http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2007/05/11/romney-elaborates-on-evolution/

Gary, you are right. It is called “Races of Men” (perhaps a paen to Richard Knox’s 1850 Races of Men?). Thanks for catching the typo.

Second, Elder McConkie said (three times in the excerpt you quote) that various “racial characteristics” originated with God. It would be a stretch to say he meant Cain’s seed became black because they “adapted.”

Here, the text I am looking at is(in McConkie’s language, though JFS, 30 years earlier, and W.W. Phelps, in 1835, just a few years after Lamarck died, had similar sentiments, and I suspect McConkie was familiar with both of those sources on this issue):

“Racial degeneration, resulting in differences in appearance and spiritual aptitude, has arisen since the fall…all these changes from the physical and spiritual perfections of our common parents have been brought about by departure from the gospel truths.”

The Lamarckian element is his idea that a person became somehow “degenerate” in various physical manifestations because of a “departure from the gospel truths,” and that the degenerate characteristics became inherited. Or, in other words, the “acquired traits” were inherited.

Fourth, I personally find it offensive that you choose to quote Elder McConkie’s earlier editions

Gary, much better to be personally offended that the book, with its racial statements, is still available in your local Deseret Book in 2007. Maybe you and I could co-write Deseret Book about our shared offense.

Aaron, sorry for the digression from your topic.

“The story of Simon called Simple
Is one everybody has read; It is sweet, it is sad,
    and it tells of a lad
Who wasn’t quite right in the head.
When he sought to buy pie of the pieman,
Poor Simon was hopeful but rash,
For he childishly thought that a pie could be bought
Without any transfer of cash.

“But we mustn’t speak harshly of Simon,
Who was simply ahead of his time—
Today he could buy a whole carload of pie
By merely investing a dime.
The up-to-date salesman would land him—
Or, rather more likely, his wife—
By letting him pay a few cents right away
And installments the rest of his life.

“It’s the way they sell pins and pianos,
And paintings, potatoes and pants—
For a few dollars down you can buy the whole town—
As a prospect you haven’t a chance.
The fact that you’re broke doesn’t matter,
Your only escape is to die—
And as long as they take all the money you make,
You might as well spend it for pie!”

(Conference Report, April 1926, p. 160.)

Personally, I like the poem better than the minstrel story.

If you had a bone to pick with President Heber J. Grant, perhaps you would also enjoy quoting this story he told in General Conference.  It too reflects a culture foreign to our day:

“I went to a negro minstrel show once, and there were about ten or fifteen on the stage. One of them rushed in with his hat off and said,  ’ which of these here niggers am lost two dollars? ’  holding up a two dollar bill. There hadn’t any of them lost two dollars.  ’ Well,’  he said,  ’ if none of you have lost it, I found these two dollars right by the door here and it is my money.’  They said all right, and he put it in his pocket. No sooner had he got it in his pocket than up jumped a nigger and said:  ’ Look here, George Washington Jones, you owe me two dollars; pay your honest debts! ’  He handed the two dollars to him. Another nigger jumps up and says:  ’ Look here, Julius Caeser Brown, you owes me two dollars; pay your debt.’  He got it, and in this way it went clear round. When the last man got it, up jumps George Washington Jones, and says:  ’ Here, give me back the two dollars; you owes me two dollar.’  No sooner had he got it in his pocket than a fellow rushes in and said  ’ which of you niggers has found two dollars? ’  George Washington Jones took it out of his pocket and said:  ’ Here, take your money and go home; we’ve all paid our debts.’ ”  (Conference Report, October 1890, p. 36.)

After telling this story, President Grant said, “I desire that the Latter-day Saints should all pay their debts.”  (Ibid.)

First, there is no entry in any edition of McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine titled “Races of Man.”

Second, Elder McConkie said (three times in the excerpt you quote) that various “racial characteristics” originated with God.  It would be a stretch to say he meant Cain’s seed became black because they “adapted.”  (“The theory of adaptation was first put forth by Jean-Baptiste Lamarck.  His theories are also referred to as the inheritance of acquired traits.”  See en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Adaptation.)

Third, why not quote the whole paragraph?  There is a section in the middle of the paragraph that you left out.  Here it is:

“(Moses 5:16-41; 7:8, 12, 22; Abra. 1:20-27.)  The Book of Mormon explains why the Lamanites received dark skins and a degenerate status.  (2 Ne. 5:21-23.)”

Fourth, I personally find it offensive that you choose to quote Elder McConkie’s earlier editions, knowing full well that they are a reflection of the culture in which they were published and thus have a certain shock value in today’s world.  In the 1979 edition, Elder McConkie changed the entry to read:  “the posterity of Cain (and later of Ham) were born with the characteristics of the black race.”

By the way, you may read the McKay articles if you “please.”

It just sounds like racism to me, and something McConkie later backtracked from.

I remember a speech by McConkie where he said something like “anyone who believes in evolution has the intellect of an ant and the understanding of a clod of clay in a primordial swamp.” Now, I’m no expert, but that seems pretty anti-evolution. Anyone else remember that speech?

It’s a great primer if someone wants to understand some of the actual science involved in the evolutionary biology field AND it is a great collection of official statements by the church concerning the topic. My favorite comment is from the 1910 supplement to the 1909 First Presidency statement, which concludes with the following declaration:

“Whether the mortal bodies of man evolved in natural processes to present perfection, through the direction and power of God; whether the first parents of our generations, Adam and Eve, were transplanted from another sphere, with immortal tabernacles, which became corrupted through sin and the partaking of natural foods, in the process of time; whether they were born here in mortality, as other mortals have been, are questions not fully answered in the revealed word of God.”

To me, this leaves the question open, regardless of what some other apostles have said about the matter.

Gary, if you just say please, I’ll be happy to read your articles.

BTW, what do you think of this argument?

Joseph Fielding Smith and Bruce McConkie were our two most strident critics of the theory of organic evolution. Yet, it turns out that through their belief in “degenerationsim,” in some aspects they turned out to evolutionists after all– Lamarckian evolutionists.
For example, this is from the “Races of Man” entry in the 1958 and 1966 Mormon Doctrine (the 1979 edition is slightly different):

Racial degeneration, resulting in differences in appearance and spiritual aptitude, has arisen since the fall. We know the circumstances under which the posterity of Cain (and later of Ham) were cursed with what we call negroid racial characteristics. …If we had a full and true history of all races and nations, we would know the origins of all their distinctive characteristics. In the absence of such detailed information, however, we know only the general principle that all these changes from the physical and spiritual perfections of our common parents have been brought about by departure from the gospel truths.

Doesn’t this sound like an instance of a belief in the inheritance of acquired characteristics?