Mormon Quotes

Jews

Brigham Young
The blood of Cain was more predominant in these Mexicans than that of Israel, and we thus condemn the mixing of Mormons with outsiders.
Brigham Young, Cultural 'Encystment' as a Cause of the Exodus from Mexico in 1912, Pacific Historical Review, v. 34, 1965, p. 447
Joseph Smith
[A]s the Holy Ghost falls upon one of the literal seed of Abraham, it is calm and serene... while the effect of the Holy Ghost upon a Gentile, is to purge out the old blood, and make him actually of the seed of Abraham. That man that has none of the blood of Abraham (naturally) must have a new creation by the Holy Ghost. In such a case, there may be more of a powerful effect upon the body, and visible to the eye, than upon an Israelite.
Joseph Smith, History of the Church, v. 3, p. 380
Ezra Taft Benson
This predicted gathering has three phases: the gathering of Israel to the land of Zion, the American hemisphere; the return of the Ten Tribes from the north countries; and the re‑establishment of the Jews in Palestine which has been long ago predicted by the prophets.
Ezra Taft Benson, "Speaking Today: 'A message to Judah from Joseph,'" Ensign, December 1976, p. 70
David Whitmer
The record of the Jews and the record of the Nephites are one.
David Whitmer, Inscription on David Whitmer's tombstone
Daniel C. Peterson
I hope that Jews, of all people, will be very careful not to entertain the kind of religious hatred and bigotry that some will undoubtedly attempt to inflame over this issue.
Daniel C. Peterson, "Anger over 'baptism' of Simon Wiesenthal"
Daniel C. Peterson
I would respond that we Latter‑day Saints do, quite unapologetically, insist that Jews 'are not worthy enough to receive God's eternal blessing on their own.'
Daniel C. Peterson, "Anger over 'baptism' of Simon Wiesenthal"
Daniel C. Peterson
Many Jews in general are troubled by the notion of proselytizing. I remember speaking with a rabbi in Jerusalem, very nice guy, who said to me simply that to convert a Jew is the equivalent of killing a Jew, especially because Judaism has been so threatened, obviously particularly in the 20th century. I understand the sensitivities on that score. In terms of Holocaust victims in particular, there's the sense that they died ‑‑ whether they were religious or not ‑‑ they died for being Jewish. So to take people who are in effect martyred for their Jewishness and then be baptized as Christians posthumously really offends a lot of Jewish sensibilities. That I understand. I think the church has tried to be sensitive on this, but we are caught on this doctrine. And the doctrine is this: Ultimately anyone who is saved must be saved through Christ, and that means at some point explicitly acknowledging Christ and accepting baptism. And that goes for everybody who has ever lived. So in a sense we're not theologically free to say to anyone, including Jews, that we just won't do this, and in our viewpoint, in fact, at the end of time, people would say thank you for this. But in the meantime, I understand the offensiveness of it, and it's a very, very troubling thing, and we go out of our way, particularly the church in the 20th and 21st centuries, to be religiously sensitive, and we're genuine about it. There's genuine friendship between the church and Jews and Catholics, and in a certain level Muslims. We've been cultivating those ties, so we don't want to be seen as people who trample on other people's religious sensibilities, especially since it's been done to us quite a bit.
Daniel C. Peterson, PBS, The Mormons
Daniel C. Peterson
I'm not sure why some Jews appear to be offended by Mormon temple service on behalf of Jews. Jews have precious few friends around the world. They should not be seeking to alienate Mormons, who are deeply philosemitic.
Daniel C. Peterson, Mormon Discussions; March 15, 2011
Orson Hyde
Here let me say again, according to the Book of Mormon, many of those great islands that are found in the Indian Ocean, also in the great Pacific Sea, have been planted with colonies of Israelites. Do they not resemble each other? Go to the Sandwich Islands, to the South Sea Islands, to Japan‑‑go to the various islands of the Pacific Ocean, and you find a general resemblance in the characters and countenances of the people. Who are they? According to the Book of Mormon, Israelites were scattered forth from time to time, and colonies planted on these islands of the ocean.
Orson Hyde, Journal of Discourses 14:333
Richard Ostling
This practice [baptism for the dead] is especially offensive to Jews. A highly sensitive vicarious baptism issue erupted publicly in the mid‑1990s when baptism for Jewish victims of the Holocaust — some 380,000 of them — created an angry backlash from the American Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The names had all been submitted by nine zealous Mormons who had visited concentration camps and Holocaust museums in Europe. The situation surfaced when Ernest Michel, a founding member of the survivors' organization, discovered in the genealogical library that his parents, both of whom died at Auschwitz, had been given Mormon baptisms. In 1995, after a year of negotiations, the church agreed to remove all such names and to refrain from baptizing deceased Jews unless they were ancestors of living LDS Church members or the church had written permission from all living members of the person's family.
Richard Ostling, Richard and Joan Ostling, Mormon America, pp. 189‑190, see "Church to Stop Baptizing Holocaust Victims," Sunstone, 18:3, no. 100, December 1995
Thomas Ferguson
I believe that Judaism was an improvement on polytheism; Christianity was an improvement on Judaism (to some degree and in some departments only); that Protestantism is an improvement on Catholicism; that Mormonism is an improvement on Protestantism. So I give Joseph Smith credit as an innovator and as a smart fellow.
Thomas Ferguson, Thomas Ferguson to James Still, December 3, 1979; see Mormon Mavericks: Essays on Dissenters, p. 269
LeGrand Richards
God is calling to the Jews. He invites them into the fold of Christ. He wants them to come and take their place in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter‑day Saints, the Kingdom of God which 'shall stand forever.' (Daniel 2:44)
LeGrand Richards, Israel! Do You Know?, 1954, p. 209
LeGrand Richards
You [Jews] have been driven, robbed, and ravished — so have we. You have been persecuted, mistreated, misunderstood — so have we. Why? We were driven from our homes to desolation beyond the boundaries of the United States. You, too, have been driven. Why? What a power we could be in the world if we [Mormons and Jews] were united... the complete accomplishment of our mutual and heaven‑assigned responsibilities involves our becoming united (as the descendants of Joseph) with the descendants of Judah (the Jewish people) in the fulfilment of the promises given by the Lord to Abraham and renewed upon the heads of Isaac and Jacob, that through them and their seed all nations of the earth would be blessed.
LeGrand Richards, "The Mormons and the Jewish People," pamphlet, n.d., p. 1
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