Unsettling Mormonism
an archive of unsettling histories, mythistories, and mystories
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
from U.S. & Mormon settler colonialism, white supremacy, and imperialism
Imagine a better future for us all. Who is all there?: Perfection and Futurism in Mormon Cosmology6/14/2023  "Joseph Smith's Vision of the Celestial Kingdom," by Robert T. Barrett. When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Are there trans people? Are there disabled people? Are there Indigenous Peoples? Are there countries and religion, too? Is there change, conflict, and diversity? Or homogenous endless perfection? Mormons as, Millenarians & Zionists, are utopic, future-thinking people. Leaders teach to live not for this life but to “Endure To The End.” And this future is homogenous endless perfection. Everyone agrees. The Lion lays with the Lamb. Conflict and diversity are abolished from our bodies. But this story never aligned with my embodied experience. The idea that the “natural man is an enemy to God” in need of perfection didn’t make sense with my experience of the complex mess of joys and griefs of a humanimal earth life. And the more I learned of and unlearned the illusory separation of land and human culture the more this divisive ideology made no sense—was counter to my senses. My senses tell me that the conflict born of the diversity contained within ecosystems is not a fallen state of any past utopia to be overcome in hopes of achieving some future utopia. What’s good for the wolf is good for the deer is good for the river is good for the living ecosystem. In other words the idea that “what’s good for the spider is bad for the fly” is not ecologically sound. Colonial utopias tend to be free from conflict and diversity as diversity and conflict go hand in hand. The colonized mind doesn’t know how to separate conflict from abuse (nor abuse from aid, but that’s another story). But conflict is not abuse. Conflict and diversity are central to the ecology of earthlings. My senses tell me this is also true cosmologically. That the big banging, particle colliding, supernova-ing universe was created through conflict, opposition, diversity. That when misunderstood the trough and valleys of the basic shape of the universe would seem as polemically opposed rather than intrinsically interdependent points on a spiral. When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Who and what is included in your sense of perfection?  Image of "premortal life" from LDS.org In Mormonism (and so many others) life on earth begins in stasis, in the Garden of Eden. Adam and Eve were born into abled, eternal bodies which experienced neither sickness nor hunger. The Lion laid with the Lamb. It was perfect. Pure. A Utopia. The Mormon “plan” also ends in Utopic deathless perfection. Those who strive to be go(o)d enough enter into the perfectest heaven–the Celestial Kingdom. In this imagined future every body is perfected as God is–heterosexual, abled, cisgender, pure, white The second “great purpose” of this church is the project of “the perfecting of the Saints.” The Family Proclamation states that God’s children became earthlings to “obtain a physical body and gain earthly experience to progress toward perfection...” Interlude: Mormon Cosmology says “God created man in his own image” is literal. Mormon God is physically embodied—a corporeal, heterosexual, abled, cisgender, white man. Their origin story is pre-Genesis in a pre-mortal life. Mormon God made many spirit children through physical intercourse with many polygynous wives. For us, the spirit children, to become like our God Dad and Moms we had to get and perfect human bodies on earth. A war broke out. Jesus vs. Lucifer. The body we each are born into on earth is a result of our actions in this war. Perfection is frequently used in talks by Prophets and Apostles as an antithesis of disability. Apostle Holland told followers in 2013 that in Heaven their disabled loved ones, “will stand before us glorified and grand, breathtakingly perfect in body and mind.” The year before Pres Nelson reassured his followers that “A perfect body is not required to achieve one's divine destiny. In fact, some of the sweetest spirits are housed in frail or imperfect bodies." In Mormonism, the disabled body is rendered the polar opposite of the Edenic body. The most fallen of us all. Well, more accurately, the Black / African, queer, disabled, and apostate body. As, liike many other US eugenic hierarchies, literal disability is metaphorized into a white-supremacist and anti-queer construct. This church’s 1949 anti-Black manifesto describes the “failure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings one the priesthood (anyone of African descent was denied this “right”) is a handicap which spirits willing assume (for the privilege of being born on earth.)” Apostle M. E. Peterson said in 1954: “In spite of whatever they might have done in the pre-existence to justify being born over there as Chinamen…with all the handicaps of that race…if they now, in this life (become a good Mormon) that means they can have exaltation. Isn't the mercy of God marvelous?” In 2016 Apostle Bednar shared, “Some people have physical limitations, they may be born with a body that is not fully functional,” and compared this embodied experience to that of being “attracted to someone of the same sex”. In this Church’s 2007 anti-queer manifesto Mormons are taught that, like disability, queerness will also be relieved from the Celestial body. “As we follow Heavenly Father’s plan, our bodies, feelings, and desires will be perfected in the next life.” When you imagine a better future for us all, in this life or another, who is there? Are there trans people? Are there disabled people? Are there Indigenous Peoples? Are there countries and religion, too? Is there change, conflict, and diversity? Or homogenous endless perfection?  Mormon temple interior
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This is my testimony of the Corporation of the President of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, of which my entire family have been followers of since 1884.  Mormon Mythistries I’d like to bear my testimony: I know this church is an overtly white-settler-Christian-imperial-capitalist-hetero-supremacist corporation which refuses to apologize, acknowledge, or be accountable to the ongoing harms they’ve enacted. I know Joseph Smith was a pedophile, (attempted) murderer, & con-man who stole millions in contemporary dollars from his members and constantly ran from being held accountable for any of his crimes. I know Brigham Young was an imperial genocidal terrorist who also controlled his own people (my ancestors) through blood-atonements (divine murder) & other abuses of power. I know The Book of Mormon, Pearl of Great Price, and D&C were made up by Joseph Smith as part of his financial con in the form of a religious corporation and they are each book teaches that white-supremacy, heteropatriarchy, settler-colonialism, classism, Christian-supremacy, & antisemitism are divine. I know the Mormon doctrine of eternal families is rooted in anti/philosemitism, misogynistic polygamy, and classist pedophilic eugenics—that Joseph threatened to murder his own wife in the same revelation in Joseph describes the doctrine of eternal families & polygamy. I know Mormon temples, priesthood, and Israeli-identity are examples of anti/philosemitic, hetero-patriarchal, and white-Christian-settler-supremacist practices. I know Mormon end-times beliefs are far-right, Christian-Nationalist/supremacist, anti-queer, and contribute to the destruction of the livability of our planet (the only one we’ll ever know). I know this church sided with & assisted Nazis during & after WWII—that its leaders (using their religious and US gov authority) actively fought against allowing Jewish refugees (even those converted to Mormonism) from emigrating to the U.S. I know the contemporary church uses their mass fortune (the results of the financial con that their founder started) to defend, enable, and assist child abusers while they abuse survivors of child abuse—and to create deadly anti-queer laws globally. I know they use their missionary program to colonize Indigenous Peoples across the world spreading this white-Christain-supremacy & nationalism comminting genocide through cultural assimilation. I know the Mormon God is openly white-supremacist as he uses whiteness as a mark of his Chosen People and uses “a skin of blackness” as a mark of evil. And openly advocates for segregation and anti-miscegenation (in both scripture and the words of his prophets). I know the current Prophet & other leaders were all grown ass men as this church assisted Nazis, committed genocide through the Lamanite Placement Program, openly practiced anti-Black segregation, fought against civil rights, homosexual marriage rights, and women’s rights. And they do it all with the word love on their lips. I know this church learned everything it knows from the U.S. settler-colonial project in which it was conceived. That the only thing Mormon leaders and the U.S. government have ever fought over is who will dominate the masses, the land, and it’s Peoples. I know that it is our responsibility as heirs & products of these projects to, like Jesus, destroy those which seek to hoard and abuse power and wealth through the subjugation and exploitation of people and that which gives us all life. Amen This essay is also featured in Testimony "Vol. 3" by Related Records
 Six months after Joseph Smith organized his church he sent missionaries to the Cattaraugus Tribe & other Indigenous Peoples. Joseph commanded these missionaries to marry these Indigenous women so “that their posterity may become white & delightsome.” But Mormon leaders sought greater goals than just the assimilation of their supposedly fallen brother –– They sought an army & insurrection, they sought empire. Mormonism is founded on the belief that we are in the Latter-days, or End-times. These End-Times will culminate in the return of Jesus as the King of a global Mormon Zion (empire). To bring this to pass Mormons must prepare their Zion through the overthrow of the fallen U.S. ––specifically with an army of converted Indigenous Persons. This belief is shown in the White Horse Prophecy, said to be given by Smith in 1843: “You will see the Constitution of the U.S. almost destroyed, it will hang is if by a thread…it will be saved by the efforts of the White Horse (Mormons) & the Red Horse (converted Lamanites) who will combine in its defense.” A statement on prophecy on this church's website reads: "The so-called 'White Horse Prophecy' is based on accounts that have not been substantiated by historical research & is not embraced as Church doctrine." Yet as you can read in the second half of this post, leaders have repeated this prophecy throughout this church’s history, including politicians. And as you can read below, Mormon leaders were clearly gathering an army to fight against the U.S. as part of their Zion-building settler-project. So, whether those words were spoken by Smith or not, this Prophecy is in fact, “substantiated by historical research," despite what the current leadership claims. Or as Mormon insurrectionist Ryan Bundy says: “Whether the church calls it doctrine or not, we got quotes from several prophets reiterating that…I take the words of the prophets both modern & previous ones seriously. That’s what I’ve read…that’s what I believe.”  Mormon U.S. Insurrection & Indigenous Assimilation“I tell you the (Indigenous People) of these mountains will yet be a shield to this people if we do right and…look to these poor degraded natives.” - Wilford Woodruff “It would seem that it’s the fate of the Indian as a race to be wiped out and become extinct…but hope lies for them in the fact that God foretold He would not permit their utter destruction…I am looking to the fulfillment of all things that the Lord has spoken, Zion is bound to rise and flourish. The Lamanites will blossom as the rose on the mountains.” - Wilford Woodruff “The Latter-day Saints in these mountains never can have the privilege of going back to Jackson County and building…the New Jerusalem … until quite a large portion of (Indigenous People) go back with us.” - Orson Hyde “President Young in his address to the Saints…said (U.S. Pres) Polk…had a hand in the death of Joseph and Hyrum. And that they should be damned for these things. If they ever sent any men to interfere with us here, they shall have their throats cut. With uplifted hands to Heaven (Young) swore…that he would never cease…to make every preparation and avenge blood of the Prophets and Saints. That he intended to have every hole and corner from the Bay of Francisco to Hudson Bay known to us. And that our people would be connected with every tribe of Indians throughout America. And that our people would yet take their squaws, wash and dress them up, teach them and raise up children by them. And not many generations hence they will become a white and delightsome people. In no other way will it be done.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, July 28, 1847 (Mormons had been in so-called Utah for only four days) “Young..counselled the brethren to buy up the Lamanite children as fast as they could and educate them and teach them the gospel so that not many generations they would be a white and delightsome people for the Lord could not have devised a better plan than to have put us where we are in order to accomplish this thing.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, May 12, 1851 “By and by (Indigenous People) will be the Lord’s battle ax in good earnest.” - Brigham Young to Las Vegas Fort missionaries 1855 "If the Lord blesses us…we can have 1000 brave warriors on hand in a short time to help quell the eruption (the Utah War) that might take place in the principalities.” - John Steele, Las Vegas Fort missionary 1855 “Young said that the U. S. are fools to…send out troops to fight us. This season we shall whip them out; then they will send out reinforcements; then we shall have the Lamanites with us and the more the United States send out, the worse off they will be, for they will perish with famine.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, August 2, 1857 (Utah War started a month earlier) Young said “If the government of the United States persists in sending armies to destroy us, in the name of the Lord, we shall conquer them…I shall not hold the Indians still by the wrist any longer for white men to shoot at them, but I shall let them go ahead and do as they please and I shall carry the war into their own land…You may tell them they must stop all emigration across this continent. The Indians will kill all that attempt it.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, September 13, 1857 (Mountain Meadows Massacre started 7 days prior and ended on the 11th) “Elder John D. Lee also arrived with an awful tale of blood. A company of California emigrants of about 150 men, women and children, many of them belonged to the mob in Missouri and Illinois…They wanted to do all the evil they could, so they poisoned the springs of water; several of the saints died. The Indians became enraged at their conduct and they surrounded them on a prairie, but the Indians fought them 5 days until they killed all their men about 60 in number. They then rushed into their corral and cut the throats of their women and children, except some 8 or 10 children, which they brought and sold to the whites.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, September 29, 1857. (Elder Lee was the organizer and an enactor of this massacre. No Indigenous Peoples participated in this massacre. Mormons continued to blame Nuwu for this for 150 years.) “President Heber C. Kimball..said that the United States would not go down very speedily, but gradually…and he was satisfied that the Indians would do their rough work in a great measure before they embraced the Gospel.” - Wilford Woodruff’s Journal, January 9, 1858 the White Horse Prophecy“This Nation will be on the very verge of crumbling to peices [sic] and tumbling to the ground and when the Constitution is upon the brink of ruin this people will be the Staff upon which the Nation shall lean and they shall bear the constitution away from the very verge of destruction.”
- Founding Pres. Joseph Smith 1840 “When the Constitution of the United States hangs, as it were, upon a single thread, they will have to call for the 'Mormon' Elders to save it from utter destruction; and they will step forth and do it." - 2nd Pres. Brigham Young, 1855 "You and I have heard all our lives that the time may come when the Constitution may hang by a thread... if we are to live as a Church, and progress, and have the right to worship... we must have the great guarantees that are set up by our Constitution." - Served in 1st Pres. under 3 Prophets, U.S. Sec of State & Ambassador, J. Reuben Clark, 1942 "I have always felt that they meant that sometime the question of whether we are going to proceed on the basis of the Constitution would arise and at this point government leaders who were Mormons would be involved in answering that question." - U.S Sec. of Housing & Michigan Governor, George Romney, 1967 "I have faith that the Constitution will be saved as prophesied by Joseph Smith. But it will not be saved in Washington… It will be saved by enlightened members of this Church – men and women who will subscribe to and abide by the principles of the Constitution." - U.S. Sec of Ag. & 13th Pres. Ezra Taft Benson, 1986 “Religious freedom is going to go down the drain, too… I’ve never seen it worse than this, where the Constitution literally is hanging by a thread.” - U.S. Sen. of Utah for 42 years, Orrin Hatch, 2000 “Our Constitution was being violated. That it was hanging by a thread.” - Mormon insurrectionist Ammon Bundy on his armed take-over of the Malheur Nat’l Wildlife Refuge, 2016 “I testify of the divinely inspired Constitution of the United States and pray that we who recognize the Divine Being who inspired it will always uphold and defend its great principles.” - Dallin H. Oaks, 2021 “Whether the church calls (the White Horse Prophecy) doctrine or not, we got quotes from several prophets reiterating that. What the church’s official position on it or not, that I don’t know. I take the words of the prophets both modern and previous ones seriously.That’s what I’ve read, that’s what I’ve heard, that’s what I believe.” - Mormon insurrectionist Ryan Bundy This post explores the way Mormonism frames both Jews & Peoples Indigenous to this continent as formerly-Chosen, now-fallen Peoples and Northern European Mormons as the new Chosen People having replaced Jews as heirs of the Kingdom of God and Indigenous Peoples as heirs of this so-called Promised Land. I explore this by analyzing two murals in the Manti, Utah temple, which was completed in 1888. The Timanogos land this temple occupies was at the center of both the Wakara & the Black Hawk wars (which are really one war started by Mormon colonizers). Minerva Teichert's “World Room" mural (1947) Detail of Minerva Teichert's World Room Mural (1947) in the Manti Utah temple. The first mural (1947) is by Minerva Teichert and covers the walls of the “World Room.” This “mural shows the history of the world.” One wall “generally follows the history of the gentiles; one can see crusaders, monarchs, explorers, and the poor and destitute." On the opposite wall “is the history of Israel, with paintings of Abraham, Joseph, Moses, and Pilgrims."  Visitors enter through the east wall which features the Tower of Babel is under construction. From here, the story of mankind splits in two--the story of the gentiles and the story of Israel.  The south wall holds the story of Israel in four stories. First, Abraham, Sarai, and Lot entering Canaan, symbolic of the Abrahamic covenant and the beginning of Israel. Next, Joseph sold into Egypt by his brothers. Then, Moses confronting the people of Israel who are worshiping a golden calf. Finally, the Pilgrims boarding the Mayflower which Minerva called "Israel...embarking to the West for the New World."  On the opposite side, the north well tell a series of stories of the "gentiles." First, Esau sells someone into enslavement. Next "the Orient section", showing Asian people with religious symbols. Followed by a procession of crusaders. Finally, Christopher Columbus on a ship.  The Israel and Gentile walls meet on the West wall which symbolizes this continent. On the south corner, a Pilgrim. On the north, a trader. A "Native American" in a headdress stands between them in a Jesus-like open armed pose seeming to welcome these invaders. Above the Native figure is Mormon Zion depicted as a Utah settlement. “Both of these histories meet…on the American Continent, where a Native American figure stands at the center. Above him… is a… a small city and a temple. The city represents Zion… It looks a lot like Manti.” - ldspioneerarchitecture.blogspot.com This mural illustrates well the way in which Mormonism’s anti/philosemitic supersessionism meets with their anti/philo-Indigenous settler-nativism. Mormonism teaches that Indigenous peoples are descendants of white ancient-Israelis who migrated here in 600 AD and so-called America is the “Promised Land.” Thus this painting is illustrating the Mormon-specific mythology that the history of Israel (Old Testament) and the history of the gentiles (Christianity) will by fulfilled via the gathering of Israel (millenarianism) in a new Zion located in the stolen lands occupied and colonized by the United States. C.C.A. Christensen's pair of paintings depicting “temple hill" (1889) Timpanogos land BEFORE Mormon colonization  Timpanogos land AFTER Mormon colonization The second mural is a pair of paintings by C.C.A. Christensen depicting “temple hill" (1889). “One shows the temple hill how it looked when pioneers first arrived in the (Sanpitch) Valley... The other shows the temple completed.” In the second Timpanogos People are conspicuously displaced by the temple & figures wearing affluent Euro-settler styles of the era. Timpanogos lost 90% of their people within the first 30 years of Mormon colonization, 40% from the Black Hawk War alone. Mormons lost ~0.0017% of their population from the Black Hawk War. Mormon population in Utah Territory tripled from 1850-1880. “(Wakara) wished to keep the valley of the San Pete, and desired to leave the valley of Salt Lake, as he could not live in peace with the whites—but that the Whites had taken possession of this valley also… He said he had always wished to be friendly with the whites—but they seemed never to be satisfied—the Indians had moved time after time, and yet they could have no peace.” - Wakara Statement, 1853  According to the Wikipedia page on “Manti, Utah” “Manti (named after a Book of Mormon city) was one of the first communities settled in what was to become Utah. Chief (Wakara, a Timpanogos leader), invited Brigham Young to send pioneers to the area to teach his people the techniques of successful farming. In 1849, Young dispatched a company of about 225 settlers, consisting of several families, to the Sanpitch (now Sanpete) Valley.” This may have been the case in 1849, but by 1853 Wakara told interpreter M.S. Martenas: “He wished to keep the valley of the San Pete (Manti), and desired to leave the valley of Salt Lake, as he could not live in peace with the whites—but that the Whites had taken possession of this valley also—and the Indians were forced to leave their homes, or submit to the constant abuse of the whites. He said he had always wished to be friendly with the whites—but they seemed never to be satisfied—the Indians had moved time after time, and yet they could have no peace.” But as wikipedia puts it: “Relations with the local Native Americans deteriorated rapidly, and the Walker War (first part of Black Hawk War soon ensued.) The war consisted primarily of various raids conducted by the Native Americans against Mormon outposts in Central and Southern Utah.” This is fully false. From the beginning of the “Walker War” to year they set as the beginning of the “Black Hawk War” Mormons killed 187 Timpanogos persons and Timpanogos killed 41 Mormons. Also during this time Mormons killed about ~250 non-Mormon Euro-settlers at Mountain Meadows and blamed it on the Nuwu People. Wikipedia goes on with its fiction: “In 1865 Utah's Black Hawk War erupted when an incident between a Manti resident and a young chieftain exploded into open warfare between the Mormon settlers and the local Native Americans.” (This war started in 1848 when Mormons first began to occupy Timpanogos land against the wishes of the People. The war escalated in 1865 because Timpanogos began being forced onto reservation in 1864) “In the fall of 1867, Chief Black Hawk made peace with the settlers, but sporadic violence occurred until 1872, when federal troops intervened (finish forcing Timpanogos People onto the Uintah Reservation). Many Mormon settlers who fought and died in the wars are buried in the Manti Cemetery.” (Black Hawk's grave was robbed by Mormons in 1919 and his bones put on display at Temple Square for 60 years. His remains weren't reburied until 1996. "It took an act of Congress, the help of National Forest Service archeologist Charmain Thompson, and the humanitarian efforts of a boy scout Shane Armstrong to find and rebury the remains of Black Hawk at Spring Lake.”)
White supremacy in genealogyPart 1 is about how Mormonism foundationally used genealogy to reify its white-supremacist doctrines which teach that Euro-Mormons—as the keepers of the keys of THE “One True Church,” and descendants of Ephraim’s tribe of Israel—are God’s Chosen Race and People. Part 2 is about how this shows up in Mormon temple work, eternal families, & genealogy. Part 3 is on the classist, femicidal violences of Mormon doctrine on Eternal Families, Polygyny, and Godhood. Part 4 shares my personal experience with using genealogy in an anti-racist way. Part 5 is on the ways antisemitism and anti-Indigeneity overlap in Mormonism Part 6 builds on part 5 through a critical analysis of the art and history in the Manti temple and it's grounds. Part 7 addresses the Baptisms for the Dead that Mormons did for Jews killed in the Holocaust along with Hitler and other Nazis.  Lamanite (left) and Nephite (right) characters as paper cut out images for teaching children about the Book of Mormon 2 Nephi 5:21 - And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity … wherefore, as they were white, and exceedingly fair and delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them. 22 And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, save they shall repent of their iniquities. So God cursed the bad guy Lamanites “who are among the ancestors” of Indigenous Peoples of this continent & Pacific Islands, with “a skin of blackness.” By turning away from the Mormon God, the Lamanites also turn away from their ancestral “exceedingly fair” whiteness. Mormon God chose “a skin of blackness” in hopes that it “might not be enticing unto” His chosen white people. In the next verses Mormon God condemns interrelations with these un-enticing, black-skinned Lamanites. 23 And cursed shall be the seed of him that mixeth with their seed; for they shall be cursed even with the same cursing. And the Lord spake it, and it was done. This curse also turned the Lamanites into “an idle people, full of mischief and subtlety, and did seek in the wilderness for beasts of prey.” This is in contrast to a description of the Nephites a few verses earlier as “industrious” with “exceedingly fine” workmanship. Mormon antisemitism is mixed with Mormon anti-Indigeneity twenty-five chapters later in 2 Nephi 30. After plagiarizing several chapters from the Book of Isaiah with some antisemitic Christian-supremacy mixed in, Nephi prophesies that both the Lamanites and Jews, after having fallen from Chosen status because of their shared disbelief in Christainity, will “begin to believe in Christ” and become “a delightsome people” Indigenous Peoples are promised that they, as descendants of Lamanites, will once again hold 2 Nephi 30:6 the knowledge of Jesus Christ, which was had among their fathers. And then shall they rejoice ... and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes; and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and a delightsome people. (This verse originally read: “they shall be a white and delightsome people” but was changed to "a pure and a delightsome people" briefly in the 1840’s and long-term in 1981) Mormon God returned Christianity to this Promised Land and its Peoples through Columbus which was prophesied in Nephi’s latter-day vision. 1 Nephi 13:11 And it came to pass that the angel said unto me: Behold the wrath of God is upon the seed of thy brethren. 12 And I looked and beheld a man among the Gentiles, who was separated from the seed of my brethren by the many waters; and I beheld the Spirit of God, that it came down and awrought upon the man; and he went forth upon the many waters, even unto the seed of my brethren, who were in the promised land. Nephi then sees Indigenous genocide at the hands of Euro-Christian colonists: 14 And it came to pass that I beheld many multitudes of the Gentiles upon the land of promise; and I beheld the wrath of God, that it was upon the seed of my brethren; and they were scattered before the Gentiles and were smitten. Then Nephi justifies it as divine white-Christian supremacy 15 And I beheld the Spirit of the Lord, that it was upon the Gentiles, and they did prosper and obtain the land for their inheritance; and I beheld that they were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like unto my people [the Nephites] before they were slain [by the Lamanites] (which is how the Book of Mormon explains how white, ancient Israelis could migrate to this continent and yet in 1830 there are no white Peoples living on this continent.)
The Lamanite Warrior Action Figure has a very racist description printed on each package. The racist text comes directly from the Book of Mormon. The Mormon-owed book store corporation, Deseret Book, was selling this toy with its overtly racist description until with one day of online organizing someone who knew the President of Deseret Book reached out and the toy was quietly removed overnight without any publicity or accountability for selling it in the first place, nor for the overt racism of the Book of Mormon on which this toy's racism is based.  Nephite Soldiers Fight the Lamanites, by Jerry Thompson Through these verses Euro-Christian & Euro-Mormon settler colonization and Indigenous genocides are justified as Divine intervention. Mormon mythologies create a Lamanite, the supposed common ancestors of contemporary Indigenous Peoples.
The Lamanites used to be white, ancient Israelis but emigrated to this so-called “Promised Land” to avoid the fall of Jerusalem. Here these Lamanites rebelled against the Nephites and their Mormon God. So Mormon God cursed the Lamanites with “a skin of Blackness” to keep them segregated. But as Mormon God is a merciful white-supremacist he promises to return “the knowledge of Jesus Christ” to the Lamanites in some prophesied future after they’d been “scattered and smitten” by “white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful” Euro-Christian settlers, “they shall be a pure* and a delightsome people.” For most of the existence of the Book of Mormon this verse promised whiteness rather than purity to the Lamanites, but as Mormon apologists have said, whiteness and purity are used interchangeably in the Book of Mormon. But I think the whiteness is important here especially because the very next verse, 2 Nephi 30:7, Nephi also envisions “the Jews which are scattered also shall begin to believe in Christ;... and as many as shall believe in Christ shall also become a delightsome people.” Jews are simply promised to become a delightsome people upon conversion to Mormonism whereas Lamanites are promised a return to their Chosen Israeli status and its whiteness and delightsomeness. Jews and Lamanites, like Pure and White, also share a lot of defining characteristics in the Book of Mormon. Both are cast as a formerly Chosen Peoples of the House of Israel who’ve lost their chosen status because of their rejection of Christ or His Church. Both are giving roles in Mormon Millenarianism. The state of Israel and the gathering of the Jewish People are both prophecied antecedants to the Mormon Second Coming. Similarly, conversion and gathering of Indigenous and Euro-Mormons in a New Jerusalem here in Mormon Zion must occur to prepare the land for Mormon Jesus’s return as God-King of the whole world |
AuthorI am nicholas b jacobsen, an artist, researcher, historian, educator, and organizer. I am a trans-non binary Euro-settler raised in the Nuwu lands of so-called Utah. My family has been Mormon and Utahn for as long as either of those concepts have existed. My ancestors sacrificed everything--their identities, homelands, jobs, health, & safety to become Mormon, Utahn, U.S. American, & white--to settler their Zion. They also sacrificed their humanities as they committed genocide against Kuttuhsippeh (Goshute), Timpanogos Shoshone, Shoshone-Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Nuwu (Southern Paiute), and Diné (Navajo). Because my ancestors made my home through Indigenous genocide in their home/lands––I take it as my personal responsibility to unsettle what my ancestors settled, while helping my fellow settlers do the same through reading, writing, art, and community building. Archives
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