Submitted by JFS, Sep 13, 2007 02:22

There never has been nor is any form of racism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. Since the restoration of the Church in 1830, membership has been available to anyone in the world; who is willing to accept the standards and covenants required of baptism into said Church. The fact that the priesthood was not given to all members was not racism and I will demonstrate my PERSONAL opinion of why. Mormons since 1830 have been a largely persecuted group of people. Early saints were driven from the New york area to Ohio then to Missouri, then from county of county and were pushed to Illinois and finally driven from the homes across a frozen winter prairie to Utah. Missouri's Lt. Gov. Lilliburn Boggs even issued an extermination order against mormons; yes the government of Missouri at one time made it legal to kill a human being for his religion, as if he were like a common rodent. Most of the persecution and the direct attacks were made against priesthood leadership in the church. Joseph Smith and many other priesthood leaders were tarred and feathered, beaten, whipped and eventually they were killed and sealed their testimonies with their own blood as many other men in the bible did.

Now given the racial standpoint of most of the US from the 1830's-1960's the black people were persecuted in many of the same ways Mormons were. There was very little racial equality if any in this country until the late 1960's and even today we have a few segments of our society that believe it is acceptable to belittle another man for any reason; be it his faith, his skin color, or his political views. And as such we read in the Bible in 1 Cor. 10:13 "..... God will not suffer you to be tempted above that which you are able." If black men had been priesthood leaders they would have been even bigger targets for unwarranted and constitutionally illegal discrimination and persecution, can you imagine being hated for not one but two major religious, political and socio-economical reasons. That kind of harassment would have been more than any man should have to face. A just and loving God would not ask any man to face more than he needs to. Again this is one of my purely personal views and in no way affiliated with the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints.

To reaffirm my statements the Church has never been racist in any way. Membership has been available to all who would come unto Christ since the restoration of this gospel.

To Understand more about Latter-Day Saint beliefs visit the official church website at www.mormon.org and www.lds.org

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