Based on the conversation I had with Gary last weekend in Calgary, he must have been studying this page. Check out the helpful hints under Steps 3, 5(b), and 7. Remind you of anyone?
Anyway, I was in Calgary last weekend and it was pretty much the first time we’ve spoken since I stopped posting at milner.blogspot.com. We were still debating the virtues of our arguments on the blog about “same-sex marriage” issues in Canada and about Blacks being withheld the priesthood in the Mormon church (pre 1978). I told him about Brigham Young’s statement that the reason for Black’s having dark skin was because of the curse of Cain and therefore THAT is why the church refused to allow them to hold the priesthood. He told me straight out that he didn’t believe Brigham Young actually ever said that.
I did some research and found the following:
President Young stated privately in 1849 that, “the Lord had cursed Cain’s seed with blackness and prohibited them from the Priesthood,” and in 1852 the prohibition was published in the Deseret News. In that same year, in an address to the Territorial legislature, he declared, “…any man having one drop of the seed of [Cain]…in him cannot hold the Priesthood, and if no other Prophet ever spake it before I will say it now… .”