You were taught that where you were born — and to whom — was God’s assessment of what you’d done before you arrived on earth. That dark skin was the record of pre-mortal failure. That there was no injustice whatsoever in any of it. And if you grew up in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, you weren’t just taught this in passing. You were taught it from the pulpit, in Sunday school, in officially endorsed books sold at Deseret Book, and in signed statements from the First Presidency. For 126 years.
In 2013, the church published a Gospel Topics Essay on the priesthood and temple restrictions. Jess and Hannah of Postmormon Postmortem read it so you don’t have to — and more importantly, they read what came before it, so you can hear exactly what the essay is and isn’t saying.
What we cover:
– Brigham Young’s 1852 speeches to the Utah Territorial Legislature, including the February address delivered the same day as the bill legalizing slavery in Utah Territory — and what he said the condition for lifting the ban actually was
– Elijah Abel — the black elder ordained to the Melchizedek priesthood in the 1840s, what happened to his priesthood line after 1852, and why the 2013 essay names him in its opening and stops there
– Mark E. Peterson’s 1954 BYU address, “Race Problems as They Affect the Church,” and the pre-mortal valiance framework that gave the ban its theological architecture
– Bruce R. McConkie’s Mormon Doctrine — published by Deseret Book, on shelves in LDS homes for decades, cited in Sunday school — and what it says under the entry “Negroes”
– The 1949 First Presidency statement signed by George Albert Smith, J. Reuben Clark, and David O. McKay: “a direct commandment from the Lord,” “no injustice whatsoever” — and why the 2013 essay doesn’t cite it
– The 1969 First Presidency statement — same David O. McKay, 20 years later, same policy, with the certainty quietly drained out of it
– The 1978 revelation, Official Declaration 2, and what it does and doesn’t say — including the Brazil temple problem that made the ban institutionally unenforceable
– The word “theories” — what it’s doing, who it’s covering for, and what the 1949 First Presidency statement actually called this doctrine
– Dallin H. Oaks describing, in his own words at the 2018 Be One commemoration, that he could not receive spiritual confirmation of the theological justifications — and what he did with that
– Why the essay is a disavowal and not an apology, and what the difference costs the people it doesn’t name
This episode is for you if you were taught the pre-mortal valiance framework — in Sunday school, at home, from a parent who had the answers — and never had language for what that teaching actually did. It’s for you if you’ve read the 2013 essay and felt like something important was missing but couldn’t name what. And it’s for you if you’re a black Latter-day Saint, a descendant of black Latter-day Saints, or someone who loves one — and you’ve been waiting for the institution to name you specifically. This episode won’t do that either, but it will be honest about the fact that it hasn’t happened.
The church closed a practice without explaining it. Thirty-five years later, the essay attempted the reckoning that 1978 didn’t make. Those are different things — and the gap between them is where the real accounting still needs to happen.
If this episode is part of how you’re working through the church’s history, you might also want Face In a Hat: What the Gospel Topics Essays Admit About Book of Mormon Translation and Joseph Smith Labeled Every Figure Wrong. The LDS Church Knows. Here’s Their Essay. — both part of Postmormon Postmortem’s ongoing Gospel Topics Essay series.
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01:45 Historical Context of Racial Teachings in the Church
02:41 Brigham Young’s Controversial Statements
05:03 The Role of Black Figures in Early Church History
06:31 The Evolution of Church Doctrine on Race
07:59 The Impact of Church Teachings on Racial Perceptions
09:52 The 1978 Revelation and Its Implications
12:06 Reflections on Personal Experiences with Church Teachings
14:11 Conclusion and Call to Action
21:06 The Legacy of Exclusion
22:50 Institutional Necessity and Revelation
25:03 The 2013 Essay: A Quiet Reckoning
27:14 Theories and Doctrines: A Historical Perspective
30:27 The Role of Leadership in Doctrine
33:25 The Church’s Response to Racial History
36:26 The Complexity of Accountability
41:50 The Absence of Apology
45:20 The Impact of the Ban on Families
48:54 Disavowal vs. Accountability
49:45 Patterns of Institutional Response
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