Over the last two centuries, the relationship between blacks and Mormonism has been volatile. While at least two black men held the priesthood in the early church, from the mid-1800s to 1978, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) had a policy that prevented most black African-born men ordained to the priesthood layman of the church. Under the temple and priestly restrictions prior to 1978, most African-African blacks could not be ordained for office in the Priesthood or participated in temple ordinances other than baptisms for the dead. For a time in the 1960s and 1970s, they were not allowed to perform baptisms for the dead as well. For young men and men in the LDS church, priesthood ordinations are required to assume leadership roles, perform baptisms, bless the sacraments, and give other blessings. Since most black males can not hold the priesthood, they are excluded from holding a leadership role and performing these rituals. Temple ordinances are required for members to receive endowment and marital sealing required for exaltation, and most blacks can not enjoy this privilege during their lifetime. Church leaders teach that this restriction is commanded by God.
In 1978, the First Presidency and the Twelve, led by church president Spencer W. Kimball, stated that they had received a revelation that the time to end this restriction eventually came. After this revelation, people from all races can hold priesthood positions and receive temple ordinances.
As early as 1908, a church publication declared that blacks can not receive the priesthood because their spirits are less bold in pre-existence. Church leaders used this explanation until 1978, when Kimball openly denied it; the church leaders then called the explanation a people's trust.
Joseph Smith and Brigham Young reasoned that blacks were the result of the Cain Curse or the Curse of Ham. They use this Biblical condemnation to justify slavery. Young believes the curse makes blacks ineligible to vote, marry white people, or hold the priesthood. Successive church presidents continue to use the Biblical curse to justify excluding black men from priesthood ordination. The idea that blacks are a curse is not officially contradictory until 2013.
Young plays an important role in officially legalizing slavery in the Utah Territory, teaching that the doctrine of slavery is connected with the prohibition of the priesthood. Slavery in Utah ended in 1862 when Congress abolished it. Blacks acquired the right to vote in 1867, also through the actions of Congress. Young church leaders and others opposed racial marriage. Iran's anti-genealogical laws were repealed in 1963. There has never been a written church policy on inter-racial marriages. Church publications from 2003 still recommend that young people marry those with the same racial background. Blacks in the LDS Church experienced exclusion and discrimination even after the 1978 revelation, and still felt the effects of racist attitudes.
Prior to the civil rights movement, the LDS Church doctrine-based policy was largely unrecognized and not challenged for about a century with the First Presidency stating in 1947 that the doctrine of the LDS Church prohibiting racial and black marriage entered the temple or received the priesthood was never questioned by any of the church leaders. In the 1960s, the NAACP twice threatened to protest the LDS Church if they did not support civil rights. The first time, Hugh B. Brown made a statement in a general conference supporting civil rights; the second time, the LDS Church refused to support a law and the NAACP led an anti-discrimination march in Salt Lake City for protest. In response to the NAACP suit in 1974, the LDS Church changed their policy to allow boys to become troop leaders in the Scouting army. Apostle Ezra Taft Benson vocally opposed civil rights. In 1968 and 1969, various college athletic teams refused to play the game with Brigham Young University. In the 1970s, three members were excommunicated for criticizing the racial exclusion policy of the LDS Church. President of Kimball Church denied racism in the 1970s, and by 2017 the LDS Church denounced white racism and supremacy.
Although the LDS Church has a membership policy that is open to all races, they avoid opening missions in areas with large black populations and people discouraged with black ancestors from investigating churches. After the 1978 revelation, the LDS Church is actively prosecuting blacks, and black membership is greatly increased. Six temples are planned or built in Africa outside of South Africa. In 2008, there were about 1 million blacks around the world. Compared to other churches, the LDS Church did not develop as fast as other religions in Africa.
The priesthood of most other Mormon denominations, such as the Community of Christ, Bickertonite, and Strangite, is always open to people of all races.
Video Black people and Mormonism
Limitations of the temple and the priesthood
During the early years of the Latter-day Saint movement, at least two black men held the priesthood and became priests: Elijah Abel and Walker Lewis. After Smith's death in 1844, Brigham Young became president of the main body of the church and led the Mormon pioneers to the territory that would become the Utah Territory. Like many Americans at the time, Young, who was also a territorial governor, promoted a discriminatory view of blacks. On January 16, 1852, Young made a statement to the Utah State Legislature, stating that "everyone who has a drop of [Clay] seed... in himself [can not] hold the priesthood." As noted in the Journal of Discourses, Young teaches that the blacks' position as "servant" is the law under heaven and not the place of the church to change God's law.
Under the racial restrictions that lasted from the Brigham Young presidency until 1978, people with black African ancestors could not receive the priesthood of the church or any temple ordinances including endowment and eternal marriage or participate in any proxy ordinance for the dead. An important exception to this temple prohibition is that (except for a complete temple ban period from the mid-1960s to early 70s under McKay) blacks have been allowed to recommend limited use to act as representatives in baptisms for the dead. The limitation of the priesthood is very restrictive, since the LDS Church has a layman's priesthood and most of the men over the age of 12 have received the priesthood. Priesthood holders lead in church associations, make healing blessings, and manage church affairs. Excluding the blacks from the priesthood means that men can not hold significant church leadership roles or participate in many important events such as baptism, blessing the sick, or giving a baby a blessing. Between 1844 and 1977, most blacks were not allowed to participate in the ordinances performed at LDS Church temples, such as endowment rites, celestial weddings, and family sealing. These ordinances are considered essential to enter the highest degree of heaven, so this means that they can not enjoy the full privilege enjoyed by other Latter-day Saints during the restrictions.
For Latter-day Saints, celestial marriage is not necessary to enter the celestial kingdom, but it is necessary to obtain the fullness of glory or exaltation in the celestial kingdom. The righteous who do not have a celestial marriage will continue to live eternally with God, but they will be "designated angels in heaven, whose angels are servants." Since blacks were prohibited from entering a celestial marriage before 1978, some interpret this to mean that they would be treated as unmarried white people, limited only to live in the presence of God as servant serving. Mark E. Petersen and Apostle George F. Richards teach that blacks can not attain exaltation because of their priesthood and temple boundaries. Some leaders, including Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff, George Albert Smith, David O. McKay, Joseph Fielding Smith, and Harold B. Lee teach that blacks will eventually be able to receive the fullness of glory in the celestial kingdom. In 1973, church spokesman Wendell Ashton stated that the Mormon prophets had declared that the time would come when the Mormon blacks could receive the priesthood.
In the LDS Church, a patriarch gives a patriarchal blessing to members to help them know their strengths and weaknesses and what is expected in their future lives. The blessings also tell the tribe members where the Israelites came from. Members who are not literally descended from the tribes adopted into the tribe, usually Ephraim. In the early nineteenth and twentieth centuries, members were more likely to believe that they were actually descended from a particular tribe. The LDS Church keeps a copy of all patriarchal blessings. In the blessing of the 1871 ancestor of Elijah Abel, no lineage was revealed, and he was promised that in the Hereafter he would be equal to his fellow members, and "his soul became white in eternity". Thanks to Jane Manning James in 1844 giving Ham's lineage. Later, it became the church's policy to declare no lineage for blacks. In 1934, Patriarch Chairman James H. Wallis declared that blacks can not receive the patriarchal blessings for the banning of the priesthood, but that they can receive blessings without pedigree. In Brazil, it is interpreted that if a patriarch pronounces a lineage, his members are not Cain's descendants and therefore qualify to be priests, despite physical evidence or genealogy of African descent. The actual patriarch does not fully comply with Wallis' claims. In 1961, the Office of Church Historians reported that other lineages had been given, including Cain. In 1971, the Chief Patriarch declared that non-Israeli tribes should not be given as a lineage in patriarchal blessings. In a 1980 lecture to students at Brigham Young University, James E. Faust tried to convince the listeners that if they did not declare a genealogy in their patriarchal blessing, that the Holy Spirit would "purify the old blood, and make it truly the offspring of Abraham. "After the 1978 revelation, patriarchs sometimes proclaim the lineage in patriarchal blessings for black members, but sometimes they do not declare a lineage. Some blacks have requested and received new patriarchal blessings including lineage.
On June 8, 1978, the First Presidency of the LDS Church released an official statement that would allow "all worthy members of the church [to be] ordained to the priesthood regardless of race or color." According to reports of some who were present, while praying in the Salt Lake Temple, the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles received revelations relating to the lifting of the prohibition of the priesthood. The Apostle McConkie writes that all who attend "receive the same message" and then can understand "the will of God." There are many factors leading to the publication of this declaration: the problems of the NAACP due to priesthood inequality, the announcement of the first LDS temple in Brazil, and other pressures from church members and leaders. After the publication of Lester Bush's seminal article on Dialogue, "The Negro Doctrine of Mormonism: A Historical Review", BYU vice president Robert K. Thomas worries that the church will lose its tax-exempt status. The article describes the practice of racial discrimination of the church in detail. The article inspires an internal discussion among church leaders, undermining the idea that a priestly ban is doctrinal.
The direct command of God
Church leaders have taught for decades that priestly ordination and temple ordinance prohibitions are mandated by God. Brigham Young taught that it is "the true eternal principle that God has ordained." In 1949, the First Presidency under George Smith officially declared that "such remains always stand" and "not a matter of policy declaration but a direct command of God". The second Presidency Statement (this time under McKay) in 1969 reiterated that "it seems that the discrimination by the Church against the Negro is not something of a human origin but of a return to the beginning with God." As head of the church, Kimball also stressed in a 1973 press conference that the ban was "not my policy or Church policy, it is God's policy that has established it."
Protection from Hell
BYU, professor of Religious Studies, Randy Bott said that God denied the priesthood to the blacks to protect them from the children of hell, because one of the few abusable sins is abusing the priestly exercise. Bott compares the prohibition of the priesthood to parents who deny the children the keys to the family car, stating: "You can not fall from the top of the ladder, because you are not at the top of the ladder, so in reality the blacks who have no priesthood are the greatest blessing God can give them. "
Maps Black people and Mormonism
The doctrine of blacks
The doctrine of blacks and pre-existence
One justification that the LDS Church used for discriminatory policy is that the individual black pre-existence spirit is not as noble as the white pre-existence spirit. Brigham Young rejected the idea that Africans were cursed because they were less brave in premortal life, but Orson Pratt supported him. Formally, this justification emerged as early as 1908 in the article of the Liahona magazine. Joseph Fielding Smith supports this idea in 1931 on the Path to Perfection, which states that the limitation of the priesthood against black is "punishment" for action in pre-existence. In a letter in 1947, the First Presidency wrote in a letter to Lowry Nelson that blacks were not entitled to the full blessings of the gospel, and referred to "revelation [...] in pre-existence" as justification. In 1952 Lowry published a critique of racist policy in an article in The Nation. Lowry believes this is the first time that folk doctrine that blacks are less true in pre-existence is published to a non-Mormon world.
The LDS Church also uses this explanation in their 1949 statement which explicitly forbids blacks holding the priesthood. An address by Mark E. Peterson was widely circulated by BYU religious scholars in the 1950s and 60s and used the "lack of courage in pre-existence" explanation to justify segregation, views that Lowell Bennion and Kendall White, among other members , very criticized. The Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith also taught that blacks are less faithful in pre-existence. A 1959 report by the US Commission found that the Mormon church in Utah generally taught that non-white people had lower performance in pre-earth life.
After the prohibition of the priesthood ended in 1978, church leaders denied the idea that blacks were less brave in pre-existence. In a 1978 interview with Spencer W. Kimball's Time Magazine, Spencer W. Kimball stated that the LDS Church no longer holds to the theory that Africans are less brave in pre-earth life. In a 2006 interview for the PBS documentary The Mormons , Jeffrey R. Holland stated that an inaccurate racial "folklore" was created to justify the prohibition of the priesthood, and that the reasons for the previous ban were unknown. The LDS Church explicitly denounces any justification for priestly restrictions based on views of events in pre-mortal life in the essay â € Å"Ras and Imamatâ € published on their website in 2013.
Cain and Ham Curse
According to the Bible, after Cain killed Abel, God cursed him and signaled him, even though the Bible does not reveal the nature of the sign. The Pearl of Great Price, another book of Mormon scriptures, describes the descendants of Cain as dark-skinned. In another biblical account, Ham finds his father Noah drunk and naked in his tent. Because of this, Noah condemned Ham's son Kanaan into "servant servant". Although the scriptures do not mention the color of Ham's skin, the general Judeo-Christian interpretation of these verses, which precedes Mormonism, links the curse with the blacks and uses it to justify slavery.
Both Joseph Smith and Brigham Young refer to the curse as justification for slavery. In addition, Brigham Young used the curse to ban blacks from the priesthood, forbade interracial marriages, and opposed blacks. He declared that the curse would one day be lifted and that blacks would be able to receive the priesthood after death.
Young once taught that black demon, and his successor as church president, John Taylor, taught on many occasions that the reason that blacks (those with Kain's curse) were allowed to survive the flood so that demons could be properly represented on earth through the sons of Ham and his wife Egyptus. The next president, Wilford Woodruff also asserted that millions of people have black marks of Cain that draw parallels with a "reddish curse" of modern American natives.
In an article 1908 Liahona for missionaries, an anonymous but church-approved writer reviewed the scriptures about the darkness in the Pearl of Great Price . The author postulates that Ham is married to Cain's descendants. Therefore Canaan received two curses, one from Noah, and one from Cain's descendants. The article states that Canaan is the "single ancestor of the Negro race" and explicitly links his curse to "servant" for the denial of the black priesthood. In support of this idea, the article also discusses how Pharaoh, the Canaanite descendant according to the LDS scriptures, can not have the priesthood, for Noah "cursed him for being related to the Priesthood".
In 1931, Joseph Fielding Smith wrote on the same topic in the Path to Perfection: The Short Discourse on the Gospel Theme, resulting in controversy within and without Mormonism. For evidence that modern blacks descended from Cain, Smith wrote that "it is generally believed that" Cain's Curse continues through his offspring and through Ham's wife. Smith states that "some brothers associated with Joseph Smith have declared that he taught this doctrine." In 1978, when the church ended the priestly ban, Bruce R. McConkie taught that the ancient curse of Cain and Ham was no longer valid.
The general authority in the LDS church supports Smith's explanation until 2013, when an online essay published by the LDS Church "denies" the idea that blacks are a sign of condemnation. The Old Testament student manual, published by the Church and is the current manual used to teach the Old Testament at LDS Institutes, teaches that Canaan can not hold the priesthood because of its race.
The ancient Canaanites
According to the Precious Pearls, the Canaanites were a group of people who lived during the time of Enoch, before the Canaanites were mentioned in the Bible. Enoch prophesied that the Canaanites would fight against the people of Shum, and that God would curse their land with heat, and that darkness would befall them. When Enoch called the people to repentance, he taught everyone except the Canaanites. Later, The Book of Abraham identifies Pharaoh as a Canaanite. There is no explicit relationship from the ancient Canaanites to the descendants of Cain, the Canaanites are from the son of Ham Canaan or the modern blacks. However, the Pearl of Great Price identifies the offspring of Cain and the Canaanites as black and cursed, and they are often used interchangeably. Bruce R. McConkie justified the limitation of teaching blacks because Enoch did not teach the Canaanites.
The right blacks will turn white
In the Book of Mormon, Jacob's prophet, referring to the dark-skinned Laman, tells a group of light-skinned Nephi people that "unless you will repent of your sins that their skin will be whiter than yours." (Jacob 3: 8) Later, after several Lamanites were converted, the Book of Mormon declared â € Å"their skin to be as white as the Nephitesâ € (3 Nephi 2:15). While the Book of Mormon deals only with the Lamanites, the early church leaders believed that this was true for all races, and that everyone in the celestial kingdom would have white skin. They often equate white with truth. A 1959 report by the US Commission on Civil Rights found that most Utah Mormons believe "with godly living, dark-skinned race can again be 'white and pleasant'."
Some black Mormons were told they would be white. Hyrum Smith told Jane Manning James that God could give him a new line, and in his partrial blessing promised that he would be "white and fun". In 1808, Elijah Abel was promised that "your soul shall be white in eternity". Darius Gray, a prominent black Mormon, was told that the color of his skin would become brighter. In 1978, the apostle LeGrand Richards explained that the dark skin curse for evil and white promise through truth only applies to Indians, and not to blacks.
In recent years, church leaders have taught that darkness in Mormon theology is a symbol of disobedience to God and is not always the color of the skin.
Civil rights
The early Mormon converts came from the north and opposed slavery. This led to a dispute in the Missouri slave state, and the church began to teach the doctrine of pro-slavery and abstain from abolitionism. During this time, several slave owners joined the church, and took their slaves with them when they moved to Nauvoo. As mayor of Nauvoo, Joseph Smith forbade blacks holding offices, joining the Nauvoo Legion, choosing or marrying white people. Also during this time, Joseph Smith began his presidential campaign on a platform for the government to buy slaves into freedom for several years. He was killed in his presidential campaign.
Some slave owners took their slaves with them to Utah, though some slaves escaped. The Church issued a statement of neutrality against slavery, declaring that it was between slave owners and God. A few years later, Brigham Young began to teach that slavery was predestined to God and that equality efforts had been misled. Under his direction, Utah passed legislation in favor of slavery and made it illegal for blacks to vote, hold public office, join the Nauvoo legion, or marry white people. The position of the church is criticized by abolitionists and republican parties. The US government freed slaves and abolished laws that forbade blacks to vote.
After the Civil War, civil rights issues were largely unknown until the civil rights movement. In 1954, the apostle Mark E. Petersen gave a speech at the BYU against intermarriage marriage and supported segregation, sparking criticism. The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) criticized the church's position on civil rights, led an anti-discrimination march and filed a lawsuit against church practice that did not allow black children to become army leaders. Some athletes started protesting against BYU due to civil rights issues. In response, the Church issued a statement supporting civil rights and changing its policy on the Boy Scouts. Apostle Ezra Taft Benson began to criticize the civil rights movement and challenge police allegations of police brutality. After the reversal of the priesthood ban in 1978, the church remained silent on civil rights issues.
Slavery
The first known slaves who entered Utah Province came to the west with the Mississippi congregation. In 1850, 100 blacks had arrived, the majority of whom were slaves. After the pioneers arrived in Utah, they continued to buy and sell slaves as property. Many of the leading church members are slave owners, including William H. Hooper, Abraham O. Smoot, and Charles C. Rich. Church members will use their slaves as tithes, either lending their slaves to work for the church and giving their slaves to the church. Although initially opposed to it, in the early 1850s Brigham Young was a "strong believer of slavery." Brigham Young and Heber C. Kimball used the forced labor that had been donated as tithing and then given his freedom. The Church opposes slaves who want to escape from their master.
Statement from church leader
The period from 1830 to 1844 is crucial in shaping Mormon beliefs and customs in terms of race. Joseph Smith supported and opposed slavery at various points in his life. In 1835, he wrote an official statement against the baptism of slaves against the will of their master. In the statement, he also wrote that it is not right to make slaves "dissatisfied with their situation." The statement becomes part of the Doctrine and Covenants.
Smith wrote an essay in 1836, published in a very anti-abolitionist Latter-day Saint and Supporter . In his essay, he gave five reasons to oppose the abolition of slavery:
- He is afraid of race and race war, which states that abolitionism "is calculated for... set loose, in the world of a community of people who may peradventure, invade our country and violate the most sacred principles of human society , purity and virtue. "
- He believes that any crime inherent in slavery is well known and recognized by "pious people" from Southern slave countries - but they do not object to it.
- He "does not believe that the North people have more right to say that the South will not hold slaves, than the South should say North Korea will."
- He believes that abolitionism is contrary to "Jehovah's decision" in which the Old Testament, in its understanding, decides that blacks are cursed and destined to become slaves.
- He places great importance on biblical precedents for slavery, for example in Abraham, Leviticus, Ephesus, and Timothy; and he quotes Paul in the New Testament: "Servants obey those who are your masters according to the flesh, with fear and trembling, of your heart."
Smith may want to keep Mormons from abolitionists, as many Mormons live in Missouri, a pro-slavery state. After Mormons were forced out of Missouri, they lived in Illinois, a free country. Smith's position on slavery changed, and he vocally opposed slavery from 1842 until his death.
Because of the slave owners who moved to church in Missouri, there was much confusion about the church's position of slavery. This same feeling emerged during the migration to Utah. In 1851, the apostle Orson Hyde declared that there was no law in Utah that prohibited or allowed slavery, and that decisions on the topic remained between slaves and their masters. He also clarified that the individual choices in this regard do not reflect the reflection of the church as a whole or its doctrine. Brigham Young taught that slavery is a "divine institution, and will not be abolished until the curse uttered to Ham has been removed from his descendants."
In Utah Region
After the 1850 Compromise enabled California to enter the Union as an independent state while allowing Utah and New Mexico areas of choice to decide problems with people's sovereignty, the Utah State Legislature took the issue of legalizing slavery. At that time, Brigham Young was the governor, and the Utah State Legislature was dominated by church leaders. In 1852, Brigham Young spoke before a legislative session on slavery. He made this issue religious by stating that if church members believe in the Bible and the priesthood then they must also believe in slavery. After the speech, the Utah Legislature passed the Act in Relation to the Office, which officially approved slavery in the Utah Territory. The law of slavery in Utah establishes that slaves will be freed if their employers have sexual relations with them; trying to take them out of the territory without their will; or forget to feed, dress, or give them protection. In addition, the law stipulates that slaves must accept school.
Utah was the only western state or territory to have slaves in 1850, but slavery never mattered economically in Utah, and there were fewer than 100 slaves in the area. In 1860, the census showed that 29 of the 59 blacks in the Utah Territory were slaves. When the American Civil War broke out in 1861, Utah sided with the Union, and slavery ended in 1862 when the United States Congress abolished slavery in the Utah Territories.
In San Bernardino
In 1851, a company of 437 Mormons under the direction of Elder Amasa M. Lyman and Charles C. Kaya of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles settled in what is now San Bernardino. This first company brought 26 slaves, and more slaves were brought in as San Bernardino continued to grow. Since California is a free country, slaves should be released when they enter. However, slavery is openly tolerated in San Bernardino. Many want to be free, but still under the control of their master and do not know about their laws and rights. Judge Benjamin Hayes freed 14 slaves who belonged to Robert Smith. Other slaves are freed by their master.
Black select right
Like elsewhere in Illinois, only free white men can vote in Nauvoo.
When the Utah region was created, the right to vote was only granted to free white men. At that time, only a few countries allowed blacks to vote. Brigham Young explains that this is related to the prohibition of the priesthood. He argues that blacks' right will help make blacks the same as whites, which will result in a curse. On January 10, 1867, Congress passed the Territorial Rights Act, which prohibited the refusal of suffrage based on race or previous conditions of slavery, which overturned the Utah ban on black privileges.
Civil rights movement
Prior to the civil rights movement, the LDS Church-based doctrine policy was largely unrecognized and not opposed for about a century with the First Presidency stating in 1947 that Church doctrines banning racial and black marriages entering the temple or receiving the priesthood do not was once questioned by one of the leaders of the Church. In 1958, the apostle Joseph Fielding Smith published the Answers to the Gospel Question, stating that blacks must "receive all the rights and privileges [...] as stated in the Declaration of Independence." He went on to say that blacks should not be banned from any kind of work or education, and should be free "to make their lives as happy as possible without the intervention of whites, unions, or from other sources."
In 1959, the Utah State Advisory Committee to the US Commission on Civil Rights stated that: "Negroes are the most widespread minority of injustices in Utah.to the extent to which the persecution is almost impossible to ensure", explains that "Mormon Interpretation links birth with any race other than the white race as a result of inferior performance in pre-earth life and teaches that with godly lives, dark-skinned race can again be 'white and pleasant'.
NAACP engagement
In the 1960s, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) sought to convince LDS Church leaders to support civil rights law and to reverse its practices in relation to African priestly formation and temple attendance during the era Civil Rights. In early 1963, the NAACP leadership sought to organize meetings with church leaders, but was rejected in their efforts. Later that year, Utah University professor Sterling McMurrin arranged a meeting between the NAACP and the church leaders. N. Eldon Tanner and Hugh B. Brown, two advisers to David O. McKay in the First Presidency, met with the head of NAACP Utah. The NAACP threatened to protest at the October 1963 General Conference if the LDS church did not make statements on civil rights. Brown promised that a statement would be made. Sterling McMurrin wrote the statement, which McKay approved. McKay does not want their statements to be "official statements of the First Presidency," perhaps because some apostles are opposed to civil rights. During the ensuing General Conference Brown reads statements to support civil rights law before beginning his talk, in a way that makes the statement appear official. The NAACP did not protest the conference.
In 1965, church leaders met with the NAACP, and agreed to publish an editorial in the church of Deseret News, which would support the pending civil rights law in the Utah legislature. The Church failed to follow up on commitments, and Tanner explained, "We've decided to keep quiet". In March 1965, the NAACP led an anti-discrimination march in Salt Lake City, protesting against church policy. In response, McKay agreed to let Deseret News reprint the civil rights statement from 1963 as an "official" statement. In 1966, the NAACP issued a statement criticizing the church, saying the church "[has] maintained a rigid and sustained segregation stand" and that the church has made "no attempt to combat widespread discrimination in education, in housing, in employment. and other areas of life. "
Since the beginning of the 20th century, every ward of the LDS Church in the United States has organized its own Scout troops. Some Church-sponsored LDS troops allow young blacks to join, but a church policy requires troop leaders to become deacons quorum presidents, who have the result of excluding black children from that role. The NAACP filed a federal suit in 1974 against this practice, and soon afterwards the LDS Church overturned its policy.
Benson against civil rights movement
After Hugh B. Brown's statement to support civil rights in 1963, Ezra Taft Benson began to tell others in his speech that the civil rights movement was a Communist plot. Ralph R. Harding, a congressman from Idaho, criticized Benson's extreme views. Soon after, the first president appointed Benson to oversee the mission of the European countries. Joseph Fielding Smith personally stated that he hoped the appointment would help to suppress Benson's extreme political views. Benson returned in 1965 and did not change his political views. He gave an inflamed speech at the General Conference, part of which was removed when the lecture appeared in the official publication of the church.
In October 1967, General Conference Apostle Ezra Benson stated that the civil rights movement was a Communist revolutionary tool, and that it was led by most white male Communists who wanted to "destroy America by shedding the blood of negroes." He also stated that accusing law enforcement "police brutality" against blacks should be recognized as an attempt to discredit and prevent law enforcement. His talks were re-issued next year by the Church Deseret Book as a pamphlet entitled "Civil Rights: Communist Deception Tool".
Sport protests
African-American athletes protested against LDS Church policy by boycotting several sporting events with Brigham Young University. In 1968, after the assassination of Martin Luther King, black members of the UTEP track team approached their coach and expressed their desire not to compete against BYU in an upcoming meeting. When coaches ignore athletes' complaints, athletes boycott the gathering. Also in 1968, the basketball team and the San Jose State football team refused to play against Brigham Young. In 1969, 14 members of the Wyoming University soccer team were expelled from the team for planning to protest the discriminatory treatment they had received in previous matches with Brigham Young. In a 1968 match against the University of Wyoming, BYU football players refused a post-match customs handshake after a defeat and headed straight for the dressing room. They turned on the sprinklers, absorbing footballers of the University of Wyoming. In addition, "caricature caries and blacks" awaited them in the visitors' locker room, and a local newspaper reported "BYU cleared the crime field." In November 1969, Stanford University President Kenneth Pitzer suspended an athletic relationship with BYU. Athletes protest Mormon's racial policies at Arizona State University, San Jose State University, New Mexico University, and others.
Segregation
During the first century of its existence, the church did not encourage social interaction with blacks and encouraged segregation. Joseph Smith supports segregation, stating, "I will limit them [blacks] by strict laws for their own species". Until 1963, many church leaders favored racial segregation. David O. McKay, J. Reuben Clark, Henry D. Moyle, Ezra Taft Benson, Joseph Fielding Smith, Harold B. Lee, and Mark E. Peterson led segregation supporters.
In 1947, the First Presidency, under the direction of church president George Albert Smith, sent a response letter to a member about social interactions with blacks stating, "The social relationship between whites and Negroes is definitely not recommended" To respond to questions from the stake president of California about whether white members were asked to associate with blacks written by Apostle Clark in September 1949 that the church teaches white members to avoid social interaction with blacks.
For years, different black families were told by church leaders not to attend churches or to choose not to attend church after white members complained. The church began to consider separate congregations, and sent missionaries to the southern United States to build separate congregations.
In 1947, the mission president, Rulon Howells, decided to separate the branch in Piracicaba, Brazil, with white members meeting in a chapel and black members meeting at a member's home. When the blacks refused, on the grounds that integration would help everyone, Howells decided to remove the missionaries from the blacks and stop visiting them. The First Presidency under Heber J. Grant sent a letter to Stake President Ezra Benson in Washington DC who advised that if two Mormon black women were "secretly approached" they should be happy to sit in the back or sides so as not to anger white women who complain about sitting near them in the aid community. At least one black family was barred from attending church after white members complained about their presence. In 1956, Mark E. Petersen suggested that a separate chapel should be made for the places where a number of black families joined.
The Church also advocates segregation laws and imposes segregation in its facilities. Hotel Utah, a church-run hotel, bans black guests, even when other hotels make exceptions for black celebrities. Blacks are banned from appearing in the Salt Lake Tabernacle, and Deseret News does not allow blacks to appear in photographs with white people. Church leaders urged white members to join civilian groups and open the LDS chapel "for meetings to prevent the Negroes from becoming neighbors", even after the Supreme Court's 1948 ruling against racial agreements in housing. They advise members to buy a house so black people will not move to the next LZZ chapel. In the 1950s, the San Francisco Mission Office took legal action to prevent black families from moving into the church. A black man living in Salt Lake City, Daily Oliver, described how, as a boy in the 1910s, he was expelled from the youth scout troops of LDS because they did not want blacks in their building. In 1954, Apostle Mark Petersen taught that segregation was inspired by God, arguing that "what God has separated, let man not reunite". He uses the example of the Lamanites and the Nephites, the curse of Cain, Jacob and Esau, and the Israelites and Canaanites as biblical precedents for separation.
Church leaders oppose desegregation in schools, especially in BYU. After Dr. Robinson wrote an editorial in Deseret News, President McKay removing parts that showed support for desegregation at school, explaining that it is unfair to force a white boy to learn with a black child. Apostle J. Rueben Clark instructed the president of the Public Relief Society to make the National Women's Council support the records that support the school's desegregation. Harold B Lee protested to an African student who was given a scholarship, believing it was dangerous to integrate blacks on the BYU campus.
Church leaders advocate the separation of blood, who fear that giving white blood to blacks may disqualify them from the priesthood. In 1943, the LDS Hospital opened a blood bank that kept separate blood stocks for whites and blacks. It is the blood bank in the second largest hospital. After the expiration of the 1978 ban on the priesthood, the Consolidated Blood Service agreed to provide hospitals with connections to the LDS Church, including LDS Hospital, Children's and Primary Cotton Hospital in Salt Lake City, McKay-Dee Hospital in Ogden, and Hospitals Valley of Utah in Provo. Separate racial blood stocks reportedly ended in the 1970s, though worried white patients receiving blood from black donors were assured that this would not happen even after 1978.
Interracial marriage and interracial sexual relations
The church's stance against racial marriages has been held consistently for more than a century while attitudes toward blacks and priesthood, slavery, or equal rights see considerable change. Almost every decade began with the formation of churches until the 70s saw some denunciation of miscegenation. The views of Church leaders stem from the priesthood policies and "rigid" biological and social principles.
The early church leaders
One of the first anti-word feelings touched upon by church leaders, took place on February 6, 1835. A church's assistant president, WW Phelps, wrote a letter theorizing that Ham's wife was a descendant of Cain and that Ham himself was cursed for "marrying a black wife ". Joseph Smith wrote that he felt that blacks should be "restricted by strict laws for their own species," which some say directly against Smith's advocacy for all other civil rights. In Nauvoo, it was illegal for blacks to marry white, and Joseph Smith fined two black men for violating the prohibition of interbreeding between blacks and whites.
In 1852, the Utah legislature passed an Act in Relation to the Department that brought the punishment to white people who had sexual relations with blacks. A day after that passed, Brigham Young church chairman explained that if someone mixes their seed with Cain's seed, that both they and their children will have the Cain Curse. He then prophesied that if the Church approves a mixed marriage with blacks, that the Church will go to destruction and the priesthood will be taken. Cloth seed is commonly referred to as dark skin of African descent. In 1863 during a sermon criticizing the federal government, Young said that the penalty for racial reproduction between blacks and whites was death.
20th century
In 1946, J. Reuben Clark called racial marriage the "evil virus" in a speech in the magazine's Improvement of the Church's Official Era (the predecessor of the New Era at the moment). The following year, Church members Virgil H. Sponberg asked whether church members should be asked to interact with blacks. The First Presidency under George Albert Smith sent a reply on May 5 stating that social interaction with blacks should not be encouraged as it would lead to interracial marriages. Two months later in a letter of July 17, 1947 to Lowry Nelson, the First Presidency stated that the marriage between blacks and whites was not approved by the church and "contrary to the doctrine of the church". Two years later in response to a question from the California regional president about whether white members were required to associate with blacks, Apostle Clark wrote that the church does not encourage social interaction with blacks because it can lead to marriage with them and the racial children. The Church Apostle Mark E. Petersen said in a 1954 speech that he wanted to maintain the purity of the white race and that the Blacks wanted to be white through mixed marriages. The speech was circulated among BYU religious teachers, many of whom embarrassed fellow LZA academics. Petersen later denied giving the address. In 1958, the apostle of Bruce McConkie published the "Mormon Doctrine" in which he declared that "all nigger races have been cursed with blacks, marks of Cain, so that they can be identified as separate castes, those with whom the other offspring of Adam should not marry -members. "The quote remains, despite many other revisions, until Deseret Book of the church stopped printing the book in 2010.
Anti-genealogical laws in Utah were repealed in 1963 by the Utah state legislature. In 1967, the Supreme Court ruling on the case of Loving v. Virginia stipulates that the prohibition of racial prostitution in the United States is unconstitutional. The LDS Church official, the Church News , printed an article entitled "Intermarriage is not recommended". This article was printed on June 17, 1978, in the same edition announcing a reversal of policies for blacks and priesthood.
In a 1965 speech to BYU students, the apostle Spencer W. Kimball told BYU students about interracial marriages: "Now, male members feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial boundaries in dating and getting married. punishment We have had some good young people who have crossed the line We hope they will be very happy, but the experience of the brothers for a hundred years has proved to us that marriage is very difficult in any circumstance and the difficulty increases in intermarriage. "A church instruction guide for boys 12-13, published in 1995, includes a 1976 quote from Spencer W. Kimball recommending the practice of marrying others against racial, economic, social, educational, and a similar religion. In 2003, the church published the Eternal Marriage Student Manual, which uses the same quote.
There is no written church policy on racial marriage, which has been permitted since before Revelation 1978 on the Priesthood. In 1978, church spokesman Don LeFevre said, "So there is no ban on intermarriage marriage If a black couple contemplating marriage is worth going to the Temple, no one will stop him... if he is ready to go to the Temple, go with the blessings of the church. "
21st century
Speaking on behalf of the church, Robert Millet wrote in 2003: "[T] he Church Handbook on Directive... is a guide for all Church leaders about doctrine and practice.Actually, nothing mentioned in this handbook on racial marriage In addition, after serving as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also state that I have never received official oral instruction condemning marriage between black and white. "
Racial attitudes
Between the 19th and mid-20th centuries, some Mormons held a racist view, and the exclusion of the priesthood was not the only discrimination perpetrated against blacks. With Joseph Smith as mayor of Nauvoo, blacks are prohibited from holding offices or joining the Nauvoo Legion. Brigham Young taught that equality efforts have been misled, claiming that those who strive for equality among blacks seek to increase it "in equality with those whose Lord Nature and Nature have indicated to be their master, their superiors", but instead they must " observe the law of natural affection for our kind. "
The 1959 report by the US Commission found that blacks experienced the most widespread gap in Utah, and Mormon's teachings about blacks were used to explain the racist teachings of blacks. During the 1960s and 1970s, Mormons in the western United States came close to the average in the United States in racial attitudes. In 1966, Armand Mauss surveyed Mormon about racial attitudes and discriminatory practices. He found that "Mormons are somewhat 'moderate' denominations (such as Presbyterian, Congregational, Episcopal), rather than 'fundamentalist' or sect." Negative racial attitudes in Mormonism vary inversely with education, employment, the size of community of origin, and youth, reflecting national trends. Mormon Urban with a more orthodox view of Mormonism tends to be more tolerant. American racial attitudes cause difficulties as the church attempts to apply the one-drop rule to another area. For example, many members in Brazil do not understand the racial classification in America and how it is applied to the prohibition of the priesthood, causing a rift between missionaries and members.
Anti-black jokes generally circulated among Mormons before the 1978 revelation. In the early 1970s, apostle Spencer W. Kimball began preaching against racism. In 1972, he said: "Intolerance by church members is disgraceful, a special problem exists in relation to blacks because they may not now receive the priesthood.Some members of the Church will justify their non-Christian discrimination against blacks because the rule is concerned with priesthood, but while this restriction has been imposed by God, it is not for us to increase the burden on the shoulders of our black brethren Those who have received Christ in faith through authoritative baptism are the heirs of the royal heaven together with people of all races etc. And those who remain faithful to the end can hope that God can finally give them all the blessings they get through their righteousness.These things are in the hands of God.This is for us to extend our love for all. " In a study covering 1972-1996, church members in the United States have been shown to have lower levels of approval of segregation than others from the United States, as well as a faster decline in separation consent over the period covered, both with statistical significance.
Today, the church is actively opposed to racism among its membership. It currently works to reach out to blacks, and has several black wards in the United States. It teaches that all are invited to come to Christ and speak against those who harbor feelings of pain against other races. In 2006, church president Gordon B. Hinckley told the General Conference of the church that those who use racial insults can not be called disciples of Christ.
In the July 1992 issue of the New Era, the church published MormonAd promoting racial equality in the church. The photograph contains several youths from various ethical backgrounds with the words "Family Photos" in large prints. Underneath the picture are the words "God creates race - but not racism, we are all children of the same Father, violence and hatred have no place in His family." (See Acts 10:34.) "
In August 2017, the LDS church released a statement about the unite the Right rally in Charlottesville, Virginia condemning racism in general through the Department of Public Relations. Following the statement, the LDS Church released additional statements, especially condemning white supremacy as a moral error. Black Mormon blogger Tami Smith said he was glad to hear the statement and felt that the church was standing with members of the black church. White Mormon Blogger Ayla Stewart argues that the statement is not binding because it comes from the Department of Public Relations, rather than the First Presidency.
Opposition to racially based policies
In the second half of the 20th century some members of the white LDS Church protested church doctrine and policy except blacks from temple and priesthood ordinances. For example, three members, John Fitzgerald, Douglas A. Wallace, and Byron Marchant, all ostracized by the LDS Church in the 1970s for publicly criticizing these teachings (in 1973, 1976, and 1977 respectively). Wallace had given the priesthood to a black man on April 2, 1976 without authorization and the following day attempted to enter a general conference for a demonstration. After being banned legally from the following October conference, his home was supervised during a April 1977 conference by police at the request of the LDS church and the FBI. Marchant was ostracized for signifying his first vote as an opposition to defending the president of the church in modern history during the April 1977 general conference. His voice was motivated by the temple and the prohibition of the priesthood. He has also received media attention earlier as an LDS guide from a mixed religious scout troop who was involved in a 1974 lawsuit that changed church policies that forbid even a non-Mormon black Scout from acting as a patrol leader as the church-led scouting policy has tied up looking for positions with the authority of the Aaronic Priesthood.
Other white members who openly oppose church doctrine and policies around blacks include Grant Syphers and his wife who were denied access to the temple over their objections, with their San Francisco bishop declaring that "Anyone who can not accept the Church's stance in the Negro.. ". can not go to the temple. "Their stake president agrees and they are rejected for the renewal of the temple recommend.In addition, LDS politician Prominent Stewart Udall, then acting as US Minister of the Interior, wrote a letter written out loudly in 1967 criticizing LDS policies around leather members black which he received hundreds of critical response letters, including those from the apostles Delbert Stapley and Spencer Kimball.
Racial discrimination after the 1978 revelation
The LDS historian Wayne J. Embry interviewed several members of the black LDS Church in 1987 and reported that all participants reported "incidents of indifference on the part of whites, reluctance or refusal to shake hands with them or sit next to them, and comment racist made for them. "Embry further reports that one member of the black church attended the church for three years, though completely ignored by fellow church members. Embry reports that "he (a member of the same black church) should write directly to the head of the LDS Church to find out how to be baptized" because none of his congregation members would tell him.
Despite the end of the priesthood ban in 1978, and the proclamation of church leadership praised the diversity, the racist faith in the church prevailed. White church member Eugene England, a professor at Brigham Young University, wrote in 1998 that most Mormons still held deep racist convictions, including that blacks descended from Cain and Ham and submitted to their curse. UK students in BYU who report these beliefs learned from their parents or from instructors in the church, and have little insight into how these beliefs are contrary to the teachings of the gospel. In 2003, members of the black LDS Church Darron Smith noticed the same problem, and wrote in Sunstone about the persistence of racist beliefs in the LDS church. Smith writes that racism persists in the church because church leadership does not discuss the origin of the prohibition. This racism persists in the belief that blacks are the offspring of Cain, that they are neutral in the war in heaven, and that the color of the skin is tied to the truth. In 2007, journalist and church member Peggy Fletcher Stack wrote that black Mormons still feel separated from other church members because of how other members treat them, ranging from calling them "n-word" in the church and in the temple to small differences. in care. Black scarcity in Mormon church leadership also contributes to the feelings of black members who do not have.
in June, 2016, Alice Faulkner Burch - the female leader in Genesis Group, the OSZA-sponsored organization for black Mormon in Utah - says black Mormons "still need support to stay in church - not for doctrinal reasons but for cultural reasons." Burch adding that "women are mocked about our hair... referenced in derogatory terms, our children are being mistreated, and calling is kept secret." When asked what the current black woman wants, Burch recounts that a woman has told her that she hopes "can attend church once without someone touching my hair."
Black membership
The first statement about soul searching against blacks is about slaves. In 1835, the Church's policy was not to advocate slaves unless they got permission from their employers. This policy was changed in 1836, when Smith wrote that slaves should not be taught the Gospel at all until after their master has been changed. Although the church has an open membership policy for all races, they avoid opening missions in areas with large black populations, discouraging people with black ancestors from investigating churches, advising members to avoid social interactions with blacks, and instructing members blacks to separate when white members complain of having to worship with them. Relatively few blacks who joined the church maintained active membership before 1978.
Proselytization
Bruce McConkie states in his Mormon Doctrine of 1966 that "the gospel message of salvation is not done explicitly to them, though sometimes niggers seek the truth." Despite attracting the attention of several hundred Nigerians, the search for souls was delayed in Nigeria in the 1960s. After the Nigerian government stopped the church visa, the apostles did not want to prosecute there. In Africa, there are only active white missionaries in South Africa. Blacks in South Africa who asked for baptism were told that the church was not working among blacks. In the South Pacific, churches avoid missionary work on
Source of the article : Wikipedia
0 Comments