Mormon african-american adoption

[bionicmlle]

I tried googling but didn't get very far so I thought I'd inquire here as the FJers I'm sure know about this...

 

My sister works in "the adoption industry" and told me about the lax laws in Utah regarding adoptions and that "Mormons adopt black babies because they believe they will be their slaves in heaven." While I know LDS do have some unique beliefs, I sort of found this hard to believe. It's a certainly a shame that people have this perception, particularly if it isn't true... (which I am obviously assuming it is NOT true)

 

Thoughts?

[demgirl]

I have Mormon family members and I've never heard anything like that (my cousin who broke away gives me lots of dirt). Mormonism has a ton of whackadoodle beliefs, but that one is new to me. Now, for a long time (up until the 1970s?), the church basically taught that African Americans were less than white people and therefore they couldn't hold the priestship. THere was plenty of ingrained and doctrinal racism (in fairness to the Mormons, I don't think this was unique to them). But adopted black babies being slaves in heaven is new to me, if it's true.

Edited to add that OTOH, I'm not going to cry a river for the Mormon church on this, seeing as they seem bound and determined to throw all influence and money available at efforts to stop civil rights for homosexuals.

[oolong]

Oh, wow. OK, maybe there are some individual crazies who believe something like that, but of course that is not an LDS belief. Good heavens. Not that there hasn't historically been plenty of racism in the church, but that applies to many churches and in fact the US as a whole.

It is rather sad that people have such perceptions. I married into a large, formerly Mormon family (it hangs on in threads but most members have gone their own ways), and the family of my birth doesn't know shit about Mormons and associates them with like those people who believed in the May rapture and such. I grew up way more fundy-crazy and racist as a Southern Baptist than my husband. I keep having to remind my family he didn't grow up in a "cult".

[Jessica]

Yes, and we also have horns, didn't you know! ;)

[Terrie]

I know the LDS church has some out-there beliefs on race, but I believe it is currently more along the lines of "You will be white in heaven." Kinda understandable, if still cringe-worthy, because "perfected" bodies in heaven are common in many Christian denominations, and, let's be honest, in the US, there's still a strong undercurrent of "white is better" in our whole culture.

[demgirl]

I will say that while, as I said earlier, there are many things I do not like about Mormonism, I kind of groove on the afterlife theology. I like the idea that you don't automatically go to hell because you believed in the wrong thing during your lifetime. I mean, you may not end up a God with your own kingdom and spirit babies but at least you don't go to hell. I can't figure out, though, what's up with the men getting their own kingdoms and planets as Gods, or whatever, and the women are simply relegated to one of several spiritual wives of the newly minted God-Men. That's not cool.

[bananacat]

Mormonism is a really huge, diverse group. I'm sure this view is not mainstream among LDS, but I wouldn't be surprised if it were believed among some FLDS groups, especially the really extreme cult-like ones. I know one woman who escaped from an FLDS cult said she was taught to fear black people, told that their skin color was punishment for their sins, and even told that she could catch it if she didn't stay away from them. So some of them are certainly racist, but I doubt that it's common or widespread. It's especially important to remember the difference between LDS and FLDS.

[emmiedahl]

I think Mormons are unusual in that racism is a huge part of their holy scriptures. You have to really do some tricky interpreting to find explicit anti-black rhetoric in the Bible, but the BoM is full of it. Of course, it was written in the nineteenth century when that was common.

From what I have heard, the Mormon Church has never apologized or retracted anything. It's a shame. That might be where people get the idea that the church is still racist.

[maybeizfundie]

I would find that hard to believe about mainstream Mormons.

Some of the FLDS and similar sects though, I might believe it of. I can't remember the name of the one that ended up in South America, but a wife of one of the leaders in her memoir recalled several of the men marrying native women with the express purpose of helping the race become "white and delightsome" through mixed children.

[ADoyle90815]

While I don't agree with much of Mormonism, I do like the idea that you're not going to hell because you don't agree with them. As for that racist thing, I've never heard of it, as the only thing I have heard about was that in 1978, the church said that black men can have the priesthood. The Mormon church still hasn't apologized for the previous racist doctrine, nor have they retracted anything, so it's understandable why some people think the Mormon church is racist. There might be some older Mormons who still have racist beliefs, but they're dying out.

[Rosa]

I seriously doubt that's a common belief. I would bet most Mormons who are of an age to adopt (20s-40s) even remember the time before the church allowed Black converts.

I do wonder, given the "you're with your family in the afterlife" theology, if there's a special ceremony for making adoptions spiritually binding. If there is, I can see an adoptee/adoptive family running into clergy who are older and believe stupid racist shit - just like I've had friends run into priests & pastors who don't believe in interracial marriage in other denominations.

[lilwriter85]

I have an aunt by marriage whose family left the Mormon church back in the 80's and she has told me a few of crazy beliefs that LDS church has. I'll have to ask her if she has heard of this.

A few months back I got into a reading blog by a Mormon young woman who is a quadriplegic. She grew up in a family of four sisters and the youngest sister is adopted and black. The adopted sister sort of seems like a slave in way to the family because she takes care of the quadriplegic sister quite a bit(not trying to sound cruel but a lot of things on the blog look and seem weird).

[antifundie]

I'm not an expert, but I think if you adopt kids, you have to have them "sealed" to you in the Temple. I guess biological kiddos don't have to go through that ceremony?

I read a blog written by and LDS person, and she said somebody in her family was adopting and posted pictures of a pair of twin boys who are black--she didn't show their faces because the adoption isn't final yet--but I don't get the impression that the black kids will be slaves or anything horrible like that.

[Rachel333]

There is a sealing ceremony in the temple for adoptions. Here are some blogs I found with some pictures:

adoption.taylorandlisa.com/2008/09/our-adoption-story.html

ourlittlemcfamily.com/category/serious-stuff

The church is trying hard not to be racist. They've kind of retconned some of it out of the Book of Mormon (which I've only read half of, but I would describe it as having several racist passages rather than being full of racism. Most of it is really just incredibly boring.) Instead of "white and delightsome", I think it's now "pure and delightsome." I've heard missionaries say that the people who were turned black as punishment were already dark, but made darker to set them apart, not because having black skin in itself is a punishment. I don't think that's how it was originally meant, but it's better than keeping the racist doctrine. I'd really like to see an acknowledgement that the priesthood policy was wrong instead of something that was appropriate for the time (which is what they teach).

There are some racist ideas that still persist. I've known Mormons who believe that the curse of Cain was black skin and that black people today are descended from Cain (this isn't an originally Mormon teaching, but was first a Protestant idea used to justify racism). I don't think anyone but older people would believe this now, but there was an idea floating around that black people were less valiant in the preexistence. They also used to teach that people with dark skin would become lighter as they followed the church's teachings. Someone who went to BYU recently said that someone brought that up and everyone else was just shocked that that person would actually believe it, so it's not something that most Mormons still believe.

I think it was Brigham Young who really made the church racist. Early Mormons were really disliked because they were abolitionists (I'm sure that's not the only reason, but that was a big source of conflict in Missouri), and Joseph Smith actually ordained several freed slaves (he was probably also okay with women having some form of the priesthood, but Brigham Young messed that up, too). It is important to note that, contrary to what I've seen some people say, black people were always allowed to join the church, but they were not allowed to have the priesthood.

I've been to an LDS church in Africa, which was an interesting experience. Everyone was black except some of the missionaries (and me, but I only went once). I was curious how the members felt about the church's history and how the missionaries felt about it (that has to be embarrassing), but that's an awkward question to ask. The church was very full, with both long-time members and a ton of new members and investigators. The talks and lessons were as boring as they are in the US (though the investigators had some hilarious questions in the Gospel Principles class), but it was nice that they didn't have all the cultural entrapment of the American churches. Almost everyone was a first-generation member, and some members were working on translating the scriptures to their own language. There was definitely a different attitude toward the church. I also liked that when I got into a (small and friendly) argument with some of the missionaries (I always do, I can't help it), when the American missionary (who I actually liked a lot, despite this) gave me the typical "everything in the church is wonderful, so you must be misunderstanding", her African companion said "No, she's right, this is a problem. We need to look into this." Anyway, even though I don't really like the LDS church, I think it was probably one of the better churches there. It's a very religious country and I visited other churches, and the LDS was probably the least weird and had the shortest service, believe it or not. (My plan was to visit a different church every week because I wanted the cultural experiences, but after a few weeks I started having too many cultural experiences at the bars on Saturday night to feel like getting up on Sunday morning...)

Okay, that was a ridiculously long and off-topic post for a fairly simple question, but I'm oddly fascinated by the LDS church and I have a lot more I could say. In short, no, Mormons don't believe that. :P

[Samantha]

I don't know about adopting babies for that reason, but I do know it has been taught that African-Americans can enter the cesetial kingdom only as servants.

Here is a comment made by an apostle in a talk given at BYU:

"If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the Celestial Kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory."

-Mark E. Petersen, "Race Problems-As They Affect The Church,"

And here's a link to a website that can give more information:

http://mormonthink.com/blackweb.htm#servant

[Guest Anonymous]

I'm a Mormon watcher, because I find them fascinating. I don't think that modern Mormons do this or believe in it. As another poster said, the LDS church has issues with racism, but so do most other churches.

That said, I recently read something by Steve Benson, a former Mormon, that might somewhat explain why people would think something like that.

One such Mormon-"owned" slave was Jane Elizabeth Manning James--otherwise known among her Mormon friends and White overseers as "Aunt Jane."

Aunt Jane was a faithful Black Mormon convert who worked in the household of Joseph and Emma Smith. After years of faithful belief and devotion to clean-up duty, she had the audacity to repeatedly petition the leaders of the Mormon Church to be sealed via temple endowment to her husband, but was denied her request by the Quorum of the Twelve.

Instead, she was made to settle for her White "owner," Joseph Smith--as his slave for time and all eternity:

"The Territory of Utah gave up the practice of slavery along with the slave-holding states; however, the fact that they countenanced it when it was being practiced shows how insensitive they were to the feelings of black people. Even after the slaves were set free the Mormons continued to talk against blacks. In the year 1884, Angus M. Cannon said that 'a colored man . . . is not capable of receiving the Priesthood, and can never reach the highest Celestial glory of the Kingdom of God.' ('The Salt Lake Tribune,' October 5, 1884)

"The idea that blacks were inferior and should only be servants to the whites persisted in Mormon theology. In fact, Mormon leaders seemed to feel that blacks would still be servants in heaven. On August 26, 1908, President Joseph F. Smith related that a black woman was sealed as a servant to Joseph Smith:

"'The same efforts he said had been made by Aunt Jane to receive her endowments and be sealed to her husband and have her children sealed to their parents and her appeal was made to all the Presidents from President Young down to the present First Presidency. But President Cannon conceived the idea that, under the circumstances, it would be proper to permit her to go to the temple to be adopted to the Prophet Joseph Smith as his servant and this was done. This seemed to ease her mind for a little while but did not satisfy her, and she still pleaded for her endowments.' ('Excerpts From The Weekly Council Meetings Of The Quorum Of The Twelve Apostles,' as printed in 'Mormonism-Shadow or Reality?,' p. 584).

"The idea that a black is only worthy of the position of a servant has deep roots in Mormon theology. Mark E. Petersen, . . . [former] Apostle in the church, once said that if a 'Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory.' ('Race Problems-As They Affect The Church,' a speech delivered at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954)."

(Jerald and Sandra Tanner, "Changing the Anti-Black Doctrine," Chapter 10, Part 1, in "The Changing World of Mormonism," Utah Lighthouse Ministry, at: http://www.utlm.org/onlinebooks/changech10a.htm)

Jane Elizabeth Manning James (1813-1908)--even in faith, a victim of Mormon bigotry, RIP:

"Jane Elizabeth Manning was born in Wilton, Connecticut, one of five children of Isaac and Phyllis Manning, a free black family. Although Jane was a member of the local Presbyterian Church, she remained spiritually unfulfilled until 1842 when she heard the message of a missionary for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints . . . .

"Soon afterwards she joined the Mormon Church. One year following her conversion, Jane Elizabeth and several family members who had also converted decided to move to Nauvoo, Illinois, the headquarters of the Mormon Church. After traveling by boat to Buffalo, New York, the African American Mormons, unable to pay additional fares, began an eight-hundred-mile journey by foot to Nauvoo. In Nauvoo, Jane lived and worked in the home of Joseph Smith, Jr. the founder of the LDS Church and his wife, Emma.

"Following the 1844 murder of Joseph Smith, Jr. and his brother Hyrum in Carthage, Illinois, Mormon leaders under Brigham Young decided to abandon Nauvoo and look for a safe haven in the West away from forces hostile to the LDS Church.

"In the fall of 1847, Jane, her husband Isaac James whom she married in 1841, and two sons traveled across the plains to the new home of the LDS Church in the Salt Lake Valley. They were the first free black pioneers in the Mormon settlement and Jane would spend the remaining fifty-one years of her life in Utah. They shared the hardships of their fellow Mormons and engaged in the spirit of mutual aid and cooperation that characterized LDS pioneer life.

"By the 1880s Jane became increasingly concerned about her place in the afterlife. Well aware of the LDS Church's proscriptions that prohibited blacks from full participation in the rituals that were prerequisite to being eligible for a place in the celestial kingdom, she nonetheless argued for an exemption because of her faith.

"'Is there no blessing for me?' she asked Church leaders for more than a decade. Those leaders refused her requests. They attempted to pacify her by authorizing her limited participation in LDS rituals.

"Through it all, Jane Manning James remained a devout Mormon and is generally recognized in LDS history for her unwavering faith. Jane Manning James died in Salt Lake City in 1908.

"A special monument to her is located in the Salt Lake City Cemetery, close to her gravesite, to commemorate her life and faith."

(Ronald G. Coleman, "'Is There No Blessing for Me?': Jane Elizabeth Manning James, A Mormon African American Woman," in Quintard Taylor and Shirley Ann Moore Wilson, eds., "African American Women Confront the West," 1600-2000 [Norman, Oklahoma: University of Oklahoma Press 2003], at: http://www.blackpast.org/?q=aaw/james-j ... -1813-1908)

exmormon.org/phorum/read.php?2,271219

[Rachel333]

Lovely. Can you imagine joining a church that told you that you could only be a servant in heaven?

[cate]

I would find that hard to believe about mainstream Mormons.

Some of the FLDS and similar sects though, I might believe it of. I can't remember the name of the one that ended up in South America, but a wife of one of the leaders in her memoir recalled several of the men marrying native women with the express purpose of helping the race become "white and delightsome" through mixed children.

I believe that was the LeBaron group. Soooo much craziness in that family!

[bionicmlle]

Wow thanks for all the responses!! I can see how this idea might get twisted a bit but I think the belief my sister has is that black children are sought after in order to have some household help in heaven (is there trash to take out in heaven??? hmmmm....). I don't really know that much about adoption but I understand that in Utah you do not need paternal consent to release a baby for adoption and the wait times are shorter.