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Interracial marriage and the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

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An interracial couple holding hands

In the past, leaders of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) have consistently opposed marriage between different ethnicities. Apostle Boyd K. Packer publicly stated in 1977 that "We've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. ... The counsel has been wise."[1] Nearly every decade for over a century—beginning with the church's formation in the 1830s until the 1970s—has seen some denunciation against miscegenation, with most focusing on black-white marriage.[2]: 42–43 

Though no longer taught as a sin, Mormon leaders punished white members who married black individuals by banning both from entering a temple into at least the 60s and recommended against any interracial marriages in official publications into the 2000s.[3][4]: 5 [5] The teachings of church leaders on race and interracial marriage have stemmed from biological and social ideas of the time and have garnered criticism and controversy.[6]: 89–90  One exception was intermarriage with Native Americans, who Mormons believed descended from Israelites.[7]: 64  In 2013, the LDS Church disavowed previous teachings that interracial marriage is a sin.[8][9]

Utah legislation on interracial marriage

Main articles: Anti-miscegenation laws and Anti-miscegenation laws in the United States

The church's attitude was reflected in past Utah laws where its members held a notable amount of political influence. In 1852 a law was passed banning sexual intercourse between a white person and "any of the African race."[10]: 110  Utah Territory, which was about 80% Mormon in 1880,[11] passed an anti-miscegenation law in 1888 prohibiting marriages between a "negro" or "mongolian" (i.e. Asian person)[12]: 87  and a "white person".[2]: 60  In 1890, black individuals made up less than .3% of Utah's population of 210,000 people, and Chinese were less than .4%, and Native Americans were 1.6% of the population.[10]: 112  The law was expanded by the two-thirds-Mormon[13] state of Utah in 1939 to prohibit a white person from marrying a "Mongolian, a member of the malay race or a mulatto, quadroon, or octoroon."[2]: 67  Unlike other states, however, Utah's law said nothing about marriage between white people and Native American people.[10]: 106  The laws banning interracial marriage remained until they were repealed by the Utah state legislature in 1963.[10]: 129 [14]

Interracial marriage with Native Americans

Mormons saw Native Americans as a higher race than black people, believing that they were descendants of the Israelites, and that through intermarriage they could be restored to a "white and delightsome" state.[7]: 64  On July 17, 1831, Joseph Smith said he received a revelation in which God wanted several early elders of the church to eventually marry Native American women in a polygamous relationship so that their posterity may become "white, delightsome, and just."[15][16]

The 1831 transcript of a revelation by Joseph Smith approving marriages between church members and Native Americans, stating "For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and Just, for even now their females are more virtuous than the gentiles."

Later, Brigham Young continued to encourage Mormon men to marry Native American women as a process to make them white and delightsome and restore them to their "pristine beauty" within a few generations.[17][18][19]: 145  He performed the first recorded sealing ceremony between a "Lamanite" and a white member in October 1845 when an Oneida man Lewis Dana and Mary Gont were sealed in the Nauvoo temple.[20] There is evidence that Young may have married[21] his Bannock[22] servant[23] Sally (who later married Ute chief Kanosh).[19]: 195 [24] By 1870 only about 30 Mormon men had Native American wives,[10]: 121  and few further interracial marriages with Native Americans occurred. Later Mormons believed Native American skins would be lightened through some other method.[7]: 119  Under Spencer Kimball, the church had begun discouraging interracial marriages with Native Americans.[25]

In canonized scripture

The Book of Mormon

In The Book of Mormon one group of lighter-skinned people was commanded by God not to intermarry with a darker-skinned group.

In The Book of Mormon, the Lord cursed the Lamanites and put a mark of blackness on them so that the Nephites would not find the Lamanites "enticing", (2 Nephi 5:21) "that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions" (Alma 3:8) and so that the Nephites and the Lamanites would be a separate people (Alma 3:14). If someone intermarried and had children with the Lamanites, the Lord also marked and cursed them (Alma 3:15) and cursed their descendants (2 Nephi 5:23 and Alma 3:9).

Hugh Nibley, a prominent Mormon apologist, argues that the curse could be thought of as a culture with traditions that were inconsistent with God's commandments. He argues the curse did not spread through intermarriage alone, but that the Nephites had to participate in the Lamanite culture. He argues that Lord put the mark on the Lamanites to prevent the spread of Lamanite culture among the Nephites.[26] However, the Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual, which is currently used to teach seminary students about the Book of Mormon, quotes Joseph Fielding Smith in Answers to Gospel Questions that the skin color was given to "keep the two peoples from mixing".[27]

The Pearl of Great Price

In the Book of Abraham, the name of Ham's wife is Egyptus, which is given the meaning of forbidden. It teaches that their grandson, Pharaoh, was a descendant of the Canaanites (Abraham 1:22), a race of people who had been cursed with black skin (Moses 7:8). W. W. Phelps, a counselor in the presidency of the church, taught that Ham himself was cursed because he had married a black wife.[28] In The Way to Perfection, Joseph Fielding Smith quoted B. H. Roberts in pointing out that Egyptus means forbidden, and suggests that might be because she was "of a race with which those who held the Priesthood were forbidden to intermarry."[29] The Old Testament Student Manual, which is the manual currently used to teach the Old Testament, teaches that Ham's sons were denied the priesthood because he had married Egyptus.[30]

The Bible

In Genesis 28:1, Isaac commands Jacob not to marry the Canaanites. The Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual, which is the manual currently used to teach the Old Testament to seminary students, teaches that it is because "a daughter of Canaan would not be worthy to join Jacob in entering into a marriage covenant with the Lord."[31]

In Deuteronomy 7, the Israelites were commanded not to marry the Canaanites. In 1954, Mark E. Petersen used this as an example of why the church did not allow interracial marriages.[28]: 70 

In Judges 14, Samson marries a Philistine woman. The Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual teaches that marrying a Philistine was against the will of God.[32][33]

19th century teachings on black-white marriages

Joseph Smith

Joseph Smith expressed opposition to white-black marriages, but endorsed polygamous marriage between white Mormon men and Native American women.[34][35][16]

In a January 1843 church founder Joseph Smith wrote, "Had I [anything] to do with the Negro I would confine them by strict [l]aw to their own species," in reference to interracial marriage.[34][36] A year later as mayor of Nauvoo, Illinois, he held a trial and fined two black men the modern equivalent of thousands of dollars for trying to marry white women.[35][37] However, a decade earlier hundreds of non-Mormon citizens of Jackson County, Missouri stated that the Mormons were inviting black people to live among them, thus, creating the risk of interracial marriage, citing this as of the reasons for requesting the removal of the Mormon people from the state.[38] The apostle Parley Pratt denied this invitation had taken place, however.[39]

There are other records of Smith's teaching on interracial marriage. For example, in 1897 First Presidency member George Cannon stated in his journal that Joseph Smith had taught a later president of the church, John Taylor, that a white man married to a woman with black ancestry could not receive the priesthood and they both would be killed along with any of their children if the penalty of the law were executed.[40][41] Three years later Cannon also stated that Joseph Smith had taught John Taylor the doctrine that any male child born with any black heritage from one or more parents could not receive the priesthood as he was "tainted with Negro blood."[42]: 78  In 1908, Smith's nephew Joseph F. Smith stated that the church founder had declared that the priesthood ordination was void for Elijah Abel who only had one black great-grandparent (Abel was referred to as an octoroon man at the time for his one-eighth black heritage) from a mixed-race marriage long ago.[43] Abel's petitions for temple ordinances were also denied by the next two church presidents Brigham Young and John Taylor because of his mixed heritage.[2]: 32 

Brigham Young

Main article: Blood atonement

Smith's successor Brigham Young publicly taught on at least three occasions (1847,[44] 1852,[45] and 1865[46]) that the punishment for black-white interracial marriage was death, and that killing a black-white interracial couple and their children as part of a blood atonement would be a blessing to them.[28]: 37, 39 [47] He further stated his belief that interracial children are sterile "like a mule".[44] Young taught that the moment the church consents to white members having children with black individuals the church would go to destruction,[28]: 37 [48] and that, "Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood."[49] Young also taught that people who had children with a black person would be cursed to the priesthood.[28]: 37 

Blood atonement is the doctrine that some crimes are so heinous that the atonement of Jesus does not apply, including miscegenation. Instead, to atone for these sins, the perpetrators should be killed in a way that would allow their blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering. This doctrine was the most widespread during the Mormon Reformation. Examples of Young's teaching on this and interracial relationships include the following:

Brigham Young publicly taught several times that the punishment for black and white interracial marriages was death.
  • 1847 — Young heard of a Mormon family composed of a black man Enoch Lovejoy Lewis (son of ordained priesthood holder Kwaku Walker Lewis), a white woman Mary Matilda Webster, and their interracial child living in Massachusetts and responded that if the family wasn't living so close to non-Mormons "they would all have to be killed" since the law is that black and white seed should not be "amalgamated".[44]
  • 1852 — As territory governor, Young stated before the territory legislature that if a white man had children with a black woman, he should request to have his head chopped off. He continued saying that if someone were to kill the man, woman and any children of such a union, that it would be a blessing to them and "it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin".[50][45]
  • 1865 — In a speech in the Salt Lake Tabernacle Young repeated the teaching of death as punishment for black and white individuals producing interracial offspring, stating that this penalty would always be in place.[46][28]: 42–43  In regards to the 1865 statement, the LDS apologist organization FairMormon argues that "Brigham Young's comments were a condemnation of abuse and rape of helpless black women, and not an overtly racist statement condemning interracial marriage."[51]

Interracial marriages of William McCary

In 1847, former slave[52]: 100  and Mormon convert William McCary drew the ire of Brigham Young and others in Nauvoo for his marriage to the white Mormon Lucy Stanton, and his later alleged mixed-race polygamous sealings to other white women without authorization.[52]: 98 [53]: 227–228  McCary claimed Native American heritage in order to marry Stanton and avoid the greater stigma that the few black people in Nauvoo faced.[52]: 107–108, 113  The most common interpretation of the interracial events around McCary and his excommunication is that they contributed to or precipitated the subsequent ban of black members from temple ordinances and priesthood authority.[52]: 98, 117  McCary elicited the first recorded general authority statement connecting race and the priesthood when the apostle Parley Pratt referred to him as the "black man who has got the blood of Ham in him which linege [sic] was cursed as regards the priesthood."[53]: 228 

Lynching of Thomas Coleman

In 1866 Thomas Coleman, a black member of the LDS church, was murdered in Salt Lake City after it was discovered that he was courting a white woman. His throat was slit so deeply from ear to ear that he was nearly decapitated, and his right breast was slit open, similar to the penalties illustrated in the temple ritual and taught by Brigham Young. He was castrated and a note warning black men to stay away from white women was pinned to his chest. Historian Michael Quinn states that this murder was a fulfillment of Young's 1852 teaching that the penalty for miscegenation was decapitation.[54] FairMormon argues that Coleman's death may have been unrelated to Young's teachings or temple penalties, since Coleman was not an endowed member.[55]

Under Wilford Woodruff

In the late 1800's at least two white members were denied church ordinances after they had married a black person. In 1895 a white woman was denied a temple sealing to her white husband because she had previously married a black man, even though she had divorced him.[56]: 78–79  First Presidency member George Cannon argued that allowing her access to the temple would not be fair to her two daughters, whom she'd had with her former husband.[57]: 78 [56]: 37 [58] Another white man was denied the priesthood in 1897 because he had married a black woman, though, then senior apostle Lorenzo Snow stated that the man would be eligible if he divorced his wife and married a white woman.[56]: 79, 83  Additionally, Cannon recorded in his journal having stated in 1881 that when it came to the important question of interracial marriage, Mormons believed against "intermarriage with inferior races, particularly the negro."[59]

1900–1950 teachings

George Cannon

In 1900, George Cannon, first counselor under Lorenzo Snow, repeated Brigham Young's teachings that if a man who had the priesthood married a black woman, then according to the law of the Lord, the man and any offspring should be killed so that the seed of Cain did not receive the priesthood.[57]: 203 [56]: 78 

Under Joseph F. Smith

Some other early 20th century teachings on the subject include notes from a 1907 Deseret News book by church seventy and influential Mormon theologian B.H. Roberts. In it Roberts approvingly quoted a Southern author who stated that a social divide between white and black people should be maintained at all costs as socializing would lead to mixed-race marriages with an inferior race and no disaster would compare to this as it would doom the Caucasian race.[10]: 125 [60] Additionally, a 1913 church publication in the church's Young Woman's Journal encouraged young women to maintain white racial purity and health by avoiding "race disintegration" and "race suicide".[12]: 69 [61]

Reuben Clark

The apostle Reuben Clark spoke against mixed-race marriage several times in the 1940s, once calling it a "wicked virus."[2]: 66 

First Presidency member Reuben Clark's under George Smith told Young Women's general leaders in 1946 that, "It is sought today in certain quarters to break down all race prejudice, and at the end of the road ... is intermarriage. ...[D]o not ever let that wicked virus get into your systems that brotherhood either permits or entitles you to mix races which are inconsistent. Biologically, it is wrong; spiritually, it is wrong."[2]: 66  The quote was reprinted in the church's official Improvement Era magazine (a predecessor to the current Ensign magazine).[62] Three years later as senior vice-president of the church-owned Hotel Utah which then banned black people, Clark stated that the ban was in place to prevent interracial socializing that could hurt church leaders' efforts "to preserve the purity of the race that is entitled to hold the priesthood."[63] In response to inquiries from a Californian stake president about whether white members were required to associate with black people he also wrote that the church taught white members to avoid social interaction with black people since it could lead to mixed-race marriages and multi-ethnic children.[28]: 171 [64]

Under George Smith

In 1947 the First Presidency, sent a response letter to a member inquiring on the subject stating, "Social intercourse between the Whites and the Negroes should certainly not be encouraged because of leading to intermarriage, which the Lord has forbidden. ... [T]rying to break down social barriers between the Whites and the Blacks is [a move] that should not be encouraged because inevitably it means the mixing of the races if carried to its logical conclusion."[56]: 89 [2]: 42  Two months later in a letter to Lowry Nelson, the First Presidency stated that marriage between a black person and a white person is not sanctioned by the church and is "contrary to church doctrine".[65][66]: 54, 89 [67]

1950–1978 teachings

Under David McKay

The latter half of the 20th century saw many changes in U.S. legal, and social views of interracial marriage, and many changes in top church leaders' teachings on the topic. For instance, church apostle Mark Petersen said in a 1954 address that church doctrine barred black people and white people from marrying each other.[68] The speech was circulated among BYU religion faculty, much to the embarrassment of fellow LDS scholars, and over twenty years later Petersen denied knowing if the copies of his speech being passed around were authentic or not, apparently out of embarrassment.[28]: 68–69, 173 [69]

McConkie's popular Mormon Doctrine was in print for over 50 years and taught non-black Mormons not to marry black people.

In 1958, church apostle Bruce McConkie published "Mormon Doctrine" in which he stated that "the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry."[28]: 73  The quote remained, despite many other revisions,[28]: 73  until the church's Deseret Book ceased printing the book in 2010.[70] The apostle Delber Stapley wrote in a 1964 letter to Mitt Romney's father that black people should not be entitled to "inter-marriage privileges with the Whites."[71][72]

In 1966, a white woman who had received her endowments was banned by local leaders from going to the temple and was told her endowments were invalid because she had since married a black man. Church president McKay upheld the ban on going to the temple, but said her endowments were still valid.[3]

Spencer Kimball

Kimball gave several addresses in the 50s, 60s, and 70s discouraging interracial marriage.

Top church leader Spencer W. Kimball gave several speeches addressing the subject.[73] In a June 1958 address at Brigham Young University, he stated that "When I said you must teach your people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage ... we must discourage intermarriage ... it is not expedient."[25][73] He clarified, however, that interracial marriage was not considered a sin.[74] In a January 1959 address he taught that church leaders were unanimous in teachings that Caucasians should marry Caucasians stating that interracial marriage was selfish because the background differences could pose challenges to the marriage and children.[75] He also told BYU students in 1965 that "the brethren feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial lines in dating and marrying",[76]: 111  something he repeated to them as church president over a decade later in 1976.[77]

Teachings from 1978–present

Church publications have also contained statements discouraging interracial marriage. In the same June 1978 issue announcing that black members were now eligible for temple rites, missionary service, and priesthood ordination, the official newspaper of the LDS Church,[78] printed an article entitled "Interracial marriage discouraged".[79] The same day a church spokesman stated "interracial marriages generally have been discouraged in the past, ... that remains our position" and that "the Church does not prohibit ... interracial marriages but it does discourage them."[4]: 5 

In 2003 author Jon Krakauer stated that "official LDS policy has continued to strongly admonish white saints not to marry blacks" in his "Under the Banner of Heaven". In response the church newsroom released a statement from BYU Dean of Religious Education Robert L. Millet that "There is, in fact, no mention whatsoever in [the church] handbook concerning interracial marriages. In addition, having served as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also certify that I have never received official verbal instructions condemning marriages between black and white members."[80] Though, denying any condemnation of interracial marriage, there was no comment on whether it was still discouraged, however. The most recent statement came in 2008 when spokesperson Mark Tuttle stated that the church has no policy against interracial marriage.[81]: 200 [82]

The discouragement of marriage between those of different ethnicities by church leaders continued being taught to youth during Sunday meetings until 2013 when the use of the 1996 version of the church Sunday meeting manual for adolescent boys was discontinued.[83] The manual had used a 1976 quote from past church president Spencer Kimball that said, "We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally".[84]: 169 [85] The quote is still in use, however, in the 2003 institute Eternal Marriage Student Manual.[5] Additionally, a footnote to a 1995 conference talk by the apostle Russell Nelson notes that loving without racial discrimination is a general commandment, but not one to apply to specific marriage partner criteria since it states that being united in ethnic background increases the probability of a successful marriage.[86]

In 2013 the LDS Church published an essay entitled Race and the Priesthood on its official website. The essay disavowed teachings in the past that interracial marriage was a sin, indicating that it was influenced by the racism of the era.[8][9]

Notable LDS members in interracial marriages

See also

References

  1. ^ Packer, Boyd. "Follow the Rule". byu.edu. LDS Church. Retrieved 26 August 2017. We've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians. The counsel has been wise. ... You might even say, "I can show you local Church leaders or perhaps even general leaders who have married out of their race." I say, "Yes—exceptions." Then I would remind you of that Relief Society woman's near-scriptural statement, "We'd like to follow the rule first, and then we'll take care of the exceptions."
  2. ^ a b c d e f g Bush, Lester E. (1973). "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview" (PDF). Dialogue. 8 (1).
  3. ^ a b Anderson, Devery S. (2011). The Development of LDS Temple Worship, 1846-2000: A Documentary History. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. xlvi. ISBN 9781560852117. The next year [1966], President McKay addressed a similar issue regarding a woman who had been to the temple and subsequently married a black man. The woman was told by her local Church leader 'that no further Temple visits would be allowed her, and that[,] because of her marriage to a Negro[,] her Temple endowments are ineffective.' McKay overruled the invalidation of her endowments but did prevent her from visiting the temple again.
  4. ^ a b Bringhurst, Newell G.; Smith, Darron T., eds. (2004). Black and Mormon. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0252073568.
  5. ^ a b Eternal Marriage Student Manual. 2003. We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question
  6. ^ Bush, Lester E. Jr.; Mauss, Armand L., eds. (1984). Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-22-2. [D]enunciations of interracial marriage can be identified in discourses in virtually every decade from the Restoration to the present day. ... The Church viewed miscegenation from the unique perspective of the priesthood policy but was, of course, by no means unique in its conclusions; in fact, the leadership generally invoked 'biological and social' principles in support of their conclusions on the subject. ... Clark stated, 'Biologically, it is wrong'; Lee invoked the 'laws of heredity and the centuries of training'; and the First Presidency characterized intermarriage as 'a concept which has heretofore been most repugnant to most normal-minded people.'
  7. ^ a b c Mauss, Armand L. (2003). All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage. University of Illinois Press. ISBN 0-252-02803-1.
  8. ^ a b Peggy Fletcher Stack (December 16, 2013). "Mormon church traces black priesthood ban to Brigham Young". The Salt Lake Tribune.
  9. ^ a b "Race and the Priesthood". lds.org. LDS church. 13 December 2013. 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 unrighteous 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.
  10. ^ a b c d e f Mason, Patrick Q. "The Prohibition of Interracial Marriage in Utah,1888-1963". Utah Historical Quarterly. {{cite journal}}: Cite has empty unknown parameter: |1= (help)
  11. ^ Smith, John Henry (1882). The Latter-day Saints' Millenial Star Vol. 44. London. p. 639. Retrieved 26 August 2017. The caste population of Utah according to the last census in 1880, was as follows: "Mormons," 120,283; Gentiles, 14,156; Apostates, 6,988; Josephites, 820; Doubtful, 1,716.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  12. ^ a b Marianno, Scott D. (1 July 2015). To Belong as Citizens: Race and Marriage in Utah, 1880-1920. Logan, UT: Utah State University. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  13. ^ Iber, Jorge (2001). Hispanics in the Mormon Zion, 1912-1999 (2001 Paperback ed.). College Station, TX: Texas A&M University Press. p. 55. ISBN 1585442054. Prior to 1930 Utah's predominantly Mormon population (65 percent classified as practicing Mormons in 1930) took justifiable pride in its tradition of self-sufficiency.
  14. ^ Bulkeley, Deborah (13 April 2007). "Mixed marriages on rise". Deseret News. LDS Church. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  15. ^ Marquardt, H. Michael (1999). The Joseph Smith Revelations. Salt Lake City: Signature Books. p. 375. ISBN 1-56085-126-0. Retrieved 2 September 2017. For it is my will, that in time, ye should take unto you wives of the Lamanites and Nephites, that their posterity may become white, delightsome and Just, for even now their females are more virtuous than the gentiles.
  16. ^ a b B. Carmon Hardy. Doing the Works of Abraham: Mormon Polygamy—Its Origin, Practice, and Demise. pp. 34–37.
  17. ^ Shirley Ann Wilson Moore. Sweet Freedom's Plains: African Americans on the Overland Trails, 1841–1869.
  18. ^ Mueller, Max Perry (September 2014). Black, White, and Red: Race and the Making of the Mormon People, 1830-1880 (PDF) (PhD). Harvard University. pp. 218–219. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2018. Such unions would join together the two most favored Israelite bloodlines, the (mostly white) progeny of Ephraim and the (mostly red) sons and daughters of Manasseh. Such unions would also help civilize the Indians so that they could fulfill the Book of Mormon precedent to become 'white, delightsome, and just.' 'We will have intermarriages with [the Indians],' Brigham Young purportedly taught, so 'the curse of their color shall be removed, and they [shall be] restored to their pristine beauty.' The creation of covenants—in this case marriage covenants—between white Latter-day Saints of 'chosen seed' and the Native American descendants of the lost tribes of Israel was the fulfillment of Book of Mormon prophecy.
  19. ^ a b Mueller, Max Perry (11 September 2017). Race and the Making of the Mormon People. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 1469633752.
  20. ^ Mueller, Max Perry (September 2014). Black, White, and Red: Race and the Making of the Mormon People, 1830-1880 (PDF) (PhD). Harvard University. p. 188. Archived from the original (PDF) on 10 April 2018. As Heber C. Kimball explained it in his journal, this unprecedented union of the Lamanite Dana and Gont, 'a white woman,' was sanctioned because Dana 'was civilized and had been an Elder about four years.'
  21. ^ Winslow, Ben (22 September 2012). "Brigham Young's secret wife?". Fox 13 Salt Lake City. Tribune Broadcasting. KSTU. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  22. ^ Van Leer, Twila (12 March 1996). "Chief Praised By Indians Whites Alike". Deseret News. LDS Church. Retrieved 12 October 2017.
  23. ^ Bennion, Michael Kay (1 August 2012). "Captivity, Adoption, Marriage and Identity: Native American Children in Mormon Homes, 1847-1900". UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones: 66. Archived from the original on 12 October 2017. Retrieved 12 October 2017. {{cite journal}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  24. ^ Arrington, Leonard J.; Bitton, Davis (1 March 1992). The Mormon Experience: A History of the Latter-day Saints (2nd ed.). University of Illinois Press. p. 150. ISBN 0252062361. Relevant sections quoted at mormonmatters.org.
  25. ^ a b Kimball, Edward L. (1982). The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball. Bookcraft. p. 226. ISBN 0884944727. Cultural differences pose dangers for marriage. When I said you must teach your people to overcome their prejudices and accept the Indians, I did not mean that you would encourage intermarriage. I mean that they should be brothers, to worship together and to work together and to play together; but we must discourage intermarriage, not because it is sin. I would like to make this very emphatic. A couple has not committed sin if an Indian boy and a white girl are married, or vice versa. It isn't a transgression like the transgressions of which many are guilty. But it is not expedient. Marriage statistics and our general experience convince us that marriage is not easy.
  26. ^ Hugh W. Nibley. Nibley Commentary of the Book of Mormon Volume 1: Commentary of the Book of Mormon.
  27. ^ Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual. 2012. pp. 91–93. The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing. The dark skin was the sign of the curse. The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord.
  28. ^ a b c d e f g h i j Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7.
  29. ^ Joseph Fielding Smith. Cain, Ham, and the Priesthood.
  30. ^ Old Testament Student Manual Genesis-2 Samuel. Therefore, although Ham himself had the right to the priesthood, Canaan, his son, did not. Ham had married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain (Abraham 1:21-24), and so his sons were denied the priesthood. {{cite book}}: External link in |quote= (help)
  31. ^ Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. lds.org.
  32. ^ Old Testament Seminary Teacher Manual. 2014.
  33. ^ Old Testament: Gospel Doctrine Teacher's Manual. 2001.
  34. ^ a b Bushman, Richard Lyman (2005). Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling. New York: Alfred A. Knopf. p. 517. ISBN 1-4000-4270-4. Probably by 'confinement to their own species' he meant no intermarriage.
  35. ^ a b Smith, George (1948). History of the Church, Vol. 6. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company. p. 210. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  36. ^ Smith, George (1948). History of the Church, Vol. 5. Salt Lake City: Deseret Book Company. p. 217.
  37. ^ Smith, Joseph. "Journal, December 1842–June 1844; Book 3, 15 July 1843–29 February 1844". Joseph Smith Papers. LDS Church.
  38. ^ Johnson, Clark (1 October 1992). Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict. Provo, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc. ISBN 0884948501. We are not prepared to give up our pleasant places and goodly possessions to them [the Mormons]; or to receive into the bosom of our families as fit companions for our wives and daughters, the degraded free negroes and mulattoes, who are now invited [by the Mormons] to settle among us.
  39. ^ Johnson, Clark (1 October 1992). Mormon Redress Petitions: Documents of the 1833-1838 Missouri Conflict. Provo, Utah: Bookcraft, Inc. ISBN 0884948501. The statement concerning our invitation to them [black people] to become Mormons, and remove to this state, and settle among us, is a wicked fabrication, as no such thing was ever published in the 'Star', or any where else, by our people, nor any thing in the shadow of it; and we challenge the people of Jackson, or any other people, to produce such a publication from us. In fact, one half dozen negroes or mulattoes, never have belonged to our [Mormon] Society, in any part of the world, from its first organization to this day, 1839.
  40. ^ "The Journal of George Q. Cannon: December 1897". The Church Historian’s Press. LDS Church. Thursday, December 16, 1897 At 11 o'clock the First Presidency went to the Temple ... The question also came up whether a white man who was married to a woman having negro blood in her veins could receive the Priesthood. I explained what President Taylor had taught me when I was a boy in Nauvoo concerning this matter; he had received it from the Prophet Joseph, who said that a man bearing the Priesthood who should marry or associate with a negress, or one of that seed, if the penalty of the law were executed upon him, he and her and the offspring would be killed; that it was contrary to the law of God for men bearing the Priesthood to have association with that seed. In this case submitted to us a white man had married a woman with negro blood in her ignorantly; yet if he were to receive the Priesthood and still continue his association with his wife the offspring of the marriage might make a claim or claims that would interfere with the purposes of the Lord and His curse upon the seed of Cain.
  41. ^ Marianno, Scott D. (1 July 2015). To Belong as Citizens: Race and Marriage in Utah, 1880-1920. Logan, UT: Utah State University. pp. 57–58. Retrieved 26 August 2017. In 1897, the First Presidency considered a question related to interracial mixing involving a white husband who married someone 'either black or ... tainted with negro blood.' George Q. Cannon, in determining whether the husband should be ordained to the priesthood, reprised a statement attributed to John Taylor: 'a man who had the priesthood who would marry a woman of the accursed seed' and have the 'law of the Lord ... administered upon him ... would be killed and his offspring for ... the Lord had determined that the seed of Cain should not receive the priesthood in the flesh.' President Cannon feared that administering the priesthood to the offspring of a mixed-race marriage would hazard allowing the 'seed of the murderer [Cain] ... ahead of the seed of Abel who was murdered.' See also 'Council Minutes, 16 Dec. 1897,' in George A. Smith Family Papers, MS 36, Box 78, Fd. 7, Special Collections and Archives, University of Utah, J. Willard Marriott Library, Salt Lake City, Utah
  42. ^ Bush, Lester E. Jr.; Mauss, Armand L., eds. (1984). Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-22-2. Two Negroes were discovered who had been given the priesthood, and local leaders wanted to know what should be done. Once again George Q. Cannon spoke up: 'President Young held to the doctrine that no man tainted with negro blood was eligible to the priesthood; that President Taylor held to the same doctrine, claiming to have been taught it by the Prophet Joseph Smith.' See also 18 Aug 1900 Council minutes in the Adam S. Bennion papers, Harold B. Lee Library, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah.
  43. ^ Mueller, Max Perry (11 September 2017). Race and the Making of the Mormon People. University of North Carolina Press. p. 148. ISBN 1469633752. At the same August 1908 meeting during which the temple and priesthood ban were organized Joseph F. Smith asserted that his uncle [Joseph Smith] declared the ordination of the 'octoroon' Elijah Abel 'null and void' when he discovered that Abel was 'tainted with negro blood.'
  44. ^ a b c Turner, John G. (20 September 2012). Brigham Young: Pioneer Prophet (1st ed.). Cambridge, MA: Belknap Press. p. 222. ISBN 0674049675. Retrieved 28 August 2017. If they [the couple and child] were far away from the Gentiles [non-Mormons] they wo[ul]d all have to be killed[.] [W]hen they mingle seed it is death to all. If a black man & white woman come to you & demand baptism can you deny them? [T]he law is their seed shall not be amalg[a]mated. Mulattoes are like mules[,] they can't have the children, but if they will be Eunuchs for the Kingdom of God's Heaven's sake they may have a place in the Temple.
  45. ^ a b Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Colliers Publishing Co. p. 44. ISBN 0934964017. Were the children of God to mingle their seed with the seed of Cain [i.e. black people] it would not only bring the curse of being deprived of the power of the Priesthood upon them[selves] but they entail it upon their children after them, and they cannot get rid of it. If a man in an unguarded moment should commit such a transgression, if he would walk up and say ["]cut off my head,["] and [one then] kill[ed the] man, woman and child, it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin. Would this be to curse them? No, it would be a blessing to them—it would do them good, that they might be saved with their brethren. A many would shudder should they hear us talk about killing folk, but it is one of the greatest blessings to some to kill them, although the true principles of it are not understood.
  46. ^ a b Young, Brigham (1865). "The Persecutions of the Saints—Their Loyalty to the Constitution—The Mormon Battalion—The Laws of God Relative to the African Race" (PDF). Journal of Discourses. 10: 110. Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.
  47. ^ Schaeffer, Frank (12 January 2009). "Perspectives on Marriage: Score 1 For Gay America — 0 To The Mormons". huffingtonpost.com. Huffington Post.
  48. ^ Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Colliers Publishing Co. p. 46. ISBN 0934964017. ...suppose we ... here declare that it is right to mingle our seed with the black race of Cain, that they shall come in with us and be partakers with us of all the blessings God has given to us. On that very day and hour we should do so, the Priesthood is taken from this Church and Kingdom and God leaves us to our fate. The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain, the Church must go to destruction ....
  49. ^ Turner, John G. (18 August 2012). "Why Race Is Still a Problem for Mormons". The New York Times.
  50. ^ Collier, Fred C. (1987). The Teachings of President Brigham Young Vol. 3 1852–1854. Colliers Publishing Co. p. 49. ISBN 0934964017. if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane [i.e. black people] the only way he could get rid of it or have salvation would be to come forward & have his head cut off [and] spill his blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his [c]hildren.
  51. ^ "Mormonism and racial issues/Brigham Young/Race mixing punishable by death - FairMormon". en.fairmormon.org.
  52. ^ a b c d Pulley Hudson, Angela (July 2015). "William McCary, Lucy Stanton, and the Performance of Race at Winter Quarters and Beyond". Journal of Mormon History. 41 (3). JSTOR 10.5406/jmormhist.41.3.97.
  53. ^ a b Stevenson, Russell W. (Spring 2013). "'A Negro Preacher': The Worlds of Elijah Able" (PDF). Journal of Mormon History. 39 (2). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 May 2017. {{cite journal}}: |archive-date= / |archive-url= timestamp mismatch; 18 April 2017 suggested (help)
  54. ^ D. Michael Quinn (1997). The Mormon Hierarchy: Extensions of Power. Signature Books. p. 256.
  55. ^ "Blood Atonement". Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research.
  56. ^ a b c d e Bush, Lester E. Jr.; Mauss, Armand L., eds. (1984). Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church. Salt Lake City, Utah: Signature Books. ISBN 0-941214-22-2.
  57. ^ a b Reeve, W. Paul (2015). Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness. New York, New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-975407-6.
  58. ^ "The Journal of George Q. Cannon: August 1895". The Church Historian’s Press. LDS Church. Fear was expressed that if she were permitted to go into the Temple, her children borne to the colored man might wish to have ordinances performed for themselves, which might be difficult to refuse if their mother were permitted to officiate.
  59. ^ "The Journal of George Q. Cannon: February 1881". The Church Historian’s Press. LDS Church. 1 February 1881, Tuesday ... [J. Floyd King] asked me our belief respecting intermarriage with inferior races, particularly the negro. I told him our views, with which he was delighted. ... He predicted great things for us in the future; that we believed in procreation and in preserving the purity of the dominant or pure Aryan race. ... He had ... become disgusted with the attitude of the churches upon this important question. He said all the churches taught or consented to miscegenation, and he felt it would be the destruction of every people who practiced it ....
  60. ^ Roberts, Brigham Henry (1907). The Seventy's Course in Theology, Vol. 1. Salt Lake City: Deseret News. pp. 165–166. [T]he south is entirely right in thus keeping open at all times, at all hazards, and at all sacrifices an impassible [sic] social chasm between black and white. This she must do in behalf of her blood, her essence, of the stock of her Caucasian race ... As a race, the Southern Caucasian would be irrevocably doomed. ... No other conceivable disaster that might befall the South could, for an instant, compare with such miscegenation within her borders. ... But some may deny that the mongrelization of the Southern people would offend the race notion ... That the negro is markedly inferior to the Caucasian is proved both craniologically and by six thousand years of planet-wide experimentation; and that the commingling of inferior with superior must lower the higher is just as certain as that the half-sum of two and six is only four ....
  61. ^ Middleton, George W. (July 1913). "The Real Eugenics Problem of America". The Young Woman's Journal. 24 (7). Salt Lake City: LDS Church Deseret News: 408–410. Retrieved 26 August 2017. The patriots of a hundred years ago are being overrun by the Polish Jews, and Italians, and Irish peasants who are flocking to America in droves ... If we are but true to ourselves, we have the very factors, geographically, spiritually, and socially, that shall perpetuate our race, and lift us up as a beacon light of civilization when all other parts of our great country have gone into the folly of race disintegration and given their birthright into the hands of undesirable foreigners.
  62. ^ Clark, J. Reuben (August 1946). "Plain Talk to Girls". Improvement Era. 49 (8): 492. Retrieved 2 June 2017.
  63. ^ Quinn, D. Michael (Fall 2000). "Prelude to the National 'Defense of Marriage' Campaign: Civil Discrimination Against Feared or Despised Minorities" (PDF). Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought. 33 (3): 33.
  64. ^ Quinn, D. Michael (2002). Elder Statesman: A Biography of J. Reuben Clark. Signature Books. p. 345. ISBN 1560851554. Retrieved 9 October 2017. Since they are not entitled to the Priesthood, the Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage, and the offspring possess negro blood and is therefore subject to the inhibition set out in our Scripture.
  65. ^ "Lowry Nelson and First Presidency Letter Exchange". archiveswest.orbiscascade.org. Utah State University, Merrill-Cazier Library, Special Collections and Archives Division. 17 July 1947.
  66. ^ Lund, John Lewis (1967). The Church and the Negro. Salt Lake City, Utah: Paramount Publishers.
  67. ^ Whalen, William Joseph (1964). The Latter-Day Saints in the Modern Day World: An Account of Contemporary Mormonism. New York City: The John Day Company. p. 254. Retrieved 16 September 2017. We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency ... toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine.
  68. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. pp. 69–71. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7. I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. ... [I]t appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that, we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. ... Now what is our policy in regard to intermarriage? As to the Negro, of course, there is only one possible answer. We must not intermarry with the Negro. ... I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation? ... '[W]hat God hath separated, let not man bring together again ....'
  69. ^ Petersen, Mark E.Race Problems — As They Affect The Church, Convention of Teachers of Religion on the College Level, Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954
  70. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (21 May 2010). "Landmark 'Mormon Doctrine' goes out of print". Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 2010-05-31.
  71. ^ Graham-Russell, Janan (28 August 2016). "Choosing to Stay in the Mormon Church Despite Its Racist Legacy". The Atlantic. The Atlantic Monthly Group. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  72. ^ Montgomery, Morton (31 October 2012). "George W. Romney's Franken-Son: Mitt & His 'Noble' Lies". The Daily Kos. Kos Media. Retrieved 28 August 2017. I fully agree the Negro is entitled to considerations, also stated above, but not full social benefits nor inter-marriage privileges with the Whites, nor should the Whites be forced to accept them into restricted White areas.
  73. ^ a b "Mormons Oppose Dates, Marriage To Interracial". The Washington Post. 15 July 1978. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  74. ^ Kimball, Spencer. "Teachings Concerning Marriage and Child-Bearing" (PDF). emp.byui.edu. BYU-Idaho. Archived from the original (PDF) on 15 January 2007. Retrieved 26 August 2017. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
  75. ^ Kimball, Edward L. (1982). The Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball. Bookcraft. p. 226. ISBN 0884944727. The interrace marriage problem is not one of inferiority or superiority. ... It is a matter of backgrounds. The difficulties and hazards of marriage are greatly increased where backgrounds are different. ... When one considers marriage, it should be an unselfish thing, but there is not much selflessness when two people of different races plan marriage. They must be thinking selfishly of themselves. They certainly are not considering the problems that will beset each other and that will beset their children. ... We are unanimous, all of the Brethren, in feeling and recommending that Indians marry Indians, and Mexicans marry Mexicans; the Chinese marry Chinese and the Japanese marry Japanese; that the Caucasians marry the Caucasians, and the Arabs marry Arabs.
  76. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7.
  77. ^ Kimball, Spencer. "Marriage and Divorce". speeches.byu.edu. BYU. Retrieved 28 August 2017. We are grateful that this one survey reveals that about 90 percent of the temple marriages hold fast. Because of this, we recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally, and of somewhat the same economic and social and educational background (some of those are not an absolute necessity, but preferred), and above all, the same religious background, without question. In spite of the most favorable matings, the evil one still takes a monumental toll and is the cause for many broken homes and frustrated lives.
  78. ^ Paul T. Roberts (August 1983). "A History of the Development and Objectives of the LDS Church News Section of the Deseret News" (PDF). [Master's Thesis]. Provo, Utah: Brigham Young University, Department of Communications: 7. Retrieved October 29, 2014. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  79. ^ "Interracial Marriage Discouraged". Church News. LDS Church. Deseret News. 17 June 1978. Retrieved 27 August 2017. For a number of years, President Spencer W. Kimball has counseled young members of the Church to not cross racial lines in dating and marrying.
  80. ^ Robert L. Millet, "Church Response to Jon Krakauer's Under the Banner of Heaven", June 27, 2003.
  81. ^ Harris, Matthew L.; Bringhurst, Newell G. (2015). The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History. Chicago: University of Illinois Press. ISBN 978-0-252-08121-7.
  82. ^ Stack, Peggy Fletcher (8 June 2008). "Mormon and Black: Grappling with a racist past". The Salt Lake Tribune. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  83. ^ Park, Benjamin (18 April 2017). "Why it's time for the Mormon Church to revisit its diverse past". The Conversation. Retrieved 28 August 2017.
  84. ^ Embry, Jessie L. (1994). Black Saints in a White Church. Signature Books. ISBN 1-56085-044-2. Retrieved 26 August 2017.
  85. ^ "Lesson 31: Choosing an Eternal Companion". Aaronic Priesthood Manual 3. LDS Church. 1995. pp. 127–29.
  86. ^ Nelson, Russell. "Children of the Covenant". lds.org. LDS Church. Archived from the original on 3 May 2017. Retrieved 28 August 2017. The commandment to love our neighbors without discrimination is certain. But it must not be misunderstood. It applies generally. Selection of a marriage partner, on the other hand, involves specific and not general criteria. After all, one person can only be married to one individual.The probabilities of a successful marriage are known to be much greater if both the husband and wife are united in their religion, language, culture, and ethnic background. {{cite web}}: Unknown parameter |deadurl= ignored (|url-status= suggested) (help)
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