However, I believe virtually all of the ancients -- even true prophets of the Bible and the Book of Mormon -- were racists. I believe almost all people today, of every race, to some extent, are racists. I believe "birds of a feather flock together" for a reason. And I believe the apostle Paul taught the truth when he wrote:
26 And [God] hath made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation;
27 That they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him, though he be not far from every one of us: (Acts 17:26-27.)
I do not doubt Joseph Smith taught the truth regarding priesthood and the seed of Cain. I do not doubt that God has segregated the races (and families) of the earth -- and commanded, at times, that His children should do likewise, to fulfill His purposes. I do not doubt that the Lord, at times, has ordained some to receive (what we call) "blessings" while others He has "cursed".
Even so, I know it is in the heart of Deity to release His children from their bonds of iniquity and the repercussions of inequity meted upon their forebears three and four -- even a hundred! -- generations past, when they are ready and willing to receive it. But they -- and we -- must rise up to claim those blessings.
Every race and people on earth, in their turn, has been considered "unworthy" to receive the kingdom of God. But certainly the last shall be first and the first last! Those in the Book of Mormon who characteristically were considered "righteous" (and white) quite often turned unrighteous (and became sometimes physically altered, but always spiritually "darkened"), while those who were physically "dark and loathsome and filthy" sometimes became "white" (or pure) and "delightsome", despite their melanin.
Our destinies are not always determined by our DNA! Even so, what can be said for blacks today, when over half of all murders in the United States are committed by black men, though they comprise but a tiny fraction of the population? What can be said for the overwhelming probability of black-on-white violence, rape and larceny (but almost never its reverse)? Our eyes and minds do not deceive us! All men -- and nations and families and races, despite what Thomas Jefferson claimed -- are not created equal. All cultures are not equal. In fact, there can be no true "equality" among us, for differences will always abound, and "the poor always ye have with you" (John 12:8), though God be no respecter of persons.
Is the rising generation of blacks doomed to suffer oppressions, repeating the failures and agonies of their forefathers? Heaven forbid! Are whites (or any other race) doomed to assume the role of slave and outcast (or worse), as they have done before?
It seems inevitable.
I cannot ignorantly support or demand an apology from anyone who has practiced racism. I do not know their reasons, nor am I accountable for what they've done. I can only choose to treat others as I would wish to be treated, nothing more, nothing less. All mankind deserves to be so treated. Perhaps to some it is given the spirit to rise up and challenge the powers that be to claim their "rights", to assume among the sons and daughters of Adam one's place as a son or daughter of God and heir to His kingdom!
There was, in fact, a kingdom of glory founded on justice whose citizens sought to uphold and establish individual rights. (Those who have lived in America have tasted of its spirit!) But the highest kingdom of glory in heaven ignores such things. Its inhabitants focus on overcoming oppression by enduring it; by overcoming evil by submitting to it; by loving the sinner without partaking of his sin. There is no end of grievances for which a people or movement may clamor for vengeance and retribution in a fallen (or lower) world, perpetuating unending conflict. (Such is the lesson of the Book of Mormon and the Middle East whence it came!)
The (real) Christian -- black or white, bond or free -- will call upon God and beg to be received of Him, regardless of his skin tone or her circumstance. Anyway, Christ's kingdom is not of this world. To receive it, we can take nothing with us but our bodies (and the intelligence gained thereby) through resurrection. When those bodies are raised up, becoming "quickened" and spiritual, if the Spirit of the Lord indwells in us, then those bodies shall be glorious indeed.
The crime and social problems of the blacks in the US did not arise until the welfare programs of the "Great Society", in combination with the "war on drugs", targeted and destroyed the integrity of black families. Indeed, you can see in other countries with generous welfare for single mothers the same kind of crime and social problems, such as violent white biker gangs in Sweden, for instance.
ReplyDeleteIt can even appear that the powers-that-be, in response to the civil rights movement, used the "war on poverty" in combination with the "war on drugs" to retaliate against the black population for insisting upon civil rights, resulting in there being today more black slaves in the US "prison-industrial complex" than there were in 1850 on the Southern plantations, all "justified" by the "black crime problem" created by these government policies.
In regards to Thinker of Thoughts, in the last frame of his presentation, my thought is that if it is a typical US ward, the white High Priests scrubbing the restroom floors for the Corporation in Salt Lake free of charge will probably outnumber the black High Priests by at least 10-1.