Mormon LeBron (Jabari Parker of Simeon HS)

[Chad Feldheimer]

That passage in the Book of Mormon is talking about one particular group of people at one specific point in time. The people were all Israelites (Nephite vs. Lamanites), with the possible exception that they may have intermarried with any other people that may have lived there. My own opinion is that the darker skin did come from intermarriage with others, and was symbolic of them forgetting the covenants the Lord had made with Israel. At any rate, it has absolutely nothing to do with people of African descent. Blacks in that context simply do not enter into the Book of Mormon at all. And that passage never even mentions Cain or Cain's curse.

That being said, there are certainly 19th and early 20th century LDS who did associate being black with the curse of Cain. As did many other nonLDS individuals of that time period. But as far as I know, they never used that passage from the Book of Mormon to justify it (there was another passage from the Book of Abraham that was used, if I recall correctly).

You mean Brigham Young right?
"Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” – JoD: vol.10 p. 110: (March 8, 1863)"

 

[The Black Swordsman]

"In the evening debated with John C. Bennett and others to show that the Indians have greater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites, than the negroes or sons of Cain."

- Joseph Smith (History of the Church 4:501)



"Any man having one drop of the seed of [Cain] ... in him cannot hold the Priesthood and if no other Prophet ever spoke it before I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ I know it is true and others know it."

- Brigham Young (Bush & Mauss 1984: 70)

"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind …. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race—that they should be the ‘servant of servants’; and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree."

-Brigham Young (Journal of Discourses, 7:290)

Curse of Cain is flat nose and black skin that Negroes have according to Brigham Young and Joseph Smith, people that speak directly to god.

 

[Biggs]

So that Player in Chicago is pretty damn good. Wait is this still the same thread.

 

[Stoked]

So that Player in Chicago is pretty damn good. Wait is this still the same thread.

Yes it is. He seems like a good kid and I wish him all the success that he wants.

 

[colton]

You mean Brigham Young right?

Sure.

 

[colton]

Curse of Cain is flat nose and black skin that Negroes have according to Brigham Young and Joseph Smith...

Well, Brigham Young, anyway. I don't see Joseph Smith using that phrase.

So you've established that early LDS leaders were racist. Guess what? So were 99% of the other religious leaders of their time.

... people that speak directly to god.

It's a good thing, then, that we don't feel like that makes them inerrant.

I guess it's also a good thing no Islamic leaders have ever been racist. Oh, wait...

 

[colton]

And now we return to our regularly scheduled thread. Oh at least we can hope...

 

[Beantown]

...

According to scholars, early interpretations of the Bible in Syriac Christianity combined the "curse" with the "mark", and interpreted the curse of Cain as black skin.[9] Some argue that this may have originated from rabbinic texts, which interpreted a passage in the Book of Genesis ("And Cain was very wroth, and his countenance fell") as implying that Cain underwent a permanent change in skin color.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

Quote one Islamic Prophet that was racist with sources. Not even a Caliph who isn't given the same regard as a prophet has never said anything racist.

Here is an example of a glorious true prophet Prophet Muhammad (PBUH)

“The ink of the scholar is more sacred than the blood of the martyr"

sounds like someone speaking directly to god to me.


Owned once again colton.

 

[Jazz Spazz]

I believe you just owned yourself, dude. Nice.

 

[The Black Swordsman]

I believe you just owned yourself, dude. Nice.

I forget some people like you get confused. I owned him.

 

[colton]

Owned once again colton.

Hmm...to own me again, you would have had to own me the first time.