Goodbye Gemli. Thanks For the Laughs And Memories.

[dastardly stem]

I shouldn't have peaked. DCP:

As for the more recent case of Brad Wilcox, an auxiliary leader and a BYU professor, he apologized immediately. I consider him a friend, by the way, and I doubt that he has a racist bone in his body. Nor does his close associate in the Young Men's General Presidency, Ahmad Corbitt, who is Black.

Wilcox's initial apology:

My dear friends, I made a serious mistake last night, and I am truly sorry. The illustration I attempted to use about the timing of the revelation on the priesthood for Black members was wrong. I've reviewed what I said and I recognize that what I hoped to express about trusting God's timing did NOT come through as I intended. To those I offended, especially my dear Black friends, I offer my sincere apologies, and ask for your forgiveness. I am committed to do better.

Then people found a bunch of times wherein he used the racist trope previously. It wasn't just a mistake he made last night. He painted it as if he just did this once. Once he was called out again he apologized again:

This has been a hard week for me. Some of you may have heard about a talk I gave last Sunday night. Now, it wasn’t the first time I’d given that talk and it wasn’t the first time I’ve used the ideas I shared or the line of reasoning that I used to try and address some difficult topics.

In the past, I failed to see how my comments could be seen as insensitive and hurtful, and I’m very grateful for friends — friends like Brother Corbitt -– who have helped me and corrected me, and taught me. Once again, I apologize and am grateful, more than ever, for the atonement of Jesus Christ, which allows us to trust in the Lord.

I'd imagine, pretending I were in Wilcox's shoes, I don't think I'd appreciate DCP using me as a beacon of no racist bones in my body. His apology was an attempt to admit he did have a racist bone in his body and he was glad he learned about his mistake.

Oh DCP...You really truly try too hard and only make messy things more messy.

[Tom]

Dr. Peterson has described Achenbach's account as "an allegation that needs to be challenged." I suspect that FAIR and SeN denizens are now digging through her social media to try to discredit her.

[Marcus]

Oh wow. You can just hear the catch in his throat as some really sincere guy in the Newsweek comments (whose name I think I recognize from DCP’s comment group) testifies about Mormons seeing angels, gold plates that aren’t magic or imaginary because angels took them away, and seer stones on display. As though that means the rock worked.

Have you ever spoken with a member of the church? No one claims the golden plates were magical or invisible. 11 witnesses vouched to seeing and handling the plates. Two others also wrote about handling them in their journals. The seer stone is still available in a museum on Temple Square in Salt Lake City. It is not invisible.

Four other individuals also saw the angel Moroni and testified accordingly -- some of them repeated that witness after leaving the church.

At the time Joseph Smith translated, no one was able to read ancient Egyptian. Today there are five known varieties of Egyptian hieroglyphs: Old Egyptian, Middle Egyptian, Late Egyptian, Demotic and Coptic. Is calling one of those "reformed Egyptian" earth-shattering? In fact, Joseph Smith is the first person to state that there was more than one variety of Egyptian.

Yes, polygamy was a revealed practice through 1890 when the prophet ended it. That makes many uncomfortable. However, all Jews and Christians recognize polygamy for Abraham, Jacob, David, and Solomon at a minimum.

Yes, Mormonism (The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) is not the same as every other Christian variety. But neither is it as far-fetched as you suggest. It's worth finding out the facts before spouting off, however.

I don’t think DCP’s movie is helping the Mormon reputation.

And I hope a linguist will say more about this, but yes, I would argue that the wrongness of making up an imaginary variation on a language and arguing it is real is not minimized by the actual existence of multiple real variations.

[Everybody Wang Chung]

I wish someone in the Newsweek comment section would have asked DCP about his own struggles with racism. Posting the lynching photos with cute little captions, smearing MLK and publicly posting that slavery was a good thing for Blacks because now they get to live in America.

[Marcus]

Dr. Peterson has described Achenbach's account as "an allegation that needs to be challenged." I suspect that FAIR and SeN denizens are now digging through her social media to try to discredit her.

Sadly, yes. He says her story might not exactly be a lie, but it smells funny. the distinction being… what?

DCP demonstrates perfectly, with a national and international audience reading along, that good old Wasatch Front passive-aggressiveness some Mormons use.

[Marcus]

Too funny if it is our Mike deciding to weigh in (I’m sure it’s not.)

Mike
18 hours ago

I wouldn't necessarily call this extreme in any sense. I can see using cursed as a metaphor somewhat extreme but in a religious context it makes sense. Not being genetically related to either of your parents seems "cursed" wouldn't you agree?

He continues to argue that the curse occurs because “mixed race” children are not genetically related to their parents. Which is apparently justification, in a religious context, for telling this woman her kids would be “cursed.”

This is what happens when you start by assuming your conclusion, and then have to mangle the facts to get them to fit.

[dastardly stem]

Too funny if it is our Mike deciding to weigh in (I’m sure it’s not.)

Mike
18 hours ago

I wouldn't necessarily call this extreme in any sense. I can see using cursed as a metaphor somewhat extreme but in a religious context it makes sense. Not being genetically related to either of your parents seems "cursed" wouldn't you agree?

He continues to argue that the curse occurs because “mixed race” children are not genetically related to their parents. Which is apparently justification, in a religious context, for telling this woman her kids would be “cursed.”

This is what happens when you start by assuming your conclusion, and then have to mangle the facts to get them to fit.

um....wow. I hope it's not our Mike. lol

[IHAQ]

Good, Lord. Since [DCP] can’t get his ‘fighting randos on the Internet’ fix he went to Newsweek to make an ass of himself and to smear his church’s reputation . . . You’ll have to scroll down to the comments. It’s really something.

I'm going to have to side with DCP on this. Assuming the conversations with her leaders took place after June 08, 1978, he (DCP) is correct.

From Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3, in use from 1995-2012

“We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question” (“Marriage and Divorce,” in 1976 Devotional Speeches of the Year [Provo: Brigham Young University Press, 1977], p. 144).

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/ ... ion_34.pdf

[Dr Exiled]

I read the comments section for the above Newsweek article, closed it, and then when I went back, the comments were gone. Am I missing something? Did Newsweek take down the comments?

[malkie]

I read the comments section for the above Newsweek article, closed it, and then when I went back, the comments were gone. Am I missing something? Did Newsweek take down the comments?

I can see 63 comments - the latest appears to be from 3 hours ago:

Sort by Newest
David Smith
3 hours ago

Sharing host of the interview information. One should always consider the source or promoter of this story. Recommend looking up John Dehlin who appears to have good intentions. His background is interesting. This should not have happened to her. This is not the accepted doctrine of the church. Perhaps some members need to be reminded that racism is wrong.