Actually Textual: Black Skin versus Blackness

Black Skin versus Blackness: Part 1 of a Scriptural Trilogy

What a momentous month December 2013 has turned out to be!
The issue I wish to address is one that is put to me from time to time, to wit, does the Mormon book of scripture, The Book of Moses, contained in The Pearl of Great Price, really teach that black skin, the dark complexion most commonly associated with people of Africa, is a curse from God?
For much of its history members, including top leadership (prophets and apostles), of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught that indeed black skin was a sign of God's disapproval of the actions of dark complexioned people or their distant ancestors, actions committed in this life or prior, in (per LDS doctrine) one's pre-earth or premortal life. But on December 6, 2013, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints set the record straight:

"Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."

But the statement from LDS leadership does not delve into the scriptures that, for many members, again, top LDS leadership included, until very recently (the LDS Church finally understood that reticence on the subject of past racist statements by prophets and apostles would not be understood as a disavowal, only as evasion, and thus issued the belated clarification cited above) understood precisely to mean that black skin was the mark of divine disfavor.
So let us see what the text actually says. The verse in question is in the context of the preaching of the antediluvian prophet, Enoch, and a people who had separated from the larger mass of Adam's descendants, a people to whom Enoch would not be sent:

"For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people." (Moses 7:8)

To many a Mormon this verse stuns their sensibilities and their belief in the equality of all people before God. I would draw the reader to two points.
Point 1: The Lord cursed the land with much heat. Why the land? Perhaps because "land" not only denotes a geographic location but more importantly represents a "state of being", living under the influence of God, spiritually being in his presence: "If ye will keep my commandments ye shall prosper in the land--but if ye keep not his commandments ye shall be cut off from his presence." (Alma 37:13). It is worth noting that the antithesis of "prospering in the land" is "being cut off from God's presence", thus to prosper in the land, in the scriptural sense, is not a promise of monetary means but rather a promise of "being in God's presence". In the scriptures the most enduring image of dwelling in God's presence is being in the Garden of Eden, which itself is symbolized by Temples.
Point 2: The phrase "blackness came upon all the children of Canaan" is the scriptural expression that denotes "not being in the light of God", and being in a state of sorrow, but not actual skin hue. To this point I will cut to the chase, for brevity is to preferable to verbosity. I cite the Old Testament prophet Joel, chapter 2, verses 1-6:

(1) Blow ye the trumpet in Zion, and sound an alarm in my holy mountain: let all the inhabitants of the land tremble: for the day of the LORD cometh, for it is night at hand;
(2) A day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains: a great people and a strong; there hath not been ever the like, neither shall be any more after it, even to the years of many generations.
(3) A fire devoureth before them; and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
(4) The appearance of them is as the appearance of horses; and as horsemen, so shall they run.
(5) Like the noise of chariots on the tops of mountains shall they leap, like the noise of a flame of fire that devoureth the stubble, as a strong people set in battle array.
(6) Before their face the people shall be much pained: all faces shall gather blackness.

I will draw the careful reader's attention to Joel's descriptions, for "darkness", "gloominess", "clouds" and "thick darkness" would spread over the land. Then fire would devour the land leaving desolation, a description which recalls the phrase "curse the land with much heat" from Moses 7, save for one land that would be "as the garden of Eden". Then finally, all faces (or presumably the faces of all people not in the Eden-like land) shall gather "blackness". The prophecy is not declaring that all humanity will become Negroid, but that those outside the presence of God shall be in a spiritually dark and mournful state.
Thus, to be "black" in the scriptures is not literally to have a dark complexion. To be "black" in the scriptures signifies that the individual in question is not in the light of the Lord and has gathered spiritual darkness rather than joy and light. Though I have a penchant for citing numerous examples (I am given to making the case, when I have a conviction that truth needs to be disseminated), I will rest this matter to the careful reader as is. Some may disagree or see this posting as Mormon "damage control". However you conclude, I would remind my brethren of one thing only: these passages are actually textual.