Criticism of Mormonism/Books/The Changing World of Mormonism/Chapter 10

Chapter 9

A FAIR Analysis of: The Changing World of Mormonism A work by author: Jerald and Sandra Tanner

Chapter 11

Claim

• It was taught that the denial of priesthoods to blacks was due to some behavior in the pre-existence.

Author's source(s)

• 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"

Response

• Pre-existence and the ban?
• This idea has been repudiated.

Claim

• Blacks were said to be the descendants of Cain.

Author's source(s)

• History of the Church 4:501
• Mormon Doctrine, 1958. p.102
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:290.
• Mormon Doctrine, 1958, p.477
• John Taylor, Journal of Discourses 22:304.

Response

• The authors fail to note that the so-called "Curse of Ham" was a Protestant invention used to justify the practice of slavery.
• Protestant critics: double standard on race issues
• Origin of the ban
• "Curse of Cain" and "curse of Ham"?

Claim

• Brigham Young said that the penalty for marrying a black person was "death."

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 10:110.

Response

•  Misrepresentation of source: Brigham Young/Race mixing punishable by death

Claim

• Joseph Smith is said to have endorsed slavery.

Author's source(s)

• History of the Church 2:436-38
• History of the Church 3:29

Response

• 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.

Claim

• Slavery was accepted in Utah.

Author's source(s)

• Millennial Star, 1851, p.63
• New York Herald, May 4, 1855, as cited in Dialogue, Spring 1973, p.56

Response

•  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).

Claim

• Church leaders defended segregation.

Author's source(s)

• 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

Response

•  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.
•  Double standard: some Protestant denominations—such as the SBC—were formed specifically to support slavery.
•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints: Church doctrine/Statements by Church leaders
• Repudiated ideas

Claim

• 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.

Author's source(s)

• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 7:290-291.
• Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 2:143.
• Brigham Young, 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.)."

Response

•  Author(s) impose(s) own fundamentalism on the Saints: Church doctrine/Statements by Church leaders
• Repudiated ideas
• Lifting the ban

Claim

• The revelation granting the priesthood to blacks was necessary after a temple was built in Brazil.

Author's source(s)

•  ^[ATTENTION!]

Response

•  Mind reading: author has no way of knowing this.
• The authors again make a sweeping assertion with no evidence whatever.