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Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 4:47 pm
by _Fence Sitter
Here is a 2016 article by Thomas Murphy regarding racism in the church and how it can work towards ending it.

Rejecting Racism in Any Form: Latter-day Saint Rhetoric, Religion, and Repatriation

From the abstract.

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints issued an online statement in February 2012 rejecting all racism, in any form. The statement followed nearly two centuries of tortured struggles with racism promulgated by church leaders, instituted in everyday practices, and integrated into Latter-day Saint scriptures. While rhetoric renouncing racism from the LDS Church is a welcome step, religions need to compliment language undoing racism with concrete actions. This article examines ways that the LDS Church may work towards actually ending various forms of racism. It focuses attention on the role of settler colonial grave robbery, the loot from which was used in the production of Mormon scriptures advocating white privilege. These acts of violence against Native people continue into the present, as illustrated by the recent occupation of the Malheur Wildlife Refuge by Mormon militiamen, extensive trade networks in antiquities in Mormon communities, unethical uses of Native American DNA, and ongoing efforts by Utah legislators to undermine tribal sovereignty. Current rhetoric condemning racism appears to serve as a mask for the continued imbalance of power in a land-rich institution in which the highest positions of authority remain exclusively in the hands of white men. Reciprocal acts of repatriation, initiated but never finished by early LDS Church leaders, need to be re-activated if Mormons are to effectively repudiate racism in its many forms.

This line especially jumps out:

"Current rhetoric condemning racism appears to serve as a mask for the continued imbalance of power in a land-rich institution in which the highest positions of authority remain exclusively in the hands of white men."

No kidding.

Or this interesting observation.

The Book of Mormon and the Book of Abraham both owe their origins to the practice of grave-robbery, an offense not just today but also at the time of their production. Joseph Smith and other European treasure seekers in the nineteenth century did not accord the graves of American Indians and Egyptians the same amount of respect they expected for those of their own relatives. During Joseph Smith’s early employment as a treasure seeker, he would conjure the dead who appeared to him in the form of treasure guardians and angels. He recorded his own struggles with temptations from “the adversary” to use a set of gold plates he found for “riches.” He also engaged in much of this work under the cover of darkness, so as to hide it from others. Even if he did not recognize his disturbances of the remains and treasures of the dead as wrong, he clearly identified gaining wealth from those items taken from graves as immoral and was concerned about how others might respond if they observed his actions

I never thought of it that way but the Mormon church's two primary ancient scripture are a direct result of robbing graves. (Well at least one is for sure.)

Growing up in the LDS church I was exposed to constant reminders about the hardships that my pioneer ancestors endured as they were driven across the plains. When I lived in Utah, the 24th of July was a bigger holiday than the 4th. Never mentioned was the fact that when there "pioneers" entered the Uintah Basin, it was already occupied by a thriving native population who lived off the land and fisheries in the basin, whose lands were occupied, fisheries destroyed and game hunted by the white settlers. Who then drove the native populations on to reservations where they starved and died. Isn't it ironic how the Book of Mormon led to the destruction native American lives and life styles? But it gets worse. 100 years later we actually go and remove some of the children of the what is left of these tribes in an attempt to change their culture, religion and even their skin color into the very culture responsible for their destruction a 100 years ago and we do this in the name of God. The hardships our Mormon pioneers endured pale in comparison to what those same pioneers inflicted on a people our own religion identifies as His chosen children. Laben wants his head back.

From Murphy's paper.

Unrecognized biases in these spaces emanate from this structural and systemic framework, ignoring present-day Native American perspectives, beliefs, and cultural practices. Charles Wilkinson describes the colonial domination in southern Utah in the 1960s in ways that echo the experiences of the authors in the region during subsequent decades. “The church exerted sweeping political power. Virtually every public official in San Juan County and across southern Utah was Mormon. Mormons controlled state government. Mormons ran the schools, the county commission, the courts, the police, the welfare agencies, everything.”

There is a lot more interesting stuff in the article.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Wed Sep 18, 2019 9:25 pm
by _Philo Sofee
To quote Hinckley, "The Lord is at the helm brethren. Never fear, the work of the Lord cannot and will not be thwarted." Or close enough to that.

The one prophecy that would be fascinating if it actually did come true is the one where the Lamanites shall rise up and overthrow their oppressors. It would be interesting to see what kind of teepe the Salt Lake Temple would make.....

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 2:18 pm
by _ldsfaqs
Boy, Thomas Murphy is still being his anti-mormon self... crazy.

I still remember meeting him and laughing at his theory's that brought him into anti-mormondom.
His claims are still wrong today, because they ignored many aspects of the Book of Mormon, the prophets words, DNA, etc.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 4:46 pm
by _Dr LOD
ldsfaqs wrote:Boy, Thomas Murphy is still being his anti-mormon self... crazy.

I still remember meeting him and laughing at his theory's that brought him into anti-mormondom.
His claims are still wrong today, because they ignored many aspects of the Book of Mormon, the prophets words, DNA, etc.


Which theories are those? The one about Lehite DNA?

Go ahead and entertain me on this one. I have a Medical Doctorate, a degree in Molecular Biology, and I still do peer review for a genetics journal.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Thu Sep 19, 2019 10:12 pm
by _Kishkumen
What Mormons have done to Native Americans is a tragedy and a horror. Colonialism is the poison tree from which the fruit of many aspects of the religion sprang. It is no wonder that the LDS Church and its members continue to commit sacrilege against Native American peoples, all the while uncritically clinging to a sacred text that was composed and interpreted in such a way as to rob the Native American peoples of their heritage and replace that with a mostly European Christian religion. Mormons ought to abandon any claim to their text being about Native Americans except in a misbegotten and tertiary sense. They should do everything they can to right the many injustices that have been done and continue to be perpetrated against Native American Peoples, especially in states where Mormons have real clout, such as Utah.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 8:25 am
by _moksha
Fence Sitter wrote:I never thought of it that way but the Mormon church's two primary ancient scripture are a direct result of robbing graves. (Well at least one is for sure.)

Doubt any Lamanites or Reformed Egyptians will step forward and ask for the repatriation of those artifacts.

Even doubt the Jerusalem Department of Forensic Religious Antiquities retained its initial arrest warrant for Nephi ben Lehi. Although, I understand there has been an official complaint registered at with the National Intelligence Agency that Trump had made three separate promises to change the team name Cleveland Indians to the Cleveland Nephites.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 12:17 pm
by _Symmachus
Fence Sitter wrote:I never thought of it that way but the Mormon church's two primary ancient scripture are a direct result of robbing graves. (Well at least one is for sure.)


And Christianity was the result of attempted grave robbery.

Re: Rejecting Racism: LDS Rhetoric T. Murphy Article

Posted: Fri Sep 20, 2019 3:16 pm
by _Maksutov
"The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. 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 prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: "Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which we now are entitled to."

First Presidency Statement (17 August 1949)

...........

So, FAQS, not only are Mormons committed to racism in their fantasies that deny achievements to native Americans in America, but the church also made a doctrine about the inferiority of blacks, "revealed" from "God". Racist Christians throughout the Confederacy made similar arguments. Those out of the cult know that they were appealing to bigoted and not too bright white people, stroking their egos and calling them "kings" and "queens" and letting them fantasize about having their own planets, men having many wives, etc., etc. Racism is a great way to make losers feel like winners. All vicious nonsense and lies but it made aristocrats (in their own minds) out of a bunch of poor dumb hicks so long as they believed the bull and paid, prayed and obeyed. :lol: But it was racism and then they had to add treason to it when they got to Utah. If you look deep into the hearts of Mormons now, you know that they will always put church above country and Mormons above other people. They have to lie and cheat to win, but that fits when the whole movement was started by a liar and cheater. Garbage in, garbage out.