MsJack wrote:Drifting wrote:I also agree that Bott was scapegoated - what did he say that senior Church Leaders haven't already explicitly stated? (Previously Unanswered Question Re-Asked challenge of the day completed).
Plus a chunk of what he told the press (that blacks are the descendants of Ham) is
in the Institute manual for one of his courses.
I can think of few things more ghastly than a Doctrine and Covenants teacher sharing with the press things that are in the manual that he's supposed to be teaching to hundreds of students every year.
Yup. The bit you reference begins:
Official Declaration 2
“Every Faithful, Worthy Man”
Historical Background
From the dispensation of Adam until the dispensation of the fulness of times, there has been a group of people who have not been allowed to hold the priesthood of God. The scriptural basis for this policy is Abraham 1:21–27 . The full reason for the denial has been kept hidden by the Lord, and one is left to assume that He will make it known in His own due time.
And Abraham 1:21–2 reads:
21 Now this king of Egypt was a descendant from the aloins of bHam, and was a partaker of the blood of the cCanaanites by birth.
22 From this descent sprang all the Egyptians, and thus the blood of the aCanaanites was preserved in the land.
23 The land of aEgypt being first discovered by a woman, who was the daughter of Ham, and the daughter of Egyptus, which in the Chaldean signifies Egypt, which signifies that which is forbidden;
24 When this woman discovered the land it was under water, who afterward settled her sons in it; and thus, from Ham, sprang that race which preserved the curse in the land.
25 Now the first agovernment of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal.
26 Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that aorder established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the bblessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.
27 Now, Pharaoh being of that lineage by which he could not have the right of aPriesthood, notwithstanding the Pharaohs would fain bclaim it from Noah, through Ham, therefore my father was led away by their idolatry;
That seems more or less a slam dunk. Even while rescinding the ban, the church still draws attention to the racist basis of the original prohibition. (Sorry, 'lineagist' - so that's all right then ...)
