“Racist” Mormons

The issue of race within Mormonism, as within other religions, is historically complex, but an objective investigation provides strong evidence that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints neither condones nor deserves to be accused of racism.

The Genesis Group: http://www.ldsgenesisgroup.org

Black LDS: http://www.blacklds.org

Blacks in the Scriptures: http://blacksinthescriptures.com/

“The LDS Church and the Race Issue: A Study in Misplaced Apologetics” by Armand L. Mauss: http://www.fairlds.org/FAIR_Conferences/2003_LDS_Church_and_the_Race_Issue.html

“People of African ancestry have been members of the Church since the 1830s. Some joined the Church while slaves and then went west to Utah after they were freed. Black membership has grown significantly in recent years, though it is hard to track because Church membership records do not identify race (they never have, as I understand). Apart from the priesthood restriction, blacks have always enjoyed the blessings of the gospel and Church participation without segregation or demarcation between white and blacks. While some Protestant churches in the U.S. (and a few other parts of the world) routinely separated blacks and whites during worship services prior to the reforms of the Civil Rights Era, such segregation has never been practiced in the LDS Church.”

“Interestingly, the exclusion policy applied to ancestry, not to skin color. There were completely white-skinned Americans who had been serving in the priesthood who later found out that they were of partial African descent. These white Americans then had to step down from their priesthood offices. Likewise, natives of the Fiji Islands, who have a beautiful, deep black skin, are apparently not of African descent and were able to hold the priesthood prior to 1978. And Asians, native Americans, Indians, and many other peoples of color have always had access to the priesthood.”

Source: http://www.jefflindsay.com/LDSFAQ/FQRace.shtml#whyjoin

“In spite of its frank documentation of racist feeling, the Book of Mormon is not in itself a racist document. In fact, it advocates and even idealizes the exact opposite: rather than promoting concepts of racial inferiority, the events and teachings within it clearly suggest that people of different ethnic backgrounds and traditions can truly overcome old hatreds and misconceptions and attain peace, happiness, and unity through the gospel of Jesus Christ.”

Source: http://maxwellinstitute.byu.edu/publications/review/?vol=15&num=2&id=508

“Except for a brief lapse in early 1836, Joseph [Smith] advocated taking the gospel to “both bond and free,” ignoring race. That spring, the house rules for the Kirtland Temple, the Saints’ most sacred building, allowed for the presence of “male or female bond or free black or white.” The same policy was followed in Nauvoo, where “persons of all languages, and of every tongue, and of every color…shall with us worship the Lord of Hosts in his Holy Temple.” Nothing was done during Joseph’s lifetime to withhold priesthood from black members. Joseph knew Elijah Abel, a black man who was ordained at seventy, and is said to have entertained him. As Joseph began to take positions on national issues, he came out strongly against slavery. He favored a policy of “national Equalization,” though he retained the common prejudices against intermarriage and blending of the races. When he ran for U.S. president in 1844, he made compensated emancipation a plank in his platform. He urged the nation to “ameliorate the condition of all: black or white, bond or free; for the best of books says, ‘God hath made of one blood all nations of men, for to dwell on all the face of the earth.’”

Source: Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling by Richard Lyman Bushman, p. 289

“Faced with the prospect of the Klan becoming an actuality instead of an apparition, the Deseret News launched a devastating attack upon the secret order. That the News would lead the initial opposition to the establishment of the Klan was as predictable as it was significant. The secular oracle of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, the Deseret News, though its editorials passed on the opinions of the Mormon Church hierarchy on public affairs to the faithful; since Mormons constituted approximately 70 percent of Utahns, the position of the LDS Church officials obviously would have an important bearing on the future of the Klan in the state. Given the long-standing opposition of the Mormon Church to the Ku Klux Klan for both secular and sectarian [religious] reasons, it is not surprising that the Deseret News viewed the coming of the Klan to Utah with ‘disapprobation and contempt’.” (Blazing Crosses, p.24)

“The single greatest obstacle to the development of the Klan in the Beehive State [Utah] was the Mormon Church.” (Blazing Crosses, p.36)

Source: http://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/BMPB.html