Mormon History Repeats Itself?

The Drunkenness of Noah, by Bellini.

Ham is in the center, laughing at his father.

God cursed Ham for that. Which is why blacks are inferior to whites,

as the preachers said all through my childhood in the South.

From Good As You via Marriage Equality News:

- A minority community is upset with the Mormon church.
- The Mormon Church "severely opposes" one certain kind of marriage.
- The Mormon church fails to see why people are upset with them.
- Despite their clearly unfair actions, the Mormon church denies any bias

That is the simplified story of 2008's gay-Mormon debate. As you will see from this AP report, these exact same bullet points were also in play way back in 1969 (click to enlarge):

I'm in favor of religious tolerance and a decent respect for others' beliefs. But frankly, the Mormon history of blatant, "divinely authorized" racism makes me want to throw up. Here's a link to the very well-documented Wikipedia article on "Blacks and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints" for those of you who want to get the scoop on this. It ought to be required reading at this time of Prop 8 protests.

I also realize the parallels that could be made with other Christian churches on the issue of civil rights, slavery, and other racial beliefs like the Curse of Cain and the Curse of Ham, which I remember hearing freely and zealously preached as the God-given justification for the separation of the races - and the subjugation of the black race, in particular - during my childhood in the segregated South. It's God's will!

Which is why I am so sick of hearing, "The Bible says . . . ". So much of that Bible talk is just the wish-fulfillment of straight white men holding on to power and domination - and, let the truth be said, of straight white women who like it that way. Men talking, not God. See Richard Rodriguez' comments on the "male God of the desert religions" in an earlier post here.

The Mormon leadership got zapped by a revelation direct from God himself on June 1, 1978, saying blacks were just OK with Him. How nice of God to phone in like that. I wonder when the LDS Church will get another convenient "revelation," this time about the gays, hmm?