--MINDLESS MORMON MONKEY MADNESS



Mormons seems to have a peculiar--and prejudiced--fascination with tales of a large, ominous, ape-like, black-skinned "Bigfoot" (who, they swear, is actually Cain), condemned by the Mormon God to wander the Earth where he ends up scaring the faithful into invoking the Mormon priesthood in order to drive big, bad Bigfoot away.



For instance, one website, calling itself "The Utah County Sasquatch Investigative Society," highlights a supposed "Mormon Connection" encounter with Bigfoot involving early LDS convert, David Patten:



("Sasquatch with a Mormon connection? You decide!," from "The Sasquatch Investigative Society," at:

http://sasquatch.i8.com/mormonconnection.html; for a larger sense of this society, see also, "Announcing, Our First Annual Event: 'Night of Sasquatch.'" from "The Sasquatch Investigative Society," at: http://www.sasquatch.i8.com/Index.html)





Another website called "Utah Bigfoot" describes its purpose as �continu[ing] the search [for] the legendary creature in Utah."



("Utah Bigfoot: The Search Continues for the Legendary Creature in Utah," at: http://www.aliendave.com/UUFOH_Bigfoot.html





Yet another website, identifying itself as "Mormon Mentality: Thoughts and Asides by a Peculiar People," headlines claims of Mormon encounters with Bigfoot whom their Mormon observers claim as being Cain.



A self-described researcher on this last site writes about having produced an historical investigative paper on latter-day Mormon run-ins with Cain, alias Bigfoot:



"[My] paper is based on David Patten�s story of encountering Cain, whom he described as very tall and covered in dark hair, in 1835, as described in a letter published in Lycurgus Wilson�s biography of Patten. Spencer Kimball copied the letter in 'Miracle of Forgiveness.'"



The writer also makes reference to Seth Lester's book, "Clan of Cain," describing it as follows:



"I . . . mention [that book] in the paper. Lester begins the novel by fictionalizing Patten�s story in a prologue, then jumps forward to the present day. He bases his Bigfoot mythology on the Patten story, and gives Cain a family of other Bigfoot-type creatures."



Continuing, he claims, "I found evidence, including a poem referencing the event by Eliza R. Snow and records of Quorum of the Twelve meetings, that this story was widely circulated in the 19th century.



"In [the] Church Archives I found a similar story--a page marked 'from the papers of E. Wesley Smith,' mission president in Hawaii in the 1920s and brother of Joseph Fielding Smith, describing Wesley�s meeting with Cain, and explaining that his brother told him of David Patten�s encounter. . . . "



". . . As to [E. Wesley] Smith, I don�t have the materials on hand, but the gist of it is as follows:



"The manuscript I cite is in [the] Church Archives. It describes Wesley being attacked by a huge, hairy creature, whom Smith drives off in the name of Christ and by the power of the priesthood. He then goes to Joseph Fielding Smith, who tells Wesley that it was Cain, and gives him a copy of Patten�s own story, which would seem to imply that Fielding believed it, if the manuscript is to be believed."



"I tied all this evidence, together with numerous folk tales about Cain, into 19th-century Mormon conceptions of evil, arguing that a physical, embodied Cain represented the very material conception of the struggle between good and evil that Mormon leaders expounded upon then--Heber Kimball being harassed by demons in England and such.



"More recently, however, particularly after the ban on African men holding the priesthood has been lifted, such conceptions of evil have shifted; Cain is no longer seen as literally the father of the African race, as folk doctrine once held, and evil is now experienced as wrong action rather than in terms of demonic, physical confrontation.



"Thus, Cain�s identification as Bigfoot has provided Mormons with a way to assimilate the claims of folktale with new conceptions of what Cain, the embodiment of evil, should be like."



In the end, the researcher offers a qualifier of sorts:



". . . I�ve purposely avoided making my own judgment calls about truth claims here--indeed, I avoid making arguments about it in the paper in favor of merely discussing the ways Mormons have thought about the folklore.



"However, none of the sources I�ve dug through describe Cain as being translated; rather, they discuss his state as a 'curse'--Cain himself, in the Patten story, describes himself as a 'very miserable creature, who could not die;' Joseph Fielding Smith, in the Wesley Smith story, uses similar wording that I don�t want to try to reproduce from memory.



"It is true that virtually all assume Cain has a body; there�s some minor theology going on about his relationship to Satan because of that. The state of that body, though, would lend credence to the curse rather than translation theory--he�s warped and animalistic, universally describes as hideous and almost subhuman. Far from a translated body."



("A Mormon Bigfoot," by Matt B., from "Mormon Mentality: Thoughts and Asides by Peculiar People," 15 January 2008, at: http://www.mormonmentality.org/2008/01/15/a-mormon-bigfoot.htm)

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From where have these weird and wacky Mormon Bigfoot obsessions sprung and been fertilized?



Utah Valley fiction writer Lee Nelson offers a telling clue in his Orem, Utah-published novel entitled "Taming the Sasquatch and Other Bigfoot Tales."



Nelson spins the yarn of a character named "Alvin Sands" who claims to have ultimately encountered Bigfoot, after having first become fascinated consumed with reported sightings of the creature.



According to one of these sightings, Sands recounts that a logging truck driver spotted a "a brown ape-man run[ning] down the road in front of his logging truck. In another, he repeats the claim of someone out in the woods chopping down lodgepole pine spotted "a 300-pound black-haired ape man not more than 30 feet away, in broad daylight."



In Nelson's story, the Bigfoot-consumed Sands talks about setting for himself "a cause, a mission, a goal . . . [of] gather[ing] all the information I could about these strange animals."



Where does Sands turn in his efforts to acquire that information? To resources provided by the Mormon Church.

Says Sands: "Through the periodical index in the Brigham Young University library, I dug out and studied every article ever published on Bigfoot, Sasquatch or the Abominable Snowmen."

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While author Nelson admits that his book's main tale is fictional (albeit leaving that confession to its final pages), he acknowledges that "I wonder about some of the other accounts . . . The people I personally interviewed were convinced they had really seen what they described to me. . . . As long as nobody finds a Sasquatch that can undergo scientific scrutiny, the speculation will continue, as more and more sightings are recorded. Bigfoot sightings began in the early 1800's when a trapper and trader by the name of David Thompson reported in his log the discovery of hug man-like tracks over 15 inches long. During the last 15 years nearly 1,000 sightings and tracks have been reported."



(Lee Nelson, "Taming the Sasquatch and Other Bigfoot Tales" [Orem, Utah: Liberty Press, 1984], pp. 2-3, 83-84)

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So, do true-believing, Cain-fearing Mormons actually subscribe to the notion that Bigfoot is literally the evil, murderous brother of Abel?



Odds are that some of them definitely do--and they can blame their kooky Mormon leaders for that mind-numbing and -dumbing notion.

_____





--ACCORDING TO TRADITIONAL MORMON BELIEF, BIGFOOT IS, IN FACT, CAIN



As mentioned earlier, a claimed sighting of Cain/Bigfoot was made by early Mormon missionary David Patten:



" . . . David W. Patten, during his mission in the South . . . reported that, as he rode his horse, a large Black man covered with hair appeared beside him and told him that he was Cain and was going to destroy his mission."



("Latter-day Saints/Cain," by John A. Tvedtnes, 10 June 2006, at: http://en.allexperts.com/q/Latter-day-Saints-958/cain.htm)

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In support of the historic likelihood that the notion has circulated in Mormon circles claiming LDS missionaries have actually spotted Cain/Bigfoot, Spencer W. Kimball, in his book, "The Miracle of Forgiveness," describes Patten's encounter with Cain in decidedly Bigfoot-like terms:



"On the sad character Cain, an interesting story comes to us from Lycurgus A. Wilson's book on the life of David W. Patten.



"From the book I quote an extract from a letter by Abraham O. Smoot giving his recollection of David Patten's account of meeting 'a very remarkable person who had represented himself as being Cain':



"'As I was riding along the road on my mule I suddenly noticed a very strange personage walking beside me. . . . His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing, but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark.



"I asked him where he dwelt and he replied that he had no home, that he was a wanderer in the Earth and traveled to and fro. He said he was a very miserable creature, that he had earnestly sought death during his sojourn upon the earth, but that he could not die, and his mission was to destroy the souls of men.



"About the time he expressed himself thus, I rebuked him in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by virtue of the Holy Priesthood, and commanded him to go hence, and he immediately departed out of my sight. . . .'"



(Lycurgus A. Wilson, "Life of David W. Patten" [Salt Lake City: Deseret News, 1900], p. 50. as quoted by Spencer W. Kimball, "The Miracle of Forgiveness" [Salt Lake City, Bookcraft, Inc.]18th printing 1991 pp. 127-28).

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Others--including non-Mormons--have referenced Kimball's account as evidence that Cain is (at least the mind of the Mormon true believer) the legendary Bigfoot, as "told time and time again within the Mormon religion."



For instance, Bigfoot buff Michael Nave in his article, "Bigfoot: The Mormon Connection," writes:



". . . I would like to touch on a different aspect of Bigfoot and an encounter that has been told time and time again within the Mormon religion. My work takes me all over the United States for many different training seminars and conferences. Recently, I met up with several people of the Mormon faith.



"One of these people, knowing of my interest in Bigfoot, suggested that I look into the 'Mormon connection,' The following story comes from my research on this topic.



"David Patten was a Mormon Priest who traveled and preached the Mormon gospel from 1832-1838. In author Spencer W. Kimball's book entitled 'The Miracle of Forgiveness,' there is a passage where David Patten is quoted regarding his meeting with 'a very remarkable person who had represented himself as Cain.'"





("Bigfoot: The Mormon Connection," by Michael Nave, under "The Legend Lives," at: http://www.oregonbigfoot.com/newsletter/08_05.php)

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--ACCORDING TO OFFICIAL MORMON DOCTRINE, CAIN WAS "CURSED" BY GOD WITH BIGFOOT-LIKE BLACK SKIN AND APPEARANCE



While some nervous, publicity-sensitive Mormon apologists may attempt to deny Mormon-manufactured lineage links between Cain and Bigfoot, the fact remains that high LDS leaders like Kimball have made clear and undeniable connections between a cursed black Cain/Bigfoot and people of African lineage.



Indeed, it is a matter of basic LDS doctrine that Black people descended from Cain.



To be sure, the Mormon Church has, from its earliest days and through the mouth of its presidents and apostles, officially declared that the black-skinned "curse of Cain" was made manifest by the Mormon God in the skin pigmentation of those of African lineage.

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Joseph Smith preached that Blacks were the offspring of Cain, as recorded in his own journal:



"In the evening debated with John C. Bennett and others to show that the Indians have greater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites, than the Negroes, or sons of Cain."



(Joseph Smith, "History of the Church," vol. 4, p. 501)

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Mormon Church president Brigham Young slurred people born with a black skin, labeling them the depraved, decadent descendants of the murderous Cain and consigning them to perpetual slavery, as willed and until ended by the Mormon God:



"You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind.



"The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.



"Trace mankind down to after the Flood, and then another curse is pronounced upon the same race--that they should be the 'servant of servants' and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree.



"How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam�s children are brought up to that favorable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood.



"They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive the blessings in like proportion . . . ."



To place the official stamp of doctrinal approval on his "blame-Cain-for-the-Negroes" utterances, LDS president Young then closed his above racist diatribe by declaring to the Mormon faithful assembled to hear his words:



"I bless you all, inasmuch as you have desired and striven to do right, to revere the name of Deity, and to exalt the character of his Son on the earth. I bless you in the name of Jesus Christ! Amen."



(Brigham Young, �Intelligence, Etc.,� sermon in Tabernacle, Salt Lake City, Utah, 9 October 1859, reported by G. D. Watt in "Journal of Discourses," vol. 7 [Liverpool, England: Amass Lyman, editor and publisher, 1860], pp. 290-91)

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Future president of the Mormon Church Wilford Woodruff also announced that, according to official LDS doctrine, Blacks carried the heaven-imposed, color-coded "curse" of Cain:



"What was that mark? It was the mark of blackness. That mark rested upon Cain, and descended upon his posterity from that time until the present.



"Today there are millions of the descendants of Cain, through the lineage of Ham, in the world, and that mark of darkness still rests upon them."



(Wilford Woodruff, "Millennial Star," vol. 51, p. 329)

_____





Further, according to the official LDS publication, the "Juvenile Instructor,� the Mormon God punished those who had turned against the divine will by creating them for Earth life as the black-tainted and divinely-segregated seed of Cain, just as Mormons taught that he had similarly cursed sinful Native Americans with a brown skin:



"The mark set upon Cain was without doubt such a mark as was placed upon the descendants of the rebellious sons of Lehi . . . We are expressly informed by that 'the Lord did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.'



"They were to be made loathsome to the people of God, unless they repented of their iniquities. Not only did this curse fall upon them, but all they who intermarried with them, or mingled with them, were cursed with the same blackness and loathsomeness . . .



"From this it is very clear that the mark which was set upon the descendants of Cain was a skin of blackness, and there can be no doubt that this was the mark that Cain himself received; in fact, it has been noticed in our day that men who have lost the spirit of the Lord, and from whom his blessings have been withdrawn have turned dark to such an extent as to excite the comments of all who have known them."



("Juvenile Instructor," vol. 26, p. 635)

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People of black skin, the Mormon Church's "Juvenile Instructor" also declared, are supposedly identifiable as being �pure Negro�:



"Their skin is quite black, their hairy woolly and black, their intelligence stunted, and they appear never to have arisen from the most savage state of barbarism."



(ibid.)

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Continuing Mormonism's historic, bigoted blatherings, LDS apostle and eventual LDS Church president Joseph Fielding Smith condescendingly taught that people of African descent are the sub-par relatives of Cain:



"Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. . . .



". . . [W]e will hope that blessings may eventually be given to our Negro brethren, for they are our brethren�children of God--notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness." (



(Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Way to Perfection," pp. 101-102)

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Likewise, Joseph Fielding Smith�s son-in-law, apostle Bruce R. McConkie, taught that people of African descent were cemented into the direct genealogical lineage of Cain--with Cain being the original human son of perdition:



"Though he was a rebel and an associate of Lucifer in pre-existence, and though he was a liar from the beginning, whose name was �Perdition,� Cain managed to attain the privilege of mortal birth.



"Under Adam�s tutelage, he began in this life to serve God. He understood the Gospel and the plan of salvation, was baptized, received the priesthood, had a perfect knowledge of the position and perfection of God, and talked personally with Deity.



"Then he came out in open rebellion, fought God, worshiped Lucifer, and slew Abel. . . .



"As a result of his rebellion, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those spirits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born through his lineage.



"He became the first mortal to be cursed as a son of perdition. As a result of his mortal birth he is assured of a tangible body of flesh and bones in eternity, a fact which will enable him to rule over Satan."



(Bruce R. McConkie,� "Mormon Doctrine," [Salt Lake City, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc., 1958], p. 102]

_____





--ACCORDING TO MORMON DOCTRINE, DESCENDANTS OF CAIN RECEIVED THEIR "CURSED" BLACK SKIN BECAUSE OF PRE-EXISTENT SIN



High-ranking Mormon leader and member of the Council of the Seventy B.H. Roberts explained how it was that, through Cain, Blacks were cursed in Mormonism's world with a dark skin:



"Now, why is it that the seed of Ham was cursed to the pertaining of the Priesthood? Why is it that his seed could not have the right to the Priesthood? Ham�s wife was named �Egyptus, which is forbidden: . . . and thus from Ham sprang the race which preserved the curse in the land.� Was she a descendant of Cain, who was cursed for murdering his brother?



"And was it by Ham marrying her, and she being saved from the flood in the ark, that the race which preserved the curse in the land was perpetuated?



"If so, then I believe that race is the one through which it is ordained those spirits that were not valiant in the great rebellion in heaven should come; who rendered themselves unworthy of the Priesthood and its powers, and hence it is withheld from them to this day." (B.H. Roberts, in Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Way to Perfection."



(Salt Lake City, Utah: The Genealogical Society of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1958), pp. 104-105)

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LDS bigotry booster John J. Stewart, in his book, "Mormonism and the Negro," defended this supposed color curse as a �divinely directed policy," intended by God as punishment for Blacks' misbehavior in the pre-existence--punishment that is manifested through the demonized, dark-skinned lineage of Cain and that �has been affirmed by the Church leaders of our day�:



"Cain, a son of Adam and Eve, apparently had quite a different record in the Spirit world. He was likely one of the valiant ones there, and thus was born into this world under the most favorable circumstances, of noble sire and mother, and was even privileged to walk and talk with God.



"Yet, Cain fell to the temptations of Satan, rejected God, murdered his brother Abel and thus brought upon himself a curse . . .



"Among the Negroid people, as indeed among all the races of the Earth, there is infinite variety and degree of circumstances of birth, of goodness, of opportunity or lack of it. There are Negroes born into families of wealth and refinement, others who are blessed with great talents and there are those born into the lowest classes of society in Africa, in squalor and ignorance, living out their lives in a fashion akin to that of the animals.



"Does not this infinite variety of circumstance give further evidence of man�s being assigned that station in life which he has merited by his performance in the pre-mortal existence?



"Note, also, that part of Cain�s curse was to have as his posterity those spirits unable to bear the Priesthood in this life. In view of the importance that humans rightly attach to their children, their posterity, what greater curse could come upon Cain, as pertaining to this life? And what could be more appropriate than for these spirits to have such a man as Cain as their progenitor? . . .



"In the . . . scripture from Abraham . . . we have a reliable account of the early genealogy of the Negro race, and in Abraham�s comments we have further evidence of the divine direction in the LDS Church policy of not allowing the Negro, the seed of Cain and Ham, to bear the Priesthood."



Stewart then adds this hollow-sounding caveat, before moving on to condemn salvation-stopping marital race-mixing:



"There is nothing in Church policy that forbids nor discourages us from extending brotherly Christian love to the Negro.



"This, however, does not and should not include intermarriage, for we would bring upon our children the curse of Cain, or rather, we would bring unto ourselves children from those spirits destined to be of the seed of Cain."



(John J. Stewart, "Mormonism and the Negro: An Explanation and Defense of the Doctrine of the Church of Jesus Christ of Later-day Saints in Regard to Negroes and Others of Negroid Blood" [Orem, Utah: Bookmark Division of Community Press Publishing Company, 1960], pp. 39, 44-46, 53-54]

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Similarly devoted to defending Mormonism's White supremacist race-based curse of Cain, Mormon author John L. Lund, in his book, "The Church and the Negro: A Discussion of Mormons, Negroes and the Priesthood," argues that LDS prophets have definitively settled the question by confirming that descendants of Cain were marked by the Mormon God with a dark skin:



"On the subject of the mark of Cain, our prophets have given all the important information that is necessary for our salvation.



"Frankly, President Brigham Young has told us that the mark of Cain was a 'black skin.' . . . For the Latter-day Saint no further explanation is required.



"However, it is not necessary to rely on this single statement to arrive at this same conclusion. There are numerous references made by both ancient and modern prophets that point to the fact that Cain was the father of the race that became known as Negroid."



(John L. Lund, "The Church and the Negro" [John L. Lund, 1967], p. 13)

_____





--OFFICIAL LDS FIRST PRESIDENCY STATEMENTS HAVE LINKED THE MORMON "CURSE" OF A BLACK SKIN DIRECTLY TO CAIN



The LDS Church's First Presidency has officially defended the denial of the LDS priesthood to Blacks on the basis of their Cain "curse," declaring it to have been a divinely-commanded consequence arising from the supposed sinful pre-mortal behavior of those who were eventually destined by the Mormon God to be branded with blackness:



"The few known facts about our pre-Earth life and our entrance into mortality must be taken into account in any attempt at an explanation . . . [including] . . . the Negro . . . [being] punished or allotted to a certain position on this Earth . . . through the loins of Cain because of his [the Negro's] failure to achieve other stature in the spirit world.



(LDS Church First Presidency Statement, 17 August 1951, quoted in William E. Berrett, "The Church and the Negroid People," Supplement to "Mormonism and the Negro," pp. 16-18)

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Confirming its official race-based, pre-Earth life, curse-of-Cain doctrine, the LDS First Presidency (this time in a 1947 letter to Dr. Lowry Nelson, former head of Brigham Young University's Department of Sociology) stated emphatically:



"Indeed, some of God's children were assigned to superior positions before the world was formed. We are aware that some higher critics do not accept his but the Church does.



"Your position seems to lose sight of the revelation of the Lord touching the pre-existence of our spirits, the rebellion in heaven and the doctrine that our birth into this life and the advantages under which we may be born, have a relationship in the life heretofore."



The First Presidency concluded this official sanction of Mormon Church-approved racial bigotry by declaring:



"We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in [the] area, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine."



(LDS First Presidency statement, quoted in Stewart, "Mormonism and the Negro,� pp. 46-47)



*****





--SO, THIS IS HOW THE TRAJECTORY OF SKIN-COLOR "CURSING" TAKES ITS COURSE IN THE MORMON REALITY MENTALITY:



--First, Cain murders Abel.



--Therefore, the Mormon God punishes Cain by cursing Cain with a black skin.



--The Mormon God (whose apparent curse of choice is altering people's skin color) also blights the pigment of those of African descent, punishing them with a black skin as well, and then proceeds to channel them into a deliberately- and divinely-decreed inferior non-White Earth life through the lineage of the "cursed" Cain--all because they supposedly weren't deservingly valiant in their pre-mortal lives to earn themselves a white skin.



--Finally, according to historic LDS teaching, Mormons have actually spotted Cain wandering around the Earth in modern times as a black-skinned, hairy, loathsome, miserable and cursed creature--the supposedly damned, decadent father of the Mormon God-punished and -black swathed African race.

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Where's the nearest exit out of this hateful, primitive, silly, superstitious Mormon Cult?







Edited 12 time(s). Last edit at 01/16/2011 05:10AM by steve benson.