The Mormon Church and the African
FOR NEARLY 140 YEARS, Mormonism (“The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints”) taught that the African people are “inferior” and “cursed” by God. The Mormon leaders who preached such racism in Jesus’ name are honored as “prophets, seers and revelators” by their church, and their cruel, unbiblical teachings remain for all the world to judge.
What’s more, the Mormon Church’s own scriptures have always taught that God sometimes punishes sin by cursing the guilty and their offspring with dark skin. For example, see the Book of Mormon (2 Nephi 5:21, Alma 3:6, Mormon 5:15) and Pearl of Great Price (Moses 7:8, 22). But in 1978 the Mormon Church suddenly tried to erase over a century of scandal and resentment by announcing that “worthy” people of African descent could receive privileges and secret temple initiations which it had always denied them before.
This strange turnabout came as the cult was preparing to launch a major missionary drive into parts of the world where Mormonism had long been resisted because of its racist teachings—especially Africa. This is no mere coincidence.
The following quotations are taken from authoritative writings and speeches by Mormon prophets (their supreme earthly leaders) and apostles. As you read them, remember: The cult still praises these men as true messengers of God who are equal to the prophets and apostles of the Bible!
Their words are a sobering warning about the true nature of Mormonism—a religion which one day curses an entire people in God’s name, and the next day offers them greater “privileges.”
May true Christians beware of all such hypocrisy!
BRIGHAM YOUNG
Second Prophet and President of the Mormon Church
“I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of men, that they may not call Scripture.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 13, p. 95
“You 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. The first man that committed the odious crime of killing one of his brethren will be cursed the longest of any one of the children of Adam. 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 on him, which is the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then 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.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 7, p. 290
“In 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.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 2, p. 172
“Shall 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.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 10, p. 110
JOSEPH SMITH
First Prophet and President and Founder of the Mormon Church
“Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species, and put them on a national equalization.”
History of the Church, Volume 5, pp. 217–218
MARK E. PETERSON
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church
“Who placed the Negroes originally in darkest Africa? Was it some man, or was it God? And when He placed them there, He segregated them….The Lord segregated the people both as to blood and place of residence. At least in the cases of the Lamanites and the negroes we have the definite word of the Lord Himself that He placed a dark skin upon them as a curse—as a punishment and as a sign to all others. He forbade intermarriage with them under threat of extension of the curse….And He certainly segregated the descendants of Cain when He cursed the Negro as to the Priesthood, and drew an absolute line. You may even say He dropped an Iron curtain there. The Negro was cursed as to the Priesthood, and therefore, was cursed as to the blessings of the Priesthood. Certainly God made a segregation there.
“Think of the Negro, cursed as to the Priesthood. Are we prejudiced against him? Unjustly, sometimes we are accused of having such a prejudice. But what does the mercy of God have for him? This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in the lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa—if that Negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, he may have many of the blessings of the gospel. In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost….
“If I were to marry a Negro woman and have children by her, my children would all be cursed as to the priesthood. Do I want my children cursed as to the priesthood? If there is one drop of negro blood in my children, as I have read to you, they receive the curse. There isn’t any argument, therefore, as to inter-marriage with the Negro, is there? There are 50 million Negroes in the United States. If they were to achieve complete absorption with the white race, think what that would do. With 50 million Negroes inter-married with us, where would the priesthood be? Who could hold it, in all America? Think what that would do to the work of the Church!….
“Now we are generous with the Negro. We are willing that the Negro have the highest kind of education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these things among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation?”
Race Problems—As They Affect the Church
(address given at Brigham Young University)
BRUCE R. McCONKIE
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church
“Those who were less valiant in the pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the negroes. Such spirits are sent to earth through the lineage of Cain, the mark put upon him for his rebellion against God and his murder of Abel being a black skin….Noah’s son Ham married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain, thus preserving the negro lineage through the flood….The negroes are not equal with other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, particularly the priesthood and the temple blessings that flow therefrom, but this inequality is not of man’s origin. It is the Lord’s doing, based on His eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate.”
Mormon Doctrine (10th printing, pre-1979), pp. 527–528
“Racial degeneration, resulting in differences in appearance and spiritual aptitude, has arisen since the fall. We know the circumstances under which the posterity of Cain (and later of Ham) were cursed with what we call negroid racial characteristics.”
Mormon Doctrine, p. 616
“Though he was a rebel and an associate of Lucifer in the preexistence, and though he was a liar from the beginning whose name was Perdition, Cain managed to attain the privilege of mortal birth….As a result of his rebellion, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those spirits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born through his lineage. He became the first mortal to be cursed as a son of perdition.”
Mormon Doctrine, p. 109
“Through Ham (a name meaning black) ‘the blood of the Canaanites was preserved’ through the flood, he having married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain….Negroes are thus descendants of Ham, who himself also was cursed, apparently for marrying into the forbidden lineage.
Mormon Doctrine, p. 343
“….in a broad general sense, caste systems have their root and origin in the gospel itself, and when they operate according to the divine decree, the resultant restrictions and segregation are right and proper and have the approval of the Lord. To illustrate: Cain, Ham, and the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry.”
Mormon Doctrine, p. 114
JOSEPH FIELDING SMITH
Tenth Prophet and President of the Mormon Church
“I would not want you to believe that we bear any animosity toward the Negro. ‘Darkies’ are wonderful people, and they have their place in our church.”
Look magazine (October 22, 1963), p. 79
“There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient, more of less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less….There were no neutrals in the war in heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits.“
Doctrines of Salvation, Volume 1, pp. 61, 65–66
“President Brigham Young, answering a question put to him by Elder Lorenzo D. Young in a meeting held December 25, 1869, in Salt Lake City, said that Joseph Smith had declared that the Negroes were not neutral in heaven, for all the spirits took sides, but the posterity of Cain are black because he (Cain) committed murder.“
The Way to Perfection, p. 105
“That Negro race, for instance, have been placed under restrictions because of their attitude in the world of spirits, few will doubt. It cannot be looked upon as just that they should be deprived of the power of the Priesthood without it being a punishment for some act, or acts, performed before they were born.“
The Way to Perfection, p. 43
“Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was placed upon him and that curse has been continued through his lineage and must do so while time endures. Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with a black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fullness of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain. Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning….we will also hope that blessings may eventually be given to our Negro brethren, for they are our brethren—children of God—not withstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness.”
The Way to Perfection, pp. 101—102
“…Ham, through Egyptus, continued the curse which was placed upon the seed of Cain. Because of that curse this dark race was separated and isolated from all the rest of Adam’s posterity before the flood, and since that time the same condition has continued, and they have been ‘despised among all people.’ This doctrine did not originate with President Brigham Young but was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith….we all know it is due to his teachings that the Negro today is barred from the Priesthood.”
The Way to Perfection, pp. 110—111
JOHN TAYLOR
Third Prophet and President of the Mormon Church
“….after the flood we are told that the curse that had been pronounced upon Cain was continued through Ham’s wife, as he had married a wife of that seed. And why did it pass through the flood? Because it was necessary that the devil should have a representation upon the earth as well as God;….”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 22, p. 304
“When he [God] destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian worlds, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that he [Satan] might be properly represented upon the earth.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 23, p. 336
ORSON PRATT
of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Mormon Church
“….among the Saints [i.e., Mormons] is the most likely place for these [pre-existent] spirits to take their tabernacles, through a just and righteous parentage….The Lord has not kept them in store for five or six thousand years past, and kept them waiting for their bodies all this time to send them among the Hottentots, the African negroes, the idolatrous Hindoos [sic], or any other of the fallen nations that dwell upon the face of this earth. They are not kept in reserve in order to come forth to receive such a degraded parentage upon the earth; no, the Lord is not such a being.”
Journal of Discourses, Volume 1, p. 63
Teachings of Mormonism which separate it forever from Christianity and the Holy Bible
• That God the Father has a body of flesh and bones, and was once a sinful man on another planet
• That Jesus Christ is the brother of Lucifer, the Devil
• That God the father had sexual relations with Mary to produce the body of Jesus on earth
• That people can become gods themselves by joining the Mormon church, and can create and populate their own earths
• That “there are more Gods than there are particles of matter” in a million earths like ours
• That the sayings of their inspired leaders are superior to the Bible
• That the shed blood of Christ is not sufficient to save us from our sins, and that men cannot be saved by grace through faith
• and that the Mormon church is the only true church on earth, to the exclusion of all others, and that no one can gain eternal life outside of it.
(All of the above teachings are well documented.)
Key warnings from Scripture about false prophets:
“And many false prophets will arise, and will mislead many.” Matthew 24:11
“But even though we, or an angel from heaven, should preach to you a gospel contrary to that which we have preached to you, let him be accursed.” Galatians 1:8
“Test all things; hold fast what is good. Abstain from every form of evil.” 1 Thessalonians 5:21–22