In the early days of the Mormon movement, when they were in NY and OH, there were several black members of the community and priesthood who were praised by Joseph Smith and Brigham Young. After the move to Missouri, a slave state, Smith and Young's Yankee abolitionist views waned. During that time, Smith issued a politically expedient proclamation that slavery was punishment for blacks being the descendants of Cain, who was "cursed" by the Heavenly Father with dark skin after murdering Abel. After the Mormons were run out of MO and living in Nauvoo, Smith quickly re-embraced abolitionism (how conveeeenient), but his fairytale about black skin being a divine curse for Cain's murder of Abel was enshrined in church doctrine. Once Smith was killed, blacks were effectively pushed out altogether by an order of Brigham Young that barred them from the LDS priesthood and temple rites as punishment for their supposed curse. That ban was famously lifted in 1978, but obviously that didn't reflect any further change in LDS doctrine, nor in the opinions of church members living in a majority-white monoculture.
How this tripe sells to anyone in Africa, I have no idea.
How this tripe sells to anyone in Africa, I have no idea.
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