers to Gospel Questions,” declared:
“ . . . [I]f a Negro joins the [Mormon] church through the waters of baptism and is confirmed by the laying on of hands and then he remains faithful and true to the teachings of the Church and in keeping the commandments the Lord has given, he will come forth in the first resurrection and will enter the celestial kingdom of God. . . . The Negro who accepts the doctrines of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is entitled to salvation in the celestial kingdom of the highest heaven spoken of by Paul.
"'It is true that the work of the ministry is given to other peoples and why should the so-called Christian denominations complain? How many Negroes have been placed as ministers over white congregations in the so-called Christian denominations? It appears that a great deal of noise has been made over a problem that does not really exist or is not peculiar to the Latter-day Saints.'
"' . . . Mormons. . . can do more for the Negro than any other church on the face of the earth.'"
(Jospeh Fielding Smith, "Answers to Gospel Questions," vol. 2, p. 55, quoted in John Lewis Lund, “The Church and the Negro: A Discussion of Mormons, Negroes and the Priesthood,” Chapter VII, “What is the Status of the Negro in the Mormon Church?” [John Lewis Lund, copyright 1967], pp. 58-59)
_____
What Mormons conveniently fail to note, of course, is their deep-seated, ugly belief that even if Mormons of African descent attain the highest level of the LDS celestial kingdom, they will only manage to do so through a mandatory process that involves their skin color being changed to white in order for them to reside among Mormon Whites and their White Mormon God.
Lund, in a chapter in his book headlined, “Church Leaders Speak Out on the Negro Question,” points to the case of Black Mormon convert Jane Manning James as an example of a Mormon of African descent making it to heaven--but only after having been turned White, literally.
Jane Manning James (otherwise known as “Aunt Jane") was a house servant to Joseph and Emma Smith in Nauvoo who--despite her unswerving faithfulness of 65 years to Mormonism--was denied the right by the White racists in the Mormon church's First Presidency to be temple-sealed to her own family; instead, they had her officially sealed to Joseph Smith as his servant throughout eternity.
(for a previous RfM thread on "Aunt Jane's" run-in with Mormonism's racist "revelation," see:
http://exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,417986,417986#msg-417986)
But being celestialized came with a catch: “Aunt Jane” first had to be "sanitized" because, according to White supremacist Mormon church doctrine, she had been born into a “cursed” lineage.
In order for her to be with Smith in the highest Mormon heaven, this Black woman would first have to have her "cursed" skin bleached white. The edict of Mormon church president Wilford Woodruff was clear, as Lund explains:
“Wilford Woodruff said about the Negro, 'The day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings that we now have,'"
Lund explains how this color-cleansing would work before this Black woman would be allowed into Mormon heaven to be Joseph Smith's forever slave:
“In [Matthias F.] Cowley's book, 'Wilford Woodruff' [p. 587], the following story is told:
“'There is one peculiar characteristic noticeable in the journal ow Wilford Woodruff., . . . [He] love to dwell upon the good deeds of others . . . . . He said in his journal of o of October, that year [1894], that 'Aunt Jane,' the colored sister, had been to see him She was anxious to go through the Temple and receive the highest ordinances of the Gospel. President Woodruff blessed her for her constant, never changing devotion to the Gospel but explained to her her disadvantages as one of the descendants of Cain.
“”In after years, when President Joseph F. Smith preached the funeral sermon of this same faithful woman, he declared that she would, in the resurrection, attain the longing of her soul and become a white and beautiful person.”
(Lund, Chapter IX pp. 85-86; see also, William E. Berrett, “The Church and the Negroid People,” historical supplement, in John J. Stewart, “Mormonism and the Negro: An Explanation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Regard to Negroes and Others of Negroid Blood” [Orem, Utah: Bookmark, a Division of Community Press Publishing Company, 1960], p. 16 of supplement).
_____
The primitively racist comments of Mormon apostle Mark E. Petersen speak for themselves. On 27 August 1954 in an address to a BYU convention of LDS religion teachers entitled “Race Problems--As They Affect the Church,” he informed the audience that "[i]f 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."
_____
These days one does not often see Mormons openly pointing out that, according to their church's top “prophet, seer and revelator,” any faithful Mormon Black person will, in the end, “enter the celestial kingdom” as “a white and beautiful person.”
Perhaps even for the Mormon church's most abject apologists, this might be too racist to strut in front of decent company.
Don't put it past them, though, to tenderly harbor it in the bigoted recesses of their white-and-delightsome hearts.
Edited 9 time(s). Last edit at 02/20/2012 08:12AM by steve benson.