The Curse of Dark Skin

"Black and white, bond and free, male and female; ... all are alike unto God" (2 Nephi 26:33).

You sometimes hear this advertised by the LDS Church whenever they celebrate the birthday of Martin Luther King Jr. (in January) or when it commemorates the granting of the priesthood to those of African descent (in June)

This is partially true; it is one side of the race coin which exists in LDS theology. One one side of the coin is the proposition that black people and white people are created in the image of God.

But we need to more fully examine the other side of the race coin - what the Book of Mormon teaches is the symbolism of dark skin.

Some very good insight can also be found in an old book published way back in 1931 called "The Way To Perfection."

I will discuss the book "The Way to Perfection" near the end of the text, but for now let's turn to the Mormon scriptures.

The first time we hear about the curse of dark or black skin in the Book of Mormon is 2 Nephi 5:21-23. It is said that God cursed the Lamanites with black skin so they would not be enticing unto the Nephites.

"And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yea, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto a flint; 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. And thus saith the Lord God: I will cause that they shall be loathsome unto thy people, > save they shall repent of their iniquities. 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" (2 Nephi 5:20-23).

LDS Church seminary manuals speak of dark skin being a sign of the curse:

3. Why was the mark of dark skin set upon the Lamanites?

This was a specific mark or sign for a specific set of circumstances. Nephi explained, "That they [the Lamanites] might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them" (2 Nephi 5:21). Alma gave a similar explanation:

"The skins of the Lamanites were dark - that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions" (Alma 3:6, 8). These explanations are consistent with other scriptural warnings that the people of the Lord should not marry unbelievers because the result of doing so was often that the righteous would turn away from the Lord (see Deuteronomy 7:2-4; 1 Kings 11:4; 2 Corinthians 6:14; D&C 74:5).

https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2013-obs?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2013-obs/2-nephi/lesson-27?lang=eng

"The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing. The dark skin was the sign of the curse. The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord. . . .

"The dark skin of those who have come into the Church is no longer to be considered a sign of the curse. Many of these converts are delightsome and have the Spirit of the Lord" (Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., 5 vols.)"

Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual - 2012
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/shared/content/english/pdf/language-materials/09411_eng.pdf

"Make sure students understand that the curse mentioned in this chapter was separation from God. The changing of the Lamanites' skin was only a mark or sign of the curse".

Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual, 2017
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2017/introduction-to-the-second-book-of-nephi/lesson-27-2-nephi-5?lang=eng
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/bc/content/ldsorg/seminary-institute/PDFs/manuals/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2017_lessons%201-42.pdf

"The Lamanites remained in the land and rebelled against the Lord. They "were cut off from his presence" (2 Nephi 5:20). The curse mentioned in this chapter was separation from God (see 2 Nephi 5:20-24). The changing of the Lamanites' skin was a mark or sign of the curse. The nature of this mark is not fully understood".

Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual, 2024
https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/book-of-mormon-seminary-teacher-manual-2024/08-2-nephi-3-5/085-teacher?lang=eng

Even though Alma 17:14 describes the Lamanites as being a wild, ferocious, plundering, robbing, and murdering people, God felt the need to change their skin color to make them not enticing to the Nephites (2 Nephi 5:21). Apparently their immoral acts were not sufficient enough to deter the Nephites into wanting to inter-marry with them. It is also stated in 2 Nephi 5:23 that the Nephites would also receive the sign of the curse (dark skin) if the married the Lamanites (also mentioned in Alma 3:9).

The Lamanite babies that were born to the dark-skinned Lamanites also had the sign of the curse.

How black skin is not attractive to the white-skinned Nephite people is a discussion for another time.

In Alma 3:6-7, it is recorded that the skins of the Lamanites were dark, "according to the mark which was set upon their fathers, which was a curse upon them because of their transgression and their rebellion against their brethren, who consisted of Nephi, Jacob, and Joseph, and Sam, who were just and holy men. And their brethren sought to destroy them, therefore they were cursed; and the Lord God set a mark upon them, yea, upon Laman and Lemuel, and also the sons of Ishmael, and Ishmaelitish women".

In the Bible, the Israelites who conquered the land of Canaan and later apostatized were not cursed with dark skin to separate themselves from those sons of Jacob who remained faithful to God's covenant. Even in the LDS teaching of the period of the Great Apostasy, white people did not turn black and black people did not turn white.

There is a case in Alma 23:18 where the curse was removed from the Lamanites and it did no more follow them. This assumes their skin color changes because it's a sign of the curse.

According to 3 Nephi chapters 11 through 30, Jesus is said to visit the Nephites somewhere in the Americas sometime around 34 A.D.

According to 4 Nephi 1:6, twenty-five years had passed away since Jesus ascended back into heaven, from there to visit all the other lost tribes of the house of Israel. In 4 Nephi 1:10, we learn that all the people of Nephi had become "an exceedingly fair and delightsome people". In other words, they became white-skinned. See the footnote 10a. It links to 1 Nephi 13:15, 2 Nephi 5:21, and Mormon 9:6.

In 1 Nephi 13:15, the Gentiles who are said to have discovered America (aka Christopher Columbus) were physically white like the Nephites before they were slain at the great battle with the Lamanites. The spiritually-dark Nephites were slain because they had fallen into apostasy.

Let's specifically look at Mormon 9:6. "O then ye unbelieving, turn ye unto the Lord; cry mightily unto the Father in the name of Jesus, that perhaps ye may be found spotless, pure, fair, and white, having been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, at that great and last day."

In Jacob 3:8, one also learns that the skin color of the Lamanites could be whiter than those of the Nephites when they appear before God's throne. The LDS Church teaches Jacob 3:8-9 is speaking of physical skin color differences between the Nephites and Lamanites and associates it with spiritual cleanliness.

Let's examine both verses for context.

"O my brethren, I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their skins will be whiter than yours, when ye shall be brought with them before the throne of God. Wherefore, a commandment I give unto you, which is the word of God, that ye revile no more against them because of the darkness of their skins; neither shall ye revile against them because of their filthiness; but ye shall remember your own filthiness, and remember that their filthiness came because of their fathers."

The LDS seminary teaching manual interprets it like that.

"Book of Mormon prophets and modern prophets have taught it is wrong to revile or look down upon people because of the color of their skin (see Jacob 3:9)." (Book of Mormon Seminary Teacher Manual (2024), online, local copy).

According to 4 Nephi 1:14-17, 66 years had passed since the arrival of Christ to the 'Americas' (100 years from the birth of Christ). This was time when the happiest people on earth lived in the 'Americas.' Only righteous people existed. There were no Nephites, no Lamanites, "nor any manner of -ites."

From around 100 A.D. to 200 A.D., the period of righteousness reigned. In the 201st year, sin began to creep into the church (4 Nephi 1:24). In the 110th year, a small group of people separated and took upon themselves the name of 'Lamanites' (4 Nephi 1:20). In the 231st year, the designation of 'Nephites' had come back (4 Nephi 1:35). Three other divisions also came about (Jacobites, Josephites, and Zoramites).

4 Nephi 1:45-46 records that the Nephites had become wicked like the Lamanites. There were no righteous except for only three disciples. Moroni 9:20 records that the Nephites even exceeded the wickedness of the Lamanites. The Nephites were said to have raped the Lamanite women, torturing them unto death, and then eating their flesh (Moroni 9:9-10). But in none of this did their skin color become dark. The sign of the curse never returns upon them.

According to Mormon 1:13-14 (circa 322 A.D.), "wickedness did prevail upon the face of the whole land" and "there were no gifts from the Lord, and the Holy Ghost did not come upon any, because of their wickedness and unbelief."

This was a period of total apostasy.

The Mormon Jesus had failed to prevent Satan from destroying his church again like Latter-day Saints believe Satan destroyed the first century church.

In Mormon 2:14, we learn that the Nephites cursed God and wished they would die. The Lamanites on the other hand resorted to offering up the Nephite women and children prisoners as human sacrifices to their idols (Mormon 4:15). Mormon 4:12 even records that these people were the most wicked of any of the tribes of Israel (Mormon 4:12).

The Book of Mormon never describes the return of the curse of black skin upon the Nephites and the Lamanites.

The Lamanites were not a white-skinned people when the LDS Church says that the Lamanites are the principle ancestors of the native American Indians. The Nephites are said to be white however when they are slain in the great Lamanite-Nephite war story in the Book of Mormon.

The curse of dark skin was not mentioned at all in the great Jaredite civilization that was also said to have come to a choice land above all other lands.

When you compare the 1830 version of the Book of Mormon with today's version, you will see a small editing change in 2 Nephi 30:6. The word "white" in the phrase "they shall be a white and a delightsome people" has been changed to "pure". The fact that white has been changed to pure reflects the LDS belief that white skin is symbolic of purity whereas black skin is symbolic of impurity.

In the one hundred and thirtieth semi-annual conference of the LDS Church (1960), future President Spencer W. Kimball said:

"The work is unfolding, and blinded eyes begin to see, and scattered people begin to gather. I saw a striking contrast in the progress of the Indian people today as against that of only fifteen years ago. Truly the scales of darkness are falling from their eyes, and they are fast becoming a white and delightsome people.

The day of the Lamanites is nigh. For years they have been growing delightsome, and they are now becoming white and delightsome, as they were promised. In this picture of the twenty Lamanite missionaries, fifteen of the twenty were as light as Anglos, five were darker but equally delightsome.

The children in the home placement program in Utah are often lighter than their brothers and sisters in the hogans on the reservation. At one meeting a father and mother and their sixteen-year-old daughter we represent, the little member girl, sixteen, sitting between the dark father and mother, and it was evident she was several shades lighter than her parents on the same reservation, in the same hogan, subject to the same sun and wind and weather .... These young members of the Church are changing to whiteness and to delightsomeness" (online, local copy).

Some LDS members have gone to great lengths to smooth over their church's past teachings on the Negro. There is a 13-part video series on Youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YlSAEuIIYVY&list=PLgSwJfVUol8dsEM8aBaH5A6pXN8ezPiHp&index=1

I found the last 5 minutes of part 3 (Blacks in the Scriptures: Equality and Priesthood) interesting. It basically said the ban was a practice, and not a doctrine or revelation of God. If the LDS Church made a mistake, there is no need to say 'sorry'. We only spoke with a limited set of understanding.

Marvin Perkins says, "Let's eat what's on the plate now and then if we have a desire for more then that may be an appropriate question". He basically echos McConkie's earlier statement that [paraphrasing] we should forget everything said before if we are corrected in the future. The closing statement by the white gentleman in the audience brushes away any need for an apology by the church.

Some would argue that if it really wasn't a revelation of God to ban the priesthood, then you wouldn't need a revelation to reverse it.

"It is true that the negro race is barred from holding the Priesthood, and this has always been the case. The Prophet Joseph Smith taught this doctrine, and it was made known to him, although we know of no such statement in any revelation in the Doctrine and Covenants, Book of Mormon, or the Bible. However, in the Pearl of Great Price, we find the following statement written by Abraham: "Now this first government of Egypt was established by Pharaoh, the eldest son of Egyptus, the daughter of Ham, and it was after the manner of the government of Ham, which was patriarchal. Pharaoh, being a righteous man, established his kingdom and judged his people wisely and justly all his days, seeking earnestly to imitate that order established by the fathers in the first generations, in the days of the first patriarchal reign, even in the reign of Adam, and also of Noah, his father, who blessed him with the blessings of the earth, and with the blessings of wisdom, but cursed him as pertaining to the Priesthood.' Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1:25-26" (Joseph Fielding Smith, "The Negro and the Priesthood," Improvement Era, April 1924, p. 565).

If Smith sees this "doctrine" in their scripture, it has to be doctrine. David O. McKay pointed to this same verse to justify it. Another:

"The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the Priesthood at the present time. The prophets of the Lord have made several statements as to the operation of the principle. President Brigham Young said: "Why are so many of the inhabitants of the earth cursed with a skin of blackness? It comes in consequence of their fathers' rejecting the power of the Holy Priesthood, and the law of God. They will go down to death. And when all the rest of the children have received their blessings in the Holy Priesthood, then that curse will be removed from the seed of Cain, and receive all the blessings we arremoved from the seed of Cain, and they will then come up and possess the Priesthood, and receive all the blessings we are entitled to'" (Official statement of the First Presidency to BYU President Ernest L. Wilkinson, dated August 17, 1951, quoted in John Lewis Lund, The Church and the Negro, pp. 89-90).

And another:

"The principles that the Prophet Joseph taught are the doctrines that we must abide in, or we shall be overthrown. It was manifest to him that the seed of Cain would not come in remembrance before the Lord for their final redemption, until the seed of Abel the righteous should all have their opportunity" (Apostle Franklin D. Richards, October 5, 1896, Collected Discourses 5:220).

According to chapter 8 of the Religion 121-122 Book of Mormon Student Manual:

What was the mark or sign set upon the Lamanites?

It is also explained in verse 21 that so "they might not be enticing unto my people [the Nephites] the Lord did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them [the Lamanites]." It would appear that this was done to limit the spreading of more wickedness. Later Alma suggested this same motive when he explained that "the skins of the Lamanites were dark . . . that thereby the Lord God might preserve his people, that they might not mix and believe in incorrect traditions" (Alma 3:6, 8). Throughout scripture we find warnings of the Lord not to marry unbelievers (see Deuteronomy 7:2-3; 2 Corinthians 6:14); the result of doing so was often that the righteous were turned away from the Lord (see Deuteronomy 7:4; 1 Kings 11:4; D&C 74:5). Some people have mistakenly thought that the dark skin placed upon the Lamanites was the curse. President Joseph Fielding Smith (1876-1972) explained that the dark skin was not the curse:

"The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing. The dark skin was the sign of the curse [not the curse itself]. The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord. . . .

"The dark skin of those who have come into the Church is no longer to be considered a sign of the curse. . . . These converts are delightsome and have the Spirit of the Lord" (Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr., 5 vols. [1957-66], 3:122-23).

If the dark skin was the sign of the curse and the curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord from a Lamanite, then white (or light) skin color means the Spirit of the Lord is with the Nephites.

The teaching about the priesthood ban originating from God is also taught in the October 1967 General Conference.
(https://ia800604.us.archive.org/0/items/conferencereport1967sa/conferencereport1967sa.pdf)

"The arm of flesh may not approve nor understand why God has not bestowed the priesthood on women or the seed of Cain ... The Prophet Joseph Smith understood this principle when he said, "the curse is not yet taken off from the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great a power as caused it to come".

The church, in its "Race and the Priesthood" gospel topic essay said, "Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it re ects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form".
(https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng)

But all teachings of the past do not depict this as theory.

When the Latter-day Saints were gathered in the October 1967 General Conference, Ezra Taft Benson would have also dismissed what the future LDS Church would eventually classify as theory.

https://archive.org/details/conferencereport1967sa

"The arm of flesh may not approve nor understand why God has not bestowed the priesthood on women or the seed of Cain ... The Prophet Joseph Smith understood this principle when he said, "the curse is not yet taken off from the sons of Canaan, neither will be until it is affected by as great a power as caused it to come".

This teaching clearly shows the ban was caused by God and that it would only be revoked by as great a power as caused it to come (meaning by God, not by earthly men).

The doctrine of the priesthood ban is further explained in a past church publication, The Way to Perfection.
(https://dn720005.ca.archive.org/0/items/waytoperfections00smit/waytoperfections00smit.pdf)

As we have seen earlier from a Youtube video, the former President of the Mormon Church, Gordon B. Hinckley, admitted that he did not know why the Negroes were denied the Priesthood. The 1931 text makes it obviously clear. You would figure anyone who is anyone of high importance in the LDS Church would be very familiar with this book.

Let's examine some key passages in chapters 15 and 16.

Chapter 15 is entitled, "The Seed of Cain." Chapter 16 is entitled, "The Seed of Cain After the Flood."

"Not only was Cain called upon to suffer, but because of his wickedness he became the father of an inferior race" (p. 101).

"Millions of souls have come into this world cursed with black skin and have been denied the privilege of Priesthood and the fulness of the blessings of the Gospel. These are the descendants of Cain" (p. 101).

"Moreover, they have been made to feel their inferiority and have been separated from the rest of mankind from the beginning" (p. 101).

"But what a contrast! The sons of Seth, Enoch and Noah honored by the blessings and rights of Priesthood! And the sons of Cain, denied the Priesthood" (p. 102).

"In the spirit of sympathy, mercy and faith, we will also hope that blessings may eventually be given to our Negro brethren, for they are our brethren - children of God - notwithstanding their black covering emblematical of eternal darkness" (p. 102).

"The curse placed on Cain was continued in his posterity and that through the seed of Ham this curse was brought through the flood" (p. 103).

"Some of the brethren who were associated with the Prophet Joseph Smith declared that he taught this doctrine" (p. 103).

"President Brigham Young, answering a question put to him by Elder Lorenzo D. Young in a meeting held December 25, 1869, in Salt Lake City, said that Joseph Smith had declared that the Negroes were not neutral in heaven, for all the spirits took sides, but the posterity of Cain are black because he (Cain) committed murder" (p. 105).

"When all the other children of Adam have had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the Kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity" (p. 106).

"He (Cain) sinned against the light ... moreover, he was cursed and his posterity after him because he cut off Abel in his youth without posterity" (p. 106).

"It was well understood by the early elders of the Church that the mark which was placed on Cain and which his posterity inherited was the black skin" (p. 107).

"The Book of Moses informs us that Cain and his descendants were black" (p. 107).

"President George A. Smith, speaking of the Negro race, in a discourse, September 23, 1855, said: When Cain brought a curse upon his own head and that of his household, his after generations bear the same curse. The curse that came upon Canaan, the son of Ham, was extended to a great portion of the human race, and has continued to the present day" (p. 109).

"This doctrine did not originate with President Brigham Young but was taught by the Prophet Joseph Smith" (p. 110).

"The Indians have greater cause to complain of the treatment of the whites, than the Negroes, or sons of Cain - D.H.C., 4:501. But we all know it is due to his teachings that the Negro today is barred from the Priesthood" (p. 111).

Apparently all this information slipped the mind of former President Gordon B. Hinckley before and during his interview.

"The Negro may be baptized and enter the Church; and some of these unfortunate people have been baptized and have proved their faithfulness and worthiness before the Lord, in this their second estate" (p. 111).

Also see pages 184-188 of "Answers to Gospel Questions - volume 2" and pages 122-123 of "Answers to Gospel Questions - volume 3".

I do not believe that the Negro race is an unfortunate people. But I do believe that it is unfortunate that Latter-day Saints cannot obtain these books more readily from their church.

It is almost as if the LDS Church is trying to remove part of its historical teachings. Maybe this would account for the fact that even a Mormon President is in the dark about some church history. Now since he is in the dark, you can imagine the state of the ordinary lay persons.

In Jacob 3:8, white skin will be a sign of one's spiritual purity as they appear before God's throne for judgment. Or maybe this is just for the Lamanites/Native American Indians?

In the meantime, it appears that the sign of the curse of Cain still remains on the Negro race even though the Mormon Church extended the Priesthood to them in 1978. According to the published declaration, there is no mention of the sign of the curse being removed - for their skin is still dark.

The Mormon restriction of priesthood for Cain and his descendants may have also drawn upon another curse which Joseph Smith wrote about in the Pearl of Great Price. It is related to the lineage of Ham, who descended through Noah through Seth. In Abraham 1:24, it mentions that from Ham sprang a race which preserved the curse in the land. However, the specific nature of the curse is not detailed in the Book of Abraham itself. Additionally, Abraham 1:26-27 discusses how Pharaoh, being of Ham's lineage, could not have the right of the Priesthood but it is not related to skin color.

Moses 7:22 doesn't provide a specific reason for why the seed of Cain were black nor does it say they did not hold a priesthood. Ham is not a descendant of Cain. A skin of blackness was not upon the Pharaohs as shown of Abraham 1:27 since Ham is not mentioned as having a skin of blackness.

Moses 7:8 says a blackness came upon all the children of Canaan, but the scriptures do not explicitly state they were the direct descendants of Cain or why the blackness came.

We have no record of God also blessing Cain's descendants with a mark to protect them.