LDS Black Priesthood Prohibition Still Smoldering

Here’s an interesting article in the Salt Lake Tribune titled: Why is the LDS church denying past doctrine?

Indeed, 40 years ago BYU Professor Randy Bott would have received compliments from the LDS leaders for his 1970s era appropriate explanation for denying Blacks the priesthood. In 2012, Professor Bott is castigated.

And here’s a blog posting that contains over 100 references from Mormon prophets, leaders, and LDS canon associated with the Mormon Black priesthood ban doctrine: LDS Quotes on Black Priesthood Ban

It’s duplicitous for the current Mormon leaders to state the previous reasons given regarding the Black priesthood ban are nothing but folklore.

The Mormon leaders could douse this fire once and for all by admitting the Black priesthood exclusion was a racist mistake, apologize, and move on.

Note: We attempted to contact the brethren in Salt Lake City for a statement on this article. One general authority speaking anonymously would only say “the speed at which the Mormon church becomes more Christian mainstream is limited by the rate at which the older apostles die off.”

Time to Bury Baptism for the Dead

Here’s another example of Mormons not being able to recognize that they’ve crossed a boundary that makes them look ridiculous: Daniel Pearl Baptized a Mormon

Whereas people outside of Mormonism find this practice offensive and creepy. This is a good example of why other religions don’t consider Mormonism to be Christian.

Mormons often don’t recognize boundaries because they feel that God is on their side and has told them they are correct and therefore there are no boundaries.

Baptism for the Dead is yet another “anchor doctrine” which keeps Mormonism from sailing into the mainstream of Christianity. It’s time to cut this doctrine loose.

There is precedence for removing doctrines that are no longer needed. For example, these teachings were a large part of Mormon zeitgeist when I was a member (many years ago):

– Negros could not be ordained with the Mormon priesthood. Most of my Utah neighbors were racists and completely agreed with the exclusionary doctrine. I can remember older LDS members questioning whether black people were part of the human race. Inter-racial marriages were condemned.
– After death, we all thought we would become Gods in the celestial kingdom and we would each have our own planet to manage.
– Many of us believed strongly that we would be polygamists in the afterlife. We firmly believed that polygamy had only been temporarly suspended.
– Every brown skinned person on the North or South American continents and all Polynesians were from Israel. We were told that brown skin would become lighter once the brown skinned folks became Mormons.
– The temple ceremony used to have death threats, slashing of bowels, cutting of throat type language. I can remember my wife being freaked out with the “going through the veil” part.
– Everybody had a grandparent that had been promised in their patriarchal blessing that they would see the 2nd coming; indeed we were all Saturday’s Warriors, the last generation born before the 2nd coming. A two year supply of food was a requirement because disaster and death was right around the corner.
– Members bragged about knowing the garden of Eden was in Missouri. Missouri is where the human race began.
– Members still thought that the prophet would soon give the order for everybody to move back to Missouri, because Christ’s 2nd coming was imminent.
– Most members still believed that the Book of Abraham was an actual translation from Egyptian papyrus. Kolob was a real place, and LDS space doctrines were discussed in public.
– People would regularly bare their testimonies of close encounters with the three Nephites. The three Nephites were much more active in helping people 30 years ago.
– Birth control and contraceptives were of the devil.
– Every member had a copy of Bruce R. McConkie’s “Mormon Doctrine”. This book was widely used in lessons on Sunday. Members loved to quote from this book.

We strongly encourage all Mormons to petition their leaders to add Baptism for the Dead to the prior abandoned peculiar doctrines list. Baptism for the Dead should be added to the little flecks of history. This practice has outlived (no pun intended) its usefulness and does more damage than good.