UTAH
Daily Utah Chronicle
CONNOR RICHARDS on November 8, 2016
The Book of Mormon. You’ve probably heard of it. A holy book that contains the official beliefs and teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, it is ultimately a narrative of an intense battle between good and evil, black and white. Literally. Translated by LDS founder and prophet Joseph Smith in the early 1800s, it tells the tale of two lost tribes of Israel — the Nephites and Lamanites — that left the holy land in 600 B.C. In traditional Mormon teachings, the Nephites are described as being noble, handsome and fair-skinned. The Lamanites, on the other hand, are portrayed as being brute, savage and dark-skinned.
You can guess who the good and bad guys in the story are.
The story goes that the Lamanites beat out their white and holy counterparts and claimed the Americas for their own. Thus, the origin of Native Americans, according to Mormon leaders and scholars.
One implication of this history is an inherent and intellectually inescapable belief that Native Americans, as well as other races cursed with “skin of blackness,” for that matter, are inferior to white folk. This is well-documented in Mormon and Utah history. It explains why black men were barred from holding the priesthood until 1978, as well as why black and interracial couples were disqualified from having their marriages sealed in the temple until that same year.
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