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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMitt Romney and the Curse of Blackness (HuffPost)
When it comes to others' choice of religions, I'm pretty much a live-and-let-live guy. In fact, I don't believe in religious litmus tests of any kind. Frankly, I think they are self-righteous and insulting. Yet I must admit that there is something about Mitt Romney's religion that I find deeply troubling, particularly in light of the possibility that he could become the next president of this nation. What concerns me is this: the Book of Mormon, the book that Mitt Romney and all Mormons embrace as divinely revealed scripture that is more sacred, more true, and more inerrant than any other holy book on earth, declares that black people are cursed. That's right. Cursed. And not only accursed, but lazy and aesthetically ugly to boot.
I'm not talking about ascribed racism such as we see in Christianity, in which racist meanings are attributed to certain verses of the Bible that actually contain no such meanings, as with the Gen. 9:25 cursing of Canaan (not Ham!) which, though used as "proof" of black wickedness and inferiority, in actuality has nothing to do with race.
And no, I'm not talking about a single ambiguous, cherry-picked verse, either. I'd much rather that were the case. The sad truth is that the Book of Morman says it explicitly and in numerous passages: black people are cursed by God and our dark skin is the evidence of our accursedness. Here are a few examples:
And the Lord had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them (2 Nephi 5:21).
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/obery-m-hendricks-jr-phd/mitt-romney-curse-blackness_b_1200470.html
Hugabear
(10,340 posts)I've actually heard about this before.
Is this one of those things where they just overlook those passages?
markpkessinger
(8,392 posts). . . Mormons did not allow blacks into the Mormon priesthood (by which Mormons mean all adult males who are fully accepted into their church).
It is one of the things hilariously pointed out in the song "I believe," from the Broadway musical, "The Book of Mormon" (written by the same guys who write "South Park" .
dimbear
(6,271 posts)and hence perfectly translated by Joseph Smith.
Mormon doctrine, for instance, tells that one of the goals of a Mormon man is to have as many wives as possible. The fly in the ointment is civil laws; Mormons have to get along with them. Hence polygamy is strictly on the down low in the mainline church. Racism is likewise downplayed and truth to tell disapproved nowadays, same reason. Mormons publicly stick with what are to them acceptable hateful things, like gaybashing.
I had to laugh when Neut Gingrich claimed marriage was between a man and a woman for the last 2000 some odd years. Somebody should have told Brigham Young before he married his fifty--you read that right--fifty wives. Neut is a piker with his paltry 3 and counting.
Number23
(24,544 posts)And this is nowhere near the first or last time a black person has made such an observation:
"Even semantics have conspired to make that which is black seem ugly and degrading. In Roget's Thesaurus there are 120 synonyms for blackness and at least 60 of them are offensive, as for example, blot, soot, grim, devil and foul. And there are some 134 synonyms for whiteness and all are favorable, expressed in such words as purity, cleanliness, chastity and innocence. A white lie is better than a black lie. The most degenerate member of a family is a "black sheep." Ossie Davis has suggested that maybe the English language should be reconstructed so that teachers will not be forced to teach the Negro child 60 ways to despise himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of inferiority, and the white child 134 ways to adore himself, and thereby perpetuate his false sense of superiority."
http://www.famous-speeches-and-speech-topics.info/martin-luther-king-speeches/martin-luther-king-speech-where-do-we-go-from-here.htm
my2sense
(2,645 posts)as they did Jeremiah Wright? I won't hold my breath.