Gazelam wrote:I have a question. When I was in Scotland, the black people there were very different from american blacks. They were real africans and spoke very proper english. No "ghetto" style of clothing.
Did you see this in Germany, and also did you ever have a discussion with any blacks in germany regarding slavery. I know that african tribes obviously dealt with it since they were the ones being drug off to america, even kidnapping the tribes they fought with selling them to the slave traders.
I guess what I'm wondering is how the Cain doctrine is taken from a black from Africa or Europe who hasnt dealt with racism to the degree that an American black has. I don't view it as a doctrine of hate. I view it as a simple doctrine of God working through families that have shown that they can bear the priesthood with honor, and working through them. Abraham struck up a deal with God and asked that his family bear the responsibilities of the priesthood, concerned for his progenys salvation.
I'm no global historian, but I wonder which of the old african tribes would have been able to bear the priesthood, or would have wanted to. The Zulu maybe? The groups in Ethiopia? The priesthood was restored only a short time, historically speaking, before it was given to the blacks in 1978. In view of history this is only around 150 years. In that time the blacks went through the release of slavery and the breakthru to mainstream acceptance as a people.
Just pondering
Gaz
Gaz, during the time that I was in Germany, the culture was very much starting to adopt American "ways", and the youngsters who were doing the adopting seemed to be proud of it. I used to see fashion magazines with clothing in them that were labeled "American". I would think that ten years later, if the culture continued on this path, they would be even more like us in some ways, including the hip-hop culture. Deutsche Rap was a favorite of mine when there, though the issues might be a bit different. Germany deals with poverty in a different way than we do here, but they also deal with education completely different. I have a friend who cannot go to college or trade school, because she didn't continue straight out of high school. So she's stuck in retail for the rest of her life. Sucks.
I never really got into race discussions in Germany, because the people there accepted me so openly. They used to stare at me unabashedly, and I was shamed until my mom's friend told me that they thought mixed races to be beautiful. I think that was the first time I ever held my head up.
But I will tell you this: some of the LDS men from Ghana that I had the chance to talk to when I was LDS saw the Cain doctrine to be, and I quote, "lies". They ignored that part of the doctrine. One even told me that they "do church" completely differently there, than they do here. They have hymnals from all different churches, church is more lively, much more like some of the predominantly black churches are here. But I think that given where church headquarters is, many black saints aren't going to openly say how they feel about this issue. Many feel like I do, but they are too afraid to say so.
You wouldn't believe the discussions that go on behind close doors when black LDS think no one's listening. I've been party to a few, and they're not pretty. Still, for those who stay, more power to you. I've just found what I was looking for outside the church. I don't live a life of hedonism, but I feel far more hope now than I did back then of having a family and being happy. I don't believe God wants me to be alone. And that is the message I got when I was LDS. It was either marry a man from Ghana (and have one or two to choose from in a period of a few years), or stay single. That's hard to swallow when you're in a singles ward with 250+ men in it, and 40 marriages a year.
