Priesthood, temple, and race

interpretation · not applicable

Several teachings or practices once presented with divine authority were later ended or reframed: plural marriage (D&C 132; the 1890 Manifesto and the 1904 Second Manifesto), the racial priesthood and temple restriction (1852 to 1978), Adam-God teachings (denounced in 1976), the temple oath of vengeance (removed in 1927) and penalties (removed in 1990), the Word of Wisdom (counsel that became a temple-recommend requirement in the 1920s and 1930s), and the 2015 policy on children of same-sex couples (described as revelation, reversed in 2019). Church leaders describe such changes as continuing revelation and adjustments of practice, with doctrine itself constant. Critics and many historians read the same record as doctrine changing under outside pressure and as evidence of prophetic fallibility.

Needs human verification

documented fact · current teaching

The Church has not formally apologized for the priesthood and temple restriction; in 2015 Elder Dallin H. Oaks said the Church does not seek or give apologies, while the Race and the Priesthood essay disavows the past explanations.

Needs human verification

documented fact · historical event

The Church History topic on the priesthood and temple restriction says there is no reliable evidence that black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime, names early ordinations including Elijah Abel, and says Brigham Young publicly announced a racial restriction in 1852.

Needs human verification

documented fact · historical event

Brigham Young taught that Black people were the children of Cain and could not hold the priesthood. In his February 1852 address to the Utah legislature he said that if no prophet or apostle of Jesus Christ had said it before, he was saying it now; Wilford Woodruffs notes of the speech record that anyone with "one drop" of Cains seed could not hold the priesthood. In 1863 Young taught that under the law of God the penalty for a white man who mixed his blood with the seed of Cain was death on the spot.

Needs human verification

disputed · not applicable

Who is accountable for the ban is disputed. Faithful readings hold that leaders were products of their time, that the ban was of God for reasons not revealed and ended by revelation, or that it was Brigham Youngs mistake corrected in 1978. Critical and independent readings (Harris, MormonThink, CES Letter) argue that because every Church president from Young to Lee upheld and defended it as Gods will, either God sanctioned a racist rule or prophets repeatedly spoke as men while claiming to speak for God, and that disavowing the theories without an apology leaves that unresolved.

Needs human verification

interpretation · not applicable

COUNTERFACTUAL, labelled as such: In Bob Jones University v. United States (1983) the Supreme Court upheld revoking a religious universitys tax exemption for racial discrimination. Some argue that a Church which kept a racial priesthood ban into the 1980s could have faced similar legal threats, for example to BYU. No document shows such action was ever taken or threatened against the Church, and FAIR treats the "IRS threat" story as unsubstantiated.

Needs human verification

disputed · past practice

Whether the priesthood and temple ban was doctrine or policy is answered differently across the record. The 1949 First Presidency letter said it was "not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord," on which the doctrine of the Church was founded. The 1969 First Presidency said the reasons were known to God but not made known to man. Sterling McMurrin later recalled President McKay calling it a practice, not a doctrine. Elder Holland in 2006 spoke of "that practice, that policy, that doctrine," and the current Gospel Topics essay calls the 1852 restriction a policy and says no explanation for it is official doctrine today.

Needs human verification

documented fact · historical event

Black men, including Elijah Able (ordained in 1836) and Walker Lewis, held the priesthood in Joseph Smiths lifetime. After the 1852 restriction Able kept his priesthood, but he was refused the temple endowment in 1879, and Jane Manning James was repeatedly refused temple ordinances; in 1894 she was attached by proxy to Joseph Smiths family only as a servant.

Needs human verification

documented fact · current teaching

Later apostles have called the earlier explanations for the ban wrong. Bruce R. McConkie in 1978 told members to forget what he and others had said that contradicted the new revelation. Dallin H. Oaks in 1988 said that the reasons people put to the ban "turned out to be spectacularly wrong." Jeffrey R. Holland in 2006 said almost all of them were "inadequate and/or wrong." None of them formally apologized for the restriction itself.

Needs human verification

documented fact · past practice

Leaders and members justified the racial restriction with descent from Cain or Ham (drawing on Abraham 1 and Moses 7), with the idea that Black people had been less valiant or faithful in a premortal life (reflected in the 1949 First Presidency statement), and with teachings against interracial marriage. The 2013 Gospel Topics essay disavows all of these theories and says Church leaders today "unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."

Needs human verification

documented fact · current teaching

Official Declaration 2 records the 1978 end of the racial restriction. The Race and the Priesthood essay says the church today disavows theories that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or a curse, that mixed-race marriage is a sin, or that any race is inferior.

Needs human verification

disputed · historical event

Before 1978 the ban drew outside pressure: fourteen Black University of Wyoming players were dismissed in 1969 after planning a protest against BYU, Stanford stopped scheduling BYU in 1969, other campuses protested BYU games, and the Church was building a temple in racially mixed Brazil. The Gospel Topics essay and Edward Kimballs account present the 1978 change as a revelation after long prayer. Historians disagree about how much the pressure mattered; FAIR notes the protests had faded by 1971.

Needs human verification

documented fact · past practice

From the mid-1800s until 1978, the church did not ordain men of black African descent to the priesthood and did not allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment and sealing ordinances.

Needs human verification

documented fact · scripture

In 1981 the Church changed 2 Nephi 30:6 from 'white and delightsome' to 'pure and delightsome,' a reading Joseph Smith had used in the 1840 edition.

Needs human verification

2 Nephi 26:33

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

2 Nephi 26:33 is a Book of Mormon verse teaching that the Lord invites all people and that all are alike unto God. The Race and the Priesthood essay cites this verse. It is scripture, not a historical study of the priesthood restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Abraham 1 (Pearl of Great Price)

Joseph Smith (translation) · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 1842

Canonized scripture. Verses 21 to 27 describe Pharaoh as descended from Ham through Egyptus, preserving the curse in the land, and say that Pharaohs line could not have the right of priesthood although Pharaoh was a righteous man. Nineteenth- and twentieth-century leaders cited these verses in support of the racial priesthood restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

All Are Alike unto God

Bruce R. McConkie · BYU Speeches · 1978-08-18

Event date discussed: 1978-08-18

Two months after the 1978 revelation, Elder McConkie told religious educators to forget what he, Brigham Young, George Q. Cannon, or others had said that contradicted it, because they spoke with limited understanding. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Approaching Mormon Doctrine

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · Church Newsroom · 2007-05-04

The Church says not every statement by a Church leader, past or present, is doctrine; a single statement by one leader is often personal opinion, and doctrine is found in scripture, official declarations, and consistent teaching by the First Presidency and Twelve. Summary, not a quotation.

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Becoming True Millennials

Russell M. Nelson · Worldwide Devotional for Young Adults · 2016-01-10

Event date discussed: 2016-01-10

In a January 2016 devotional, then-Elder Nelson said the November 2015 handbook policy on children of same-sex couples came after the First Presidency and Twelve sought the Lord's will and that President Monson declared the mind of the Lord, describing it as revelation. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Changes to the Book of Mormon (Church History Topics)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This Church History topic says the Book of Mormon text has been edited across editions, mostly for spelling, grammar, and typesetting errors, with some clarifying changes by Joseph Smith in 1837 and 1840 and later editorial updates such as those in 1981. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Church History Topics: Priesthood and Temple Restriction

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Event date discussed: 1852

This Church History topic says a few black men were ordained in the church's early decades, including Elijah Abel, and that there is no reliable evidence black men were denied the priesthood during Joseph Smith's lifetime. It says Brigham Young publicly announced in 1852 that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained, and that later church presidents restricted the temple endowment and sealing. It says theories later offered to explain the restriction are not accepted today as official doctrine. Summary, not a quotation. 1852 is the announced restriction, not this page's publication date.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Come, Join with Us

Dieter F. Uchtdorf · General Conference · 2013-10

Event date discussed: 2013-10

President Uchtdorf said that members and leaders have at times simply made mistakes and said or done things not in harmony with the Church's values, and invited those who left or doubt to come back. Summary, not a quotation.

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Elijah Able

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · Church History Topics · 2021

The Churchs history topic on Elijah Able, one of the earliest Black members, ordained an elder in 1836 and later a seventy. It notes he took part in early temple ordinances, kept his priesthood after the restriction began, served missions, and was denied his request for the temple endowment and sealing in his later years. Summary, not a quotation.

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First Presidency and NAACP Announce Joint Initiatives

Church Newsroom · 2021

A Church Newsroom article on a joint initiative between the Church and the NAACP describing shared goals for education, humanitarian service, and racial harmony, with funding for scholarships and programs. Summary, not a quotation.

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First Presidency Shares Messages From General Conference Leadership Session

Dallin H. Oaks (for the First Presidency) · Church Newsroom · 2019-04-04

Event date discussed: 2019-04-04

The 2019 reversal: children of LGBT parents may be baptized without First Presidency approval, and same-gender marriage is no longer treated as apostasy for discipline, though the Church still considers it a serious transgression. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

First Presidency statement on the Churchs position on the Negro, December 15, 1969

First Presidency (Hugh B. Brown and N. Eldon Tanner) · B. H. Roberts Foundation records (transcription of BYU L. Tom Perry Special Collections MSS SC 2969); published in Improvement Era, February 1970 · 1970

Event date discussed: 1969-12-15

A letter to Church leaders, issued after confusion over reports of an imminent change, restating the Churchs position. It supports full civil and constitutional rights for Black Americans but says the priesthood restriction is a matter of religion, not civil rights. It says every Church president since Joseph Smith taught that Black people were not yet to receive the priesthood for reasons known to God but not fully made known to man, and that only revelation to the prophet could change it. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

First Presidency statement on the status of Negroes and the priesthood, August 17, 1949

First Presidency (George Albert Smith, J. Reuben Clark Jr., David O. McKay) · Appendix to Bush and Mauss, eds., Neither White nor Black (Signature Books, 1984), archived online text · 1984

Event date discussed: 1949-08-17

The First Presidency says the Churchs position on Black people is not a policy declaration but a direct commandment from the Lord, on which the Churchs doctrine has rested since its organization: Black people may join the Church but may not hold the priesthood at present. It quotes Brigham Young on a curse on the seed of Cain to be lifted after others receive the priesthood, and explains the restriction through the doctrine that conduct in the premortal existence affects the conditions of mortal birth, so that no injustice is involved. Summary, not a quotation.

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General Handbook, 38.6: Policies on Moral Issues

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 2026-10

Section 38.6 states policies on abortion (elective abortion is contrary to God's plan, with possible exceptions for rape or incest, serious danger to the mother's life or health, or fatal fetal defects), abuse (never tolerated; report to civil authorities; youth protection training every three years), birth control (family size is personal; elective sterilization discouraged), the law of chastity, pornography, fertility treatments and IVF, the occult, prejudice, same-sex attraction and marriage, sex education, sexual assault, single expectant parents, suicide prevention, surrogacy, and transgender individuals. Summary, not a quotation.

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Gospel Topics Essay: Race and the Priesthood

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 2016

Event date discussed: 1978

The Gospel Topics essay Race and the Priesthood says that from the mid-1800s until 1978 the church did not ordain men of black African descent to the priesthood or allow black men or women to participate in temple endowment or sealing ordinances. It describes the June 1978 revelation, announced on June 8 and canonized as Official Declaration 2. It says the church today disavows theories that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, that mixed-race marriage is a sin, or that any race is inferior. Summary, not a quotation. The 1978 date is the policy change, not the essay's publication date.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Interview: Jeffrey R. Holland (The Mormons, PBS)

Jeffrey R. Holland; interview by Helen Whitney · PBS (American Experience and Frontline) · 2007

Event date discussed: 2006-03-04

In an interview for the PBS documentary The Mormons, Elder Holland concedes that the explanations earlier leaders gave for the priesthood restriction, however well meant, were almost all inadequate or wrong, says it would have been better to say nothing, says there should be no effort to perpetuate them, and says Church leaders simply do not know why the practice, policy or doctrine was in place. He addresses the folklore about premortal valiance. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Jane Elizabeth Manning James

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · Church History Topics · 2021

The Churchs history topic on Jane Manning James, a free Black convert who lived in Joseph Smiths household in Nauvoo and crossed to Utah with the pioneers. It records her repeated petitions to receive temple ordinances, which leaders refused, and the 1894 proxy ceremony that attached her to Joseph Smiths family as a servant. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Moses 7 (Pearl of Great Price)

Joseph Smith (revelation) · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 1851

Canonized scripture from Joseph Smiths revision of Genesis. In Enochs vision a blackness comes upon the children of Canaan (verse 8), and the seed of Cain are described as black and as having no place among the others (verse 22). Leaders cited these verses for the curse-of-Cain explanation of the priesthood restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Official Declaration 1

Wilford Woodruff · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

Event date discussed: 1890

Official Declaration 1 is the 1890 Manifesto issued under President Wilford Woodruff and printed with the Doctrine and Covenants. It is the canonical statement associated with discontinuing new plural marriages. 1890 is the year of the Manifesto, not a modern web publication date. Summary, not a quotation.

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Official Declaration 2

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 1978-09-30

Event date discussed: 1978-06-08

Official Declaration 2 is the canonized statement in the Doctrine and Covenants that records the end of the racial restriction on priesthood ordination and temple ordinances. The announcement associated with the revelation was June 8, 1978. The declaration itself is dated September 30, 1978, when it was presented in general conference. Those are different dates. Summary, not a quotation.

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Our Own Liahona

Spencer W. Kimball · General Conference · 1976-10

Event date discussed: 1976-10

President Kimball denounced the Adam-God theory, which he said was alleged to have been taught by some general authorities of earlier generations, and warned members against it. Summary, not a quotation.

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Race and the Church: All Are Alike Unto God

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · Church Newsroom · 2012-02-29

Event date discussed: 2012-02-29

Issued after a BYU professor repeated old racial explanations in the press, this statement says the origins of the restriction are not clear, that some explanations were given without revelation, and that they do not represent Church doctrine. Summary, not a quotation.

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Racism and Other Challenges

Dallin H. Oaks · BYU Speeches · 2020-10-27

Event date discussed: 2020-10-27

A BYU devotional by the First Presidency counselor during the 2020 protests over racial injustice. Oaks calls on Latter-day Saints to root out racism and prejudice, points to the Churchs partnership with the NAACP, and says Black Lives Matter is an eternal truth while cautioning against some of the movements political proposals. He does not revisit the reasons for the pre-1978 restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Slavery and Abolition (Church History Topics)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints

This Church History topic describes early Latter-day Saint views on slavery, the conflict it caused in Missouri, Joseph Smith's 1844 call for gradual emancipation, and the legalization of slavery in Utah Territory in 1852. Summary, not a quotation.

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The Doctrine of Christ

D. Todd Christofferson · General Conference · 2012-04

Event date discussed: 2012-04

Elder Christofferson teaches that doctrine comes by revelation to the united First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve and that not every statement by a Church leader, past or present, necessarily constitutes doctrine. Summary, not a quotation.

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The Manifesto and the End of Plural Marriage (Gospel Topics Essay)

The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints · 2014

The Church's essay says a smaller number of new plural marriages were performed after the 1890 Manifesto, mostly in Mexico and Canada, until the 1904 Second Manifesto made new ones grounds for excommunication. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

The Need for Greater Kindness

Gordon B. Hinckley · The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (General Conference) · 2006-04

Event date discussed: 2006-04-01

In a priesthood session address President Hinckley condemns racial slurs and racism among Church members, says no one who makes disparaging remarks about another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ, and calls on such people to repent. It does not address the history or reasons for the priesthood restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

All Abrahams Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage

Armand L. Mauss · University of Illinois Press · 2003

A sociologists history of how Latter-day Saints have understood lineage and race, including Israelite identity, Native Americans, Jews and people of African descent. Mauss shows how the priesthood restriction was rationalized over time and how those explanations lost force before and after 1978. Summary of the books published scope, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Bob Jones University v. United States, 461 U.S. 574 (1983)

Supreme Court of the United States · Legal Information Institute, Cornell Law School · 1983

Event date discussed: 1983-05-24

The Supreme Court upheld the IRSs revocation of tax-exempt status for Bob Jones University, a religious school that banned interracial dating and marriage, holding that racial discrimination in education violates a fundamental public policy and that the governments interest outweighs the schools religious-freedom claim. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Court decision about a different institution. Used only as legal context for a counterfactual; it says nothing about the Church.

Brigham Young address to the Utah Territorial Legislature on slavery and the priesthood, February 5, 1852 (Century of Black Mormons document 4.2)

Brigham Young (George D. Watt shorthand, transcribed by LaJean Purcell Carruth) · University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library, Century of Black Mormons · 1852

Event date discussed: 1852-02-05

A new transcription of George D. Watts Pitman shorthand of the speech Brigham Young gave to a joint session of the territorial legislature while it debated a bill on servitude. Young declares that people of African descent are the children of Cain, that the curse on them bars them from holding the priesthood until the rest of Adams posterity has received it, and that a white man who mixes his seed with that of Cain brings the curse on himself and his children. The document sets this transcription beside Wilford Woodruffs journal notes of the same speech, in which anyone with "one drop" of Cains seed cannot hold the priesthood. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Century of Black Mormons

W. Paul Reeve (project director) · University of Utah J. Willard Marriott Library · 2018

A digital database documenting the names and lives of Black Latter-day Saints baptized between 1830 and 1930, with biographies and transcribed primary records, including Elijah Able and Jane Manning James and the documentary record of the 1852 restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Intelligence, Etc. Remarks by President Brigham Young, October 9, 1859

Brigham Young (reported by G. D. Watt) · Journal of Discourses 7:282-291 (online text, jod.mrm.org) · 1860

Event date discussed: 1859-10-09

A Tabernacle sermon on intelligence and the human family. Near its end (7:290) Young describes some classes of the human family as black and degraded, says Cain was cursed for killing Abel and that the Lords mark on him was a flat nose and black skin, adds that after the flood a further curse made the same race servants of servants, and says abolitionists cannot alter that decree. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Mormonism and the Negro: Faith, Folklore, and Civil Rights

Armand L. Mauss · Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought · 1967

Written during the civil rights era, the article distinguishes official teaching from the folklore that circulated among members to explain the priesthood restriction, such as premortal neutrality and the curse of Cain, and discusses the restrictions effect on the Churchs civil rights reputation. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview

Lester E. Bush Jr. · Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought · 1973

Bush's landmark study found no evidence the priesthood restriction began with Joseph Smith and traced it to Brigham Young's era. It influenced leaders before the 1978 revelation. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

No apology? Really? Mormons question leader Dallin H. Oaks' stance

Peggy Fletcher Stack · The Salt Lake Tribune · 2015-01

The Salt Lake Tribune reported Elder Dallin H. Oaks saying in a January 2015 interview that the Church does not seek apologies and does not give them, and members' reactions to the statement. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Independent journalism. Reports events, allegations, and responses; not peer-reviewed scholarship and not a court finding.

Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness

W. Paul Reeve · Oxford University Press · 2015

W. Paul Reeve, Religion of a Different Color: Race and the Mormon Struggle for Whiteness, was published by Oxford University Press in 2015. Oxford's abstract says nineteenth-century Protestants racialized Latter-day Saints, and that Latter-day Saint leaders moved away from universalistic ideals toward segregated priesthood and temples. It is academic history, not an official church statement. This library does not copy the book's narrative. Summary of the publisher's description, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Remarks by President Brigham Young (on the persecutions of the Saints, the war, and the law of God relative to the African race), March 8, 1863

Brigham Young (reported by G. D. Watt) · Journal of Discourses 10:104-111 (online text, jod.mrm.org) · 1865

Event date discussed: 1863-03-08

A Salt Lake Tabernacle sermon given during the Civil War. Young discusses slavery and the war and, on page 110, teaches that under the law of God the penalty for a white man of the chosen seed who mixes his blood with the seed of Cain is death on the spot. Summary, not a quotation.

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Saints, Slaves, and Blacks: The Changing Place of Black People Within Mormonism

Newell G. Bringhurst · Greenwood Press · 1981

An early scholarly history tracing Mormon racial thought from the 1830s through the nineteenth century. Bringhurst follows the shift from Joseph Smiths ordination of a few Black men to Brigham Youngs formal priesthood restriction around 1852, and connects it to slavery in Utah Territory and wider American racial attitudes. Summary of the books published scope, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Second-Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality

Matthew L. Harris · Oxford University Press · 2024

Drawing on newly opened papers, diaries, oral histories and meeting notes of senior leaders, Harris traces the half century of internal debate before 1978, including the 1949 decision to call the restriction doctrine and commandment, factions for and against lifting it, and outside pressure. He argues that ending the ban was as much the product of human agency as of revelation, and that afterward the Church left unaddressed the theology behind it and has declined to apologize, in his reading partly to protect prophetic authority. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Independent scholarship that leans critical of how Church leaders handled the ban. Not an official Church source.

Spencer W. Kimball and the Revelation on Priesthood

Edward L. Kimball · BYU Studies · 2008

President Kimball's son draws on his father's papers to describe the process leading to the 1978 revelation that ended the priesthood and temple restriction. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Sterling M. McMurrins account of a March 1954 conversation with President David O. McKay on the priesthood ban

Sterling M. McMurrin (as recorded by the B. H. Roberts Foundation) · B. H. Roberts Foundation records · 1968

Event date discussed: 1954-03

University of Utah philosopher Sterling McMurrin wrote to David O. McKays sons to report a March 1954 conversation in which, as McMurrin remembered it, President McKay told him there was no doctrine that Black people were barred from the priesthood, that it was a practice and not a doctrine, and that the practice would one day change. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Secondhand, later recollection by McMurrin, not a McKay statement in his own hand. Treat as reported speech.

Tabernacles of Clay: Sexuality and Gender in Modern Mormonism

Taylor G. Petrey · University of North Carolina Press · 2020

A historian traces how Church teachings on gender, sex differences, and homosexuality changed after World War II, arguing that ideas presented as eternal were often revised over time. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

The Black 14: Race, Politics, Religion and Wyoming Football

WyoHistory.org (Wyoming State Historical Society) · WyoHistory.org · 2014

Event date discussed: 1969-10-17

An encyclopedia article on the fourteen Black University of Wyoming football players dismissed by coach Lloyd Eaton in October 1969 after they asked to wear black armbands in the game against BYU to protest the Churchs racial priesthood policy, and the campus and national controversy that followed. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

The Development of the Mormon Temple Endowment Ceremony

David John Buerger · Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought · 1987

A history of the endowment from Kirtland and Nauvoo to the 1980s. Buerger traces the Masonic background of Nauvoo-era elements, the oath of vengeance and its exposure in the Smoot hearings, and the 1919 to 1927 revision committee under Heber J. Grant that removed it and softened other wording. He describes elements only at a historical level. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

The Joseph Smith Papers

Church Historian's Press

The Joseph Smith Papers is a documentary editing project that publishes Joseph Smith's papers, journals, revelations, and related records. It is the place to read specific primary documents. This library entry is the project home, not a transcription of any one document, and it is not an argument for or against the church. Use a specific document page before citing a narrow factual claim. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Primary-document project published by the Church Historian's Press. Not a view-from-nowhere commentary.

The Mormon Church and Blacks: A Documentary History

Matthew L. Harris and Newell G. Bringhurst, eds. · University of Illinois Press · 2015

A collection of about thirty key primary documents on race in the Church from the 1830s to the 2013 essay, each with an editors introduction. It includes Brigham Youngs 1852 statements, the 1949 and 1969 First Presidency statements, the 1978 revelation and later statements, so readers can follow how leaders described the restriction as doctrine, policy or practice over time. Summary of the books published scope, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

The Word of Wisdom: From Principle to Requirement

Thomas G. Alexander · Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought · 1981

Alexander traces how the Word of Wisdom moved from advice to a requirement for temple attendance in the early twentieth century, noting leaders' changing emphasis on details. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

White or Pure: Five Vignettes

Douglas Campbell · Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought · 1996

An article tracing the history of 2 Nephi 30:6, where the promise that Lamanites would become a white and delightsome people was changed to pure in the 1840 edition, appeared as white again in later editions, and became pure in the 1981 edition, and what readers made of the change. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Mormonism and racial issues/Blacks and the priesthood

FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response) · FAIR · 2024

FAIRs apologetic overview of the priesthood ban, with sub-pages on its origin, whether it was policy or doctrine, social pressure and First Presidency statements. It quotes the 1949 statement, Dallin H. Oaks in 1988 (reasons people gave turned out to be spectacularly wrong) and Holland and Hinckley, and presents several views faithful members hold, including that the ban began as an administrative policy rather than revealed doctrine. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Faithful apologetics. Written to defend Church claims. Not peer-reviewed and not an official Church source.

Mormonism and racial issues/Blacks and the priesthood/Social pressure

FAIR (Faithful Answers, Informed Response) · FAIR · 2024

FAIR argues that the 1978 revelation was not caused by social or government pressure: protests at BYU athletic events had ended by 1971, and the Brazil temple experience is described as a spiritual prompt. It examines whether President Carter or the IRS threatened the Churchs tax exemption and treats that story as unsubstantiated. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Faithful apologetics. Written to defend Church claims. Not peer-reviewed and not an official Church source.

Blacks and the Mormon Priesthood; Race and the Priesthood: Response to LDS.org

MormonThink · MormonThink (Internet Archive snapshot) · 2026

MormonThinks critical pages on the priesthood ban collect racist statements by past leaders, scriptures cited for the restriction, events before 1978 and the question whether it was doctrine or policy, and respond line by line to the Gospel Topics essay. They argue the record shows a deliberate, scripture-based policy endorsed at the highest levels, that the Church has never said the ban was a mistake or apologized, and that this raises questions about the moral authority of past and present prophets. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical website. Presents critic and apologist views but is written to raise problems with Church claims. Not peer-reviewed.

CES Letter

Jeremy Runnells · cesletter.org · 2013

The CES Letter, by Jeremy Runnells, is a public critical document, first circulated as a letter to a Church Educational System director. It gathers objections about the Book of Abraham, the Book of Mormon, First Vision accounts, plural marriage, the priesthood and temple restriction, and other topics. It is critical advocacy, not a primary historical edition and not a church publication. Claims in it should be checked against the underlying documents, including the Joseph Smith Papers and the church's own essays. This library does not copy the letter. The 2013 date is the commonly cited origin year and still needs confirmation. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical advocacy. Not a primary source.

CES Letter: Prophets

Jeremy Runnells · CES Letter

The prophets section argues that past Church presidents taught things later rejected, citing Brigham Young's Adam-God teaching, blood atonement sermons, polygamy, and the priesthood and temple ban, and it points to leaders buying forged documents from Mark Hofmann as evidence that they lacked special discernment. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical advocacy. Argues against Church truth claims. Not peer-reviewed and not an official Church source.

MormonThink: Mormon Prophets after Joseph Smith

MormonThink · MormonThink

This page reviews teachings by later Church presidents that were later dropped or disavowed and asks how members should weigh prophetic statements. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical website. Presents critic and apologist views but is written to raise problems with Church claims. Not peer-reviewed.

The Changing World of Mormonism

Jerald and Sandra Tanner · Utah Lighthouse Ministry (online edition) · 1980

A condensed version of Mormonism: Shadow or Reality? that argues Church history, scripture, and doctrine have been changed over time, with documents the Tanners reproduced. Summary, not a quotation.

Summary, not a quotation · needs human verification

Critical advocacy from an evangelical Christian ministry. Argues against Church truth claims. Not peer-reviewed.