Concerning the 2020 “Come, Follow Me” gospel study manual that includes a false statement in the lesson for the week of February 3 that dark skin in the Book of Mormon was the sign of a curse:“One of our recent church manuals includes a paragraph with some outdated commentary about race,” he said. “It was mistakenly included in the printed version of the manual, which had been prepared for print nearly two years ago. When it was brought to the attention of church leaders late last year, they directed that it be immediately removed in our annual online manual, which is used by the great majority of our members. We have also directed that any future printed manuals will reflect this change.“We’re asking our members to disregard the paragraph in…
Book of Mormon Title Page: “... is to show unto the remnant of the house of Israel what great things the Lord hath done for their fathers; and that they may know the covenants of the Lord, that they are not cast off forever—And also to the convincing of the Jew and Gentile that Jesus is the Christ, the Eternal God, manifesting himself unto all nations—And now, if there are faults they are the mistakes of men; wherefore, condemn not the things of God, that ye may be found spotless at the judgment-seat of Christ.”
(Don’t call Native American non-members or members of the church Lamanites. Not all are descended from them.) “The Book of Mormon provides little direct information about cultural contact between the peoples it describes and others who may have lived nearby. Consequently, most early Latter-day Saints assumed that Near Easterners or West Asians like Jared, Lehi, Mulek, and their companions were the first or the largest or even the only groups to settle the Americas. Building upon this assumption, critics insist that the Book of Mormon does not allow for the presence of other large populations in the Americas and that, therefore, Near Eastern DNA should be easily identifiable among modern native groups. The Book of Mormon itself, however, does not claim that the peoples it describes were either the predominant…
Post 2006 Introduction to the Book of Mormon: “...they are among the ancestors of the American Indians” (no longer says “principal ancestors.”) Gospel Topic Essay, “Book of Mormon and DNA Studies": “The Book of Mormon provides little direct information about cultural contact between the peoples it describes and others who may have lived nearby. Consequently, most early Latter-day Saints assumed that Near Easterners or West Asians like Jared, Lehi, Mulek, and their companions were the first or the largest or even the only groups to settle the Americas. Building upon this assumption, critics insist that the Book of Mormon does not allow for the presence of other large populations in the Americas and that, therefore, Near Eastern DNA should be easily identifiable among modern native groups. The Book of Mormon…
“...roughly 12.3 million Africans were trafficked to the Americas. Enormous wealth was generated for those in the slave industry through the unjust toil of Africans—men, women, and children. Daily life of enslaved Africans was punctuated by horrendous abuse. In some instances, they were branded with hot irons on the chest or face. Slaves were whipped, forced to wear iron masks, placed in the stocks, sexually assaulted, and subjected to other forms of torture. Besides torture, enslaved Africans’ agency was severely limited by a set of laws called slave codes. It was, for example, illegal for an enslaved person to own property, trade goods, leave an enslaver’s property without permission, learn to read and write, speak their native language, or marry. Black families had no rights under the law, which meant…
“In this country, we are blessed to have an inspired Constitution that lays out an exemplary form of government. But without personal virtue, it isn’t enough.” …King Mosiah in Mosiah 29 outlined the differences between righteous rulers and wicked kings. Benjamin Franklin said: “Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom. As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Elder Uchtdorf asked, “So what will our future look like? Will we become a nation in need of more masters? Or will we rise as sons and daughters of a loving God and strive for goodness? Compassion for others? Justice, humility, civic courage, kindness and charity toward all?” Elder Uchtdorf said that while there is hatred and suffering and division all around, and while humankind has made…
“Though most early Latter-day Saint converts were from the Northern States and were opposed to slavery, slavery affected Church history in a number of ways. In 1832, Latter-day Saints who had settled in Missouri were attacked by their neighbors, who accused them of “tampering with our slaves, and endeavoring to sow dissensions and raise seditions amongst them.” That winter, Joseph Smith received a revelation that a war would begin over the slave question and that slaves would “rise up against their masters.” The next year, concerns that free black Saints would gather to Missouri was the spark that ignited further violence against the Saints and led to their expulsion from Jackson County.” “In the mid-1830s, the Saints tried to distance themselves from the controversy over slavery. Missionaries were instructed not…
“The most important Latter-Day Saint publications during the 1840s were the Times and Seasons, ...and the Nauvoo Neighbor. ...Through his role as editor of the Times and Seasons and Neighbor, Taylor became a leading defender of the Mormon faith. He vigorously publicized Mormonism’s antislavery position. Taylor denounced Missouri as a slave state whose “coffers” groaned “with the spoils of the oppressed.” Taylor, like Joseph Smith, assailed Henry Clay as a “slaveholder” who, if elected president, would make America the “slavest and vainest nation on earth.” See also Samuel W. Taylor, The Kingdom of Nothing: The Life of John Taylor, Militant Mormon (New York: Macmillan, 1976) and Times and Seasons, July 1, 1843; Nauvoo Neighbor, April 17, 1844
“When we understand what is right and what is wrong, we are in a position to exercise our freedom in making choices. In so doing, we must stand accountable for our decisions, and we cannot escape the inevitable consequences of these choices. Such freedom to exercise moral agency is essential in an environment where people have the highest prospects for progress and development. By our very endowment as children of an Eternal Father, we have had implanted within our souls the urgency to be free. It is natural for us to want to be accountable for our own fates, because there is a whispering within us confirming that this accountability is absolutely essential to the attainment of our eternal destiny.”
“I speak of the problem of racism. You will recall President Russell M. Nelson’s great teachings in general conference on this subject and perhaps my own plea that Latter-day Saints unite to “root out racism.” To do that, we must have clear thinking about how current events should be analyzed and acted upon in view of this nation’s shameful history of Black slavery.”
