Prior to 1978, LDS church leaders wrestled to understand the priesthood ban. They listened to explanations from Brigham Young and other church presidents who taught about the subject. They continued teaching the same things, and in some cases came up with new explanations. That changed in 1978, when the church flipped a 180 and granted …
Continue reading “McConkie Got It Wrong – Redacted Mormon Doctrine”
The church celebrates its own decision to stop the racially discriminatory practice of banning the priesthood from anyone of African descent in 1978. To show that they are not racist, they wanted to point out that it has now been 40 years since they stopped being racist. There was a big self-congratulatory spectacle planned for …
Brother Ahmad S. Corbitt, the then First Counselor in the Young Men General Presidency, gave a talk to LDS Chaplains, on October 4, 2022, in which he teaches against activism directed towards the church. He doesn’t want members getting any ideas that they can influence or change things the church does by criticizing, complaining, or …
Continue reading “Church Claims Activism a Tactic of Satan and Gaslights Members”
President Spencer W Kimball, as president of the church gave a speech at BYU about Marriage and Divorce in 1976. This talk is currently referenced frequently, nearly 50 years later, in church lesson manuals and by church leaders. In this talk, he spoke against interracial marriages. He advised against marriages between those from differing economic …
In this interview, LeGrand Richards discusses the revelation to lift the priesthood ban for individuals of African descent and the subsequent Official Declaration 2. He highlights the role of Spencer Kimball, the then-president of the church, in seeking guidance on this matter. An admitted catalyst for the revelation is the concern about the growing number …
Continue reading “Apostle LeGrand Richards on Lifting the Priesthood Ban”
Brigham Young, the second President of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS or Mormon Church), held racially discriminatory beliefs. These views included views on interracial marriage and the mixing of races and he taught them as doctrine from God at the pulpit of the church for decades. He calls it the law …
Let’s examine the common Mormon apologist argument that leaders are simply “men of their times” through a story of racist thoughts and practices in the church. Priesthood Ban The church enjoys celebrating the lifting of the priesthood ban in 1978. But we can’t give them any credit for doing it either, since it was the …
When Natalie Palmer-Taylor’s son was the target of a racial epithet hurled by another Mormon youth, she went to the church’s headquarters to complain. Ezra Taft Benson received her complaint and retorted with this dismissive challenge: ‘If you allow the people of the church to turn you against the church, then you were not worthy …
Continue reading “Racism and Victim Blaming From God’s Anointed”
Unfortunately, racism—the abhorrent and morally destructive theory that claims superiority of one person over another by reason of race, color, ethnicity, or cultural background—remains one of the abiding sins of societies the world over. The cause of much of the strife and conflict in the world, racism is an offense against God and a tool …
Elijah Abel was an early African American member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. He is notable for being one of the few black individuals ordained to the priesthood before the church implemented a policy that restricted black men of African descent from receiving the priesthood. …
Continue reading “Elijah Able, Early Black Mormon Received Priesthood via Joseph Smith”
There has been a lot of discussion in Mormondom regarding race and the priesthood. The church denied the priesthood from black members (specifically those of African descent) from the 1850s until 1978. They did not relent through the end of slavery, through the proposed State of Deseret joining the United States as Utah, and through …
Continue reading “Apostles Discuss Reasons For Lifting the Priesthood Ban”
Not only does the church dismiss the previous racist doctrines of the church in today’s church essays, but the church publications and leaders also do the same. From the mid-1800s, the Church did not ordain men of black African descent to the priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or …
Continue reading “Mormon Leadership Dismisses Racist Doctrines as Folklore”
Just as the statement from the First Presidency in 1949, there was another statement issued in 1969 regarding the stance of the church on denying the priesthood to any black member of the church. In 1949, the First Presidency consisted of George Albert Smith, J Reuben Clark & David O McKay. In 1969, the presidency …
Among the first votes of dissent in the modern Mormon church occurred in 1977, in opposition to the church doctrine banning blacks from any priesthood ordination and temple endowment. A member voted opposed to sustaining church leadership in General Conference 1977 and was subsequently excommunicated. Then less than 1 year later the church downgraded the …
We have seen through the racist statements of Brigham Young when he announced banning the priesthood to those of African descent, or blacks that this was considered doctrine of the church. It was taught as doctrine and understood as doctrine. We also see it in the Lowry Nelson exchange with the First Presidency in 1947 …
Continue reading “Authoritative Statement by the LDS Church on the Doctrine of Blacks in 1949”
Elder Andersen met with the leaders of Zimbabwe and he said the significance of the meeting with Vice President Mohadi was to “express to him our desire to help improve Zimbabwe.” He noted that Vice President Mohadi had made a specific request for support with the development of clean-water wells in more remote areas of …
Continue reading “Elder Anderson claims “We Are Not a Wealthy People””
The LDS Church had a longstanding policy that restricted men of African descent from holding the priesthood, which is the authority to act in God’s name, and even entering the temple, where members make holy covenants with God. This policy was based on teachings and interpretations that linked African lineage to the biblical story of …
Continue reading “Mormon Church Whitewashes Racist History in Essay”
The church claims in their Gospel Topic Essay on Race and the Priesthood that Brigham Young announced the “policy” to deny priesthood to blacks and that he also said that “at some future day, black Church members would “have [all] the privilege and more” enjoyed by other members”. This is incredibly misleading. They want to …
Continue reading “Brigham Young’s Racist Remarks on Slaves, Seed, and Priesthood Doctrines”
Lowry Nelson, a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and a professor of sociology at the University of Minnesota and the Utah State Agricultural College, engaged in a series of communications in 1947 with the First Presidency of the LDS Church regarding the issue of race and the priesthood. Who Was …
Continue reading “The Lowry Nelson Letters and Racist Mormon Doctrine”
Mormon Church President, Russell M Nelson is being honored by the Martin Luther King Jr International Chapel on Morehouse College Campus in Atlanta, Georgia. He is to receive a new award, the first recipient, which is to be called the Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize. This is in coordination with the Gandhi-King-Ikeda Institute at the chapel. What …
Continue reading “Russell Nelson to receive the Gandhi-King-Mandela Peace Prize”
Jean was impressed with the ‘true religion’ as taught by the missionaries and joined the church with her young family. After serving faithfully for a long time and even serving a senior mission to South Africa, she collected a few issues onto her shelf. She questioned why she and the other missionaries weren’t better protected …
Continue reading “Jean Was a Mormon, an Ex-Mormon Profile Spotlight”
The church has made much self-congratulation and self-promotion PR regarding its new relationship with the NAACP in the past couple of years. They are speaking words of unity and shared vision, which is great, but there is a backstory. The Backstory of Blacks and the church The race relations between the church and blacks is …
Continue reading “Mormons and the NAACP – Blacks and the Priesthood”
!["There are statements in our literature by the early brethren which we have interpreted to mean that the Negroes would not receive the priesthood in mortality. I have said the same things, and people write me letters and say, "You said such and such, and how is it now that we do such and such?" And all I can say to that is that it is time disbelieving people repented and got in line and believed in a living, modern prophet. Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation... [All the views and all the thoughts of the past] don't matter any more... It doesn't make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year." - LDS Apostle, Bruce R. McConkie, BYU Devotional 1978 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/03/mormon-doctrine-it-doesnt-make-a-particle-of-difference-what-anybody-ever-said-about-blacks.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
!["One clear-cut position is that the folklore must never be perpetuated. I have to concede to my earlier colleagues. They, I'm sure, in their own way, were doing the best they knew to give shape to [the policy], to give context for it, to give even history to it. All I can say is however well intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong." - PBS: The Mormons. Elder Jeffrey R Holland Interview, March 4, 2006 | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Holland-PBS-Interview-2006-01-the-folklore-must-never-be-perpetuated-well-intended-almost-all-inadequate-wrong.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
!["In two speeches delivered before the Utah territorial legislature in January and February 1852, Brigham Young announced a policy restricting men of black African descent from priesthood ordination. At the same time, President Young said that at some future day, black Church members would “have [all] the privilege and more” enjoyed by other members." - Race and the Priesthood, LDS Church Gospel Topic Essay | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Misleading-quotes-in-Race-and-the-Priesthood-LDS-Gospel-Topic-Essay.jpg?fit=1200%2C1200&ssl=1)
