David Stewart, Jr.
Introduction
In 1978, the right to hold the priesthood was extended
to all worthy male members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints
or
Joseph Smith
The first president of The Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints, the Prophet Joseph Smith, opposed slavery and was kind and
generous to blacks. Mary Frost Adams
recounted an example when Joseph Smith was the mayor of
"A colored man named
Anthony was arrested for selling liquor on Sunday, contrary to law. He pleaded
that the reason he had done so was that he might raise the money to purchase
the freedom of a dear child held as a slave in a Southern State. He had been
able to purchase the liberty of himself and his wife and now wished to bring
his little child to their new home. Joseph said, 'I am sorry, Anthony, but the
law must be observed, and we will have to impose a fine.' The next day Brother Joseph presented Anthony
with a fine horse, directing him to sell it, and use the money obtained for the
purchase of the child."[1]
Joseph's prized white stallion, worth about $500 (a
huge amount at the time), was sold and Anthony was able to redeem his child
from slavery.
In 1842, Joseph Smith stated: "I have advised
(slaveholders) to bring their slaves into a free country and set them
free--educate them--and give them equal rights."[2]
In 1844, he taught: "They [Negroes] came into the world slaves, mentally
and physically. Change their situation with the whites, and they would be like
them. They have souls and are subject to salvation. Go to
He also said: "The Declaration of Independence
'holds these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal: that
they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights; that among
these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness,' but, at the same time,
some two or three millions of people are held as slaves for life, because the
spirit in them is covered with a darker skin than ours...The Constitution of
the United States of America meant just what it said without reference to color
or condition, ad infinitum!"[4] He said in 1844: "Break off the shackles
of the poor black man and hire him to labor like other human beings."[5]
He taught that blacks "have souls, and are subjects to salvation."[6]
LDS Teachings on the Equality of Race
LDS leaders following Joseph Smith demonstrate
continued equanimity towards the Negro and enlightened thinking for their
age. LDS President Brigham Young stated
in 1860: "Negroes should be treated like human beings, and not worse than
dumb brutes [animals]. For their abuse of that race, the whites shall be
cursed, unless they repent."[7] In 1863, he taught: “Men will be called to
judgment for the way they have treated the Negro.”[8]
In 1935, President David O. McKay taught: “What a
different world this would be if men would accumulate wealth, for example, not
as an end but as a means of blessing human beings and improving human
relations. A Christian conception of the right and value of a human soul, even
though his skin be dark, would have prevented the slaughter that at this moment
is being perpetuated in
LDS Apostle John A. Widtsoe wrote in 1946: “The 'master race' claims are sheer poppycock,
used by characterless men to further their own interests. There has never been
a monopoly of mastery in human achievement by any one nation.”[11] In 1962,
LDS President Joseph Fielding Smith stated: “The Latter-day Saints,
commonly called 'Mormons', have no animosity toward the Negro. Neither have
they described him as belonging to an 'inferior' race.”[12] The following year, he noted: “The Mormon
Church does not believe, nor does it teach, that the Negro is an inferior
being. Mentally, and physically, the Negro is capable of great achievement, as
great or in some cases greater than the potentiality of the white race.”[13]
In 1966, LDS Apostle Hugh B. Brown stated: "It is
regrettable that very few people in the world are free from the idea that they
and their people and race are superior. The people on this continent were
instructed that they should not hiss nor spurn nor make game of any remnant of
the house of
President Spencer W. Kimball taught in 1972:
"Racial prejudice is of the devil. Racial prejudice is of ignorance. There
is not a place for it in the Gospel of Jesus Christ."[15] President Gordon B. Hinckley stated in 1995:
“We must not be partisans of any doctrine of ethnic superiority. We live in a
world of diversity. We can and must be respectful toward those with whose
teachings we may not agree. We must be willing to defend the rights of others
who may become the victims of bigotry.”[16]
The history of Latter-day Saints has been consistent
with these teachings of LDS leaders.
Latter-day Saints have never been oppressors of blacks, and have treated
them with friendship and equanimity even when it was very unpopular to do
so. Latter-day Saints never played any
significant role in slavery or the oppression of the Negro. From the earliest days Joseph Smith and other
LDS leaders recognized the unjust oppression of blacks by their white brethren
and proposed bloodless solutions to peacefully free all Negro slaves in the
"Orthodox" Christianity and the Negro
It seems ironic that Latter-day Saints, who have never
been oppressors of blacks, are today charged with historical “racism” by some
adherents of other Christian churches that were among the greatest oppressors
of blacks.
Juliann Reynolds noted[17]
“By the 1830s, most southern evangelicals had thoroughly repudiated a heritage
that valued blacks as fellow church members.[18]
The black Methodist church,
created not from a desire to be separate but from a desire to worship without
discrimination at the hands of white brethren, was to become the most enduring
legacy of Methodism's refusal to accord the black communicant all of the rights
and privileges of membership in the body of Christ.”[19]
After the U.S. Civil War, the southern Protestant
churches, continuing the legacy of slavery, were among the first institutions
to call for the separation of the races.
By the twentieth century they had become bastions of segregation. With
no desire to intrude into places where they were not welcome, most black
Southerners were more comfortable in their own congregations.[20]
Virtually all Protestant denominations have separate Negro churches, and
thus the areas of association for religious purposes have been very small.[21]
Much inflammatory and racist retoric can be found in the sermons of U.S.
Protestant preachers of many “mainline” denominations throughout the nineteenth
century and into the mid-twentieth century, especially in the southern
Research on racial integration undertaken jointly by
the United Lutherans, Congregational Christians, and Presbyterians (U.S.A.) in
the 1950s found that only 1,331 out of 13,597 predominantly white churches have
nonwhite members or attenders – less than 10%.[22] Even these 10% had only a few members or
occasional attenders, so that throughout the
In response to Martin Luther King, Jr.'s famous
"I Have a Dream" speech that his children might one day play together
with white children, [Billy] Graham, who had been invited but did not attend
the 1963 March on Washington, said: "Only when Christ comes again will
little white children of Alabama walk hand in hand with little black
children."[28]
Three years later on October 9, 1966, Martin Luther King gave his "The
Pharisee and Publican" sermon to the
Pastor Gregory E. Thomas stated: "we must again
note that a predominant pattern of church life for black churches has been that
of racial separation. The question remains: why?"[30]
Race and the Scriptures
Some LDS critics have criticized the Book of Mormon
passage that stated that the Lamanites (ancient ancestors of Mesoamericans)
would one day become “a white and delightsome people” (2 Nephi 30:6). Fair, pure, and white were synonomous in
nineteeth century scriptural English.
White is used to symbolize purity in some Bible passages. The prophet Daniel writes that in the last
days, “many shall be purified, and made white” (Daniel 12:10). The Psalmist writes: “Purge me with hyssop,
and I shall be clean: wash me, and I shall be whiter than snow” (Psalms 51:7)
Isaiah writes of those who repent: “though your sins be as scarlet, they shall
be white as snow” (Isaiah 1:18). These
passages are symbolic and in no way imply the superiority or inferiority of any
race. To convey the original intent and
to avoid the confusion that comes which changing word usage, the passage in 2
Nephi 30:6 has been changed to “pure and delightsome” in modern editions of the
Book of Mormon.
In ancient
During His ministry, Christ taught: "I am not
sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of
The Apostle Paul preached that God “hath made of one
blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth, and hath
determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their habitation; That
they should seek the Lord, if haply they might feel after him, and find him,
though he be not far from every one of us” (Acts 17: 26-27). Each nation and people-group has its own
divinely-appointed attributes. Although
our circumstances may be different, God is just and will accept all those of
every race and nationality who come unto Him.
The Apostle Peter taught that “God is no respecter of persons: But in
every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted of
him” (Acts 10:34-35).
The Book of Mormon teaches that the Lord “inviteth
them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that
come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he
remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God.” (2 Nephi 26:33) In the Doctrine and Covenants, a book of
modern scripture, the Lord declares that "it is not right that any man
should be in bondage one to another" (D&C 101:79).
Conclusion
While there are undoubtedly some Latter-day Saints who
hold or held racist views, just as there are among the adherents of all faiths
and denominations, such views have never represented the official teachings of
the Church. To the contrary, Latter-day
Saints, with very few exceptions, have supported and defended the rights of
blacks even when it was unpopular to do so.
In view of the historical record, any charges of racism against
Latter-day Saints are unjustified.
Latter-day hold blacks in high esteem as children of our Heavenly Father
and welcome them as brothers and sisters.
I am particularly indebted to
Juliann Reynolds for allowing me the use of much of her extensive research on
the topic of blacks in the
[1] Young Women's Journal, p.538.
[2] Compilation on the Negro in Mormonism, p.40.
[3] History of the Church 5:217.
[4] Messages of The First Presidency 1:191-92.
[5] History of the Church 5:209.
[6] History of the Church 5:217.
[7] Journal Discourses 10:111
[8] Journal of Discourses 10:250
[9] Conference Reports, Oct. 1935, p.101.
[10] Home Memories of David O. McKay, p.231.
[11] Widtsoe, John A.
Evidences and Reconciliations, pp.3-4.
[12] Deseret News June 14, 1962, p.3
[13] LOOK magazine, Oct. 22, 1963, p.79
[14] Hugh B. Brown, Conference Report, April 1966, p.119.
[15] Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.237
[16]
[17] Reynolds, Juliann.
"Lamanites, the Seed of Cain, and Polygamy." In Mormonism 201, Allan L. Wyatt,
Editor.
[18] Nathan O. Hatch, The Democratization of American Christianity (New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Press, 1989), 107.
[19] Forrest G. Wood. The Arrogance of Faith: Christianity
and Race in
[20] Ibid, p. 293
[21] 21. Lou Gossett, Race:
The History of An Idea in
[22] Robert Root, Progress Against Prejudice: The Church Confronts the Race Problem (New York: Friendship Press, 1957), 59.
[23] J.C. Hough, Black Power and White Protestants: A Christian Response to the New Negro Pluralism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1968), 177.
[24] Dana Martin, "The American Baptist Convention and the Civil Rights Movement: Rhetoric and Response," Baptist History and Heritage (Winter 1999), 44.
[25] Gregory E. Thomas, "Black and Baptist in the
[26] Emerson and Smith, Divided by Faith, 136.
[27] Gregory E. Thomas, "Black and Baptist in the
[28] Richard O. Emerson and Christian Smith, Divided by
Faith: Evangelical Religion and the Problem of Race in
[29] Marty
[30] Thomas, "Black and
Baptist in the