Do Mormons believe that people with dark skin are cursed?

Question

I read in many Yahoo Answers that Mormons believe that people with dark skin are cursed and that explains what happened to their physical appearance (if we are all descended from Noah). However, I think that most people understand that there were three creations (one for each of the three races: Caucasian, Mongoloid, and *******).

But is this the doctrine in the Mormon faith that excluded African Americans from being Priests in the LDS church?

Answer 1

This is very intersting, I am a African American. Please tell me where I can go and find out more about the African American not being allowed to become Priest in the LDS church.

Answer 2

Dark skinned people are not cursed. In the book of Mormon two of the brothers (Laman, Lamuel) that came to the Americas with their family (Lehi, Nephi, etc) rebelled against the Lord and they were cursed. Now the curse was not that they would have dark skin, the curse was that they had fallen away from the Lord. They became dark skinned so the Nephites could tell the difference between them and the Lamanites (the dark skinned population) so they would not marry (this is even spoken of in the bible 2 Corinthians 6:14). However if you read the Book of Mormon you will also find that when Ammon preached the Gospel unto the Lamanites (the dark skinned people) they became more righteous than even the Nephites (white skinned) This can be found in Heleman 6: 1 in the Book of Mormon. The priesthood was then later given to the dark skinned people. The Lord let President Kimball know that it was time for the descendents of the lamanites to receive this. If you think about it Jesus came to teach the Jews first and then was the gorspel taken to the Gentils this does not mean the Gentils were lesser. We are equal in the eyes of God. =) I hope this answers your question

Answer 3

The answers you've been reading mainly come from people who have been very mis-informed about the beliefs and practices of the LDS church. Those same people are too closed minded to care to listen to the truth. Because of this, I have to say thank you for actually asking. The world would be a much better place if more people would just ask, and actually listen to the real answer. The real answer is no. People with dark skin are not cursed. They hold the priesthood within the church just like everyone else. During the time of slavery, when everyone thought that black people were a lesser race, that was different, as the laws of the land were different. However, just as everyone else (hopefully!) on the face of the earth have come to realize, the church also realized long ago that they were wrong to think such a thing, and have changed it.

Answer 4

In the Old Testament, only Levities could hold the priesthood? Did that mean that God hated the rest of em? In early new testament times, only Jews could receive the gospel, and later the whole world. The Lord chooses who may and may not hold the priesthood. He loves all of his children.

The Egyptians were black. You'll notice that in many Hieroglyphs, the center character has his skin painted white. Many believe that he was imitating priesthood ordinances, and for that reason painted himself white, because at the time only white individuals could hold the presthood.

Cane was cursed. The black skin was a "mark of the curse" and not the curse itself. There is a big difference.

Through modern revelation, the lord has said that any worthy male that is of age can hold the priesthood.

So no, Mormons DON'T believe that people with dark skin are cursed.

Answer 5

Being of the Nazarene Denomination, I do not no the answer, but reading the answers of others brought up another question. I have also heard that the Mormons believe the American Indians are a cursed tribe of Jews, if this is so, why do the Mormons believe Christ appeared to the Indians after his accention into Heaven?

Answer 6

You should get a lot of "How dare you!" flak from mormons with this post.

These are the facts: The church had an official policy of not proselytizing blacks or ordaining them to the priesthood from the early days until 1978. Then a mysterious 'revelation' happened, and the official policy changed. The revelation coincided with the refusal of other college sports teams to play BYU. It is true Smith ordained a handful of blacks at the beginning, but this practice stopped as opposition to Missouri becoming a "free state".

However, the entire theme of the Book of Mormon consists of the righteous white Nephites battling the evil dark-skinned Lamanites, While current mormon apologists state this is merely a figure of speech, Joseph Smith, Brigham Young, Parley P Pratt, Joseph Fielding Smith, Ezra Taft Benson, Mark E Peterson, Bruce R McConkie, had issued racial epithets stating in some fashion the condition of the '*****' is ordained of god to be Satan's representative on earth. Behold the Pearl of Great Price as the source.

The church has NEVER apologized or retracted those statements, and many in the church still believe that blacks have no business in the church.

>>F'sho: The 'dark skin' of the current middle easterners is a result of the mongol invasions of the 12th century - the same people related to the Indian's by DNA.

Answer 7

The meaning of many words have changed over time and at the time the Book of Mormon was translated the spelling of words had not been standardized and so there were many different ways to spell the same word. From the writings that we have of the Prophet we find that you could change that phrase to "pure and delightsome" and have it mean the same thing. What do you mean by "They practiced this up into the 1950's."? Are you saying that some of the members of the church believed that Indians skin would turn white if they joined the church? People are not perfect and as such are prone to make mistakes. I have met several people, in the church who still get a little confused on that subject, but they are now like they were in the Prophet Joseph Smiths' day, helped to gain an understanding of what that passage refers to. Even in the early days of the Church there were many Indians who joined the church and none of them had their skins turned white, some of this was even during the Prophet Joseph Smith's lifetime. The idea that the skin of the Indians would turn white after getting converted to the church is, as far as I know, purely derived from a misunderstanding of one sort or another. Yes Joseph Smith did say that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book, however that statement was referring to what the book taught not how accurately the words and grammer in the book was. the whole quote is, “I told the brethren that the Book of Mormon was the most correct of any book on earth, and the keystone of our religion, and a man would get nearer to God by abiding by its precepts, than by any other book.” On the basis that that quote refers to the teachings and doctrine that are contained in the Book of Mormon. The answer to your question of why have there been so many changes to it would be to mention (in addition to the things I mentioned about spelling and the meaning of words at the beginning of this answer) about the problems that we still have to this day of getting virtually any book published with out any errors in it as result of things happening during the process of getting it printed. With that in mind I would call your mind to how difficult of a process it would have been to print a book error free with out the aid of modern technology, when the set the type for each page by hand, and then ask you, with all of that in mind, how many errors from the process of getting a book printed did they have to deal with on an average basis. That is why there has been changes to the Book of Mormon, so that they could correct errors that resulted from the changing definition of words in the English language, the difference in how words word spelled at the time the Book of Mormon was printed, and the normal errors that creep in when a book of that size gets printed.

Answer 8

You may have read it in Yahoo! Answers, but they weren't written by any LDS/Mormon! We don't believe that dark skin is a curse. We believe that, centuries ago, some peope were cursed, and in order to keep those who were righteousfrom mixing up blood. But, like I said, that was centuries ago.

We don't know why blacks of African descent were denied the priesthood. God never said.

Answer 9

Maybe they seemed to have forgotten that the patriarchs of the bible came from lands where dark skinned peoples live. The Egyptians were dark. The early Hebrews were dark. The Ethiopians were dark. The Middle East and Africa aren't Scandinavia and Great Britain. I'm not trying to condescend anyone but it takes only a little common sense to understand this fact.

Answer 10

They may once have thought this. Just as many Christians had no problem with slavery in the past. But today Mormons do not believe that. They are not rascist. They are totally accepting of all people.