Posted by:
Beth
(
)
Date: February 06, 2020 12:34AM
"Smith's successor Brigham Young publicly taught on at least three occasions (1847,[17] 1852,[45] and 1865[46]) that the punishment for black-white interracial marriage was death, and that killing a black-white interracial couple and their children as part of a blood atonement would be a blessing to them.[29]:37,39[47] He further stated his belief that interracial children should remain childless "like a mule".[17] Young taught that the moment the church consents to white members having children with black individuals the church would go to destruction,[29]:37[48] and that, "Any man having one drop of the seed of Cane in him cannot hold the priesthood."[49] Young also taught that people who had children with a black person would be cursed to the priesthood.[29]:37
"Blood atonement is the doctrine that some crimes are so heinous that the atonement of Jesus does not apply, including miscegenation. Instead, to atone for these sins, the perpetrators should be killed in a way that would allow their blood to be shed upon the ground as a sacrificial offering. This doctrine was the most widespread during the Mormon Reformation. Examples of Young's teaching on this and interracial relationships include the following:
"1847 — Young heard of a Mormon family composed of a black man Enoch Lovejoy Lewis (son of ordained priesthood holder Kwaku Walker Lewis), a white woman Mary Matilda Webster, and their interracial child living in Massachusetts and responded that if the family wasn't living so close to non-Mormons "they would all have to be killed" since the law is that black and white seed should not be "amalgamated".[17]
"1852 — As territory governor, Young stated before the territory legislature that if a white man had children with a black woman, he should request to have his head chopped off. He continued saying that if someone were to kill the man, woman and any children of such a union, that it would be a blessing to them and "it would do a great deal towards atoning for the sin".[50][45]
"1865 — In a speech in the Salt Lake Tabernacle Young repeated the teaching of death as punishment for black and white individuals producing interracial offspring, stating that this penalty would always be in place.[46][29]:42–43 In regards to the 1865 statement, the LDS apologist organization FairMormon argues that "Brigham Young's comments were a condemnation of abuse and rape of helpless black women, and not an overtly racist statement condemning interracial marriage."[51]
"Interracial marriages of William McCary
In 1847, former slave[52]:100 and Mormon convert William McCary drew the ire of Brigham Young and others in Nauvoo for his marriage to the white Mormon Lucy Stanton, and his later alleged mixed-race polygamous sealings to other white women without authorization.[52]:98[53]:227–228 McCary claimed Native American heritage in order to marry Stanton and avoid the greater stigma that the few black people in Nauvoo faced.[52]:107–108,113 The most common interpretation of the interracial events around McCary and his excommunication is that they contributed to or precipitated the subsequent ban of black members from temple ordinances and priesthood authority.[52]:98,117 McCary elicited the first recorded general authority statement connecting race and the priesthood when the apostle Parley Pratt referred to him as the "black man who has got the blood of Ham in him which linege [sic] was cursed as regards the priesthood."[53]:228
"Lynching of Thomas Coleman
In 1866 Thomas Coleman, a black member of the LDS church, was murdered in Salt Lake City after it was discovered that he was courting a white woman. His throat was slit so deeply from ear to ear that he was nearly decapitated, and his right breast was slit open, similar to the penalties illustrated in the temple ritual and taught by Brigham Young. He was castrated and a note warning black men to stay away from white women was pinned to his chest. Historian Michael Quinn states that this murder was a fulfillment of Young's 1852 teaching that the penalty for miscegenation was decapitation.[54] FairMormon argues that Coleman's death may have been unrelated to Young's teachings or temple penalties, since Coleman was not an endowed member.[55]"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interracial_marriage_and_The_Church_of_Jesus_Christ_of_Latter-day_Saints#Brigham_Young