Transcript for:
Racism in the Mormon Church History

The Mormon church has an extremely racist past, and this video will be dedicated to explaining the racist past against black people specifically. I'll be jumping into Book of Mormon verses like this one, and how the doctrines of the church were used to legitimize and further this racism. This is the first in a series. I was going to make this video all the the many many ways the church has been racist, but then as I got into the history of the racism against black people specifically, I realized that there's so much to get into and so much to cover that trying to cover this entire topic in one video wasn't going to work. That's because the nature of the prejudice against different groups of people and different cultures is different. So for black people specifically, black people were not allowed to receive the priesthood or receive most ordinances in a Mormon temple till 1978, but other people of color were allowed to participate in these types of Mormonism. Another race specific doctrine is the teachings about Native Americans. When I was a believing member of the church, I believe that this was a non-fiction book about how people in Jerusalem sailed across the ocean and essentially colonized what was more or less barren land. So people in Jerusalem in about 600 BC traveled across the ocean. They they colonized the American continent and that is the principal ancestors of what we know as the Native Americans. While Joseph Smith and Brigham Young taught that black people had a curse of blackness, Wilfrid Woodruff taught that Native Americans had a curse of redness. There's also Polynesian people and Tonga is the most Mormon country on the planet with the Mormon church claiming that 60% of Tonggins are Mormon. And so the Mormon church's racism has taken different forms depending on the group of people. We have colonization, we have murder, we have priesthood bans. And so there's so much history here to get into that I'm going to narrow in on the Mormon church's racism against black people. And in the coming months, I'll release videos about those other groups and the Mormon church's history against those groups. In addition to the church's bigotry against people of color, it also has a big culture of white supremacy, of viewing white people as being superior. I already shared this scripture which literally in the Book of Mormon says that as people accept the Mormon teachings or they would say the gospel of Jesus Christ, people's skin will become more white and delightsome. So this is the other side of the coin which is not just that people of color are inferior but that white people are superior. According to this study done by the Pew Research Center in 2009, of the Mormons living in the USA, 86% are white. And in 2009, the total US population was 71% white, which means that Mormons in the US are 15% more white or Caucasian than the rest of the United States. Despite this, if you go on the church's website, which I'll put off to the side here, it seems like basically every photo being released on the church's website, is of a non-white person. This makes it seem like white people are not in the majority. They might even be in the minority based on the photos produced by the church. And I think the church has really started using diversity as PR. To me, this recent push for diversity is very deceptive because for me growing up in the church, I truly was not taught the racist history of the church. And as I'll get into in a bit, a lot of ex Mormons who are black also share that they were never taught this history and only found it out after joining, after paying tithing, and they learned it from other members, often who were sharing this history in a very mocking and horrible way. Obviously, I am a white person, which means I don't have any personal experience with racism in the church, but I do have stories of times I saw racism against other people. I also believe that even though I didn't experience this personally, I still think that these stories are very, very important. It's important to hold the church accountable for its history. And it's important to me to share this information so that anyone who is considering joining the church or continuing to participate within this church has this information so that they can make a more informed decision with their membership or if they choose to join. I also just think these stories are vitally important and I think everyone deserves to know this information. One of the most common comments I see on Tik Tok and other social media is that people are surprised to hear that there are even black members to begin with of the Mormon church. There are an estimated 400,000 to 1 million black LDS church members worldwide and at least five Mormon temples in Africa. As of 2023, the Mormon Church had about 17 million members. And so of those 17,400,000 to 1 million are black members of the Mormon church. Some of those members take to social media. Here's a clip from a believing black member of the church. And like to all my black members of the church, I just thought to myself, what a blessing it is to be a part of a generation where we spearhead a culture shift in the church. Um, it just shows me like there's a lot of things that need to change about the church, but a lot of the members, it's not that they can't be held accountable for it. It's just they've never really been around us. This is, I think, from what I can tell, probably the person with the most followers, his name is Bachelor. Here's another clip of him taking Mormon children's songs and transforming them into more of an R&B style of music. Follow me like Jesus. I'm following him. [Music] Not going to lie, he did improve the song 100%. He's also in this article which is from a few years ago, but it's a BYU produced article and they did a series of interviews where they asked black students what it's like to be black at BYU. BYU being the Mormon churchowned university. That's where I got my degree. There's a BYU Hawaii, BYU Provo, and BYU Idaho. In 2022, BYU was about 80% white, but only 1% of the student body at BYU was black. There are also many black ex Mormons on social media. Here's one where her caption is, "You're so funny. This is a recent trend. Thanks. I grew up being told I was ugly and cursed by Mormon boys." Her name is Tara. She also has a really interesting Mormon stories interview where she talks about being called to the south on her Mormon mission and just how ultra racist the people were there. I found this completely unsurprising because often when they call you on a mission, they totally racially profile people. So often black members of the church will be called to majority black countries or areas. If you're Asian, you'll be called to an Asian area. Even if you have no, you know, ability to speak the language or whatever it might be, they typically, if you know, because minorities are so rare in the church, they'll often send the minorities to the places where those people can see that there are members of the church who match their race. This is particularly horrible for her because she was adopted by two white parents. She was raised in the church. And so when she gets called to a southern state and experiences this massive racism, it's just so incredibly cruel on the part of the church, she describes that while she was in Atlanta, Georgia, she would see Confederate flags, people would yell slurs at her. And the these are all things that didn't have to happen, but the church chose to send her to an area that is known for being racist against black people, especially to certain cities she was sent to. So, I definitely recommend checking out her Mormon stories interview. I'll link it below. She also shares in that interview that she didn't know about the racist history of the church until she went on her mission and she had people start telling her these things as she's going from door to door. Here's another ex Mormon woman. Her name is Chanel Aenbach and she shares here how she first found out that the Mormon church has a very racist history. And I was like, what do you mean? So they told me about um in Genesis how when Cain was cursed, his curse was black skin is a punishment for his um killing his brother and that we black people are descendants of Cain and that we're cursed until we, you know, get it right. Okay. Then they told me that in the pre-existence before we came to earth that we live with God, Jesus Christ and Satan and that there was a war in heaven and that we were vagabonds and fence sitters and lukewarm that we didn't choose God or Jesus Christ that we kind of wanted to see who was going to come to earth and win the battle and then we were going to make that decision. And that's also why we're curses because we wouldn't even choose. And then they said that when we die and go to the celestial kingdom after this earth life, we'll become white. The light white and delightsome. I'll link her channel below. She also has a great interview on Mormon stories. Another great resource is The Black Menaces. Their content takes a lot of different forms. They do interviews. They do sit down conversations. Here's an example of one of the interviews they released on their Tik Tok channel. Why did you choose to come to BYU? I chose to come to BYU cuz they told me it was different here and it's not. All right, Nick. Why did you choose to go to BYU? I didn't know it was going to be this racist. Honestly, I just kind of came here thinking my faith was going to get strengthened. But here we are. Yeah. What's up? Why did you choose to come to BYU? Oh, it's all right. Got the camera. I was totally unsurprised at the end that that girl doesn't want to even answer the question because even publicly speaking out against the university would I think probably potentially land you in what's known as the honor code office. and they, you know, they're a private university and they kick people out for very minor things. Even holding hands with a same gendered person as you, uh, any type of, you know, same sex attraction, uh, show of affection could potentially get you kicked out. And so, it does not surprise me that she's a bit nervous to answer the question. Here's another clip where they ask black women to rate what it's like to date at BYU. How would you rate dating at BYU from 1 to 10 as a black woman? I'd give it a a 0.5 on a good day. You know, 10. Zero. Negative 11. Oh my god. Yeah, I'd say two. Solid two. A one. Obviously, even though the church changed its policy about the priesthood back in 1978, there's a lot of work to be done. It's also not uncommon to see videos like this. The caption is being a black girl at BYU is an experience you wouldn't understand. And it's unclear if she's based on I looked through the comments. I I couldn't find if she's a member or not. But it does seem pretty common that a lot of black members of the church who go to BYU go potentially expecting it to be a little bit better and then truly having a pretty awful experience. You may also be familiar with Nara Smith. Her husband, Lucky Blue Smith, was raised in the church. She's from Utah and then seems to have been teaching her about the church and potentially I don't it's unclear if she's joined or if she's just been learning about it. She's put clips of her reading the Book of Mormon in one of her videos. And when Nara started being associated with the Mormon church, a lot of people said, "The Mormon church has a really racist past and it's shocking that someone might become involved with this religion." And here is what one creator, her name is Slim Kim, this was her response to these types of comments. Takes like this are so unfair. And to try to take down a woman because of the church she belongs to is sad. I can guarantee you that if you're a minority, your favorite more palatable religion was created by a man that believes in your enslavement. It seems that that creator is not Mormon. But I feel like her argument there is actually pretty compelling purely because almost every system and organization and religion is rooted back to this past, especially a religion like Mormonism or Christianity. Certainly the Mormon church is not the only church with a racist past. The Bible and certain verses within it were used to justify slavery. And so, you know, this take which is that, you know, if you're gonna say, "I'm not gonna participate in a religion unless it has no racist past," you you might just not be left with any religion to participate in. While I completely understand this take, I think for the Mormon church in particular, I do feel that it should be held to a higher standard than just another racist church purely because when I was growing up, it wasn't presented as a religion that, you know, was had some failings. It had an imperfect past. Every religion goes through a period of time where they're subject to the culture that they're growing in. No, that that's not how the church was presented to me. It was presented to me as the one true church of Jesus Christ and God on the planet. The gospel is perfect. It has the authority from God. And the number of times I stood up in front of a congregation to bear my testimony and say, "I know this church is true." is numbering in the hundreds or thousands. And so this is to me the standard that I think the church should be held to, which is that it is the literal one true church of God on the planet. Because when missionaries go and knock on doors, they're not just saying, "Hey, we're we're one of many churches." They're saying we're literally the church of God, and all other churches do not have authority or truth compared to us. To me, you can't have your cake and eat it too and simultaneously claim to be the one true church of God. And also to say, "Oh, well, you know, we were a little racist in the past, but wasn't wasn't everybody a little racist in the past?" You you can't get to claim both things simultaneously, which is essentially what they claim in this essay, which is the church was racist in the past, but also we're perfect. So, I don't think both things can exist in the same logical universe. My other argument is that a lot of black people who join the church aren't notified or told of the racist history. This is the manual I used on my Mormon mission. And this is all everything that the church says people have to know and agree to in order to be able to get baptized and join the church. And never in this manual will you find any mention of the priesthood ban or the church's racist past. And so missionaries could very well lovebomb people. They'll show them all their pamphlets with many different types of people from def different cultures and they very well could convince someone to join the church and never they never have to tell them the church's racist past. In this essay by Darren Smith, he says, "I did not find out about the priesthood ban on blacks until after I had joined the church, and I passed on much of the folklore while serving a mission in Michigan." Looking back on that experience, I venture to say that had I known about such teachings in the church, I might not have joined. And so it seems like what a lot of people share is that they join without ever knowing. And you could join without knowing the history of banning the priesthood from black people. You could join without knowing about the temple ceremony and garments. You could join without knowing about polygamy. And the church very consciously is hiding disfavorable information from investigators because if they knew, they probably wouldn't join. Darren Smith also wrote the book Black and Mormon, which I'll link below, and I I found that book several times in my research. So, all of this will be linked below so you can go follow these people, learn from their stories, and check out the resources and essays they've written. I'm going to start with the history of the Mormon Church's teachings concerning black people specifically. This will date all the way back to Mormonism's founding and the prophet Joseph Smith who is the one who quote translated the Book of Mormon who saw the angel Moroni. And so it really does date all the way back to Joseph Smith. Before we jump in, just a quick reminder to like this video, subscribe to my channel, drop a comment so the algorithm knows that this is an important video so that it gets shared with even more people. Mormonism's founder Joseph Smith and his main successor who was Brigham. young both taught that black people were cursed by the curse of Cain. If you're familiar with the story in the Bible, Cain kills his brother Abel. God puts a mark on Cain as a result of this sin. And according to Joseph Smith and later prophets, this mark that Cain was cursed with by God was the mark of black skin. Apparently, this teaching didn't actually originate with Joseph Smith. This is something that had been kicking around the United States since the 1730s. And so while he didn't invent this understanding of this verse from the Bible, he did take it and then integrate it into his own teachings and doctrines. Because of this understanding of black skin being a curse, there was a priesthood ban from 1852 to 1987. And even after that ban ended, the church didn't apologize. They've actually gone on record to make it clear they do not apologize for things that happened in the past. Though they did say they disavowed the teaching, they certainly never apologized for it. While the priesthood ban is what was more publicized in the media back then, it was also a ban against black people being able to go into the temple. A ban from temple marriage and from receiving the endowment means that according to Mormon doctrine, black people could never enter the highest level of the celestial kingdom. So banning them from the temple was essentially banning them from heaven. They were allowed to enter the temple to do specifically baptisms for the dead, but baptisms for the dead is not tied to being able to go to heaven. So the the ban within the temple was making it so they could not enter the highest level of Mormon heaven. This also meant that black people could not be married for time in all eternity, which means that according to the belief and teaching, their marriages would dissolve after death and they wouldn't be permitted, God would not permit them to have marriages that were lasting into the afterlife. According to my research, even if a white person was married to a black person during this time, they were also prohibited from temple marriage and the temple endowment. The only exception to this was that black children, adopted black children to two white parents were allowed to be sealed uh in the temple to their parents. So that is the only record I could find of black people being able to have these forms of Mormon blessings during the ban. There's also a history of a white woman who was married to a black man and then got divorced and then married a white Mormon man and she was not allowed to enter the temple with the white man because she had been previously married to a black person. And so the depth of how racist and how awful these teachings were were truly so horrible and cruel because they were so all-encompassing. And keep in mind they were still proceliting to black people at this time. So they basically would try to get them to join. They would do things like teach them about the Book of Mormon and pray with them and send missionaries to them. They would send missionaries to African countries like Nigeria. And then after getting these people to believe and getting them on board, they would do a rug pull and basically say, "Sorry, you're actually not worthy though to be a full member of this church." And not only are you not worthy, God actually taught us that you're cursed and that you were less valiant in the life before this, which means that you are not only not worthy, but that God made you so that you should be kept out of his presence. To go back to Joseph Smith, Joseph Smith died in 1844. Slavery was abolished in 1865. And so when Joseph Smith instituted the church, slavery was still legal in the United States. Joseph Smith was a flip-flopper on race. Joseph Smith did ordain a few black men to the priesthood. Those men were still not ever able to go to the temple to receive those forms of Mormon blessings. One of the most famous is named Elijah Abel. Uh he had partial black heritage. Another famous black member was Jane Manning James. She crossed the plains and lived in Salt Lake. She asked to participate in the temple, but she was not allowed. She was also promised by Joseph Smith that in the afterlife her skin would turn white and then she would be able to get all the blessings of God. So that was another common myth is that even though black members weren't allowed to fully participate in this life that in the afterlife, God would turn their skin white and then they would be able to get all these blessings. So they they really shouldn't worry about it basically because don't worry cuz in the afterlife God will take care of it by removing the curse and turning your skin to be white and delightsome. As a side note, I did find this very interesting resource. It's a collection of histories on black Mormons from 1830 to 1930. This for example is Maryanne Perkins and Jane Manning James, the one that I just showed the picture of who was promised to turn white. That was her mother-in-law. So, a lot of them are pretty interrelated and connected because interracial marriage was not allowed. So, once they joined the church, they really were only marrying other black members of the church. And so, they're all fairly interconnected if you go and read about their histories. In Maryanne Perkins case, she was born in 1840. She was enslaved when she crossed from Missouri at the age of nine and died in Salt Lake at the age of 77. So, it doesn't give a ton of information about her, but it seems that she was essentially enslaved while living in Missouri. My guess is her enslavers joined the church, Joseph Smith died, they moved to Salt Lake, they held her in there, you know, they enslaved her all throughout going across the plains and then I couldn't find any information about whether or not she was ever freed while living in Salt Lake. As I said, Joseph Smith was a flip-flopper on slavery throughout his life and he flip-flopped on just whe you know his teachings about black people in general. I found this letter which is Joseph Smith himself writing that slavery is justified. It was written in 1836. I can very definitively say that I never once as a member was notified that Joseph Smith or Brigham Young or other prophets held these types of views. Once Joseph Smith moved to Nauvoo, he once again he wrote that letter about how slavery is biblically justified which I included here. And then later he went back on his words and basically said now that he believed in the breakdown of slavery and in his 1844 presidential campaign he said that he wanted to uh free all enslaved people. Despite saying all of that about slavery, he also went on record to say this, which is basically him advocating for segregation and that though he's, I guess, somewhat recognizing the rights of black people, he still believes that there should be total segregation. After Joseph Smith was killed, the church splintered into many different groups. I'll flash on the screen here what those groups looked like. I'll also link that chart below. I was raised in the Bergamite branch. So that's the largest branch. That's the current modern-day largest faction of the Mormon church was the faction that went with Brigham Young and headed to Salt Lake City. But other branches did allow black men to be ordained. The bricker tonight group and the Strangite group. Those both always have allowed black people, black men to receive the priesthood. And so to me, this evolution of race through Joseph Smith was that he was basically just flip-flopping and trying to figure out how he as Joseph Smith the person was going to approach it. After he died though, Brigham Young was 100% just ultra racist. Um much more racist than Joseph Smith had been. Joseph Smith ordained a few black men to the priesthood. But he still taught that black skin was a curse. Joseph Smith still said they couldn't go to the temple to receive their endowment or go to the highest level of heaven. So, while Joseph Smith was not great, uh, Brigham Y. Young was even worse. It was under Brigham Y. Young in 1852 that the priesthood ban went into full effect. From what I can tell during this time, they were pretty dogged in making sure that no one got the priesthood unless they were completely white. A man named Even Wright during this priesthood ban, his responsibility was to make sure that people could literally trace their genealogy to prove they had no not a single drop of African blood. This requirement to trace your genealogy to make it obvious that you have no African ancestry ended in 1954 with Prophet David McKay. He said that anyone could be ordained as long as they did not appear to have black heritage. And so with Brigham Young, there definitely began a new page within the church where it was a lot more formalized and a lot more serious to ensure that the priesthood would never go to a black member of the church. Brigham Y. Young also taught that interracial marriage should be punished by death. Here's a quote from him. So basically, if a white person marries a black person and they have kids, that all the entire family essentially should cease to exist. and that that would be the only way to get forgiveness for the sin of interracial marriage. Now, a lot of the people who have said that the reason black people couldn't have the priesthood was just because of policy and it was never doctrine, uh, they've probably never seen this official church statement from 1949. Before reading this, I'll share that in the past, I've blurred this word in particular, but I had a black history professor reach out to me and basically say that it's more historically accurate to include it as a piece of history. And I'm going to spell the word rather than saying it aloud. The statement reads, so this is an official church statement. The attitude of the church with reference to the neg remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord which is founded on the doctrine of the church from the days of its organization. To skip forward a bit, President Brigham Young said, "Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers rejecting the power of the holy priesthood and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the holy priesthood, that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain and then they will come up and possess the priesthood. So that is the skin will turn white. God will make sure everything is okay. That's where that teaching comes from. And the reason I wanted to read this is first because it is an official church statement. And it goes further. It it literally clarifies that it is not policy. It's doctrine that originated with the church. And to me, the the church should never be able to live this down because the church teaches that it is the eternal truth that God is the same today, yesterday, and forever. And the church very definitively for over a hundred years claimed that black people were cursed and that is the doctrine of the church and that is the teachings of God. That statement from a prophet of God at the time makes it clear that they are saying they're they're never going to change this as a part of Mormon belief. However, uh they also didn't maybe understand what type of social reckoning would happen with the civil rights movement. The civil rights movement began in 1954, which is just 5 years after the release of that statement. In 1967, interracial marriage was legalized. And historians say that the civil rights movement ended in 1968. You can see in the timeline that I've been placing here that though the civil rights movement ended in 1968, it took 10 more years before the church finally ended the ban on the priesthood and black people being able to receive a temple endowment and a temple marriage. During that period of the 60s, the church was actually trying to open a mission, a Mormon mission in Nigeria. But they were having a difficult time because they can't very well organize a congregation in Nigeria because no one know there are only black people. They can't hold the priesthood. They can't hold leadership positions. An auxiliary is someone who is in a leadership position but does not have the priesthood. So this is a chart of current Mormon leadership. And you'll see that there are some Mormon women leaders, but they're listed under auxiliary, meaning that they are leaders, but they don't have the priesthood. So they tried this in Nigeria, too. So this way they could still have leadership, but they would just be making it clear, hey, you're a leader, but you don't have the priesthood. That's what they do to women, too. And they still were running into issues though because uh every day in a Mormon church, every Sunday they have the sacrament. So they came up with a solution that the Mormon missionaries, the white Mormon missionaries would bless the sacrament, but the black male congregants would be allowed to pass the sacrament. Currently and traditionally, passing the sacrament is something only people with the priesthood can do. typically 12-year-olds with the ironic priesthood are the ones who go and pass the sacrament around. Several members of the quorum of the twelve apostles of Mormon leadership were were against them even passing the sacrament. Uh so they shut it down. Now as I said in 1978 the ban officially ended with something called official declaration 2. Official declaration 2 is still found in Mormon scripture. So these are my scriptures that I carried around on my mission and I can go in the back and see official declaration 2. You may be wondering what is official declaration number one. That is that uh they are no longer practicing polygamy. These are basically the only two constitutional amendments that make it into Mormon scripture. The two official declarations, one ending the practice of polygamy and one declaring the end of the priesthood ban and the temple ban. I do remember finding these in my scriptures as a Mormon kid. You know, when you're bored in church, you just start filming through the pages. And I remember reading those two official declarations and just looking over at my parents and being like, "What? What is it talking about here?" Of course, when you're a kid though and the adults just kind of wave you off, you are not quite, at least I was not quite smart enough to continue my search of trying to figure out what's the what's the real history behind this in my scriptures rather than them just saying, "Oh, it was a long time ago. You don't need to worry about it." Even though they ended the ban in 1978, it still took a really long time to see a black person in church leadership. It wasn't until 2020 that there was a black member of the church who was at the one of the highest levels of Mormon leadership. The first black man to get to this level of leadership was named Ahmad Corbett and he was sustained as the first counselor to the young men's general presidency and the first black person to hold that level of leadership. So that's basically the overarching history from Joseph Smith till present on the priesthood ban. I'm going to get into more of the doctrinal and scriptural reasons for the ban in a moment. I know I mentioned, and if you remember the clip from Chanel, she mentions this valiant in the pre-earth life, which sounds totally made up. Uh, so I'm going to explain where that teaching comes from. I think to share my experience growing up in the church, I would describe it as color-blind Mormonism where after they stopped banning black people from full membership in the church, they adopted this sense that nothing was wrong. Nothing, you know, there's we fixed everything because we ended the ban. Color doesn't really exist. We're we're a post-racial uh group of people. And I feel like it allowed white people and my family included and me included in that to basically just not learn about the history, not contend with the history, and to feel like everything we're good, everything's solved. Even though also from, you know, those clips from the black menaces and other ex-members, you can see that the echoes of this policy are still being contended with today within the church. And the people on the front lines of that are the black members of the church, not the white members of the church. I think, you know, when I was a ninth grade teacher and I tried teaching about EMTT till Till and racism, the most common reason I was given that we didn't need to learn this was because racism doesn't exist anymore. And I think that after the priesthood ban and even, you know, seeing all the PR images created by the church, the belief is that truly everything is solved. We're all just living happily and there's there's we've we've solved racism. We fixed it. Um there's no problems left. There's there's no problems to point to, which is obviously and very clearly not the case. There were multiple doctrinal reasons given for this ban over time. Whether it was official declarations like the one I read you, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, other prophets, random people sharing and spouting whatever it was that they felt like was the reason for the ban. But there are a few primary categories of why this doctrine existed that I wanted to share. The first is the background of this phrase that uh is pretty common to hear in critics when they talk about issues with the Book of Mormon. Uh it's found in Second Nephi 5 21. It says, "And he had caused the cursing to come upon them. Yay, a sore cursing because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him. They had become like a flint. Wherefore, as they were white and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. As you can hear in that verse, obviously, he's explaining that when people are wicked, they have a skin of blackness, a curse. And this is in line with what Joseph Smith believed about the curse of Cain, which I already explained in another portion of the Book of Mormon, which is second Nephi chapter 30:6. The they actually went as far as to change the wording in the book. So this verse used to say white and delightsome and they changed it to be pure and delightsome. Keeping in mind that Joseph Smith taught that this is the most correct book to ever exist. And yet, as you can see here, there have been thousands of changes to this book over time. Apologists would say that all the changes are just grammatical. Uh because the original manuscript of the Book of Mormon, there is very little punctuation. But a lot of the changes that have been made are also doctrinal. They've changed the wording around the Godhead, for example, so that it's much more clear that Mormons believe that God, Jesus Christ, and the Holy Ghost are three separate beings versus the Trinity, which is more commonly taught by other Christian groups. And so, there have been substantive doctrinal changes made to the Book of Mormon over time. I do have a full long- form video about the Book of Mormon if you want to check that out. But I'm highlighting this mostly to say that even though they changed it from white and delightsome to pure and delightsome, there are other remnants still remaining in the Book of Mormon that make it clear that black skin is a curse. Another example of the belief that righteousness and white skin go hand in hand is from the Laymonite program. This is a program where Mormon families would take in Native American children and let them live with them during the school year. This was thousands of Native American children and was a form of colonization. One Mormon leader said that because a 16-year-old Native American girl was becoming Mormon or she had joined the church, she was several shades lighter than her parents. and he said, "These young members of the church are changing to whiteness and to delights." He went on to say in the speech that one white elder, a a missionary, jokingly said that he and his companion were donating blood regularly to the hospital in the hope that the process might be accelerated. If it's a joke, I don't know why you needed to include it in a religious talk, but that is just more evidence to show that this connection between white skin and righteousness and purity were a connection that was very was taught in the church for a very long time. The Book of Mormon literally goes all the way back to Joseph Smith. And in the book of Abraham, it also says that the reason that certain groups of people weren't allowed to receive the priesthood was because they were connected back to Cain, meaning that they had this same curse, black skin. And so we find that in both the Book of Abraham and the Book of Mormon that Joseph Smith is continuously teaching that black people are cursed. Also, if you just look up all the pictures of Jesus that the Mormon church has ever produced, he is like white social media Utah dad. Basically, he's always super white, you know, perfect teeth, smiling. He never looks like he is originating from Jerusalem by any stretch of the imagination. He just looks like your average white Mormon dude. And so I think even the depictions of Jesus Christ as having white skin, especially the Mormon depictions of Jesus Christ having white skin is also caught up in the same teaching that the more righteous you are, the whiter your skin is. This teaching about white skin being connected to righteousness also uh connects to the pre-earth life story that Mormons so often teach. So basically the teaching is that before we this is what Mormons believe happens before we were born when we live on earth and after we die. I already talked about to get to the best level of heaven you have to be married in the temple and receive your temple endowment. But before our souls came to earth we're over here in the pre-existence or the pre-earth life. The belief was that black people were not as valiant uh during the war in heaven. So during the war in heaven, Satan tried to tempt some of God's children to come with him. He got a third of the host of heaven. The righteous or valiant people fought for God and fought for Jesus. And so they they were on that side of the war. And I will read what Bruce Rakoni taught that black people, their souls did in that pre-ear life. And I'll place it off to the side here. As you can see here, he said one-third of the spirit hosts of heaven came out in open rebellion and were cast out without bodies coming becoming the devil and his angels. So those are the souls that never came to earth to begin with and those are also the souls that can possess whoever's walking around on earth today. So this is basically him talking about the potential for demonic possession. The other twothirds stood affirmatively for Christ. To skip forward a bit, he says some were more valiant than others. of those two/3s, Adam and all the prophets so distinguished themselves by diligence and obedience as to be for ordained to their high earthly missions. So Adam, Adam of Adam and Eve was basically like I don't know some sort of battalion leader in the war in heaven. Uh so he got more blessings basically and a higher station here on earth. Those who were less valiant in the pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed on them during mortality are known to us as the neg oes's or black people. 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. So Mormons will say that this book which is called Mormon doctrine is just a book. It's not really Mormon doctrine, which is silly, but this wouldn't technically be be considered scriptural canon, but as we saw in the official church statement, which would be considered official church canon, this is all saying the same thing, which is that they were cursed, and that's why they don't they shouldn't be able to get the priesthood. Negeni the priesthood. Under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty. Under no circumstances. And you see there, he uses Abraham. So that's the scripture I was saying that originated with Joseph Smith, which was used to justify why black people couldn't get the priesthood. So this is a very long-standing belief within the Mormon church stemming from Joseph Smith. He goes on to say, "The present status of the Negro or black person rests purely and simply on the foundation of pre-existence." So, you know, he's essentially, and this is what they all did. They're washing their hands of this bigotry because they're basically saying, "God said this is the case. Our hands are tied. There's nothing we can do. This is just God's law. You know, we we can't change God's law." And who are we to dictate to God? And so, this is just the way it has to be, and you can boohoo all you want, but this is just what God said has to happen, and we just follow God. In addition to Bruce Armakoni's book, there's other quotes you can very easily find from other leaders who basically say that, you know, in the battle of in the war in heaven, whether they were too neutral or they didn't fight hard enough or, you know, I don't know, they I'm like picturing that they're talking about some sort of like World War II trenches and the souls of black people were hiding in the trenches and the souls of white people were out there fighting. I don't really know the specifics of this war in heaven valiant situation, but whatever, however this played out in this non-existence pre-earth life, they're using it to say this is why black people cannot have the priesthood. To go a little bit more in depth into the curse of Cain, I've already explained about how Cain was violent against Abel because he killed his brother. God put a curse on him. I've already explained that background. You'll see in Mormon doctrine that people will use either the term the curse of Cain or the curse of Ham. Joseph Smith when he re-ransated the Bible traced the biblical character of Ham back to Cain. And so, um, they're all kind of interrelated. He's basically just tracing this lineage, this black person lineage from Cain to Ham to other people in the book of Abraham and in the Bible. And so it's all it's all referring to this same curse. Uh whether you see curse of Cain or Curse of Ham, it's all referring to the same thing. Ham is a biblical character who found his father drunk. And as a result, Noah cursed Ham uh to become the servant of servants. And this is something that has also been used to justify slavery overall. not just within the Mormon church's bigotry, but has also been used to justify why God is okay with slavery in general. Brigham Young was quoted as saying, "What is the mark?" Referring to the mark put on Cain, "You will see it in the countenance of every African you ever did see. The Lord put a mark upon Cain, which is the flat nose and black skin." So, that is that's a quote directly from Brigham. Young. I've also shared in the past how when I was growing up, I would hear that Mormon prophets or leaders had seen Bigfoot, which was kind of presented as this fun and kooky little Mormon myth, and people would be like, "Mormon prophets saw Big Bigfoot." And at the time, I didn't realize just how racist this assertion was. If you go back and read the history, essentially in 1835, a Mormon apostle was traveling and he reported that he saw a black man covered in hair with dark skin. Essentially, he saw a black man on a horse. And in this letter, he reports that the man on the horse told him he was Cain. And this this letter that he wrote then gets referenced in the book Miracle of Forgiveness which was written in the late60s which was kind of during the time of Bigfoot mania. And so basically this Mormon mytha became just known as someone saw a Bigfoot. A Mormon apostle saw a Bigfoot. But if you go back and read the actual account he says as I was riding along the road on my mule I suddenly noticed a very strange person walking beside me. His head was about even with my shoulders as I sat in my saddle. He wore no clothing but was covered with hair. His skin was very dark. To continue, he said he was a very miserable creature and his mission was to destroy the souls of men. And so even in this account, you can see how this myth of the curse of Cain is changing the way he's thinking of this interaction. He's writing it in a letter. It's becoming entered into Mormon folklore. And then I hear it as a little kid as this funny little story. Even though if I understood the history and the context in which this story came about, I would understand that it's actually still ultra racist and racially coded. Now, let's jump into the reason the ban, the priesthood ban ended really, because if you read the uh official declaration, and the way that I always was taught about it was that the apostles and prophets were begging God, please God, change your mind on this. And then finally, God came around and everyone was happy and weeping and it was just a remarkable day of revelation. So that's what I was taught. Let me explain to you though all of the factors of what was going on behind the scenes that was pressuring the church to change the doctrine. Here is a clip of Barbara Walters asking Donnie and Marie Osmond about the priesthood ban. This uh interview took place in 1978 and it's clear from the clip that the ban is still in place. So they must have reversed the ban maybe I mean within the calendar year of recording this clip. So here is what she asks and here is Donnie Osman's response. Listen, I have to ask you something that I know that you have heard about and if I don't ask it, people will wonder why I didn't. And that is in the strength of your religion, the whole business about blacks not being allowed to be priests in the Mormon religion. Mhm. Tell me how you how you feel about it and what the explanation for that is, would you, Donnie? You bet. Well, I'm not an authority on the subject, but uh I will mention that uh we are not prejudiced people. We offer more I think than any other religion to the black person. And uh if you really want a good explanation in someone who has an authority about it, you should really talk to the general authorities or our church. Um they they are not allowed to hold the priesthood in this right right now. And I don't know why, but that's the way the Lord wants it. So as you can see, he's basically saying, you know, I washed my hands of this. He doesn't say, "Well, it's because black people were less valiant in the pre-earth life," even though that's what the leaders were saying at the time. Uh he's, you know, I don't know why it is. I also think it's so interesting how of this is often the dynamic when interviewers ask active members, you know, now the question is why does your church not um allow for gay marriage? And it's it's often, you know, people want to say, "Well, I represent my church and I love my church and I'm here to talk about my church and la," but I don't know about that. You really have to go to the leaders of the church if you want an answer to that question. And I it's so ironic to me to see them both simultaneously represent the church while also not wanting to represent the church on these issues that are obviously unpopular and racist and bigoted. Um, but they're not they're not going to disavow the belief, but they're also not going to stand up for it. I also think his little comment about the Mormon church offers more for the black person than any other church. Um that is something that I saw a lot in my research being passed around from member to member that this was it's very you know the rhetoric is so similar to how they legitimize not giving women the priesthood which is that it's actually the nicer thing to do to not give them the priesthood. and you know they have their own spiritual journey and it would be more damaging and you know it'd be more accountability and it's actually better for them to not have the priesthood which is the same thing they say for women. So a BYU professor named Randy Bot who fun fact I literally had Randy Bot as my professor at BYU this is what he had to say about this. He compared the priesthood ban to a parent denying young children the keys to the family car. He also compares it to falling off a ladder. So he says you couldn't fall off the ladder because you weren't on top of the ladder. So in reality, black men not having the priesthood was the greatest blessing me God could give them. The argument here seems to be with great power comes great responsibility. And he's obviously to me saying that black people wouldn't be prepared to handle the responsibility of the priesthood and they would go mess it all up. So God's not giving them the keys to the family car cuz they're going to crash the car. And so it's actually kinder to not give them that level of authority because then they can't do anything wrong with it or mess it up or condemn themselves to be damned by making a mistake after they've been given this responsibility. So during the 70s, the church was really facing mounting pressure to change this policy. Keep in mind the civil rights movement ended in 1968. So every year that passed after the end of the civil rights movement, the church's stance became less and less popular and there were more and more people calling them out for their racism. President David O McKay was the prophet of the time. Uh that's the top leader of the church. He said, "I've inquired of the Lord repeatedly. Last time I did, it was late last night. I told I was told with no discussion not to bring the subject up with the Lord again. that the time will come, but it will not be my time and to leave the subject alone. So, he's just facetiming with God. And God is telling him like a petulant child, can you please stop asking me that? You've asked me that so many times. And poor little David McKay, what power does he have because he just has to listen to God and he uh he he doesn't have any power to change this doctrine. And so in 1969, you know, I read that 1949 statement where they said it's doctrine. uh in 1969, so 20 years later, they release another statement doubling down on this ban. It said, "From the beginning of this dispensation, Joseph Smith and all succeeding presidents of the church have taught that neg black people while spirit children of a common father and the progeny of our earthly parents, Adam and Eve, were not yet to receive the priesthood." It goes on to say this the seeming discrimination by the church toward the negro or black person is not something which ordained with man but goes back to the beginning with God. Revelation assures us that this plan antidates man's mortal existence extending back to man's pre-existent state. So in 1969 they are once again doubling down. This is doctrine. This is the way God organized mankind. Um, this is not the church being racist. This is God's law and we are not budging because it's God's law. It's not the church's policy. So, they're once again making it very clear that this is eternal principle. Uh, God is unchanging. God is the same yesterday, today, and forever. And this approach to black people within the church is not going to change. In the late60s, there were a ton of massive protests against BYU specifically. Starting in 1968, other colleges started protesting BYU. So that's where this picture comes from. Uh this is not BYU students protesting BYU. This is visiting colleges. So someone would visit for an athletic event and while they were visiting they would protest against BYU or if BYU was at a different college for an athletic event they would protest in that way. So there were there just started to be a lot of universities protesting against BYU and the Mormon church's priesthood ban. The first protest was in 1968 at the University of Texas at El Paso. black track athletes boycotted a meet against BYU and as a result they were kicked off the team and they lost their scholarships. In 1969, uh 14 black football players were kicked off the team for planning a protest against BYU. In 1969, Stanford University officially announced it would not schedule any new events with BYU. So, this isn't even student protesting. This is the college itself saying they're not going to do any more athletic events with BYU because of their stance on race. At the same time, in the University of New Mexico, the student senate demanded the university cut ties with BYU. So, you can see this is really happening all over the country. Of all of the protests, I would say that the ones that seemed the most intense and had the most coverage was the uh Black Student Union at the University of Washington and how they protested BYU. You can read this article. They talk about protests at a BYU gymnastics event and the Black Student Union was more or less simultaneously protesting BYU and protesting their own university for continuing to have ties with BYU. From my research, the University of Washington didn't really know what to do. And this came up, this type of conflict came up again and again during this time because they have a duty to oppose racism and uphold the rights of black people, but they're also supposed to respect religious expression. So now both of these people's rights are more protected by the constitution. And so they don't, you know, this university is consulting lawyers to try to figure out how do we respect the rights of both parties here when this religion is teaching things that are racist, but also it's written in the constitution to respect religion. These ideas are just inherently at odds with each other and the the university and really a lot of systems at this time didn't quite know what to do with the conflict between religious rights and minority rights. It was so interesting to read this whole history because the church still today very much hides behind the freedom of religion as explanation for why they're allowed to have bigotry against gay people and why they can have rules on their campus about gay people showing affection. And so this is the same playbook uh they are using the same playbook that they used to legitimize their racism to legitimize their homophobia. every single time you see them hiding behind freedom of religion as the justification for why they should be able to hold these bigoted beliefs. So we have the university protests happening throughout this time. We also have the IRS on their back. In 1970, the IRS, which stands for Internal Revenue Service, this is basically how people and organizations are taxed within the United States. They changed their policy that prohibited the IRS from giving taxexempt status to private schools that engage in racial discrimination. And so in 1970, BYU starts seeing this IRS rule that gets changed and recognizes if we continue in our bigotry, if we continue in our racism, we could lose taxexempt status, which means we're going to have to fork over hundreds of thousands of dollars over back to the United States government, and we will no longer enjoy this taxexempt status. What's interesting though is that BYU didn't immediately lose its taxexempt status. And the reason for that is that their discrimination was considered religious but not educational. So they still allowed black students on campus. They didn't discriminate which classes black students could take. They had open admissions. They had no written racial policies in regards to education. And so all of their discrimination was consigned to religion and not to education. So they use that to basically say, "Hey, we don't discriminate on the basis of education, so we should be able to keep our taxexempt status." The reason the IRS changed this law in 1970 was because of another university, the um Bob Jones University, which is another Christian, very Christian and very religious university that was uh engaging in discrimination. And so the church was basically seeing what was happening to Bob Jones University and kind of saw the writing on the wall to say, "Well, they're not coming after us yet, but they very well may be coming after us eventually if we keep this up." Mormon leader Don H. Oaks testified that religions shouldn't have to justify themselves to the government to get funding and it was their first amendment rights. So he went as far as to say, you know, we shouldn't have to justify our religious beliefs to the IRS. This is a violation of our first amendment rights and we should be able to believe whatever we want according to the First Amendment. And so there's a clear record of just how hard the church fought to keep its discrimination. This isn't that they even just change with the times because this is another common argument, you know, to say the church wasn't that racist was that, oh, it was just the the time, you know, they they also were in a culture. They had to be responsive to that culture. To be clear, the culture changed and then the church fought tooth and nail within the legal system, uh, you know, using top lawyers, they fought to keep their discrimination. So, this is actually going past culture because as the culture changed, they fought to hold their hold on to their discrimination. This is another reason why making a video like this is so important to me because when you get into the nitty-gritty of what actually happened, you can see just how entrenched these beliefs were and just how hard, you know, they were fighting. They were fighting to be racist. They weren't being passively racist with their culture. They were fighting to be racist past the point that the culture had changed. The IRS removed Bob Jones University's taxexempt status in 1971. They took them to court and then the top court affirmed the decision in 1983. So by 1983, Bob Jones University that decision was affirmed and they lost taxexempt status for banning interracial dating. And so in 1983 the Supreme Court upheld that ruling and said you cannot discriminate even religiously on the basis of skin color and they lost their taxexempt status and that was 5 years after the church ended the priesthood ban. So really the writing was on the wall and I think that the church just was responsive to losing their money which of course they are because how do you amass 200 plus billion dollars unless you really care about your bottom line above all else. Uh they also had a PR nightmare with the BYU protests. And the final indicator I wanted to point to was that the church was still trying to expand to be a global church. They were were still trying to send missionaries all over and this policy was making it quite difficult and the places that it was the most difficult obviously was Africa but also was Brazil where there had been historically very little segregation compared to other countries in the world and so many people in Brazil in some shape or form had African or black ancestry. In the 70s, the church was trying to build a temple in Sao Paulo, Brazil. But as people were donating and as members were trying to get this temple built, it became more and more clear and the word got out more and more that they wouldn't be able to go into the temple that they were helping to fund. And so at this point they had to make a decision if they were either going to stop construction of the temple or if they were going to allow these, you know, biracial or multi-racial converts in Brazil to enter into the temple. They they just didn't know what to do. And so they were also realizing that it's very difficult to grow a modern church when you're holding on to these very bigoted and discriminatory practices that most of the world has given up decades previously. During the 70s there were also some white members who were trying to change this policy from within. One of the most famous is Douglas Wallace. This is a picture of Douglas Wallace who attempted to baptize and then give the priesthood to a man named Larry Lester. He basic so basically he went rogue and he said, "I'm just going to give you the priesthood." The church declared this ordination null and void. And this happened in 1967. And as a result, the white man, Douglas Wallace, was also excommunicated from the church. It seemed he also tried to crash general conference which is a big Mormon meeting with some sort of demonstration or protest. He was legally barred from the conference center and his house was subsequently surveiled by the FBI at the Mormon church's request. So I I mean man he he just tried to give someone the priesthood and the church got the FBI involved. In addition to Douglas Wallace, John Fitzgerald and Byron Merchant were also excommunicated for speaking out against the church's policies on race. And so, now that I've explained all of the real reasons, in my opinion, the church was finally willing to reverse the ban, let me read you the reason given in Mormon scripture. This is official declaration two, which I referenced earlier. This is written by top church leadership. We have pleaded long and earnestly in behalf of these our faithful brethren, black members of the church, spending many hours in the upper room of the temple, supplicating the Lord for divine guidance. He has heard our prayers and by revelation has confirmed that the long promised day has come when every faithful worthy man in the church may receive the priesthood and then the temple blessings as well. I just think that how this is worded like they had been begging for this for years and years and years and finally the heavens opened when really you know the prophet is saying I asked him last night and he said stop asking me. You can tell that they're trying to turn the narrative around and basically say, "We've been begging God and please God, can you change your mind?" And finally, God said it was time. And the way this is worded, um, nothing in this revelation says anything about BYU protesting, the IRS, the church trying to open in Brazil and Africa. Instead, the the prophets were the ones who were begging for the change. And because God is a loving God, he finally changed this doctrine. I feel like moments like this is why I still think that the church will ultimately change its policy on gay people getting married in temples and women getting the priesthood. And I'm sure when they change those rules, it's going to be the same where they're like, "We've begged for this for years and this is all anyone ever wanted." And they're just going to gaslight everyone into thinking that the the true narrative never existed. And the the real faithful narrative is that God wanted to bestow this upon us all along, but he was just waiting for us to be ready for it. Not that all of these other leaders were racist and bigoted and discriminatory and wanted the power for themselves and viewed themselves as better than everyone else, but rather that they were meek and mild and they just were subject to the whims of God. And it's just so frustrating. I do have this book. It's called In the Lord's Due Time. It was written by a man named Joseph Freeman who you can see here. This is the first ever man to receive the priesthood after the 1978 revelation. I saw this book referenced in a few different places so I decided to pick it up. The way he got introduced to the church is that he was at the Polynesian Cultural Center in Hawaii. He was in the military. He met a woman who he basically fell in love with. She starts teaching him about the church because as I said, they're still proceliting to black people even though they're not allowed to have full membership in the church. She bears her testimony and she says, "I love Joseph Smith with all my heart." And then he said, "As I heard her pronouncement, I couldn't help but think before this, you're going to love Joseph Freeman, too." Um, which I thought was pretty funny. He finally asks her on a date and she says, "Well, yes, but I want you to know that I could never marry a negro o." So that's, you know, I talked at the very beginning about how the church has different racism towards different people and pol even Polynesians who are still people of color are being taught that black people are cursed and that they can't go to the temple. And so obviously even though she's a person of color, a Polynesian person, a Samoan, she's still discriminating against him based off of this church teaching. He seems to take a similar argument as the woman at the beginning who says everything's racist from the past. Uh he says, "I wasn't particularly threatened, nor did I really feel discriminated against because of the priesthood policy, but I couldn't understand why I was the only black in Hawaii, or at least I had seen no others, to be drawn to the church." And so it seems that even though this policy is in place, he didn't feel personally that harmed or hurt by it and he still chose to get baptized. He eventually asks this woman to marry him and he says, "Other mutual friends, uh, my girlfriend's teachers and associates at school and members of the church felt very strongly that we should not marry and didn't hesitate to give us that advice. As a matter of fact, some were very insistent about it. I was black and Toe, Tow is the name of his girlfriend, was not. It was open and shut. There was no way we were meant to be together. So, obviously, everyone's very against their interracial relationship. They do end up getting civily married. Later on, as I said, he is ordained and receives the priesthood. And then here is a picture of him and his wife in front of the temple and their kids getting sealed. And then here's another picture of their family a bit later on. I did look him up. He has a Wikipedia page. It looks like he's still active in the church and he's serving in a lower level of leadership as a member of the stake presidency. And so reading this book, it felt like he had the same rationale as uh many gay members of the church who are still members and choose to be celibate. basically saying, "I believe it. It's discriminating against me, but because I believe it, I'm still choosing to participate in it, and maybe I'm trying to say the discrimination isn't hurting me that much, or whatever the discrimination might be, I still want to be involved in some capacity." And so, it seems like the the struggles that he faces in this book are the same really as black members face today. there's no more priesthood ban, but it does seem to be that there's still a lot of discrimination or remarks or uh you know fewer opportunities for leadership. There's still not equality within the church. This exists with women asking for the priesthood. There's a popular figure named Charlie Bird who uh was celibate and I I you know he's now married to a man and doesn't seem he he for a while he was advocating for celibacy and being a gay active member of in the church and I always thought that if the church was going to reverse their position on gay marriage that someone like Charlie Bird would be the first to be able to be sealed in a temple because they seem to usually choose members who have been faithful despite the policy that is is in place. So the church disavowed previous teachings about race for the first time in 2013. This means it took them about 35 years to get around to disavowing these previous teachings. The disavowel took place in this essay which was produced by the church and I'll link it below. Uh but first and some of it so that you can see what the church is saying about these teachings. Now, uh, but first to just do a little bit of math, uh, the current prophet, President Nelson, was born in 1924. So, that 1949 statement that I read to you, he was 25 when that was read. So, he was a fullyfledged adult. He was raised believing this doctrine about black people. So, 25 when that statement was released in 1949. He also was holding leadership callings all throughout the civil rights movement. Uh you will not find a single quote from him saying, "I think that the church's stance on black people is wrong." So the current leader of the church, all of this to say, was raised through his adulthood into his 50s and 60s believing this bigoted and discriminatory teaching about black people. Russell M. Nelson was 54 years old when the policy was reversed. So, I really think it's impossible to say that this man isn't racist. He was raised into adulthood and late in life, you know, 54. He was middle-aged by the time the policy was overturned. You will not find a whisper of this man speaking out against these policies. And if he did, he wouldn't be profit. you know, no one that ever is willing to raise their head above the waterline to say, "I think this is wrong," is ever going to get to be in any sort of leadership position. And so it, you know, this man at the head of the church, similar to polygamy, the the vestigages of these types of policies last much longer and far past them making some official declaration that it's over. The cultural legacy of these types of teachings live on to this day. It was, you know, 1979 for someone like me. I was born in '92. It seems like a long time ago, but the current prophet of the church was 54 years old when this policy was finally overturned. And so, it really wasn't that long ago. To go a little bit in depth into this statement about race in the priesthood released by the church, the word doctrine is never used. In 2013, the church released the Gospel Topics essays, which is the vaguest name on the planet, and they address some of the most common frustrations with the church, women in the priesthood, uh, Heavenly Mother, God as a woman. They also, of course, have race in the priesthood, which they address. So, this is kind of the first time they ever spoke about this publicly since the official declaration, too. The structure of these gospel topics essays is always so fascinating because they really heavily play up the good things the church did and downplay or completely redact the bad things the church did. Most of what I shared in this video we is not found in this essay. Instead, they talk a lot about how the church never segregated congregations and the church bl you know that they'll just say here's all the good things the church did regarding race rather than highlighting the negative. An example of this is the first sentence of this is in theology and practice the church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints embraces the universal human family. How nice. Next paragraph, first sentence. The structure and organization of the church encourage racial integration. How nice. It takes them three paragraphs to finally get into the actual thing that people want to know from this essay, which is despite this modern reality, for much of its history, from the mid 1800s until 1978, the church did not ordain men of black African descent to the priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in the temple endowment or ceiling ordinances. So they really have a long windup of talking about all the nice things and then finally in the third paragraph they cut to the chase. It almost just feels absurd to read that essay because it's like we're good, we love everyone, we're so nice and we're racist. It's it's just like I'm sorry. It's you can tell that they had someone with an advanced degree in public relations write this essay because it is so contrived to just present the bestcase scenario interpretation of these events. And despite the existence of this essay and all of the other essays about Joseph Smith's polygamy and uh all of these other disfavorable things the church kind of wants to sweep under the rug, they have never brought up this essay or any of the essays from what I can tell in any major general conference meeting from the mouths of any prophets. So they essentially try to quietly release these on the internet for members to find if they're highly motivated, but not to air out in public for all to see. All of this to say there are still, like I said at the beginning, many black members of the church. To suggest that all of them are duped into belief is just not true. Some of them have gone on to on record to say they know about the the history of the church. They've researched the racism of the histories of the church and they've decided to make peace with it. And so I think ultimately, you know, if someone knows all of this and still chooses to participate, at least they're choosing to participate with informed consent. I think my biggest issue is just how often black members or ex-members of the church say that they were taught, baptized, participating, paying tithing, the whole nine yards. And it takes them a very long time for anyone to finally tell them that the church used to teach that they were literally cursed. Whenever I talk about black people not being able to have these blessings from the church, I I do have people say, you know, why do you care? Because if you don't believe in the blessings to begin with, it doesn't seem like you should care. And in my opinion, I I just do still care. I think that any organization that damages people on the basis of race or sex or any immutable characteristic is something that should be criticized. Personally, I don't like that I served an entire Mormon mission for this church and that that I wasn't told and I was never educated about these issues. Despite years of membership, hours of membership within this church, hours of study, uh four years of seminary, a BYU degree, there's never a time where they come forward and say, "We want to educate you about the history of this church so that you know what you're involved in." And so even though I don't believe that there are truly, you know, blessings to be had within the temple, I still think that everyone deserves to know this information and that if someone is choosing to join the church in order to get those blessings, they should have this information so that they can at least consider critically the fact that this true eternal church changed its doctrine to avoid getting hit by the IRS, to avoid losing taxexempt status. and because they were having a PR nightmare for holding on to this policy so far past the civil rights movement. In my opinion, and as echoed in those videos I showed at the beginning, the church truly has not done enough to break this cultural legacy of racism in the church, it's very common to hear stories of people, especially in Utah, people, you know, black people growing up in Utah or existing in Utah being racially profiled, hearing slurs. I recently heard a story of someone who was a member of the church and was Polynesian and wanted to marry a black member of the church who's a fullyfledged member of the church, but this person's parents were very very much against this union because he was black and because the parents still believe that this black young man was cursed. And so because the church hasn't apologized, because they very quietly just disavowed these teachings 25 years later, they truly have not done enough to eliminate any whisper of this from the culture because from this the personal stories of so many different people, these these things these instances of racism and bigotry on the basis of past Mormon doctrine, these instances are still occurring. And even as a teacher teaching about EMTT Till, teaching about racism, I, you know, I would hear the n-word walking around in the hallway. I would have students say they didn't want to learn about racism cuz racism was solved. It was over. And so, all of this to say, it's very, very much still a problem. And even though you can reverse a ban, you're not going to experience a true cultural shift unless you do more. And so that's why photos like this that I showed at the beginning bother me so much because it really is just an attempt to sweep under the rug the church's long long very racist history. Using diversity as an advertisement is truly disgusting. And the fact that they are putting these photos all over their website so much to the point that you would think that there aren't even really white people in the church is just a lie. Thank you so much for watching this video. I know we really got into the history. I hope I didn't lose you in the weeds. If you enjoy this video, consider liking it, subscribing to my channel. If you hit the bell button, then you'll get a notification when I post a new video. I have a new video every week about Mormon doctrine, Mormon history, my experience as a member, very devout member within the church. So, don't forget to subscribe if you want to see a video every single week. If you know someone who might be impacted by the information shared in this video, please consider sharing it. I also highly consider checking out the channels that I linked below and highlighted at the beginning of this video because those people are sharing some really important stories, some really important resources. So, consider checking out their interviews or their channels after this. Thank you again for watching this video because I truly consider this to be very important history to talk about. And as always, I will see you all next