Not sure of how to teach your pre-literate children that dark skin is "loathesome"? Well, Latter-day Designs has come to your rescue! They actually offer figures of a white Lemuel (when he was pure and delightsome) and a dark Lemuel (when he had been cursed with dark skin for wickedness).
"Lemuel (dark skin)
Lemuel was the second son of Lehi and Sariah. He was a lot like his
older brother Laman. He too, was stubborn and rebellious. Lemuel was
jealous of his younger brother Nephi and was disobedient and spiteful to
his parents. He did not believe in the righteous teachings of his
father, Lehi. Lemuels example in The Book of Mormon teaches us what
happens when we do not choose the right."
Deseret Books sells these figurines, but they wisely only stocked the white versions of Laman and Lemuel. Of course, the rest of the figurines clearly present the supposedly Semitic Nephites as Northern European whites and the cursed Lamanites with rather dark complexions.
Latter-day Designs also show "light" and "dark" Laman figurines on their website. As a Native American, I am offended by Mormon teachings that lighter skin color represents righteousness.
aleut: Latter-day Designs also show "light" and "dark" Laman figurines on their website. As a Native American, I am offended by Mormon teachings that lighter skin color represents righteousness.
Welcome to Postmo aleut - jump in - the water's fine!
What amazes me most is not how weird the religion actually is, but that our missionaries are able to proselyte south of the border without being regularly pelted with produce. But damn, what a truly weird religion.
What amazes me most is not how weird the religion actually is, but that our missionaries are able to proselyte south of the border without being regularly pelted with produce. But damn, what a truly weird religion.
eta: thanks for that link, WestBerkeleyFlats
For me, as a Native American, being a "Lamanite" was an honor. I was adopted by white parents that taught me, being Lamanite was special. Because they were raising me as a good Mormon, I would fullfill prophecy by becoming "white and delightsome" through my righteousness.
I was so sure that Mormonism was a blessing for Lamanites, I was eager to teach native South Americans about their special B of M heritage. Luckily, my influence was limited by my short stay in the mission field.
My parents and the Mormon church put me on a pedestal and I didn't recognize the implied racism until I was much older.
I believe the church disguises racism by blinding anyone, willing to listen, with shallow flattery about their ethnicity.
Fortunately, my Native American pride is no longer linked to false B of M history. I am Aleut and damn proud of my ethnicity and my "less than delightsome" skin! LMAO
Looks like they caught wind of our thread (or someone else published info on it) as the product is no longer found. Could be out of stock, but I found it funny anyway.
What amazes me most is not how weird the religion actually is, but that our missionaries are able to proselyte south of the border without being regularly pelted with produce. But damn, what a truly weird religion.
eta: thanks for that link, WestBerkeleyFlats
For me, as a Native American, being a "Lamanite" was an honor. I was adopted by white parents that taught me, being Lamanite was special. Because they were raising me as a good Mormon, I would fullfill prophecy by becoming "white and delightsome" through my righteousness.
I was so sure that Mormonism was a blessing for Lamanites, I was eager to teach native South Americans about their special B of M heritage. Luckily, my influence was limited by my short stay in the mission field.
My parents and the Mormon church put me on a pedestal and I didn't recognize the implied racism until I was much older.
I believe the church disguises racism by blinding anyone, willing to listen, with shallow flattery about their ethnicity.
Fortunately, my Native American pride is no longer linked to false B of M history. I am Aleut and damn proud of my ethnicity and my "less than delightsome" skin! LMAO
This is really interesting to me. My grandma is really into geneology and proudly tells everyone that she has native americans in her family tree four generations back. (six generations for me I suppose) So she goes around telling everyone how awesome that is and how great and righteous modern "lamanites" are to be in this "dispensation" where they can receive the gospel bla bla bla oh and look at how white and delightsome MY skin is, they must have been REALLY righteous!
And it turns out this same woman is aggressively racist against Mexicans and speaks of them very venomously. Now, I'm not much of a history buff but I think there's a bit of unwitting hypocrisy there...
Yeah, I was oblivious to the racism in the church as a tbm, but partially because we kind of put "Lamanites" on a pedestal, and painted the dark skin as a "victim of the sins of their fathers." The truth is so much more fascinating and rich. Native Americans emmigrated from Asia and developed this amazing culture here in the Americas. No longer having a bullshit religion to muddy it all up just makes it that much more rich and wonderful.
What amazes me most is not how weird the religion actually is, but that our missionaries are able to proselyte south of the border without being regularly pelted with produce. But damn, what a truly weird religion.
eta: thanks for that link, WestBerkeleyFlats
For me, as a Native American, being a "Lamanite" was an honor. I was adopted by white parents that taught me, being Lamanite was special. Because they were raising me as a good Mormon, I would fullfill prophecy by becoming "white and delightsome" through my righteousness.
I was so sure that Mormonism was a blessing for Lamanites, I was eager to teach native South Americans about their special B of M heritage. Luckily, my influence was limited by my short stay in the mission field.
My parents and the Mormon church put me on a pedestal and I didn't recognize the implied racism until I was much older.
I believe the church disguises racism by blinding anyone, willing to listen, with shallow flattery about their ethnicity.
Fortunately, my Native American pride is no longer linked to false B of M history. I am Aleut and damn proud of my ethnicity and my "less than delightsome" skin! LMAO
This is really interesting to me. My grandma is really into geneology and proudly tells everyone that she has native americans in her family tree four generations back. (six generations for me I suppose) So she goes around telling everyone how awesome that is and how great and righteous modern "lamanites" are to be in this "dispensation" where they can receive the gospel bla bla bla oh and look at how white and delightsome MY skin is, they must have been REALLY righteous!
And it turns out this same woman is aggressively racist against Mexicans and speaks of them very venomously. Now, I'm not much of a history buff but I think there's a bit of unwitting hypocrisy there...
Yeah, I was oblivious to the racism in the church as a tbm, but partially because we kind of put "Lamanites" on a pedestal, and painted the dark skin as a "victim of the sins of their fathers." The truth is so much more fascinating and rich. Native Americans emmigrated from Asia and developed this amazing culture here in the Americas. No longer having a bullshit religion to muddy it all up just makes it that much more rich and wonderful.
I'm still pretty young (age 20) but was anyone else taught that after laman and lemual skin color didn't mean anything. That to be a lamanite had nothing to do with skin color or race but with the actions of the people. So a Nephite could become a lamanite and the same vice versus, without changing skin color. That's pretty much how I justified it in my head as a TBM.
aaronastrofan: I'm still pretty young (age 20) but was anyone else taught that after laman and lemual skin color didn't mean anything. That to be a lamanite had nothing to do with skin color or race but with the actions of the people. So a Nephite could become a lamanite and the same vice versus, without changing skin color. That's pretty much how I justified it in my head as a TBM.
I remember hearing from local leaders that the mark on them and on Cain was an act of grace from God to protect them so that if anyone hurt them they would be punished. It was sort of like a warning out of pity.
I served my mission in the West Indies. I internally struggles for several months with intense turmoil over anti-Mormon literature being given to every house we tracted, not to mention having people yelling 'Jim Jones, go home' by those that had seen Jones' missionaries proselyting the same very islands. [Now there is a documentary you really need to watch if you want to see how euphoric and delusional a well-meaning person can become once power and drugs get a hold of him. Jones did not start out as the monster he became.]
There was just no way Mark E. Peterson and McConkie's hateful words were true, just no way I could ever believe that anyone with dark skin was 'less valiant in the pre-existence' and that our birth as Americans was divine providence over everyone else in the world. I knew inside it was bullshyte but still need validation.
Being AP meant I had access to the President and often to general authorities. Over ice cream at the mission home after picking him up from the airport I once asked Rex D. Pinegar point blank after showing him the passages from scriptures and the Journal of Discourses, and Joseph F. Smith's quotes and Mark E. Peterson's (which are the worst, imho, they make me physically sick to read).
Pinegar, with those deep, kind, sincere eyes just said, "Elder I don't know" and smiled. It warmed me and satisfied me at the time. I did not realize then that feelings are not trustworthy alone, no matter how wonderful and peaceful. For me, then, if he didn't need to know to serve the way he had, then why did I.
I have the courage now to admit openly that no amount of kindness and ignorance can cover the unabashed hate-speech against all sorts of people in documented church history by leaders of the church, on and off record as well as codified in scripture. Many of my missionary companions married West-Indian women and were not 'struck down on the spot' as Brigham Young had alluded. Such BULLSHIIIIIIT!
Recently I studied it ever more, not so afraid of the truth as I once was. Mormon leadership was very decidedly with the south and against abolition according to several quotes some as recent as Ezra Taft Benson (a freaking, commy-scared nut-case now that I actually have read what he has said in public and on record but never would have dared to say before).
There is no way any honest Mormon can read these statements and escape the reality of how wrong the official church policy was. You can't write these acts off an individual psycho apostles and prophets speaking off the record. Ugh, ok, I can't think about this any more. The only thing that gives me solace when thinking of the wonderful Black people I baptised into this church is that in their heart, they did not know all of this, they truly and deeply loved the Lord and their idea of God and where following what felt right to them. These harsh realities as so painful and destructive that they have to be used carefully with believers or they may literally not survive it, but they still need to know them.
It has always bugged me, that an "American" church would head out into the world...pushing their "superiority" ideas onto people they consider "less-than." Blamed and vilified inside the religion, because they weren't valiant enough to be born in the U.S. What a crock of ppppppoooooo! (Flies flying about, ya gotta luv this cake!!!)
Tessa: It has always bugged me, that an "American" church would head out into the world...pushing their "superiority" ideas onto people they consider "less-than." Blamed and vilified inside the religion, because they weren't valiant enough to be born in the U.S. What a crock of ppppppoooooo! (Flies flying about, ya gotta luv this cake!!!)
It was impossible for me to face it before, but the biggest evidence against the Bible, the Torah, the Koran and any other book from the one-true-God is that documents how that pretend God choses one group humans over others, not even for 'sinful' behavior but because God is just partial to one group, and, of course, all humans are chosen over anything else living in the Earth. The arrogance of that belief now astounds me compared to the older wisdom of peoples who lived closer to nature with less agenda and land-lust.
God is out there, just don't try tugging on his beard.
Totally embarrassed to admit I bought some of those figurines for my children when I was TBM. I never knew there was a dark & light version of Lemuel. Sick.
! I love it.
