Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!uwm.edu!cs.utexas.edu!rutgers!aramis.rutgers.edu!athos.rutgers.edu!christian From: hall@vice.ico.tek.com (Hal Lillywhite) Newsgroups: soc.religion.christian Subject: Re: The Mormon Religion Message-ID: Date: 21 Aug 90 02:41:02 GMT Sender: hedrick@athos.rutgers.edu Organization: Tektronix, Inc., Beaverton, OR. Lines: 25 Approved: christian@aramis.rutgers.edu In article gt5599d@prism.gatech.edu (gt5599d TOLBERT,JASON ALAN) writes: >What is the Mormon attitude toward black people? >I have heard rumors that the doctrines are racist. The LDS attitude is that they are children of God just like the rest of us and should be treated as such. We should love them as we should any of our fellowmen. I wish I could claim that there are no prejudiced LDS people, but I'm afraid there are - we aren't perfect. I do believe that the LDS are probably less prejudiced than the average person and I've noticed that the active ones are less likely to be prejudiced than those who are members in name only (probably true for most churches). There was for many years a prohibition against Blacks holding the priesthood. This was based on our belief that we lived as spirits before we came here and that each of us was given an earthly mission according to what God decided was right for us. For long periods of time only the descendants of Aaron could hold the priesthood. Then after Jesus life it this calling was extended to a larger group, and finally to everybody. Even while this prohibition was in effect church leaders consistently urged members to treat all people with respect, saying that we had no right to mistreat or abuse anybody because of race.