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General News of Monday, 16 February 2004

Source: Chronicle

Govt Officials Demand Bribe - Mormon Drops Bomshell

Minister's Daughter's Education For Land?
A hardcore Mormon, Darrick Eveson, who lives in Seattle - USA, has told The Chronicle that the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter Day Saints (Mormons) are paying bribes in Ghana and other African countries because government officials demand them before they allow the church to operate.

According to him, ?The church is more than willing not to pay bribes, but the government officials will not stop asking for them. And the bribes are not ?money? but, as I said, free trips and free education in America for their children, half of whom, will become Mormons themselves.?

In a six-page message to The Chronicle, Darrick said, ?It isn?t the Mormons or some white church in Africa who are corrupt. They want to help you stupid niggers try to improve your lives. It is the niggers who are corrupt by nature.? In America blacks are insultingly referred to as niggers.

The Chronicle responded that his admission that Mormons were paying bribes to government officials in Ghana and other African countries could not be left without comments, especially because we are involved in the global anti-corruption fight.

?Mormons and other religious or commercial organizations who pay bribes to public officials because they demand it are corrupt and cannot be said to be honest.

For churches who pay bribes, the least said about them the better. God hates corruption and any church which pays bribes cannot be of God,? The Chronicle said.

?You will not find a church in Africa which has not bribed government officials in one way or the other. I suppose all churches are ?corrupt? in your eyes,? he responded.

Darrick Eveson, who publishes pro-Mormon stories on a website he has established for black Mormons, was responding to a series of stories carried by The Chronicle, last year, in connection with the controversies surrounding a trip by the then Minister for Information and Presidential Affairs, Jake Obetsebi-Lamptey, and his family to Utah and the story on the Church?s ban on black priesthood.

It will be recalled that The Chronicle revealed last year that the Minister and his wife travelled to Utah - headquarters of the Mormons - and were later joined by their daughter on an all-expenses paid trip.

Investigations later revealed that the Minister, who had assisted the Mormons by facilitating the resolution of a land title dispute between the Mormons and the Osu Stool, sought and gained admission for his daughter at Brigham Young University (BYU), a prestigious university owned by the Church.

Deep throat sources told The Chronicle that the Minister?s trip and admission for his daughter were a ?pay cheque? for his assistance to the church by way of facilitating the resolution of a dispute, which ensued between them and the Church over land title.

The Minister admitted in an interview that he facilitated the dispute resolution but insisted that it was President Kufuor who asked him to go to Utah and find out whether it was worth it for him to honor an invitation he, Kufuor, had received from the Mormons.

The Minister described the trip as ?official? and explained that it was the Mormons who invited him. The business class tickets for the trip also came from the Mormons.

In response to a Chronicle enquiry, the Office of the President, after consultations with the President, told the paper that the President was not the one who sent the Minister to Utah on the supposed fact-finding mission.

The Mormons also told The Chronicle that the reason for the Minister?s visit was to attend a conference on international law and to learn about the church.

The Minister denied that the Mormons had given his daughter a scholarship and added that his daughter had moved from Pennsylvania University to BYU because she always wanted to go to a ?bigger? university. He added that his daughter gained admission on merit.

The Chronicle however confirmed that the Minister had visited the scholarship secretariat of BYU and even negotiated scholarships for government public relations officers, even though that responsibility fell within the purview of the Minister for Education.

The other stories were on the Church?s anti-black doctrine, which imposed a ban on black priesthood until 1978.

v MORMONS AND BLACKS

On the controversial issue of the Church?s position on black people, Darrick Eveson said, ?Are you angry that Brigham Young said that black Africans are the children of Cain? Ok. Mohammed said similar things. He once said, ?Allah struck his right shoulder and out came a white race and then he said to paradise you go and He struck his left shoulder and out came a black race and He said to hell-fire you go.?

According to Darrick, Mohammed ?owned? a lot of black slaves and only freed them just before his death, adding that Joseph Smith, founder of Mormonism, died after he advocated freeing and educating black slaves.

Darrick continued that he believes in the Curse of Cain doctrine.

The Curse of Cain doctrine states that when Cain tried to kill his brother Abel, God cursed him and put a mark on him so that all people could easily identify him. That mark, according to Mormons, was a black skin and flat nose.

As a result of this position by the Church, blacks were forbidden to hold priesthood within the church until the ban was lifted as result of protests against the church.

According to Darrick, many followers of the Church want the Church to publicly repudiate the Curse of Cain doctrine but the leadership of the Church is silent because it could generate a heated controversy across the world.

Regarding why the Church is silent on the anti-black doctrine Darrick said, ?First Presidency taught publicly that ?Negroes? are the descendants of Cain and Cain killed Abel, and God cursed Cain and his descendants, that they will not hold priesthood until Abel resurrected, had children and his children received priesthood first.?

He said that the lifting of the ban on black priesthood in 1978 did not repudiate this doctrine but merely ?lifted the ban.?

Darrick said that if the Church leadership came out publicly and said ?the Curse of Cain doctrine was not true,? we repudiate it, some Mormons will say, ?But former church leaders said this was true and they claimed to be inspired by God. But now you say it is not true and you claim to be inspired by God.

?How can we trust anything Church leaders tell us, because what you say now may be called false 10 years from now.?

Darrick says it is to avoid these embarrassments that the Church leadership will not say ?the Curse of Cain doctrine was true? or ?False?. This he said does not mean that blacks are not a cursed human species.

According Darrick, sections of Mormons are divided over the Curse of Cain doctrine because, ?There are liberal Mormons who want the Church to publicly repudiate the Curse of Cain doctrine and priesthood-ban legacy. There are conservative Mormons who want the Church to publicly confirm that the doctrine and ban was of God. Both of us want our way but the Church remains silent.?

He said the troubles of Africans and black people are a result of this Curse on Cain. He added that God is punishing Africans through AIDS. He described Africans as ?Ape Men.? Darrick also dedicated a few paragraphs to criticizing The Chronicle for the negative stories on Mormons in Ghana. He said if The Chronicle did not stop publishing negative stories about Mormons in Ghana they might be slaughtered by Ghanaians.