{"id":2311,"date":"2012-03-03T14:18:00","date_gmt":"2012-03-03T14:18:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/03\/racist-remarks-by-popular-byu-religion-professor-spark-controversy.html"},"modified":"2012-03-03T14:18:00","modified_gmt":"2012-03-03T14:18:00","slug":"racist-remarks-by-popular-byu-religion-professor-spark-controversy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/03\/racist-remarks-by-popular-byu-religion-professor-spark-controversy.html","title":{"rendered":"Racist Remarks by popular BYU Religion Professor Spark Controversy"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

by Joanna Brooks
Religion Dispatches<\/p>\n

Racist apologetics by a popular Brigham Young University religion professor are sparking controversy, as election-year scrutiny sheds a revealing light on the persistence of racist belief among LDS Church<\/a> members.<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, Randy Bott, a BYU professor of religion, told the Washington Post that the LDS Church\u2019s historic prohibition on priesthood ordination for men of African descent was a \u201cblessing\u201d to blacks because they were not \u201cready\u201d for priesthood authority.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod has always been discriminatory\u201d when it comes to whom he grants the authority of the priesthood, says Bott\u2026 Bott compares blacks with a young child prematurely asking for the keys to her father\u2019s car, and explains that similarly until 1978, the Lord determined that blacks were not yet ready for the priesthood.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhat is discrimination?\u201d Bott asks. \u201cI think that is keeping something from somebody that would be a benefit for them, right? But what if it wouldn\u2019t have been a benefit to them?\u201d Bott says that the denial of the priesthood to blacks on Earth\u2014although not in the afterlife\u2014protected them from the lowest rungs of hell reserved for people who abuse their priesthood powers. \u201cYou couldn\u2019t fall off the top of the ladder, because you weren\u2019t on the top of the ladder. So, in reality the blacks not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing God could give them.\u201d
Read the rest here<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Joanna BrooksReligion Dispatches Racist apologetics by a popular Brigham Young University religion professor are sparking controversy, as election-year scrutiny sheds a revealing light on the persistence of racist belief among LDS Church members. On Tuesday, Randy Bott, a BYU professor of religion, told the Washington Post that the LDS Church\u2019s historic prohibition on priesthood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2251,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2311","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRacist Remarks by popular BYU Religion Professor Spark Controversy<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"by Joanna BrooksReligion DispatchesRacist apologetics by a popular Brigham Young University religion professor are sparking controversy, as election-year\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/03\/racist-remarks-by-popular-byu-religion-professor-spark-controversy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Racist Remarks by popular BYU Religion Professor Spark Controversy\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"by Joanna BrooksReligion DispatchesRacist apologetics by a popular Brigham Young University religion professor are sparking controversy, as election-year\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/rhetoricraceandreligion\/2012\/03\/racist-remarks-by-popular-byu-religion-professor-spark-controversy.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Rhetoric Race and Religion\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2012-03-03T14:18:00+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Andre E. 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