http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/study-links-rac.html
I wonder if urban gospel singer Tye Tribbett is reconsidering that “It’s Good In The Hood” song after reading this …
Posted by Job on July 9, 2008
http://blogs.usatoday.com/ondeadline/2008/07/study-links-rac.html
I wonder if urban gospel singer Tye Tribbett is reconsidering that “It’s Good In The Hood” song after reading this …
Posted in big business, racism | 4 Comments »
Posted by Job on March 25, 2008
See link to story. Granted, it was their first offense and did not involve a weapon. But regarding the cases of Heather Lyn Johnston and Ashley Nicole Miller, two strippers turned bank robbers from suburban Atlanta, Georgia getting such light sentences (one received probation because she turned state’s evidence, the other tried to beat the charge and only received 2 years) would their sentences have been so lenient had they been inner city black males as opposed to suburban blonde white females? I would like to hear from some of the conservative law and order tough on crime types that claim “there is no such thing as institutional racism” answer this!
Even better: the “pastor” of the criminal that received no jail time, Danny Rager of Woodland Hills Assembly of God Church in Lawrenceville, testified on her behalf. Suburban charismatic theologians help me out here: where does the Bible say that a person ought to be able to steal $11,000 and get off with no jail time, especially when you know full well that had it been a black male member of one of your inner city Church of God In Christ brethren, he would have gotten five years?
We have to blame the prosecution and the judge in this instance. The prosecutors, including Bonnie Derrer, only asked that they receive three years. As for the judge Mary Staley, wow. And even the originator of the plot Benny Allen III only received five years despite having a prior drug conviction! People, things like this puts cases like the black fellow in California that received a life sentence for stealing a slice of pizza because “it was his third strike” into context. And please realize that suburban Atlanta is supposed to be a much more conservative “tough on crime” area than is California. More and more, it looks like “tough on crime” is actually “tough on certain criminals.”
Yes, I am aware of the statistics that state that black males commit a heavily disproportionate percentage of crimes, especially as compared to white females. But judges are still supposed to judge FAIRLY, not only because the Bible says to do so, but so that the population at large will be able to support and trust law enforcement and criminal justice. The population must respect law enforcement and criminal justice in order for us to have the orderly, civil society that God commands. We have seen what has happened to large portions of our nation – again including the core urban areas and many of our public schools – where people have lost respect for the civil authorities. The result: crimes go unpunished, criminals become emboldened, and the innocent suffer, especially women and children. Cases like these are precisely the ones that the Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons can point to in their “No justice no peace!” rallies designed to get people to stop cooperating with the police. They are not the only ones: popular music, movies, and radical university professors do the same. Well Bonnie Derrer and Mary Staley, you just provided more fodder for the next person that wants to get out on the streets with their “unequal justice!” protest signs.
So when you have people before you with absolutely no economic need whatsoever making a planned premeditated attempt to steal such a large amount of money, you have to get the same sentence as would one that “based on statistics fits the profile of a menace to society.”
Now I could be way off base. Maybe inner city black males that make off with $11,000 DO routinely get probation in conservative law and order jurisdictions. If I am wrong, someone let me know. But somehow, I doubt it.
Posted in bigotry, Christianity, racism | Tagged: Acworth, Bonnie Derrer, criminal justice, Danny Rager, Gwinnett County, Mary Staley, sentencing disparities, Woodland Hills Assembly of God Church Lawrenceville | 4 Comments »
Posted by Job on March 15, 2008
ARUSHA, Tanzania – A Rwandan priest has been jailed for life after a U.N. tribunal extended his sentence for ordering militiamen to burn and bulldoze a church with 1,500 people inside. The International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda’s ruling came after Roman
Catholic priest Athanase Seromba appealed his 2006 conviction, a statement posted on the body’s Web site late Wednesday said. He was originally sentenced to 15 years in prison.
The tribunal is trying the alleged masterminds of the 1994 Rwandan genocide in which more than 500,000 minority Tutsis and moderate Hutus were killed by Hutu extremists over a 100-day period. The tribunal said it convicted Seromba for “his role in the destruction of the church in Nyange Parish, and the consequent death of approximately 1,500 Tutsi refugees sheltering inside.”
Seromba was convicted of leading a militia that attacked the people and poured fuel through the roof of the church, while police threw grenades inside. After failing to kill everybody inside the church, Seromba ordered it to be demolished, the tribunal found.
Thousands of Rwandans have turned away from Catholicism, angered and saddened by the complicity of church officials in the genocide. Priests, nuns and followers were implicated in the killings and some churches were sites of notorious massacres.
The Rwanda war crimes tribunal has delivered 32 judgments, including five acquittals, since the U.N. Security Council established it in November 1994. There are 27 trials under way.
Posted in bigotry, catholic, Christian Persecution, Christianity, Jesus Christ, racism | Tagged: Africa, genocide, Roman Catholic, Roman Catholicism, Rwanda | 10 Comments »
Posted by Job on March 10, 2008
Where is Fox News, the Wall Street Journal, the National Review, the Weekly Standard, the outraged bloggers, etc. over THIS CASE? (Update: See ABC News link here.)Ann Coulter, Pat Buchanan, Cal Thomas, where are you? Woe to the people that prefer the rich and powerful over the poor and powerless …
When Levon Brooks goes to court later this month, it will bring an end to a treacherous chapter in his life fueled by a rush to judgment, shoddy investigative work and the state of Mississippi’s over-reliance on a shaky “expert” witness. Convicted in 1992 of raping and murdering a 3-year-old girl, Brooks, was sentenced to life in prison, mainly on the strength of testimony by Dr. Michael West, a dental expert who swore that bite marks all over the girl’s body were caused by caused by the defendant. Three years later, West testified that another Black man, Kennedy Brewer, was responsible for inflicting the same bizarre wounds on another slain 3-year-old Mississippi girl, sending Brewer to prison for life. Ten years later, both men have been released from prison after a third man confessed to both killings; DNA evidence connected the confessor to the crimes. Turns out that West isn’t much of an expert after all, and literally hundreds of his analyses used to convict defendants are being called into question. Forensic experts now say that the wounds on the victim in the Brewer case “were not human bites at all but were likely were caused by crawfish and insects nibbling on the corpse, decomposition, and rough handling when the body was pulled from the pond where it was found,” The Associated Press reports. West also muffed up the Brooks case, identifying scrapes as bites, Brooks’ lawyers say.
Some are even saying that West’s missteps were no accident. “You have people who engaged in misconduct and manufactured evidence and we’ve proved it,” Peter Neufeld, co-director of the Innocence Project, told the AP. His project has led to the exoneration of more than 200 inmates nationwide and assembled the expert panel that examined the Brewer case. “These two cases are going to be an eye-opener for the people of Mississippi about some of the problems they have in criminal justice and how easy it will be to make it right,” Neufeld added. Brewer, 36, was released on bail last year, a few years after DNA tests excluded him as the rapist; he was exonerated by a judge on Feb. 15, AP reported.
Prosecutors are expected to drop the case against Brooks, 48, today. He now lives with his 83-year-old mother. West, a 55-year-old in private practice, did not return numerous calls from AP’s reporters to his Hattiesburg office. “I ain’t worried about the past. I’m thinking about the future,” Brewer said. But he offered some advice to prosecutors: “They need to get the truth before they lock up the wrong somebody. It doesn’t feel good to be called a rapist and murderer.” In recent weeks, Justin Albert Johnson, 51, was arrested and charged in one of the murders. He later confessed to both killings after detectives told him that his semen tied him to the Brewer case.
Now the prosecutor who went after the Duke lacrosse players found himself charged with crimes, and lots of folks demanded that the guy spend years in jail. But is anyone demanding that these prosecutors go to jail? That Dr. Michael West go to jail? Or that there even be an investigation? Or that reforms and procedural changes be put in place? Nope! The outrage over the Duke lacrosse players was 100% because they were rich, and also because it gave every racist crank a chance to spew their venom. None of these people could care less about the injustice that goes on in our criminal injustice system routinely. Why? Because only born – again believers in Jesus Christ actually care about ALL injustice NO MATTER WHO IT HAPPENS TO!
The Three Step Salvation Plan
Posted in bigotry, Christianity, poverty, racism | Tagged: duke lacrosse, hypocrisy, Innocence Project, Justin Albert Johnson, Kennedy Brewer, Levon Brooks, Michael West, Mississippi, Peter Neufeld, poverty | 2 Comments »
Posted by Job on March 3, 2008
The 400-student middle school teaches fifth through eighth grades and accepts students through an application process. Preference is given to siblings of current students and minority applicants, Snowden said. Snowden feared minority enrollment at the school, which is 13 percent black, could suffer as a result of the incident. “I hope that doesn’t happen, because we want a positive experience for all students in all schools,” Snowden said.
Williamson, who is black, plans to hold a meeting of his own on Tuesday evening at his church, with a prayer vigil to follow. “It’s very unfortunate in so many ways,” Williamson said. “We’re saddened and grieved that it happened.” (Grieved enough to preach the gospel? Did you have that same grief before? Seriously, we have to hold all Christians accountable.)
Although the incident will be considered a zero tolerance offense, the school district does not have a specific policy in addressing racially motivated crimes. District and school administrators will develop a specific procedure in the near future for reporting such crimes, Snowden said. Snowden said that if any students were identified as culprits in the Poplar Grove incident, they would be expelled. (Seems like they have a policy then. It would be interesting to know if the same policy is in effect for, say, assaulting a school official or another student, being caught with drugs, or continually disrupting class with your behavior. Do they hold assemblies in this instance? Do the media and clergy get involved in those cases too? Do not get me wrong, I am happy that this pastor is taking a strong stand against the sin of racism affecting this public school. I just want to know if he takes similar stands against other sins.)
Posted in bigotry, Christianity, racism | Tagged: franklin, hate crime, noose, Poplar Grove Middle School, Strong Tower Bible Church, tennessee | 8 Comments »
Posted by Job on February 29, 2008
DNA database discriminating against black people – church leaders
Church leaders and the human rights group Black Mental Health UK have expressed their support for a debate on the discriminatory impact of the national DNA database on black and ethnic minority people that will come before Parliament on Friday.
The UK has the largest national DNA database in the world, with 4.5 million profiles expected to be held by the Government by 2010. Government figures suggest that 77 per cent of young black men will soon have their details held on the database.
The debate on the DNA database was called for by Liberal Democrat MP for Brent East Sarah Teather, who said, “The over-representation of black people on the Labour Government’s database should horrify anyone who cares about justice and fair play.”
Black Mental Health said there was a real danger that the DNA database “just reinforces the myth that black people are more likely to commit crime, and that is a very dangerous untruth”.
Ms Teather said: “The truth is, if you are black, you are no more likely to commit crime and more likely to be a victim of crime.”
Matilda MacAttram, director of Black Mental Health, said that black people tended to enter into mental health care through the police or criminal justice system.
“This means that countless people with healthcare needs are being criminalised in the process of seeking help. It is disturbing to know that those needing health care are on a criminal database,“ she said. “Wherever this is the case it is imperative that their details are removed as quickly as possible. This begs the question, what kind of a society criminalises those who need help?”
There are currently 500,000 people on the database with no current conviction, caution, formal warning or reprimand. Rev Paul Grey of the New Testament Church of God remains concerned over security issues after the Government admitted last November that the information of 25 million child benefit claimants and their parents had gone missing in the post.
The “injustices of bad science” could lead to the DNA information of being abused in the future, he said.
”The public have no way of knowing how secure this information is that they are taking. If someone steals your DNA what the implications?” he said. ”Loosing child benefit details is one thing, but a person‘s DNA is part of who they are. This is another hostile move against the freedom and civil liberty that should be protected.”
Pastor Desmond Hall, chair of Christians Together in Brent, added, ”The database most unwelcome and is bringing division rather than healing within our communities, as it is our young people being stopped by the police, often for no justifiable reason.
”We have no confidence in the Government controlling this, in light of the recent data losses we have seen, and this information in the wrong hands could be catastrophic.”
Posted in racism | 2 Comments »
Posted by Job on February 27, 2008
PROVO — While attending Black History Month events at Brigham Young University this month, many black students have spoken out about their feelings on being a minority at the university — and issues that arise from being black and Mormon. Of the 30,426 students enrolled at BYU, 158 are black, according to BYU statistics.
Black students speaking to the Deseret Morning News at a recent Black History Month presentation emphasized they have been treated very well at BYU — by faculty and students alike. But being a minority anywhere is difficult, they said. Niiboi Amertev, 25, a junior from Ghana, said sometimes he feels white people in Utah don’t feel comfortable around him, and he can tell by their body language. “Actions speak louder than words,” Amertev said.
Barima Kwarteng, 20, a sophomore from Ghana, said most people at BYU simply don’t have a lot of exposure to blacks, and they don’t really understand black people. “I get the impression they think I’m here to play sports,” said Kwarteng, who is majoring in computer engineering. Catherine Spruill, 27, of Steilacoom, Wash., a senior, said, “People make ignorant remarks. They’re not worth remembering. We’ve been commanded to forgive. The easiest way to forgive something is to forget about it.”
Some black students said they wish the school would recruit more blacks so they wouldn’t be such a minority. “There should be more outreach,” said Noah Morris, 29, BYU’s Black Student Union president and a junior born in Nigeria. BYU does have a national multicultural student recruitment program called SOAR. It starts in eighth grade and steers students toward college preparation. It includes a weeklong summer session on campus, with classes including preparation for the SAT exam, said BYU spokeswoman Carri P. Jenkins.
During the past few weeks, BYU’s Black Student Union hosted myriad events for Black History Month.
Ahmad Corbitt, a black member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who serves as director of the church’s New York Office of Public and International Affairs, spoke to about 100 students on the struggle some members have with the priesthood limitation once practiced by the church. His talk referred to the church’s decision in 1978 that black male members could hold the priesthood. A dozen students and a few guests stayed almost an hour after the presentation to pepper Corbitt with questions and concerns regarding race and their religion.
The students didn’t mention any specific problems at BYU but did say they don’t appreciate the folklore that they said is sometimes spread by seminary teachers or church leaders regarding blacks in the church. One example, the students said, is when people say blacks “sat on the fence,” or weren’t fully committed to Christ in the pre-mortal life, and therefore are punished by the color of their skin on earth. “Speculation about inferiority in the pre-earth life” is not part of the church’s doctrine nor part of the curriculum, Corbitt said. He advised the students, when they hear people repeating these stories, to take the matter to a bishop and/or a stake president and make them aware of what is being said. Such folklore is definitely not supposed to be taught in the seminary program, said Thomas R. Valletta, director of the Church Education System curriculum. “That (folklore) is certainly not true, and it’s not in the curriculum,” Valletta said.
Several students at Corbitt’s presentation said they wished church leaders would speak directly to racial problems during a general conference session. Entire talks have been devoted to issues such as pornography, the students pointed out. Corbitt said racial issues have been addressed during general conference talks.
LDS Church President Gordon B. Hinckley spoke on racial intolerance in a priesthood session during the April 2006 general conference: “Racial strife still raises its ugly head, even among church members. There are reports of racial slurs and denigrating remarks among us. This is unacceptable. I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ.” During the discussion with Corbitt, one black woman said she believes, just from her own personal experience, that 30 percent of the people she encounters in Utah make racially offensive remarks.
Black BYU student Hunter Stott, 28, a junior from Salt Lake City, said he believes the group that intends to be offensive is much smaller than those who just make offhand remarks. “A lot of them are just ignorant,” Stott said. “Most people don’t try to be hurtful.”Corbitt says some people have said to him, “You’re a nice colored fellow.” “All I say to that is ‘Thank you very much. And I think you’re nice too.’ Period.”
Some students argued with Corbitt and said they feel it’s their responsibility to correct and educate those who make racially ignorant remarks. Corbitt said correcting the person would sometimes lead to offense. He may, however, give a person advice on word choices if they are going to be dealing with more black people in future occasions and to help the person “deal more effectively in society.”He advised them not to “worry so much about people who are committing a faux pas just because they live in an area where there is 1 percent blacks.”
Corbitt said he rarely gets offended because being offended is a choice. “I refuse to allow it to hurt me,” he said. “That is my choice.” In another Black History Month event, students watched snippets of a film called “Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons,” by Margaret Young and Darius Gray. The film is scheduled to be shown in the Foursite Film Festival, March 8 at Peery’s Egyptian Theater in Ogden. When asked if there are racial issues at BYU, Gray said, “It doesn’t matter where you are. There are racial issues. Race is a reality.”
The comments are really telling:
Posted in bigotry, false doctrine, false preacher, false preachers, false prophet, false religion, false teachers, false teaching, Mormon, mormonism, racism | Tagged: Brigham Young University, BYU, Joseph Smith | 18 Comments »
Posted by Job on February 22, 2008
Now I bash America as much as the next guy, but the truth is that America by far has less racism, tribalism, and classism than any country on the planet. (As far as sexism goes, I have not investigated the matter, but any country that claims to be less sexist than America I say prove it.) A lot of the people that leave America on account of its alleged racism and go to places like Britain, France, and Africa … well those people are high income leftist elites, usually artists and intellectuals. Most of them will NEVER admit that rank and file blacks have much less opportunity in those countries than in America. They pretend otherwise because those countries are controlled by the left politically (and in America they would be the far left, the Green Party, the conservative parties in most countries would be Hillary Clinton Democrats in this one). The only reason why the U.N. keeps charging the U.S. with internal racism is because it serves the interests of international socialism. It has nothing to do with the actual plight of black people, because if they really cared about black people they would talk about how if you are black in France, Germany, England, etc. you mostly just sit on welfare because you can’t get a job. These folks are basically just using racism as an excuse to attack America for not being a secular socialist nation.
By Stephanie Nebehay Reuters GENEVA
The United States, in the dock at a U.N. forum accused of racial discrimination, said on Thursday it was combating hate crimes such as displays of hangman’s nooses as well as police brutality against minorities. A U.S. delegation defended Washington’s record at the start of a two-day debate at the U.N. Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination.
The committee’s 18 independent experts grilled U.S. officials on issues including racial profiling in the wake of the September 11 attacks, police brutality against minorities, and the high proportion of African-Americans on death row. “We note that sadly, racial discrimination exists all over the world, including the United States,” Grace Chung Becker, acting assistant attorney-general at the U.S. Department of Justice’s civil rights division, told the meeting.
“The United States is committed to continuing its hard work to combat racial discrimination,” she declared. Substantial progress had been made over the years in addressing disparities in housing, education, employment and health care, according to a U.S. report submitted to the body. Last year, the United States launched a “racial threats initiative” to facilitate investigations of nooses and other racially-motivated threats around the country, Becker said.
It was prosecuting a case involving nooses hung from the back of a truck which circled around a group of peaceful civil rights demonstrators waiting at a bus stop, she added. U.S. President George W. Bush last week condemned as “deeply offensive” a spate of incidents involving hangman’s nooses, a potent symbol of racist lynchings and hatred of blacks.
Some 47 states have laws against hate crimes, which they actively enforce, according to the U.S. delegation on Thursday. U.S. officials had investigated more than 800 racially-motivated incidents against people perceived to be Arab, Muslim, Sikh or South Asian since the September 11 attacks.
Despite a drop in the number and seriousness of such crimes, identifying and prosecuting them remained a priority. The Bush administration had been “the first to issue racial profiling guidelines for federal law enforcement officers and remains committed to the elimination of unlawful racial profiling by law enforcement agencies,” Becker said.
Linos-Alexander Sicilianos, the U.N. committee’s rapporteur on the United States, replied that instead of ending the practice, the government appeared to be giving guidance to police to show them how to carry out racial profiling. He also cited “overwhelming evidence” of police brutality against racial and ethnic minorities, including African- Americans, Latinos, Arabs and Muslims.
Experts also raised questions on the rights of Native Americans, the disproportionate number of people of color in prison, juveniles serving life sentences without parole, and the estimated 5.3 million felons who have lost their voting rights. The American Civil Liberties Union, in its own shadow report issued earlier this week, blasted what it called “the persistent structural racism and inequality” in the country.
The U.N. committee upholds compliance with a 1965 treaty ratified by 173 countries including the United States. It is to issue its findings on seven countries on March 7.
(Editing by Andrew Roche)
Copyright 2008 Reuters News Service. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Copyright © 2008 ABC News Internet Ventures
Posted in bigotry, racism, United Nations | Leave a Comment »
1. Why the Church refused to endorse the civil rights movement in the ’60s. ET Benson likened the movement to communism (but Hugh B. Brown steadfastly opposed him!).
2. Church leader after church leader, from Brigham Young to at least George Albert Smith (maybe later), said blacks were of the “seed of cain.” The 2nd Manifesto doesn’t repudiate that doctrine. Would a leader have the courage to step up and say that Young and the others were absolutely wrong? Please!
3. Joseph Smith ordained blacks to the priesthood, but his successors changed the policy. I would like to see church leaders, in conference, grapple with this history. Not just say “let’s be tolertant” (which we should), but explain to the church body how Smith’s policy had been changed over time. And yes, explain to the church that it was a policy.
4. Brigham Young explained that slavery was inspired by God and John Taylor said that blacks were only fit to be servants to white people. I’d like to see church leaders explain this. In short, educated us!
It’s kind of hard to feel like you’re too white for the world, and too black for the Church. As a result, I hated being black growing up, because it seemed like my race was the only thing preventing me from who I wanted to be.
I think that black students go to BYU for the same reasons that white students, Asian students, whatever kind of students do–they want to learn, they want to increase their testimonies, and maybe about 80% want to get married at 17. 🙂 I don’t think that they should leave just because of people’s lack of understanding, but I think that talking about it does help, because then people can understand their perspective on things. It isn’t meant to make people mad, or make people think we’re repinning slavery on folks–it’s just to clear the air on some things!
As long as Mormon scriptures still contain extremely racist passages, there is no exorcising the systemic racism that has been institutionalized over the entire history of Mormonism and Mormonism will still remain officially, a racist institution, which is the main reason my conscience would not allow me to remain a member, even though I’m not black.
If people didn’t get mad when concerns that may be a little bit difficult to talk about were raised, we could really come closer to being united as a church. I know that most people in the Church love one another, but I also think there could be a bit more understanding.
The bottom line is, I don’t want anyone to treat me differently (in a overtly good or bad way) because of my race, but for now I *must* be different so that people can see what is wrong. Some of the generalizations some of you have made in your comments are extremely dangerous, like how *all* blacks distance themselves in language/behavior…totally untrue! it’s assumptions like this that build walls where they have no place.
“Racial strife still raises its ugly head, even among church members. There are reports of racial slurs and DENIGRATING remarks among us. This is unacceptable. I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ.” Denigrate comes from the Latin, pp. of denigrare “to blacken” [de- “completely” + nigr- “black”. In other words, “to make completely black”]. The racism is built into our language! That is what is offensive.
And the racism is built into the fabric of the LDS Church because of DOCTRINAL TEACHINGS throughout its history, as well as its OFFICIAL DOCTRINAL POSITION prior to 1978 that forbade the priesthood to “descendants of Cane.” There is no “whitewashing” this problem in the LDS Church, no matter how many people of color the Church tries to hire as spokespersons, or how much “apologetics” the Church leaders and scholars attempt. The facts speak for themselves: The Church was officially racist for over a century. You don’t just ignore that and smile.
8 For behold, the Lord shall acurse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people. (moses 7:8)
22 And Enoch also beheld the residue of the people which were the sons of Adam; and they were a mixture of all the seed of Adam save it was the seed of Cain, for the seed of Cain were black, and had not place among them. (moses 7:22)
When these teachings are still acknowledged then change will never completely happen. “God has no religion” Ghandi
26 The woman was a Greek, a Syrophenician by nation; and she besought him that he would cast forth the devil out of her daughter. 27 But Jesus said unto her, Let the children first be filled: for it is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it unto the dogs. 28 And she answered and said unto him, Yes, Lord: yet the dogs under the table eat of the children’s crumbs. 29 And he said unto her, For this saying go thy way; the devil is gone out of thy daughter. It was God that barred the Priesthood from the Cannanite Race. Not Man.
People got these “sitting on the fence” ideas in trying to justify the “practice” by trying to reach for doctrines. There was an awful book called something like “The Negro and the Priesthood” that had a whole litany of silly reasons including Egyptus, Ham stories, and on and on. I really am not condemning these people. They were products of their times just as Paul was when he justified making slaves obey their masters. Modern revelation is essential but will rarely, if ever, outpace the abilities of the free agency of the people at the time. The Israelites were only given a partial dose of the truth and they had a hard time with that and the Lord had to let them stew for another 40 years before taking them the next step.
(Joseph Smith, Jr., January 2nd, 1845, History of the Church, volume 5, pages 21-218)
“Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so. The nations of the earth have transgressed every law that God has given, they have changed the ordinances and broken every covenant made with the fathers, and they are like a hungry man that dreameth that he eateth, and he awaketh and behold he is empty.”
(Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, volume 10, page 110)
“Think of the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood…. This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in their lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa–if that Negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, he may have many of the blessings of the gospel. In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. If 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 celestial glory. “
The position of the Church regarding the Negro may be understood when another doctrine of the Church is kept in mind, namely, that the conduct of spirits in the premortal existence has some determining effect upon the conditions and circumstances under which these spirits take on mortality and that while the details of this principle have not been made known, the mortality is a privilege that is given to those who maintain their first estate; and that the worth of the privilege is so great that spirits are willing to come to earth and take on bodies no matter what the handicap may be as to the kind of bodies they are to secure; and that among the handicaps, failure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings of the priesthood is a handicap which spirits are willing to assume in order that they might come to earth. Under this principle there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation as to the holding of the priesthood by the Negroes.
The First Presidency ref. (Neither White nor Black:Signature Books; Midvale, Utah
© 1984 by Signature Books.)
All the more reason why Christians, whether right or left, should leave this “political/cultural/social ecumenism” behind and start to earnestly pray for the salvation of Mormons.