When Ellen White wrote about the "amalgamation of man and beast", George McCready Price, and the culture of her time, seemed to understand what she was saying, and by association, so did Joseph Felding Smith of the Mormon Church.
I will just include excerpts. See http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/q45.htm
Joseph Fielding Smith was born in the 1870s. He grew up and was educated in a day when the vast great majority of white people believed and were taught that blacks were an 'inferior' race, and that civilization-with all it's arts and sciences-came from white Europeans.
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Joseph Fielding Smith; the grandnephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith ... became an adherent of the writings of George McCready Price; a white racist Seventh-day Adventist writer and the 'father' of 'Creation Science'.
To understand why Joseph Fielding Smith considered blacks to be 'inferior' one must understand that he was an avid reader of the works of George McCready Price.
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The name of this remarkable man is George McCready Price. (Fads and Fallacies in the Name of Science, pp.127,132)
Although outwardly impressive at the time, the works of George McCready Price today seem amateurish at best. To an untrained eye they might seem impressive, but to a trained professional scientist they are childish. Seventh-day Adventist historian Francis D. Nichol writes:
He had to pick up all his information by his own effort. He thus lacked technicalities that would have made his work stronger. Of course, not all his ideas have stood the test of time.? (Crusader for Creation, p.82)
What Nichol means is that science-trained Creationists have abandoned or greatly modified many or most of Price?s theories. He was a 'self-trained' geologist. He had no professional training in any science.
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George McCready Price was not only a Seventh-day Adventist and a 'self-taught' geologist, and the 'father' of Creation Science; he was also an avid white racist! In 1924, in his book The Phantom of Organic Evolution, Price wrote that racial mixing violated God's divine intentions and led to rapid degeneration after the Tower of Babel. This degeneration produced not only Negroes and Mongolians (Asians), but apes as well; which Price called 'degenerate or hybridized men' (The Phantom of Organic Evolution, p.210)
He authored this little rhyme about black Africans:
The poor little fellow who went to the South,
God lost in the forest drank;
His skin grew black, as the fierce sun beat
And scorched his hair with its tropic heat,
And his mind became a blank.
(The Creationists, p.85)
In other words, God had created white-skinned Caucasian Adam and Eve in His image; Adam from clay and Eve from a rib. However, before the Flood of Noah men and animals began to have sexual intercourse with each other and produce monstrous species. To destroy these monstrous offspring, God sent the flood and killed all life except Noah, his three sons, their wives, Noah's wife, and the animals which remained pure from the cross-breeding. After the flood this cross-breeding (hybridization) continued again, and this time men became degenerate. They devolved; which is the opposite of evolution. They became closer to the animals. Price wrote that this was the explanation of the non-Caucasian races such as the Negroes and Mongolians (Chinese, Japanese, Malaysians, etc.).
Price did not invent this, but was basing his conclusions upon the writings of Ellen G. White; especially where she wrote that the flood came about because different species of animals were producing 'hybridized' offspring, and that this continued after the flood and was the reason why there were so many different species of animals and 'certain races of men' (Spiritual Gifts 3:75)
In 1863 Ellen G. White wrote:
'But if there was on sin above another which called for the destruction of the race by the flood, it was the base crime of amalgamation of man and beast which defaced the image of God, and caused confusion everywhere.' (Spiritual Gifts 3:64)
A few SDA apologists have tried to say the EGW meant amalgamation between races of men and between species of beasts, but not amalgamation of man and beast. But the SDA evangelist Uriah Smith, a contemporary of White and her good friend, wrote in a book that the amalgamation of man and beast (ape) produced the Hottentots of Africa and probably the 'Digger Indians' of North America just to name a few. Ellen G. White knew of this book, quoted it, and even sold copies of it at SDA conferences. Researcher Dirk Anderson writes:
There is a statement Mrs. White made in 1864 that the results of amalgamation between man and beast could be seen in 'certain races of men'. For over 80 years Adventists-including the White's friend Uriah Smith-defended this statement on the basis that she was talking about the sexual union of man with beast. Finally, in 1947, biologist Frank Marsh convinced SDA leaders of what scientists had known for decades, that it is biologically impossible for the union of man and beast to produce offspring. The church accepted Marsh's new explanation and began claiming that Mrs. White was talking about interbreeding between humans rather than between man and animal. However, the textual evidence itself and every testimony we have from every witness that knew Mrs. White, including Uriah Smith, James White, W.C. White (her son), and D.D. Robinson (her secretary), all confirm that Mrs. White was talking about interbreeding of man with animal. (7 Top Excuses About Ellen White, p.7 online)
In 1870 the three volumes of White's work Spiritual Gifts was enlarged and republished as The Spirit of Prophecy. This book contained the 'man and beast' statements. In 1890, The Spirit of Prophecy was enlarged with other EGW writings and republished as Patriarchs and Prophets. The 'man and beast' statements were not included.
According to Price, based upon the works of Ellen G. White and commentaries by Uriah Smith, at the top of the human apex were Caucasians; who were in the original image of Adam and Eve, the original Image of God. Then there were Negroes and Mongolians who were lower than Caucasians and closer to the animals. Then there were the Hottentots and Digger Indians who were closer to the animal still; since they were the offspring of men and apes. Then the apes who were lower and closer to the animals still. Historian Ronald L. Numbers writes:
In The Phantom of Organic Evolution, he [Price] observed that racial mixing in violation of God's intentions had led to rapid degeneration after Babel, producing not only Negroes and Mongolians but perhaps apes as well, which he though might be 'degenerate or hybridized men.' (The Creationists, p.85)
The works of George McCready Price was extremely popular with Fundamentalist Christians and others who believed that evolution was a 'octrine of the Devil' and Satan's lie. One avid supporter and reader of the works of Price was Joseph Fielding Smith (the grandnephew of the Prophet Joseph Smith); who at that time was working in the LDS Church Historian's Office. He knew of the controversies around North America between 'Evolution' and the 'Word of God'. He read articles. He read books. When the anti-Evolution crusaders demanded that one must either reject evolution or the Bible, Joseph Fielding Smith believed it. He apparently couldn't as many people could not~ distinguish 'evolution' from 'Darwinism'. Evolution is a scientific theory, but Darwinism is a philosophy of man which misuses the theory to promote a godless cosmos.
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After George McCready Price came Lewis Marsh, Ph.D. Marsh was a trained biologist, and in the 1940s he convinced SDA church leaders that it was biologically impossible for men and beasts to produce offspring. The SDA church finally agreed, and began to rewrite books, and to eliminate embarrassing quotes. Yet, Marsh was still a Traditionalist Seventh-day Adventist, and believed that inbreeding between different races of men, and closely related species of animals, was against the Law of God and the reason the LORD had sent the flood.
In 1953, SDA church leaders asked Marsh to write articles for The Seventh-day Adventist Bible Commentary.
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Joseph Fielding Smith, the eldest son of President Joseph F. Smith (6th President of the Church) believed that evolution and Darwinism was precisely the same thing. He believed it was from the Devil, and that it had to be fought or many sincere people would loose faith in the Bible (and thus also The Book of Mormon) and lose their opportunity for salvation and exaltation.
His intent was good.
He believed that 'Negroes' were the descendants of Cain; which was a doctrine of the Church based upon The Book of Moses. Yet, he also believed that 'Negroes' were 'an inferior race'. This was the popular belief of his day. That was the popular 'philosophy of men' of his day. But no such statement can be found in the Standard Works of the Church. Statements can be found which say that Hamites were 'blessed with wisdom'. Statements can be found which say that the Cainites built the first cities, were the first to work in metal, and were the first to use musical instruments. Yet, Joseph Fielding Smith never quotes these. He simply amalgamated the doctrines of the Church (based upon Revelations) with the philosophies and theories of men (George McCready Price and the American and European scientists of the late 19th and early 20th century). |