NigerianNews::Guest Column: Mormon Church Keeping Its Racist Past Secret from African Mormons

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Darrick T. Evenson
former Mormon Elder and missionary
Seattle, Washington
USA

Before this Earth was created there was a War in Heaven between Jesus and Lucifer (Satan). The spirits that sided with Jesus and against Lucifer were rewarded by being born as humans on earth. But some spirits that sided with Jesus were "less valiant" ("too lazy") and God punished them by being born Negroes. This is known as the "Less Valiant" doctrine.

MORMON CHURCH KEEPING ITS RACIST PAST SECRET FROM AFRICAN MORMONS by Darrick T. Evenson

Today there are about 200,000 Mormons in the countries of Ghana and Nigeria. All but perhaps 2,000 of them are natives of those countries. The rest are mostly white missionaries. You can recognize them because they dress in suits, often ride bikes, and white shirts and dark ties with black name-tags saying "Elder" or "Sister" and "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints". These are Mormon missionaries. I was one myself many years ago.

It is true that the Mormon Church, a Church with 13 million members worldwide, now accepts black people as full members, but this was not always so. This was not so until 1978.

I was a Mormon for 15 years. I served as a missionary for the Mormon Church in the United States, and was an Elder. I studied Mormon history more than 99% of other Mormons. For 130 years (from 1848 until 1978) Mormon prophets and apostles taught the following about "Negroes" (black Africans and African-Americans):

*Before this Earth was created there was a War in Heaven between Jesus and Lucifer (Satan). The spirits that sided with Jesus and against Lucifer were rewarded by being born as humans on earth. But some spirits that sided with Jesus were "less valiant" ("too lazy") and God punished them by being born Negroes. This is known as the "Less Valiant" doctrine.

*The firstborn son of Adam and Eve was Cain. He was a white man like his parents. But he killed his brother Abel. As punishment, God cursed Cain and turned him into the first Negro on earth. Cain married his sister, and she was turned into the second Negro on Earth, and they became the parents of the Negro race. The "mark" of the Curse of Cain was black skin, kinky hair, and negroid features. This was known as "the Curse of Cain Doctrine".

*Negroes are the children of Cain, and the representatives of the Devil on earth (taught by John Taylor, president of the Mormon Church in the late 19th century).

*Negroes can be members of the Mormon Church (the official name is "The Church of JESUS CHRIST of Latter-day Saints"), but Negro men cannot hold the priesthood (which all Mormon men above the age of 12 must do), and Negro men and women cannot worship in Mormon Temples along with other Mormons, and they cannot go through the Endowment Ceremony (a Masonic-like secret ceremony) nor be "Sealed" in eternal marriages until this "Curse of Cain" is removed from the "children of Cain" (Negroes).

Negroes were "banned" from the Mormon priesthood and Mormon temples until June 8th, 1978. This was known as "The Priesthood-Ban". Very few blacks were Members of the Mormon Church before June 8th of 1978; no more than a few hundred at any one time.

Here are some quotes from Mormon leaders from the past:

Oliver Cowdery, scribe to Joseph Smith (founding "Prophet" of the Mormon Church") and Second Elder, co-founder of the Mormon Church:

"Let the blacks of the south be free, and our community is overrun with paupers, and a reckless mass of human beings, uncultivated, untaught and unaccustomed to provide for themselves the necessaries of life-endangering the chastity of every female who might by chance be found in our streets-our prisons filled with convicts, and the hang-man wearied with executing the functions of his office!" (Messenger and Advocate, Sept. 11, 1833)

Brigham Young second President and Prophet:

"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. . . . Cain slew his brother. Cain might have been killed, and that would put a termination to that line of human beings. This was not to be, and the Lord put a mark upon him, which was the flat nose and black skin. Trace mankind down to after the flood, and then another cursed 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 (Journal of Discourses, 7:290; emphasis added)

"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." (Journal of Discourses, 10:110; emphasis added)

"I have never yet preached a sermon and sent it out to the children of man, that they may not call Scripture." (Journal of Discourses, 13:95).

John Taylor, third President and Prophet:

"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. . . ." (ibid., 23:304; emphasis added).

"When he [Satan] destroyed the inhabitants of the antediluvian worlds, he suffered a descendant of Cain to come through the flood in order that he might be properly represented upon the earth." (Journal of Discourses, 23:336; emphasis added)

Wilford Woodruff, who became the fourth President and Prophet of the LDS Church:

"What was that mark? It was a mark of blackness. That mark rested upon Cain, and descended upon his posterity from that time until the present. To day there are millions of the descendants of Cain, through the lineage of Ham, in the world, and that mark of darkness still rest upon them."(Millennial Star, 51:339; emphasis added).

George Reynolds (Apostle):

"We will first inquire into the results of the approbation or displeasure of God upon a people, starting with the belief that a black skin is a mark of the curse of Heaven placed upon some portions of mankind. . . . We understand that when God made man in his own image and pronounced him very good, that he made him white. We have no record of any of God's favored servants being of a black race. . . . When God cursed Cain for murdering his brother Abel, He set a mark upon him that all meeting him might know him. . . . After the flood this curse fell upon the seed of Shem, through the sin of their father, and his descendants bear it to this day. . . . We are told in the Book of Abraham in the Pearl of Great Price, that Egypt was discovered by a woman, who was a daughter of Ham, the son of Noah. . . . The pure Negro, as represented by the people of Guinea and its neighboring countries, is generally regarded as the unmixed descendant of Ham. . . . Their skin is quite black, their hair woolly and black, their intelligence stunted, and they appear never to have arisen from the most savage state of barbarism (Juvenile Instructor, October 15, 1868, p. 157).

George F. Richards (Apostle):

�The Negro is an unfortunate man. He has been given a black skin. But that is as nothing compared with that greater handicap that he is not permitted to receive the Priesthood and the ordinances of the temple, necessary to prepare men and women to enter into and enjoy a fullness of glory in the celestial kingdom [i.e., godhood].� (Conference Report, April 1939, p. 58)

Joseph Fielding Smith (10th President of the Mormon Church):

"Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race. A curse was place 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 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---notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness." (The Way to Perfection, 101-02; emphasis added).

"There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages... The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits." (Doctrines of Salvation, 1:61, 66; emphasis added)

Bruce R. McConkie (Mormon Apostle):

"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. (Gen. 4; Moses 5.)" (Mormon Doctrine, p.114)

"Though he was rebel and an associate of Lucifer in pre-existence, and though he was a liar from the beginning whose name was Perdition, Cain was cursed with a dark skin; he became the father of the Negroes, and those sprits who are not worthy to receive the priesthood are born though his lineage. He became the first mortal to be cursed as a son of perdition. As a result of his mortal birth he is assured of a tangible body of flesh and bones in eternity, a fact which will enable him to rule over Satan." (Mormon Doctrine, p.104)

"Through Ham (a name meaning black) the blood of the Canaanites was preserved through the flood, he having married Egyptus, a descendent of Cain. Negroes in this life are denied the priesthood; under no circumstances can they hold this delegation of authority from the Almighty." (Mormon Doctrine, p.343)

In the early 1960s many groups in Ghana and Nigeria were forming. Black ministers had read articles about the Mormon Church and its founding prophet Joseph Smith. Many formed their own "Mormon" congregations with names such as "The Mormon Church of Nigeria" and "The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints of Ghana". They wrote to white Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City saying, "Send us missionaries to baptise us into your Church". But the white Mormon leaders knew that the black Mormons could not hold the priesthood. So, they decided to send older missionaries who would acts as priests in black Mormon congregations, but then the governments of Ghana and Nigeria discovered the "Curse of Cain Doctrine" and then refused to grant visas to the white Mormon elders.

In 1978, then President of the United States, Jimmy Carter, told the "Prophet" of the Mormon Church at that time, Spencer W. Kimball, the following: "You must give your priesthood to the Negroes, or the U.S. government will strip your church of tax-exempt status!" Had the U.S. Government stripped the Church of tax-emempt status, then the Church would have lost most of its money it gets from Mormons every year; many billions of dollars. The "prophet" of the Mormon Church then said he had a "revelation" which the Lord said to him, "Give the blacks the priesthood, and let them enter the temples!" On June 8th, 1978, he announced that the "priesthood-ban" had ended, and Negro men were now allowed to hold the priesthood, and all Negroes could now worship in Mormon Temples and receive the "Endowment Ceremony" and the "Sealing Ceremonies" in those temples in which it is promised they will be eternally married and may become gods and goddesses in the next life; if they are faithful to Mormon leaders during this life.

I am writing this article because the Mormon Church "Public Affairs" Office in Salt Lake City, Utah, U.S.A. is now telling journalists, "No, we never taught that blacks are cursed. We NEVER taught that black people are the children of Cain!" They are lying through their teeth!

If Nigerians and Ghananians wish to become Mormons, that is their business, but the Mormon Church has no right to lie to them, and to lie to journalists, and deny that its leaders taught the Curse of Cain doctrine. The Mormon Church has never repudiated the Curse of Cain Doctrine. I call upon Mormon leaders in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, to make a public apology regarding its past racist teachings.

I call upon the governments of Ghana and Nigeria to deny visas to white Mormon missionaries until the Mormon Church publicly repudiates and declares "false" the Curse of Cain doctrine that it taught for 130 years.

I call upon all Ghananians and all Nigerians to refuse to let white Mormon missionaries into your homes until the Mormon Church in Salt Lake City issues and publishes such a public apology. Thank you.

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