mormon racism on display

[skeptifem]

mormoninfographics.com/2013/03/2-nephi-521-on-missionary-plaque.html

 

for those not in the loop, these plaques are displayed in stake centers in the LDS church to show off the missionaries from that stake/where they are going.

 

I was floored that someone picked that verse to put on a plaque for a dude going to freaking africa. Holy shit.

[Hane]

mormoninfographics.com/2013/03/2-nephi-521-on-missionary-plaque.html

for those not in the loop, these plaques are displayed in stake centers in the LDS church to show off the missionaries from that stake/where they are going.

I was floored that someone picked that verse to put on a plaque for a dude going to freaking africa. Holy shit.

Oh, FFS. As the song goes, "I believe--that in 1978 God changed his mind about black people..."

[DistantStar]

It's not real, according to the Ex-Mo site I read occasionally.

But if it had been dated 50 years ago I'd have believed it. There is some disturbing stuff in that book. (To be fair, there's plenty of disturbing stuff in the Bible, but Bronze Age authors and all, I can be more forgiving and overlook a lot more.)

[Hane]

It's not real, according to the Ex-Mo site I read occasionally.

But if it had been dated 50 years ago I'd have believed it. There is some disturbing stuff in that book. (To be fair, there's plenty of disturbing stuff in the Bible, but Bronze Age authors and all, I can be more forgiving and overlook a lot more.)

I was just there, a few minutes after I made the post above! It's still as funny as heck.

[DistantStar]

I do see the humor in it, but still...yikes! :)

[samurai_sarah]

It's not real, according to the Ex-Mo site I read occasionally.

But if it had been dated 50 years ago I'd have believed it. There is some disturbing stuff in that book. (To be fair, there's plenty of disturbing stuff in the Bible, but Bronze Age authors and all, I can be more forgiving and overlook a lot more.)

Just building on your post. True about the Bible. Some of that stuff is the stuff of nightmares. But depending on your denomination, you're not supposed to take it literally. In Catholic RE we were taught that the Bible was a book of metaphors and fables grounded in some truth. E.g.: The Biblical Flood was taught as a probably very localized event, and it's impossible to take two of every species, so just go with the message. It wasn't supposed to be taken literally. Smart move, RCC, I have to give you that.

The BOM, as far as I understand it, is supposed to be taken absolutely literally. And that's one of the problems with it. When I still believed, I could look at the Bible as I did at Aesop's fables. The message mattered, not the literal truth. But actually being asked to believe that there were civilisations in America, which rode horses and forged steel in the times of Jesus, who didn't leave a shred of evidence? Archaeological digs frequently come across traces of civilisation from around the same time, but none in America match the literal Book of Mormon. That's what makes it rather odd, in my opinion.

Besides, it keeps on changing, yet it's supposed to be unchanging. The disclaimer is that editorial changes are made, but that seems like having your pie and eating it.

Sorry for the tangent, and I was just building on your post. I think that on a pragmatic level, the LDS would be able to get themselves out of a bit of hot water, if they took the RCC approach. Not that I'm fond of organised religion, but interpreting and re-interpreting sacred texts makes them somewhat more flexible to accommodate social and scientific changes for those who are religious.

[DistantStar]

Agreed. I think literal interpretation of any scripture can lead to Problems. Capital P on purpose. Our societies, and the cultural assumptions about pretty much everything, have changed so drastically even since the BOM was written that it seems a pointless exercise to me. I think the LDS higher-ups would do well to think very hard about that.

Episcopalian here; if I said I read the Bible literally most people I know would look at me funny.