Blacks

LDS - "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." LDS "Apostle" Mark E. Petersen, "Race Problems - As They Affect The Church," Address delivered at Brigham Young University, August 27, 1954, as quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner's book entitled, "The Changing World of Mormonism," p. 307.

COWARDS IN THE "PRE-EXISTENCE"

LDS - "Those who were less valiant in pre-existence and who thereby had certain spiritual restrictions imposed upon them during mortality are known to us as the Negroes." LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527, 1966 edition.

LDS - "The Negroes are not equal with the other races where the receipt of certain spiritual blessings are concerned, ...but this inequality is not of man's origin. It is the Lord�s doing, is based on his eternal laws of justice, and grows out of the lack of spiritual valiance of those concerned in their first estate [the Mormon pre-existence]." LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527 - 528, 1966 edition.

LDS - "...[T]hrough their indifference or lack of integrity to righteousness, [blacks] rendered themselves unworthy of the Priesthood and its powers...." LDS "Historian" B. H. Roberts, The Contributor, vol. 6, pp. 296-297, as quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner's book entitled "The Changing World of Mormonism," p. 293.

LDS - "Is there reason then why the type of birth we receive in this life is not A reflection of our worthiness or lack of it in the pre-existent life? ...[C]an we account in any other way for the birth of some of the children of God in darkest Africa, or in flood-ridden China, or among the starving hordes of India, while some of the rest of us are born here in the United States? We cannot escape the conclusion that because of performance in our pre-existence some of us are born as Chinese, some as Japanese, some as Latter-day Saints. ...A Chinese born in China with a dark skin, and with all the handicaps of that race seems to have little opportunity. But think of the mercy of God to Chinese people who are willing to accept the gospel. In spite of whatever they might have done in pre-existence to justify being born over there as Chinamen, if they now, in this life accept the gospel and live it the rest of their lives they can have the Priesthood, go to the temple and receive endowments and sealings, and that means they can have exaltation. Isn't the mercy of God marvelous? Think of the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood.... This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to earth in the lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa�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 that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory." LDS "Apostle" Mark E. Petersen, "Race Problems - As They Affect the Church," Address delivered at Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954, as quoted in Jerald and Sandra Tanner's book entitled "The Changing World of Mormonism," p. 294.

A CURSE ON THE "SEED OF CAIN"

LDS - "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 upon 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 "servants of servants;" and they will be, until that curse is removed; and the Abolitionists cannot help it, nor in the least alter that decree." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, p. 290, 1859.

LDS - "Though he was a rebel and an associate of Lucifer in pre-existence, ...Cain managed to attain the privilege of mortal birth.... [H]e came out in open rebellion, fought God, worshiped Lucifer, and slew Abel.... 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." LDS "Apostle" Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, pp. 108-109, 1966 edition.

LDS - "...[F]rom Ham sprang the race which preserved the curse in the land." LDS Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:24.

LDS - "Noah's son Ham married Egyptus, a descendant of Cain, thus preserving the Negro lineage through the flood." LDS "Apostle" Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527, 1966 edition.

LDS - "And 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...." LDS "Prophet" John Taylor, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 22, p. 304, 1881.

LDS - "Ham will continue to be servant of servants, as the Lord decreed, until the curse is removed. Will the present struggle [the U.S. civil war] free the slave? No.... Can you destroy the decrees of the Almighty? You cannot." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10, p. 250, 1863.

LDS - "For behold, the Lord shall curse the land with much heat, and the barrenness thereof shall go forth forever; and there was a BLACKNESS came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people." LDS Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:8.

LDS - "And it came to pass that Enoch continued to call upon all people, save it were the people of Canaan, to repent." LDS Pearl of Great Price, Moses 7:12, emphasis added. Note: Mormonism long considered blacks unworthy of its missionary efforts, essentially unworthy of the Gospel message.

LDS - "The gospel message of salvation is not carried affirmatively to them [blacks]...." LDS "Apostle" Bruce McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527, 1966 edition.

BLACKS: NO PRIESTHOOD "IN THIS LIFE"

LDS - "Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty." LDS "Apostle" Bruce R. McConkie, Mormon Doctrine, p. 527, 1966 edition. (See also LDS Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:20-27)

LDS - "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. Enoch saw the people of Canaan, descendants of Cain, and he says, 'and there was a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, that they were despised among all people.�" LDS "Prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, pp. 101-102, 1931.

LDS - "I tell you, this people that are commonly called Negroes are the children of old Cain. I know they are, I know that they cannot bear rule in the priesthood, for the curse on them was to REMAIN upon them, until the resedue (sic) of the posterity of Michal (sic) and his wife receive the blessings...and hold the keys of the priesthood.... In the kingdom of God on earth the Africans (sic) cannot hold one partical of power in government [within the LDS church]." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Brigham Young Addresses, Ms d 1234, Box 48, folder 3, Feb. 5, 1852, as quoted in Bob Witte's book entitled "Where Does It Say That?," p. 2-9.

LDS - "How long is that race to endure the dreadful curse that is upon them? That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof. Until the last ones of the residue of Adam's children are brought up to that favorable position, the children of Cain cannot receive the first ordinances of the priesthood. They were the first that were cursed, and they will be the last from whom the curse will be removed. When the residue of the family of Adam come up and receive their blessings, then the curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will receive blessings in like proportion." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 7, pp. 290-291, 1859.

LDS - "When all the other children of Adam have had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 2, p. 143, 1854.

LDS - "They [blacks] will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the priesthood, and receive all the blessings which WE now are entitled to." LDS "Prophet" Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 11, p.272, 1866.

LDS - "In the spirit of sympathy, mercy and faith, we will also hope that blessings may eventually be given to our negro brethren, for they are our brethren - children of God � notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness." LDS "Prophet" Joseph Fielding Smith, The Way to Perfection, p. 102, 1931.

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