"Journal of Discourses" and Mormons

[Guest]

I have mention a few times on this forum that my father is a Mormon. It seems that every couple of weeks I get into a discussion or debate with him in regards to Mormon theology. I have recently brought up such Morman teachings as.

Adam is God and our Father.

God had a physical relationship with Mary to conceive Jesus.

God was once a mortal man like us.

And then a number doctrines that surround black people.
For example:

If a black person and white person mix their blood the punishment should be death.

Black people were not able to hold the priesthood untill all white people had been given a chance to partake in the preisthood, and that this could never change. This doctrine changed in 1978.

Now my father denies these doctrines and says that the Mormon Church does not teach them and never has. Now my father admits that he has not read everything that would teach on these issues, but he still holds to the idea that what is taught now has always been taught by the church. So I did some research, and it looks like these teachings are found in a publication called the "Journal of Discourses". This Journal records the sermons given by the Prophets of the church. All of the above sermons were from Brigham Young. It is now and always has been taught, that anything that one of the prophets teaches is considered scripture.

My question is this. Do Mormons with knowledge of this Journal accept it a doctrine or not? And does anyone know if these types of teachings are found in other Mormon books, (Doctrine & Covenants, Pearl of Great Price, Book of Mormon).

Another question would be. How far should I push this with my father? At some point if I don't seem to be convincing him should I back off and let it be? Any insight would be appreciated.

Thank you,
Robin

[Guest]

Mormons don't accept the Journals as scripture or see them as inspired. Most Mormons I interact with don't even know they exist. You can however pick them up (atleast 10 years ago) at Mormon bookstores. There are all sort of weird teachings in them. Some of those teachings you mentioned are held by all Mormons and others are not. Every Mormon I've interacted with believes that God used to be a man. That's really common- but most don't know about vegetables having spirits, men living on the moon, or the "Adam as God our Father" stories. There are still unusual teachings in LDS scripture though. Doctrine and Covenants teach that God the Father has a body of flesh and bone and the Pearl teaches multiple Gods. As far as the Book of Mormon goes it's a lot of plagarism from the Bible from what I can tell.

A good internet resource about Mormonism is www.carm.org.

And a more recent Mormon History book written by a Christian is called "One Nation Under Gods" by Richard Abanes. It's a great read.

[Guest]

Thanks for you responce GCS 98.

Robin