Racism and the Book of Mormon

[_why me]

CFR (please use the text in the Book of Mormon to support your assertion)

The art in the Book of Mormon. The people are brown. Not a european white. Check it out. Also, what would the color black refer to? Africans? Or some other race. The point is: nephites coming from the middle east mixing with other races on the continent could not be white.

[_why me]

By the way, the Lamanites were not black and the Nephites were not white. If anything, they were different shades of brown. In the Book of Mormon pictures inside the book, the people are brown. But don't tell anybody, okay?

The Book of Mormon clearly says the Lamanites were cursed with a dark skin, and the Nephites were white skinned. Start dealing with the facts of the text, not artists descriptions which do show the Nephites as light skinned and Lamanites as dark.[url]http://www.LDS.org/media-libr

ary/images/gospel-art/book-of-mormon?lang=eng&start=11&end=20#anti-nephi-lehies-bury-weapons-39657[/url]

The only white person I see is the resurrected Christ.

[_Chap]

...
The Book of Mormon clearly says the Lamanites were cursed with a dark skin, and the Nephites were white skinned. Start dealing with the facts of the text, not artists descriptions which do show the Nephites as light skinned and Lamanites as dark.http://www.LDS.org/media-library/images/gospel-art/book-of-mormon?lang=eng&start=11&end=20#anti-nephi-lehies-bury-weapons-39657

The only white person I see is the resurrected Christ.

So Themis asks whyme to argue his case based on the TEXT of the Book of Mormon, not on artists' interpretations ...

And whyme replies with reference to what he sees in an artist's interpretation?

[_Tobin]

It is not just, Mormonism... the Bible and therefore Christianity as a whole is racist.
Genesis 4:15 ...The mark of cain, is the dark skin.

No. I absolutely disagree. This is how slavery was justified in the 18th and 19th Century - by interpreting that passage to mean black skin, but there is no mention of what the 'mark' or 'sign' was. None, nada, nothing.

Neither, as far as I am aware is there any indication in the New Testament that when Peter saw a vision of the 'white sheet' and all animals etc upon it, that those of black or African descent were excluded. Infact some of the earliest missionary travels were to Egypt and Ethiopia.

See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christianity_in_Ethiopia (wiki -but good I think)

Sock puppet, if that doesn't work (a loose translation) then the only alternative is to argue that the Book of Mormon is historical but that the Nephites were racist and were so without Gods approval. I can't see any other way out of it.

Mary,

The Nephites were racist and bigoted towards the Lamanites. And there is a problem with the video, it fails to mention that in the Book of Mormon for a time the Lamanites became righteous and the Nephites became wicked. That destroys the argument that is was the righteous whites against the evil dark skins and so the video is completely unfair. In fact, a Lamanite prophet Samuel preaches to the wicked Nephites and they are so bigoted towards this that they neglect to write down what he says. The Lord himself has to ask them to correct this "oversight".

Now, I very much doubt Mormons need to spend much time concerned about this. As the video pointed out, there are very few Mormons that are racists in the Church today. I won't dispute that often the Nephites seem to be and that many early Church leaders, especially BY, were racists. But BY is responsible for blacks being banned from the priesthood and I don't believe that was inspired either.

Tobin

[_Darth J]

The Nephites were racist and bigoted towards the Lamanites. And there is a problem with the video, it fails to mention that in the Book of Mormon for a time the Lamanites became righteous and the Nephites became wicked. That destroys the argument that is was the righteous whites against the evil dark skins and so the video is completely unfair. In fact, a Lamanite prophet Samuel preaches to the wicked Nephites and they are so bigoted towards this that they neglect to write down what he says. The Lord himself has to ask them to correct this "oversight".

Tobin, the Book of Mormon states that when the Lamanites accept the Gospel, they will become white and delightsome like their Nephite bretheren.

3 Nephi 2

15 And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites;

16 And their young men and their daughters became exceedingly fair, and they were numbered among the Nephites, and were called Nephites. And thus ended the thirteenth year.

So please provide an explanation from the text of the Book of Mormon as to why the Lamanites you are referencing did not become white.

Just whenever you're ready.

Or is it that the Nephite prophets who were composing the Most Correct Book On Earth That Was Written For Our Day habitually put words into God's mouth to justify their own opinions and prejudices, thus begging the question of how we can rely on the Book of Mormon as actually containing God's word?

Now, I very much doubt Mormons need to spend much time concerned about this. As the video pointed out, there are very few Mormons that are racists in the Church today. I won't dispute that often the Nephites seem to be and that many early Church leaders, especially BY, were racists. But BY is responsible for blacks being banned from the priesthood and I don't believe that was inspired either.

Tobin

I agree, Tobin. Since it was Brigham Young who translated Abraham 1:26-27, it is Brigham Young who bears the responsibility for this uninspired teaching.

[_Harold Lee]

As the video pointed out, there are very few Mormons that are racists in the Church today.

Just off the politically correct record, if a black person were to drive to church listening to a hip hop station few people would even look that direction or be standing within 20 feet of him. Only a few missionary minded guys would do their christlike duty to "friend" him and maybe seven or eight people would shake his hand and ask the same old visitor questions after sacrament to do their missionary part (of course he'll stand out so much everyone will notice him immediately). You guys know what I'm talking about. Black people are not accepted unless they act completely white. And even then.

Bout as many Mormons that watch BET as there are kids watching CNET on Saturday mornings.

I'm not blaming Mormon idealogies for that per se, but within social Mormon culture my opinion is there are a lot of racist Mormons.

[_DarkHelmet]

And there is a problem with the video, it fails to mention that in the Book of Mormon for a time the Lamanites became righteous and the Nephites became wicked. That destroys the argument that is was the righteous whites against the evil dark skins and so the video is completely unfair. In fact, a Lamanite prophet Samuel preaches to the wicked Nephites and they are so bigoted towards this that they neglect to write down what he says. The Lord himself has to ask them to correct this "oversight".

The text of the Book of Mormon says god marked the Lamanites with dark skin because of their wickedness. Future generations became good, but the origin of their dark skin was a curse for the wickedness of their forefathers. It's a ridiculous theory because we know why some ethnic groups have dark skin and others don't, and it has nothing to do with supernatural curses. The idea of dark skin curses (outside of sci-fi and fantasy stories) is so ridiculous that even TBM apologists try to theorize that the dark skin curse does not refer to their actual skin, but to something else.

[_Tobin]

As the video pointed out, there are very few Mormons that are racists in the Church today.

Just off the politically correct record, if a black person were to drive to church listening to a hip hop station few people would even look that direction or be standing within 20 feet of him. Only a few missionary minded guys would do their christlike duty to "friend" him and maybe seven or eight people would shake his hand and ask the same old visitor questions after sacrament to do their missionary part (of course he'll stand out so much everyone will notice him immediately). You guys know what I'm talking about. Black people are not accepted unless they act completely white. And even then.

Bout as many Mormons that watch BET as there are kids watching CNET on Saturday mornings.

I'm not blaming Mormon idealogies for that per se, but within social Mormon culture my opinion is there are a lot of racist Mormons.

Fascinating. So you equate the discomfort people have with different racial cultures and music choices as racism. I guess you can paint people who dislike chocolate ice cream as racists as well if you want.

[_Tobin]

And there is a problem with the video, it fails to mention that in the Book of Mormon for a time the Lamanites became righteous and the Nephites became wicked. That destroys the argument that is was the righteous whites against the evil dark skins and so the video is completely unfair. In fact, a Lamanite prophet Samuel preaches to the wicked Nephites and they are so bigoted towards this that they neglect to write down what he says. The Lord himself has to ask them to correct this "oversight".

The text of the Book of Mormon says god marked the Lamanites with dark skin because of their wickedness. Future generations became good, but the origin of their dark skin was a curse for the wickedness of their forefathers. It's a ridiculous theory because we know why some ethnic groups have dark skin and others don't, and it has nothing to do with supernatural curses. The idea of dark skin curses (outside of sci-fi and fantasy stories) is so ridiculous that even TBM apologists try to theorize that the dark skin curse does not refer to their actual skin, but to something else.

You haven't refuted a thing I said. Simply because the Nephites attributed dark skin as a curse from God does not necessarily make it so. As I've already stated, the Nephites expressed racism and bigotry. You restating exactly what I already said is not disputing a single thing.

[Guest]

Fascinating. So you equate the discomfort people have with different racial cultures as racism.

You honestly don't see any connection? It's much more than a mild "discomfort".

If Mormons honestly don't see their treatment of black people today as racist, that's just incredible.