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Originally Posted by SeattleUte
What do you think? It looks to me like Apostle Stapely is citing Joseph Smith's sayings as his authority. Contending that all black slaves should be sent back to their ancestral aboriginal villages wasn't exactly the enlightened view leading up to the Civil War, now was it. Moreover, what a curious position for the self-proclaimed prophet of the only true church to take, that all these people should be put our of reach of said church. Face it, JS was a racist as well as a philanderer and molester of under-aged girls.
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From everything I have seen, it appears that BY was the source of the ban. Yes, Stapley cited JS as his ultimate authority, but I think he made an awfully weak case. In the end, I don't think it matters a great deal whether it was JS or BY. I think it was wrong either way. Thus, I find your eagerness to pin the ban on JS quite puzzling. Perhaps you and Stapley are motived by the same logic. Connect the dots to JS and you have some kind of trump card.
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte
I agree the letter speaks for itself. I'm not editorializing or elucidating. I have a simple desire: That the LDS Church forthrightly address this issue, and express genuine regret. Until it does, it hasn't put its racist past behind it.
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Haven't you noticed that you are largely preaching to the choir on this point?
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte
As for my saying that Stapely was not a stupid man, bear in mind that my standard was very low. I said his letter was reasonably well written and he understood the arguments pro and con the 1964 Civil Rights Act. What I meant, implicitly, is that the kind of blind faith and crude racism he was expressing, includng stating that the civil rights proponent he knew was drowned by God, was the kind of drivel one would expect from an illiterate hunter gatherer in the bayous. Except for the racist content of his letter, his letter did not seem to be written by an uneducated or uninformed man.
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I see your point. I just think it is weak. As you well know, there were lots of highly educated and literate folks supporting slavery back in the civil war era. And many of our nation's founders were brilliant men and slaveholders at the same time. Racism permeates all levels of society.
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Originally Posted by SeattleUte
He's your apostle. Why does it make you feel better to dismiss him as an ignoramus? Fawn Brody comments on this. The curious propensity of Mormons to excuse their leaders' bad behavior, particularly Joseph Smith's, or to try to exaggerate their achievements such as writing the Book of Mormon, by highlighting their purported lack of education or intelligence.
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I am not making excuses of any kind for Stapley's behavior. I just find some irony in your eagerness to point out his high IQ.