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Claim
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Response
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Author's sources
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291-293
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It was taught that the denial of priesthoods to blacks was due to some behavior in the pre-existence.
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- Alma 3:6
- Race Problems—As They Affect The Church, Address by Mark E. Petersen at the Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, delivered at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954"
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294
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Blacks were said to be the descendants of Cain.
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- History of the Church 4:501
- Mormon Doctrine, 1958. p.102
- Journal of Discourses 7:290
- Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p.477
- Journal of Discourses 22:304
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296
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Brigham Young said the the penalty for marrying a black person was "death." |
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- Journal of Discourses 10:110
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302
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Joseph Smith is said to have endorsed slavery. |
- When in the midst of hostile non-Mormons who were pro-slavery, the leaders of the church (making clear they were speaking only for themselves) did not take an anti-slavery line.
- When more secure in Nauvoo, Joseph was anti-slavery. His presidential campaign platform, for example, called for the abolition of slavery by selling public lands to pay slaveholders.
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- History of the Church 2:436-38
- History of the Church 3:29
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303
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Slavery was accepted in Utah. |
- Presentism or anachronism: Slavery was enshrined in the U.S. Constitution, and it took a war to end it.
- LDS scripture forbade slavery (Alma 27꞉9-10, DC 101꞉79), but Latter-day Saints (like believers in every age) did not always live up to the light given them. Those who practiced slavery during a historical time in which it was legal will have to answer to God's justice and mercy.
- The authors, however, apparently hope that readers will judge the Church or its members or leaders harshly. This is a dangerous wish, since "For with what judgment ye judge, ye shall be judged: and with what measure ye mete, it shall be measured to you again" (Matthew 7:2).
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- Millennial Star, 1851, p.63
- New York Herald, May 4, 1855, as cited in Dialogue, Spring 1973, p.56
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306
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Church leaders defended segregation.
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- Misrepresentation of source: The authors quote the first edition of Mormon Doctrine, while ignoring that many Church leaders were displeased with it, and that a second edition had been released eleven years before their book was published.
- Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints
- Double standard: some Protestant denominations—such as the SBC—were formed specifically to support slavery.
- Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints: Prophetic fallibility?
- Repudiated ideas
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- Race Problems—As They Affect The Church, an address delivered by Apostle Mark E. Petersen at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954
- Mormon Doctrine, 1958, pp.107-8
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312-314
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Brigham Young said that blacks would not received the priesthood until all of Adam's other children received it, otherwise the church would be destroyed. |
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- Journal of Discourses 7:290-91
- Journal of Discourses 2:143
- Journal of Discourses 11:272
- Brigham Young Addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, dated February 5, 1852, located in the LDS church historical dept.)."
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322-323
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The revelation granting the priesthood to blacks was necessary after a temple was built in Brazil.
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- Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
- The authors again make a sweeping assertion with no evidence whatever.
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