Mormon church to digitally index millions of handwritten freed Slave records

Mormon church to digitally index millions of handwritten records about four million freed slaves to help African Americans reconnect with Civil War-era ancestors

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/art...available-records-4-million-freed-slaves.html

 

Now that is what you call noble.

 

Thats cool. Didnt read article but sounds cool

 

How kind of them, seeing as how church doctrine was that we didn't have souls and had "the mark of Cain" until the late 70s/early 80s. I wonder if this is indicative of some major shift toward openness to African-Americans? Having those records would be very valuable, though.

 

There's been some "interesting" changes over the years. It's not surprising to me that they would do something like this. I think it has to do with their whole thing about genealogy and baptizing dead ancestors.

They have a "do not baptize" list that includes holocaust victims and "vocal infamous people" too.

Around 2005 or so when I was heavily involved in adoptions they were still NOT ok with adopting Black children and as far as I know, Black members were still not allowed in the Temple. Then suddenly in 2006-2007 they were ok to adopt Black children.

 

Mormon Church Finally Says Dark Skin is Not a Sign of God's Curse


The Mormon Church finally renounces its previous racist stance that brown skin is a punishment from God—and other growing pains.



By Valerie Tarico / AlterNet
December 12, 2013

http://www.alternet.org/belief/mormon-church-dark-skin-sign-gods-curse-no-longer

 

The mere presence of black members given this history boggles the mind. As for the LDS, I think these are signs of their long-term attempts to mainstream from cult to generic Christian denomination.

 

Agreed.

 

We actually discussed the Mormon Church back when Romney was running, and l had researched their ignorant attitude towards Black people. They have since evolved, and this gesture that helps Black families find missing links, serves as a step (forward) towards making amends.

 

KinCA's article above had some really interesting information about some of their views beyond some of the more commonly known details. Very interesting that they chose to do this, but welcome nevertheless. Their genealogical archives are well-known.