liz3564 wrote:Markk wrote:Will you denounce the Book of Mormon for teaching racism in that it teaches God turned folks Black as a sign of a curse?
CFR
just me wrote:2 Nephi 5:21 And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.
It seems that the theological myths as to why different peoples have different skin colors has become problematic in light of scientific, sociological and personal knowledge that people are not evil because of their skin color, and that it would be an unjust god that would 'curse' people for what the myth claims were the 'sins of their fathers'--in short, we have myths that cannot be successfully extracted in tact from the 19th Century granite in which carved.
Interestingly, the Book of Mormon that contains the racist and repugnant 2 Nephi 5:21 quoted by just me was first published in 1830. Mark Twain's
The Adventures of Huck Finn, was first published in 1884 (first in USA in 1885). Quite a difference in approach to racism. Almost in the meridian of those 55 years--in 1861--Twain visited Salt Lake City. I wonder how much, if any, Twain's opinions found in
Huck Finn were in reaction to what he might have detected of Mormon racisim in Salt Lake City in 1861.
by the way, I feel more enlightenment from reading
Huck Finn than ever from reading the Book of Mormon. It might be that
Huck Finn doesn't come across nearly as sanctimonious and judgmental as does the Book of Mormon.