Are LDS people (Mormons) the only ones that believe in the "dark skin curse" or do ot
If you don't know what the "curse" is, it's the belief that Native Americans were cursed with dark skin for disobeying God and that Cain's "curse" was dark skin and passed through to black people.
I always try to bring up the point about other dark-skinned people from India and other areas of the world, but no one will directly answer this question. Is it because they don't know?
This wasn't intended to be offensive, I'm just wondering.
I also bring up the point that I don't think Jesus was "Caucasian" either. The fair skinned and haired Jesus interpretation is false, in my opinion.
@Corianna: Ha, ha. Yes, just for a minute. This question has been bothering me all weekend and I wanted to get things clarified. I hate being confused
Yes! The Nativity Story was a very realistic representation of what they would have looked like. Good point.
There are many others.
The idea of a "dark skin curse" put on Cain (and passed down through Ham, Noah's son) was used to justify slavery by many US Christians.
To answer, Mormon is the only religion I've heard of with that particular belief, at least in western society.
EDIT: You're right again - Jesus would have been dark-skinned and probably a bit furry, since he was middle-eastern. I laugh when I see paintings of him with fair skin and rosy cheeks! Mary too! I personally think they both would have looked more like modern-day Jews than Europeans.
Watch The Nativity Story. They got the look pretty close to right.
that was the misconception in the south a half century ago. they may still think it. I would say southern baptists do, but that would be a vast over generalization. since it all goes down to personal interpretation...
Welltraveled is correct in this instance the concept of "Dark Skin" being a curse has been taught by others way before the Mormon church was around.
Are there some people who have put that idea on Mormon teachings, well yea. they do happen to put their own interpretation on it.
But a look at any view of the scriptures be it the Bible or the Book of Mormon, there was also some sort of distinction or rebuke to those who were different, didn't worship the same etc. Jews and the Samaritans for instance. The Jews instantly believed that dealing with Samaritans somehow made them ritually unclean.
The Old Testament and the Laws of Moses had laws for avoiding things that were considered unclean and a lot of them dealt with avoidance with a lot of non-believing groups.
A lot of Christian church justified slavery because of the Bible.
If people want to justify racism because of some verses in the Mormon canon or in the Bible, they surely will. People are people and if they act on things that make them racist they will do that as well.
I know plenty of Mormons who haven't a racist bone in their bodies. Not to say there are not some who are. But just because verses claim racism doesn't mean the people in the religious faith are.
The Bible had terminology to slavery to it but doesn't mean those who follow some form of Christian belief follow these things.
The thing that makes the Mormon version of the curse of skin color so different is their belief in a living prophet.
It isn't just some obscure written doctrine from long ago that gives them their version of truth. It's a living prophet right now, who speaks with God and gets truth straight from God for today.
From 1830 to 1978, God told their prophets that He didn't want any Blacks in his heaven. That makes it quite a bit more revolting than some religious leader in the South twisting things to justify his own slaves.
In the Book of Mormon, God put the dark skin on Native Americans so that the good white people wouldn't intermarry with them.
With Blacks, God gave them dark skin so they could be identified and excluded from the Earthly participation in Mormonism that would permit them into the Mormon version of heaven to dwell with God. Blacks couldn't be married for eternity in LDS temples, and that is required for dwelling with God in the Mormon afterlife.
Smith just didn't know or care about Asians, East Indians, etc. Those races never crossed his consciousness or he would have come up with some story about them as well. Subsequent anointed 'prophet, seer and revelatory' of the LDS church did.
the moron cult had to come to grips with the loss of federal dollars to the state of Utah- thus its 'moment of enlightenment' when the dopey old white men got 'a message' from above.
I find it just bizarre that Evangelicals dint demand the LSD cult to stop saying they are Xians.
what we need is another "September Dawn" and get Patty Robertson and Frankie Graham on the field against the maroon warriors.
addendum- shh time for the LSD folk to do their weekly searches to 'set the word straight'.
Its actually time for ALL Xians to vocally and forcefully DENOUNCE Joey Smith as a false prophet and DENOUNCE ALL Morons as a cult, exclusive of sanity. Xtians, be honest. You attack the Muslims but not the morons? The Mormons believe they (men) will become mini-gods after death, on their own little planet. They also think that 'god' is just a perfect man- that this 'perfect' man had sex with mortal women.
Do you agree with this? Do you have the futz to demand your religious leaders to DENOUNCE mormons as a cult and not xtians? Or are you afraid?
I'm not sure if I do believe the "dark skin" curse thing. And I'm not sure I understand what the big deal is either.
I believe that Adam was cursed for partaking of the fruit he was told not to partake of. It isn't just black people who have cursed ancestors. Also Job was cursed and he was a righteous man. In scriptural experience it doesn't matter if you've been curse it matters how you handle it.
In the past dark skin as a curse has been used as an excuse for racism, oppression, and slavery. I have never seen this in the church.
Doctrinally, no. Officially, no. Culturally, yes. Does the LDS still believe it? Doctrinally, yes. Officially, yes. Culturally, yes. They agree by staying in the LDS, that their president declared the LDS's curse on black skin somehow "lifted" in 1978. People forget that not-so-long-ago announcement mentioned those of African descent. Can't remember anything about the LDS's additional "Lamanites dark skin curse" being lifted. Can you? Might be interesting to research/ask that question here. You would be surprised with what they come up with. Did Kimball mean both "pigment curses" in 1978? Why, yes, there were two. One for Africans and one for other "dark" or pigmented skin. Neither is from the God of the Bible. The book of Mormon is the sole owner of those fallacies.
Various churches promoted the culture of racism in the past, and there's surely a few independent holdouts here and there. Are these cultural racists or "mini Thomas Jefferson's"... who promote all men are created equal, believing blacks to be fully human with souls able to fully enjoy and partake of the love of God, yet, thought nothing of owning said fellow human beings merely on account of their skin color... are they racist? Of course. A complex oxymoron at best. Simplistically it is plain evil. Never did a single denomination ever take such an openly official position as the LDS did that people of African descent were spiritually or morally lesser than any other human being in the eyes of God. Mormonism stands by its belief that all humans are not created equal in the eyes of God, that their spiritual and moral states is somehow different. I say IS, because their book still reminds them of it as "fact". Their Prue-mortal doctrines remind them of their "facts". So many LDS naively fall back on the belief that Joseph Smith was not a racist, because he bought the freedom of one black man (who most likely saw Mormonism as a way out of physical bondage and jumped at the chance). Few Mormons will admit to---or even know the sad fate of this black man either. Smith never would have 'bought' him if he'd wanted to be freed to become... a Methodist, for instance. Let's all be realistic, shall we? Are all mormons fearful of color, of the unexplainable? Do they not simply trust God knows why there are different skin colors, and if He enjoyed it enough to create it, then why shouldn't we follow suit? What of all the other black slaves who didn't want to become mormons? Where was Smith's support for them? Why was the church's coffers closed to them? Didn't he care about those remaining in bondage? Where was his voice among abolitionists of his day? He's not historically known outside LDS as any kind of voice for people of color, unlike many religious figures of his day are. And please, spare us his presidential promises to "buy" slaves from slave owners. Lincoln understood black people were always free. They just didn't know it. He made them believe it, proclaimed in the blood of brother pitted against brother. THAT is why Lincoln earned the title of President of the United States. Not Joseph Smith, "prophet of a small god", of the self-serving small mind and heartless soul.
To say men who's skin happens to be another color makes them less than human is beyond humanity. Because that is exactly what their imagined curses does. And they had the unconscionable gall to make it official doctrine. What is worse, modern LDS STILL will defend it and excuse it away! And what is even worse than that, some LDS claim it wasn't doctrine at all. So it seems they have no clue how their doctrines are memorialized in their official "Doctrine & Covenants" record books. If only they would realize, if their president hadn't come out in 1978 and said that their church's imagined curse against people of African descent was somehow magically lifted with no reasoning behind their fabrication, they would STILL be practicing it and believing it as doctrine. Do you understand the implications of that one?
As far as the additional "Lamanite curse" because someone's skin is different than the pioneer's of Utah, I don't recognize the book of mormon's imaginings as any kind of gospel. Its fables mean nothing to me. They merely point out yet more instances of hiding inherently racist tendencies behind innocent looking smiles. Will ever just one single honest mormon come out and dare admit their church was WRONG for believing any other skin besides white is somehow "cursed" by God? God never said any part of His creation's skin pigment depth was "cursed" or "blessed". THEY did. Why must God bear their leader's treacherous sins before the world? Not on my watch.
Cain's curse was a mark. It might even be a mark that cannot be seen. Perhaps a mark on his spirit. Incorrectly thought of (by some) as an allusion to skin color.
Those who accuse the Mormon church of racism are working from the paradigm that there is no prophet. Mormons believe that there is a prophet who authoritatively speaks for God. If this is true than Mormons cannot be accused of racism. You will have to go to the top to find the culprit.
Is God Just? Why does he treat his children differently? Why are some people born into wealth and opportunity and others born into poverty? Mormons believe it is because of Gods knowledge of who we were before we were born. God does not treat us the same. That is Satans method. Just look at the feminist movement. God knows and appreciates us as individuals and provides us with the circumstances that he knows we need.
The White Nephites were all killed at the end of The Book Of Mormon. Not the Dark Skinned people.
Repeat. The White people died. Dead.
Obviously there are curses and blessings on all of God's children. Those who disobey God's Commandments will suffer God's justice in this life and the next life. If you escape God's justice in this life you will get it even worse in the next life.
Those who live God's commandments will prosper in the land. And in the next life they will receive eternal rewards that are infinite.
Mormons have always believed this. How do I now? Because it is in The Book Of Mormon, therefor your assertions are merely more of the same... pseudo - intellectual Anti-Mormon bigoted drivel.
By the way who was it that was the producer of Star Wars?
The answer is Gary Kurtz.
And who was the person most responsible for the religious mystical underpinnings of the Star Wars Movies?
The answer is Gary Kurtz. Gary Kurtz gained a minor in comparative religion while he was going to USC. His major not surprisingly was film making.
Gary Kurtz is Mormon. And it was he, Gary Kurtz, that guided George Lucas through religious philosophy, as they both collaborated together to invent the Star Wars story line.
Read The Book Of Mormon, and then watch the original three Star Wars movies, and notice the number of similarities in both stories. No accident. Gary Kurtz is Mormon.
If you have the ability to read, you might want to use that ability so that you can make an informed and rational assessment on a powerfully motivating book, that is also controversial.
Are LDS people (Mormons) the only ones that believe in the "dark skin curse" or do ot
