Latter-day Saints And Racism

12 Pages 3075 Words

s were called Lamanites. The Lamanites were cursed by the Lord with the skin of darkness and became known as “a dark, and loathsome, and filthy people full of idleness and all manner of Abomination”1. Eventually the nations of the Amlicites and the Zoramites were cast with dark skin and joined the Lamanites. The Nephite ultimately turned ungodly and became extinct due to numerous battles fought both among themselves and with the Lamanites.
Church leaders believe the present-day Indians to be descendants of the Lamanites.. According to Smith, the Lamanites could cast away their dark skin and savage ways if they sought to repent and accept the true faith that ways taught by the righteous Nephites.
In 1851 the Mormon Church published another major literary work entitled the “Pearl Of Great Price”; it contained the Books of Moses and Abraham as translated by Joseph Smith. It wasn’t until 1880 that the “Pearl of Great Price” became common Holy Scripture and was incorporated with the “Book of Mormon”. It eventually became a major tool in justifying the denial of Priesthood to anyone of African decent. The life of the biblical figure, Cain, is a very important aspect of the literary work. He was believed to have the ability to converse with God, but he loved Satan more than God. Cain murdered his brother Abel and gloried in his wickedness because Satan commanded him to perform the task. Because of his decision to worship Satan “not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race”2. Cain’s decedents became known as the People of Canaan; blackness came upon all their children and they were despised among all people3. The prophet Joseph Smith and the early elders of the Church believed that the seed of Cain continued through the flood by the wife of Ham, a son of Noah4.
Several historians have formed a “Missouri thesis,” which traces th...