A friend of mine from PostMormon.org had the missionaries stop by his home. He took the opportunity to ask some very important questions to these young men, and hopefully got them thinking. I use this with his permission, and I applaud him for what he did!!!
So two new missionaries knocked on my door. After the small talk they asked if they could come in and meet the family. I told them fine come on in. Then I went and checked w/ DW, who wasn't interested.
So I went back and told them that my family was doing homework.
So they asked if they could come back and share a message about Jesus.
I told them I'd heard it all and that I could probably teach them a thing or two about Jesus and if they were interested in having a lesson about Jesus, I'd be happy to teach them a lesson. They said, "Sure. No problem."
Then I said something about being honest and there were certain questions they couldn't answer honestly as representatives of the church, because Mormon Doctrine is just nonsense.
One of them said, "Well, I found just the opposite to be true. Whenever I've had a question, I've always been able to answer it."
I said, "Really? OK. How many wives did Joseph Smith have?"
They both laughed and said, "Why is that important?"
I said, "Because he was the founder of your church. Don't you think it's important to know about the life of the founder of your church?"
One of them said, "Jesus Christ was the founder of our church."
I said, "Any church can claim that. That's nonsense. Joseph Smith started your church. Don't lie. I was a missionary once, remember? Why can't you answer a simple question like that? It's pretty important to know how many wives the founder of your church had, don't you think?"
I was just about to answer that. He had 14.
Wrong. He had 34. The LDS geneological records even support that. Now how many of them were married to other men?
I don't know.
There you go. It's real easy to find out, you just don't want to know. That's called ignorance. You just want to ignore what's real.
One of them asked me, "Do you believe Jesus Christ is your Lord and Savior?"
I said, "You're changing the subject. You said you could get all the answers to all of your questions, but when I ask you a question you don't have any answers all you want to do is change the subject."
"Well why is that important?"
Well, because it says right in your scriptures, D&C 132:62 that marrying other men's wives is adultery. Now if Joseph's Myth married other men's wives, then he was an adulterer, according to your own scriptures, which you do believe are the word of God, right?
Yes.
Well there you go. Now here's another question you can't possibly answer honestly. Why did the Mormon church discriminate against blacks for 120 years after Joseph's Myth gave the priesthood to blacks like Elijah Able?
They looked suprised. I said, You did know that Joseph's Myth gave the priesthood to blacks right?
Uh. No.
Well there you go. There's another case of ignorance. It's a matter of church history, but you choose not to investigate it because you're ignorant. You don't want to know. You don't want to be honest. You can't be honest.
Yes we can.
Ok, then answer my question.
We don't know. Why is that important?
Well apparently it was important enough to everybody from Brigham Young to Spencer W. Kimball to ban an entire race of people from recieving the priesthood for 120 years based soley upon their skin color. Why is that?
Like I said, I don't know.
Well, that's the problem. They send you 19 year old kids out here and you don't know any thing about the world. Heck you don't even know anything about your own religion. You're just young and idealistic and you can be easily trained to repeat these cliches instead of really thinking. Look guys. I was in your shoes once upon a time. It's one thing to convince yourself that the religion you inherited is the one and only truth, but someday you're going to have kids and you're going to want to be honest with your kids. You're not going to want to give them the same nonsense you're telling me. And let's not make any mistake about it, it's nonsense and I'm not going to indoctrinate my children with that nonsense and I'm not going to teach other people's kids that nonsense. Children your age in the ward you're serving in still believed these racist myths. Do you believe the curse of cain?
Yeah.
Really? You belive that black people are black as a result of the curse of cain?
Yeah.
Wow. That's amazing. You do know it's 2008 right? We've got a black man who's going to be our next president. You think he's black because of a some curse of cain?
Yes.
Wow. Now that's what I'm talking about. That's just ignorant. Tell me this. How did the curse of cain survive the attonement? Didn't Christ attone for the sins of all mankind?
Yes.
Including Cain?
Yes. Well. Uh....
Yeah. See, that's what I mean. How is that possible? How could a curse of Cain have survived the attonement?
Uh. Gee. Good question. I don't know.
Well, there you go. You don't know. And you want to teach me a lesson about Jesus Christ? Here's another question for you. What was Christ's main commandment.
To love God with all your heart.
How?
(Some nonsense.)
What was his 2nd commandment?
To love your fellow man...
as?.....
....as yourself.
OK. So did Christ say, Unless he's black, then discriminate against him? Or unless he's gay,then discriminate against him? Or unless she's female, then discriminate against her? Or unless he's Native American, then discriminate against them?
No.
Exactly. That's the problem. These bigoted myths are still a part of LDS Doctrine. You still believe in the Curse of Cain myth when it completely violates the commandments of Jesus Christ and denies his entire mission and the whole point of the attonement, but none of that really matters to Mormon leaders, who're far more committed to maintaining these nonsensical bogus racist myths than they are to establishing the truth or Christ's Commandments.
So how did you answer your questions?
I did a whole lot of research. You mean like why did the Mormon church discriminate against blacks for 120 years?
Yeah.
Well, here's how I understand it. The curse of Cain myth was a common 19th Century myth used to dehumanize blacks and justify slavery. As was the explanation for why God didn't mention anything about the Native Americans in the bible, they were wandering Jews. Unfortunately those common 19th Century racist myths got incorporated into Mormon Doctrine. Now Joseph's Myth was relatively progressive. He was an abolitionist and even extended the full authority of Mormonism to blacks, like Elijah Abel. Unfortunately his successor was not nearly as charitable. He was a product of his time. He hated blacks. He decided to take those racist myths and use them to justify discriminating against blacks. I could excuse Brigham Young for that, but it took 120 years for any leaders of the Mormon church to have the courage to question that institution of bigotry, years after the civil rights movement made it patently obvious just how bigoted and out of step with modern society Mormon doctrine really was. So they didn't change the doctrine, they just stopped the obvious discrimination. Nobody apologized for 120 years of discrimination, they just swept it under the rug and children like you are still taught to believe those ignorant, racist doctrines, which will continue until the Mormon leaders gain the courage to do what's right and clearly denounce those racist doctrines, the way other churches have done.
Well. Nobody ever said the Mormon church was perfect.
Really? Seems to me like I grew up hearing that the church was perfect, but the leaders were not. Somehow it doesn't seem so perfect if there are so many unanswerable questions does it? It's nonsense. Like I said.
So is there anything we can do for you tonight.
Yeah. Answer my questions.
Well. We can't.
I know. I didn't expect you to be able to answer them, because the only answer is that it's all nonsense. But think about those questions and when you have real, honest answers for me, you come on back. OK?
Sounds good.
Allright. See you later. shakes hands. Buh Bye.