Is The Gospel a DNA Test?

Identity is the core of many political discussions these days.

I have found it very interesting trying to figure out exactly what Brigham and Joseph thought about who exactly we are as a people.

While they didn't have modern genetics testing. They did understand animal breeding and trait expression and they seem to explain things more or less in those terms.

Certainly they saw our unique gospel message as the ultimate "Spit test" for Ephraimite blood. Certainly revelation and patriarchal blessings was another method of determining lineage. But its obvious they didn't think of the blood of Ephraim as a metaphor.

Its pretty clear that Brigham at least considered Ephraim to be more or less synonymous with Northwestern Europeans who accept The Gospel, and Manasses to be more or less synonymous with Native Americans who accept The Gospel. Funnily enough he seems to have never accepted Alexander Neibaur as a genuine Jew because he had accepted the Gospel and Brigham didn't consider this to be possible at the current time.

Certainly these categories weren't considered perfect or fool proof, but seems like it was the general rule of thumb.

In the 70s there was a concern that we couldn't determine who had the blood of Cain and who did not in Brazil and other countries. Now we certainly do have the technology, but the culture and political realities have changed.

If we make our message easier to accept, its possible that our message will not resonate with those who have the "Priesthood gene"

This is another video I've been sitting on for a little while.

Anyway, something worth thinking about.