Mormonism and racial issues/Brigham Young/Race mixing punishable by death

FAIR Answers—back to home page

Race mixing punishable by death?

Answers portal
Mormonism and racial issues
RESOURCES
FAIR BlackLDS site
Blacks and the priesthood: Summary Origins of the ban Pre-1978 statements LDS scripture and the ban Lifting the ban Neutral in pre-existence? Social pressure and the ban? Repudiated ideas Other racial issues: Racist statements? Death for race mixers? Prophetic fallibility Slaves in heaven?
PERSPECTIVES
No Johnny-Come-Lately: The 182-Year-Long BLACK Mormon Moment Blacks in the Bible Empathetic Imagination: Reading Between the Lines in Standing on the Promises International Perspectives of a Black Member in a “White” Church Dispelling the Black Myth A Black Man in Zion: Reflections on Race in the Restored Gospel
MEDIA
OTHER PORTALS
[Pending]

Questions

Brigham Young said that race mixing was punishable by death.

First, yes, Brigham Young did makes statements to this effect. It was a complex issues (after all, laws against interracial marriage still existed in a number of states until June of 1967 (Utah was not one of them), when the Supreme Court finally argued that they were unconstitutional - a hundred years after some of Brigham Young's comments). President Young's views were connected to his views on priesthood and sealings, they were affected by his own cultural upbringing, and they were affected by changes that happened in the late 1840s. Among these was the challenge of black men actually marrying white women in the Church, and the stir this caused among certain groups of Church membership. While there were a couple of instances where violence actually happened (and several cases of interracial marriage), Brigham Young didn't ever actually try to have someone killed for doing this, and we assume that some of this (although based in racist attitudes that were prevalent in American society and held by Brigham Young) was typical of Young's over the top rhetoric that he used from time to time at the pulpit for effect.

Gospel Topics, "Race and the Priesthood"

Gospel Topics, (2013)

Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects 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.

Since that day in 1978, the Church has looked to the future, as membership among Africans, African Americans and others of African descent has continued to grow rapidly. While Church records for individual members do not indicate an individual’s race or ethnicity, the number of Church members of African descent is now in the hundreds of thousands.

The Church proclaims that redemption through Jesus Christ is available to the entire human family on the conditions God has prescribed. It affirms that God is “no respecter of persons”24 and emphatically declares that anyone who is righteous—regardless of race—is favored of Him. The teachings of the Church in relation to God’s children are epitomized by a verse in the second book of Nephi: “[The Lord] denieth none that cometh unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; . . . all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.