Item Detail
-
32367
-
3
-
42
-
English
-
Demythicizing the Lamanites’ “Skin of Blackness”
-
Interpreter : A Journal of Latter-day Saint Faith and Scholarship
-
2021
-
49
-
Orem, UT
-
Interpreter Foundation
-
167-258
-
"Racial bias is antithetical to the Book of Mormon’s cardinal purpose : to proclaim the infinite grandeur of the atonement of Jesus Christ. The book teaches that the Lord welcomes and redeems the entire human family, 'black and white, bond and free' — people of all hues from ebony to ivory. Critical thinkers have struggled to reconcile this leitmotif with the book’s mention of a 'skin of blackness' that was 'set upon' some of Lehi’s descendants. Earlier apologetics for that 'mark' have been rooted in Old World texts and traditions. However, within the last twenty years, Mesoamerican archaeologists, anthropologists, and ethnohistorians have curated and interpreted artifacts that reveal an ancient Maya body paint tradition, chiefly for warfare, hunting, and nocturnal raiding. This discovery shifts possible explanations from the Old World to the New and suggests that any 'mark' upon Book of Mormon people may have been self-applied. It also challenges arguments that the book demonstrates racism in either 600 BCE or the early nineteenth-century." [Publisher]
-
1820 : Dawning of the Restoration
All Abraham's Children : Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage
An Approach to the Book of Mormon
At the Pulpit : 185 Years of Discourses by Latter-day Saint Women
Axes Mundi : Ritual Complexes in Mesoamerica and the Book of Mormon
Becoming a World Religion : Blacks, the Poor, All of Us
Believing History : Latter-day Saints Essays
Black, White, and Red All Over : Skin Color in the Book of Mormon
Evolution
General Smith’s Views of the Powers and Policy of the Government of the United States
History Lessons : Race and the LDS Church
How We Got the Book of Moses
Jesus the Christ: A Study of the Messiah and His Mission according to Holy Scriptures both Ancient and Modern
John Bernhisel's Gift to a Prophet : Incidents of Travel in Central America and the Book of Mormon
Joseph Smith as Scientist : A Contribution to Mormon Philosophy
Josiah to Zoram to Sherem to Jarom and the Big Little Book of Omni
Know Brother Joseph : New Perspectives on Joseph Smith's Life and Character
Laban's Ghost : On Writing and Transgression
Lehi in the Desert; The World of the Jaredites; There Were Jaredites
Mormonism : A Very Short Introduction
Mormon's Codex : An Ancient American Book
Perspectives on Mormon Theology : Apologetics
Planted : Belief and Belonging in an Age of Doubt
Race and the Making of the Mormon People
Religion of a Different Color : Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness
Saints : The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. No Unhallowed Hand 1846–1893.
Saints : The Story of the Church of Jesus Christ in the Latter Days. The Standard of Truth 1815–1846.
Second Witness : Analytical and Contextual Commentary on the Book of Mormon
Seeking the 'Remnant' : The Native American during the Joseph Smith Period
Skins as Garments in the Book of Mormon :
A Textual Exegesis
The Book of Mormon as Amerindian Apocalypse
The Book of Mormon : The Earliest Text
The Charge of 'Racism' in the Book of Mormon
The Goodness of God and His Children as a Fundamental Theological Concept in the Book of Mormon
The Inclusive, Anti-Discrimination Message of the Book of Mormon
The Joseph Smith Papers : Revelations and Translations, Volume 3, Printer’s Manuscript of the Book of Mormon
The Mormon Church and Blacks : A Documentary History
The People of Canaan : A New Reading of Moses 7
The Theological Foundations of the Mormon Religion
'To Be Learned is Good' : Essays on Faith and Scholarship in Honor of Richard Lyman Bushman
When Lehi's Party Arrived in the Land, Did They Find Others There?
'White' or 'Pure' : Five Vignettes