(see D&C RLDS 116)
Any special treatment of any race is racist.
Racism
Great video showing how the priesthood ban came from Brigham Young and not Joseph Smith. Also detailing other things that Brigham Young changed in the church.
Brigham’s Priesthood Ban
I’m generally not a fan of FAIR but this is a good explanation of the Hebrew idioms black and white and how they do not refer to skin color. Including stating that past LDS leaders were racist and the only ones who don’t know it are LDSites.
Black Mormon Speaks Candidly About LDS, Race, Past Priesthood Restriction
This video brings out some very good points and examples in the BoM that black is a Hebrew Idiom. I’m going to watch it again to help me remember the examples he brings up, which are genius. He knows the BoM very well when dealing with this issue. He even brings up examples from the BoM that shows it’s a Hebrew Idiom such as Alma 55 where they could not tell the Nephites and the Lamanites apart by sight, because their skin color was not different.
Blacks in the Scriptures – Marvin Perkins
Brings up many examples from the Bible and BoM that shows black skin is a Hebrew idiom. Also explains curses.
Marvin Perkins – Race and the Priesthood
Brings out some very good points from the scriptures about skin color & curses
Blacks in the Scriptures: Skin Color & Curses
Blacks in the Scriptures: Blacks in the Bible (2007)
A good article from Orthodox Jew who converted to Mormonism because he knows the Book of Mormon is a Hebrew Document.
ARE YOU WHITE AND DELIGHTSOME?
Darius Gray: Blacks In The Scriptures
The Long Promised Day: 40 Years Later
Marvin Perkins comments on the theme of apology and repentance on Mormon church race relations
https://youtu.be/mjlwwFDGZiQ
Great website on the issue.
Blacks in the Scriptures
And this is a good place to start with the website: Mormonism and Racism Part 1
LDS, Mormon Why was Elijah Abel’s ( that Smith gave the “priesthood” too) priesthood revoked later?
JEREMIAH 8:21 KJV TRANSLATION, MEANING, CONTEXT
Racism in the Book of Mormon in 2 Nephi 5?
- 2023-12-20: Black/White skin is a Hebrew idiom, and in fact the BoM shows this by the fact that Nephites and Lamanites could not tell each other apart by sight aka their skin color. Descendants of Cain. Children is symbolic of followers. Skin is a Hebrew idiom for covering. Skin of the Lamb. Blacks and Whites is a fairly new saying. LDS / Brighamite church giving into government threats is what caused the “Blacks” to receive the preisthood.
From LDS churches gospel essays:
Toward the end of his life, Church founder Joseph Smith openly opposed slavery.
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=trueDuring the first two decades of the Church’s existence, a few black men were ordained to the priesthood. One of these men, Elijah Abel, also participated in temple ceremonies in Kirtland, Ohio, and was later baptized as proxy for deceased relatives in Nauvoo, Illinois. There is no reliable evidence that any black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith’s lifetime. In a private Church council three years after Joseph Smith’s death, Brigham Young praised Q. Walker Lewis, a black man who had been ordained to the priesthood, saying, “We have one of the best Elders, an African.”
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=trueIn 1852, President Brigham Young publicly announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood, though thereafter blacks continued to join the Church through baptism and receiving the gift of the Holy Ghost.
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=trueIn 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.
https://www.lds.org/topics/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng&old=true
Some very racist statements from Brigham Young who claimed it was from God.
[Cain] killed his brother. The Lord put a mark on him; and there are some of his children in this room. When all the other children of Adam have had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity. He deprived his brother of the privilege of pursuing his journey through life, and of extending his kingdom by multiplying upon the earth; and because he did this, he is the last to share the joys of the kingdom of God.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses 2:143In our first settlement in Missouri, it was said by our enemies that we intended to tamper with the slaves, not that we had any idea of the kind, for such a thing never entered our minds. We knew that the children of Ham were to be the “servant of servants,” and no power under heaven could hinder it, so long as the Lord would permit them to welter under the curse and those were known to be our religious views concerning them.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 172You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind … Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would have put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 7, p. 290I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call scripture.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, page 95Shall 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.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, vol. 10, page 110You must not think, from what I say, that I am opposed to slavery. No! The negro is damned, and is to serve his master till God chooses to remove the curse of Ham.
Brigham Young, New York Herald, May 4, 1855, as cited in Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought, Spring 1973, p. 56In as much as we believe in the Bible … we must believe in slavery. This colored race have been subjected to severe curses … which they have brought upon themselves.
Brigham Young, Joint Session of the Legislature, Salt Lake City, Friday, 23 January 1852, Brigham Young: We Must Believe in Slavery (23 January 1852)The blood of Cain was more predominant in these Mexicans than that of Israel, and we thus condemn the mixing of Mormons with outsiders.
Brigham Young, Cultural ‘Encystment’ as a Cause of the Exodus from Mexico in 1912, Pacific Historical Review, v. 34, 1965, p. 447The moment we consent to mingle with the seed of Cain the Church must go to destruction, – we should receive the curse which has been placed upon the seed of Cain, and never more be numbered with the children of Adam who are heirs to the priesthood until that curse be removed.
Brigham Young, Brigham Young Addresses, Feb. 5, 1852, LDS historical department; Brigham Young’s Speech on Slavery, Blacks, and the PriesthoodCain slew his brother…. and the Lord put a mark upon him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and tehn another curse is pronounced upon the same race – that they should be the ‘servant of servants,’ and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree. How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam’s children are brought up to that favorable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the Priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like proportion.
Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, v. 7, pp. 290-2911852: After listening to a Brigham Young speech in the Tabernacle, Wilford Woodruff records the following Brigham Young quote in his journal:
“Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him Cannot hold the priesthood … I will say it now in the name of Jesus Christ. I know it is true & they know it. The Negro cannot hold one particle of Government … if any man mingles his seed with the seed of Cane the only way he Could get rid of it or have salvation would be to Come forward & have his head Cut off & spill his Blood upon the ground. It would also take the life of his Children.”
Brigham Young, Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, Vol. 4, p. 97
Here is one from Wilford Woodruff:
The Lamanites [Native Americans], now a down‑trodden people, are a remnant of the house of Israel. The curse of God has followed them as it has done the Jews, though the Jews have not been darkened in their skin as have the Lamanites.
Wilford Woodruff, Journal of Discourses 22:173
Other LDS leaders:
The Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But that is as nothing compared with that greater handicap that he is not permitted to receive the Priesthood and the ordinances of the temple, necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness of glory in the celestial kingdom [i.e., godhood].
Apostle George F. Richards, Conference Report, April 1939, p. 58
RLDS Leaders:
It is expedient in me that you ordain priests unto me, of every race who receive the teachings of my law, and become heirs accourding to the promise…. Be not hasty in ordaining men of the Negro race…
RLDS Prophet Joseph Smith III, revelation to the RLDS Church, May 4, 1865, RLDS D&C 116
Seeking YHWH 