Quote:
Originally Posted by Indy Coug
Woman can't hold the priesthood. Is God sexist?
|
There are immutable and fundamental differences between men and women. The Family: A Proclamation to the World states "gender is an essential characteristic of individual premortal, mortal, and eternal identity and purpose."
Distinctions based on real differences are not the sames as distinctions based on superficial differences. One is far more easily grappled with than the other.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indy Coug
Lamanites were cursed with a dark skin because of their wickedness and some of them had the cursing removed when they repented. Is God racist?
|
Did God leave that mark on their children and then decline to give the full blessings of the gospel to those children based upon their sinful parents? I may be wrong but I don't think so.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Indy Coug
God didn't want the Gospel preached to the Gentiles for a long period of time. Is God racist?
|
This is another apple/orange comparison. That the Lord would desire to first convert his people before they borught the gospel to the world makes lots of sense. This is logistics, not racial distinctions.
We are plowing over old ground at this point. If you believe that this and all others changes and evolutions in the church are part of God's plan (which you may, and may well be right) then none of these questions have relevence for you. If you think that the church is led by inspired men who try their best to have the policies of the church relfect the will of God, but sometimes get it wrong, then it is legitimate to ask what might have caused them to get it wrong.
The funny thing is that an apology is getting mistaken for an attack. What casts the worse light on the church: (1) God through his prophets decreed, for reasons we don't know, that the full blessings of the gospel were to be witheld for the most superficial of reasons (read here race) OR (2) God is no respecter of persons and the leaders of His church, though they meant well, were products of their time with engrained assumptions about race, and when enough time had passed new leaders were prepared to recieve the corrective guidence then God gave it to them.
What you apparently view as an attack on God, is actually an attempt by many of us to harmonize our belief that God is perfect, just and no respecter of persons with this particular fact of our history. It is much easier for me to believe that men are imperfect than it is for me to believe that God gives apparently racist directives. I must concede that God could have reasons I don't know about, but until I learn them, this is the easiest way for me to assimilate all of this into my belief that the LDS church is the true one.