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
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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
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 Joseph Smith presidential campaign poster (1846) Here’s a list of 11 Mormons who’ve run for U.S. President* beginning with Joseph Smith’s 1844 campaign. (*Eldridge Cleaver was not yet a Mormon when he ran *Sonia Johnson was no longer a Mormon when she ran *Ezra Taft Benson never ran bc his Prophet wouldn’t let him) Mormons have been politically active since their founding. Mike Lee, Mitt Romney, and the Udall family are all from power Mormon Pioneer dynasties who gained and maintained power and wealth through land theft. Currently Mormons represent 1.7% of the 117th Congress (and 2% of the US population). They serve and have served as members of the State Dept, as US ambassadors, as well as the CIA, FBI, and many federal courts. But no Mormon has ever been US President despite being a uniquely U.S. American religion and repeated attempts by members.
10) Jon Huntsman Jr., 2012, Republican
 Twelve years after successfully arguing for a Mormon exemption to the Indian Child Welfare Act, Diné man, Mormon General Authority, & Lamanite Placement Program graduate George P. Lee was excommunicated.
In the early ‘80s as “friend of the Indians” & Mormon Prophet, Spencer W. Kimball, was very sick. Future Mormon Prophet Ezra Taft Benson & others began to cut funding to the Lamanite programs Kimball had spent his life building up. George P. Lee, as a member of the 70, protested these changes demanding: “Who is turning their backs on the Lamanites–the very people on whom your own salvation hangs?” Lee believed that the purpose of the Mormon church was to “bring the message of the Book of Mormon to American Indians” so that they may “blossom as a rose,” turn “white and delightsome” and prepare for the Americas for the gathering of Israel in the New Jerusalem and the Second Coming of Christ. Lee understood the Mormon church to be divinely for, and eventually run by, Lamanites – aka the Tribe of Manasseh. Lee also believed, as the early leaders taught, that the salvation of Euro-Mormons depends on the salvation of Lamanites. “(You) have no sense of responsibility to (Indigenous Peoples) because you displaced them and set yourself up as Ephraim more superior to the Lamanites and thus you are telling (Indigenous Peoples) that you are No. 1 and they are second class. It is getting to the point where every Gentile that is baptized is told and taught that he is the literal seed of Ephraim unless he is a Jew, Indian or Black. This… encourages an attitude of superior race, white supremacy. “You have cut out Indian or Lamanite programs and are attempting to cut them out of the Book of Mormon. You are trying to discredit or downplay the role of Lamanites in these last days and downplay their role and importance in the building of the New Jerusalem.'' Partly, for this kind of protest George P. Lee was excommunicated. He was the first Mormon leader to be excommunicated in forty-six years. Although I believe the true purpose of this church is to make money and power for itself and its leaders, I do agree with Lee’s understanding of the explicit purpose of the church as founded in the Book of Mormon. Even today this church still teaches that the Book of Mormon “was written primarily to the Lamanites.” For this church to be aligned with its Book of Mormon message, at least half of the quorum of twelve ought to be Native by now and they should be doing everything in their power to cause the Lamanite to “blossom as a rose.” But this isn’t the case, because as Lee points out in his excommunication letter, these leaders are more there for money, than “the Lord’s work.” “I am not sure how many of us would really do the Lord's work if we were not being paid.” - George P. Lee, 1989 To read the full length essay with sources see “Mormonism and Indigenous Assimilation”  1936 - This church’s 1st official statement against communism 1949 - 1st official statement on their anti-Black doctrines and policies. 1966 - 2nd official anti-communist manifesto. 1969 - 2nd anti-Black manifesto This church has published two official statements defending their anti-Blackness and two decrying communism. During that time (WWII & Civil Rights era) they released zero statements against Nazism , white-supremacy, or fascism. (Though Deseret News did print articles in support of Nazis) As Civil Rights organizers fought against anti-Black segregation, this church was fighting for their religious freedom to practice and preach anti-Black policies and doctrines. In this church’s collective mind, Black people were in their divine place in God’s “caste system”––they already had all the rights God has given them. Ironically, it was Ezra Taft Benson’s mission trip to post-Nazi Germany that led to him to being so firm in his anti-communism. He blamed the hardships of Germans on the rise of communism from the ashes of fascism. But for some reason he never thinks that maybe Nazism is what created the devastation and starvation in post-war Germany, not the struggling form of communism that rose in its wake. Tho anti-communism and white-supremacy were already a deeply embedded feature of this church when Benson went to Germany. Benson’s mentor, J. Reuben Clark, (known white-supremacist, First President, and US State official) co-authored this church’s 1936 official statement decrying communism as satanic. Clark also co-authored the first public anti-Black statement. And he liked to collected and handed out antisemetic propaganda in the US and Nazi Germany. The year after this church released their 1936 anti-communist statement, President Grant spoke under a Nazi flag to Nazi Mormons in Nazi Germany telling them, ““Stay here…We want to keep the Church intact and the missionaries working.” During this time, this church was helping Nazis do their genealogy work in search of Jews to exterminate. The Venn diagram of Mormonism’s far-right politics, anti-communism, anti-Blackness, white-supremacy, and US-exceptionalism forms a circle.  “In July 1937, the Mormon Prophet Heber J. Grant, spoke to 800 members at a rented meeting hall in Frankfurt. Like all buildings in Nazi Germany, it came with a large swastika flag. On Aug. 7, the Deseret News, the Church-owned Salt Lake City daily, ran this picture. In its news columns, the DN regularly published wire service stories about Hitler’s treatment of Germany’s Jews. But in the religion section, it had no qualms about associating the Church President with Nazi symbolism.” (Nelson, David Conley. Moroni and the Swastika: Mormons in Nazi Germany. University of Oklahoma, 2015.) CIVIL RIGHTS: TOOL OF COMMUNIST DECEPTION |
| For the first about 150 years Mormon leaders spoke openly in favor of anti-Black segregation. Joseph Smith said he “would confine [Black people] by strict law to their own species" Brigham Young taught that justified enslavement by saying that God cursed Cain, the father of all Africans and made them “servant of servants.” He also taught sexual segregation saying that white men who had sex with Black women deserved to be blood atoned and that apostates would be cursed with black skin “just like the devil.” Taylor taught that Blackness survived the Flood of Noah so that the “devil should have a representation upon the earth” |  Brigham Young by Charles Roscoe Savage, 1855 |
Nearly 100 yrs later, J. Reuben Clark wrote, “The Church discourages social intercourse with the negro race, because such intercourse leads to marriage” which he calls spiritually and biologically “wrong”.
In the 1940s the First Presidency marked that “No special effort has ever been made to proselyte among the Negro race” as “social intercourse between the Whites and the Negroes [leads] to intermarriage, which the Lord has forbidden.” This doctrinal segregation continues currently in the "Aaronic Priesthood Manual" on this church's website which quotes Spencer W. Kimball counciled in 1976: “We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”
In 1949, the First Presidency justified their anti-Blackness in their first Official Statement on “the Negro” writing: “The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes [is a] direct commandment from the Lord…” brought on by “the conduct of (their) spirits in the premortal existence.”
Leaders even encouraged Euro-settler Mormons to organize “to prevent Negroes from becoming neighbors,” and offered church buildings for these meetings.
In the 1940s the First Presidency marked that “No special effort has ever been made to proselyte among the Negro race” as “social intercourse between the Whites and the Negroes [leads] to intermarriage, which the Lord has forbidden.” This doctrinal segregation continues currently in the "Aaronic Priesthood Manual" on this church's website which quotes Spencer W. Kimball counciled in 1976: “We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”
In 1949, the First Presidency justified their anti-Blackness in their first Official Statement on “the Negro” writing: “The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes [is a] direct commandment from the Lord…” brought on by “the conduct of (their) spirits in the premortal existence.”
Leaders even encouraged Euro-settler Mormons to organize “to prevent Negroes from becoming neighbors,” and offered church buildings for these meetings.
1938 First Presidency Heber J. Grant, J. Reuben Clark, David O. McKay
In 1954, apostle Mark E. Petersen, spoke in favor of segregation saying, “What God hath separated, let not man bring together again” and cited the Lamanites and Nephites, the curse of Cain, and the Israelites and Canaanites as scriptural evidence of the divinity of segregation.
In ‘58 Bruce R. McConkie wrote in Mormon Doctrine that "the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry.” The quote remained until 2010 when the book went out of print. Though the book is still available used. I bought my copy at the Mormon-owned thrift store, Deseret Industries.
A 1959 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that this church taught that melanated people were not as righteous in the pre-earth life and that most Utah Mormons believed "by righteous living, the dark-skinned races may again become 'white and delightsome'.”
In 1965 apostle Spencer W. Kimball told a group of Indigenous BYU students: "Now, the brethren feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial lines in dating and marrying.”
That same year BYU administrators began sending rejection letters to Black applicants which cited this church’s pro-segregation beliefs on interracial marriage as the reason for rejection.
With social and political pressure from the civil rights movement (which Ezra Taft Benson called a communist plot) the First Presidency released their second Official Mormon Statement on “the Negro” in 1969 in which they repeated that “the seeming discrimination by the Church toward the Negro is not something which originated with man; but goes back into the beginning with God… extending back to man’s pre-existent state."
In ‘58 Bruce R. McConkie wrote in Mormon Doctrine that "the whole negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry.” The quote remained until 2010 when the book went out of print. Though the book is still available used. I bought my copy at the Mormon-owned thrift store, Deseret Industries.
A 1959 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights found that this church taught that melanated people were not as righteous in the pre-earth life and that most Utah Mormons believed "by righteous living, the dark-skinned races may again become 'white and delightsome'.”
In 1965 apostle Spencer W. Kimball told a group of Indigenous BYU students: "Now, the brethren feel that it is not the wisest thing to cross racial lines in dating and marrying.”
That same year BYU administrators began sending rejection letters to Black applicants which cited this church’s pro-segregation beliefs on interracial marriage as the reason for rejection.
With social and political pressure from the civil rights movement (which Ezra Taft Benson called a communist plot) the First Presidency released their second Official Mormon Statement on “the Negro” in 1969 in which they repeated that “the seeming discrimination by the Church toward the Negro is not something which originated with man; but goes back into the beginning with God… extending back to man’s pre-existent state."
1969 First Presidency
One of the early dents in the anti-African/Black salvation ban’s armor came from beyond the U.S. borders. In Brazil, intermarriage between people of African, European, and Indigenous decent created a deeply mixed population which made Mormon blood purity doctrine difficult to enforce. And even though this church actively avoided proselytizing in Black communities, many Brazilian Mormons didn’t understand U.S. classifications of race and how it applied to the priesthood ban, which made their missionary work difficult.
Mark Grover, an “expert on Mormonism in Brazil” writes, “Many (Brazilian) members struggled with this policy which openly discriminated against family members, friends, and occasionally themselves… (and) resulted in limited growth and development for the Church.”
Because of the difficulty of determining this “one drop rule” in Fijians, Indigenous Australians, Egyptians, Brazilians, and South Africans the ban was relaxed in those places so that people with a "questionable lineage" were given the priesthood.
Mark Grover, an “expert on Mormonism in Brazil” writes, “Many (Brazilian) members struggled with this policy which openly discriminated against family members, friends, and occasionally themselves… (and) resulted in limited growth and development for the Church.”
Because of the difficulty of determining this “one drop rule” in Fijians, Indigenous Australians, Egyptians, Brazilians, and South Africans the ban was relaxed in those places so that people with a "questionable lineage" were given the priesthood.
Elder James E. Faust and his wife, Sister Ruth Faust, left, with Helvécio Martins and his family at the dedication of the São Paolo Brazil Temple in November 1978.
Another dent in their anti-Blackness armor came after the publication of "Mormonism's Negro Doctrine: An Historical Overview.” by Lester Bush in 1973. BYU vice-president Robert K. Thomas feared that the church could lose its tax exemption status as the article described the church's racially discriminatory practices in detail. This article created internal discussion among church leaders which weakened the idea that the Black salvation ban was doctrinal.
Then miraculously in 1978, the church, through Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, received revelation commanding them to lift the Black salvation ban.
Then miraculously in 1978, the church, through Prophet Spencer W. Kimball, received revelation commanding them to lift the Black salvation ban.
Spencer W. Kimball pondering and praying
Even so, deep anti-Blackness is still perpetuated in this church.
LDS historian Wayne J. Embry interviewed several Black Mormons nine yrs after the church lifted this ban (1987) and found that every one of them reported experiencing "a reluctance or a refusal (from white Mormons) to shake hands with them or sit by them, (as well as) racist comments made to them."
When asked whether the Black salvation ban and its lifting were policy or doctrine, Dallin H. Oaks stated in 1988, "I don't know that it's possible to distinguish between policy and doctrine in a church that believes in continuing revelation and sustains its leader as a prophet.”
Twenty years after that in 2007, Mormon journalist, Peggy Fletcher Stack, reported that Black Mormons still felt unwelcome because of how other members treat them, including being called the "n-word" in the temple and at church.
In June 2016, when some Black Utah Mormon women were asked what they’d want today, one woman said she wished she could “attend church once without someone touching my hair.”
That same year a survey showed that over 60% self-identified Mormons, know or believe that the priesthood/temple ban was God's will.
In June 2020, a spokesman for the NAACP said that there was "no willingness on the part of the church to do anything material ... It's time now for more than sweet talk." In response the church gave more talks. There are still no serious attempts “to do anything material.”
This doctrinal segregation continues currently in the "Aaronic Priesthood Manual" on this church's website which quotes Spencer W. Kimball counciled in 1976: “We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”
LDS historian Wayne J. Embry interviewed several Black Mormons nine yrs after the church lifted this ban (1987) and found that every one of them reported experiencing "a reluctance or a refusal (from white Mormons) to shake hands with them or sit by them, (as well as) racist comments made to them."
When asked whether the Black salvation ban and its lifting were policy or doctrine, Dallin H. Oaks stated in 1988, "I don't know that it's possible to distinguish between policy and doctrine in a church that believes in continuing revelation and sustains its leader as a prophet.”
Twenty years after that in 2007, Mormon journalist, Peggy Fletcher Stack, reported that Black Mormons still felt unwelcome because of how other members treat them, including being called the "n-word" in the temple and at church.
In June 2016, when some Black Utah Mormon women were asked what they’d want today, one woman said she wished she could “attend church once without someone touching my hair.”
That same year a survey showed that over 60% self-identified Mormons, know or believe that the priesthood/temple ban was God's will.
In June 2020, a spokesman for the NAACP said that there was "no willingness on the part of the church to do anything material ... It's time now for more than sweet talk." In response the church gave more talks. There are still no serious attempts “to do anything material.”
This doctrinal segregation continues currently in the "Aaronic Priesthood Manual" on this church's website which quotes Spencer W. Kimball counciled in 1976: “We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background generally.”
Author
I 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.
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