What do LDS generally believe about interracial marriage?

[_aussieguy55]

In the PBS program where they have scenes of couples outside who were getting married in the SLC Temple there is an interacial couple there.

[_Sam Harris]

I was often hoping that I'd see an interracial couple featured in one of the family poses on the cover of Ensign one day. I didn't care if it was a white/black couple, any display of interracial marriage would have given me hope. But sadly, all of the families seemed so homogeneous...

[_The Nehor]

I am sorry Nehor, but I do not feel you are being practical. Rather, I feel that you're doing acrobatics to keep from criticizing your church. If you've seen fantastic examples of inter-cultural relationships working, then it is safe to assume that they CAN work...if people want them to badly enough.

No, love is not all that you need. An open mind helps a great deal, as well.

Strength in unity...yeah, so long as all the people who are unified are of the same race.

And might I add, that this attitude that you had is one of the largest reasons why I left the church, the idea that marrying me because I'm black will cause all sorts of problems. To be honest, I do not know how any self-respecting black person can be LDS. I know of many black LDS, but I did not wish to do the mental contortions that they did in order to remain LDS. Most of them came from difficult backgrounds and swear up and down that they'd be dead if not LDS. They have been lied to and told that only the LDS church is the "true" church, and because of this, they sacrifice a piece of themselves every sunday, rather than find a church home that will both challenge them as a person and accept them as a beautiful human being as well.

SO glad I walked away. I wish one of those fools would have said such nonesense to my face, rather than just run in fear or stare me down. I'd have been put through a court of love for kicking someone slam in the nuts on sunday.

No, I didn't say that unity was racial. DID YOU READ WHAT I WROTE? There are differences in culture and other items. Due to past racism, these divides are still often along racial lines. Caution should be exercised when making a lifelong commitment to someone whose life and views to this point have been radically different then yours. This is what Prophets and Apostles taught about interracial marriage with the EXCEPTION of those under the Priesthood Ban.

Of course sometimes things work when the odds are long. Sometimes they fail when everything seems perfect. I was endorsing the Prophet's views to THINK THESE THINGS THROUGH before making a decision. You can be in love with someone and know that you can never be together due to differences. I'm echoing the Prophets when I say that these things should be taken into account. I know if I'd married that girl it would have been a catastrophe.

I'm guessing there are lots of people in the Church who you have a lot in common with in terms of background, culture, etc. and I would have applauded you dating them no matter what race they are.

[_Dr. Shades]

Second, although I expect prophets to reveal the will of God from time to time, I don't expect or require them to absolutely transcend their time and culture. There's no evidence, in any event, that anybody has ever managed to pull that off. On racial matters, Brigham Young reflected his time and culture more than I, comfortably ensconced in the more racially sensitive twenty-first century, would have liked.

On my website on the subject, I list one of the differences between Internet Mormons and Chapel Mormons thusly:

"Chapel Mormons believe that a prophet is a foreordained man of the highest moral caliber. Internet Mormons believe that a prophet is not necessarily any better than his societal average."

Do I smell vindication?

[_Mister Scratch]

I'm unaware of any official statement from the Church rescinding Brigham Young's comment.

Thank you. That was precisely my point. And we don't have to rely strictly on BY. There are any number of the Brethren who, over the years, have also spewed astonishingly racist rhetoric on this subject. (The Mark Petersen quote is just yet another example.) There has not been any official Church rescinding of any of this.

(It wasn't an official "proclamation," so I don't know that there's anything to "rescind," really.)

Decades of racist statements, perhaps?

But interracial marriages are performed very commonly in the Church.

Evidence, please?

Temple marriages between blacks and whites have been taking place since 1978 -- I've been involved as a church leader with at least one such -- and temple marriages between Caucasians and Polynesians and Asians and Amerindians have been taking place since long before 1978.

From a doctrinal standpoint, all of this seems rather irrelevant, don't you think? If the Brethren never formally lifted the ban--and let's bear in mind that the justification for the ban is scriptural in nature--then how are these marriages legitimate? I'm interested in seeing you cite some legitimate, "official" text that would help you establish your point. The fact that the marriages have been taking place doesn't really cut it, I'm afraid. I'm sure we all recall the rogue administering of the priesthood to Blacks prior to 1978. Were/are those ordinances legitimate, Dr. Peterson?

[_Daniel Peterson]

Do I smell vindication?

No. Just rancid.

[_JohnStuartMill]

the claims that 'we don't think prophets aren't [sic] infallible' start to look pretty empty.

However they may look to you, they're not empty.

Then why, if someone sincerely prays and claims to receive no answer -- or a flatly contrary answer -- to some revelation, does the Church dictate the veracity of that revelation to its members?

[_Daniel Peterson]

But interracial marriages are performed very commonly in the Church.

Evidence, please?

I have no statistics on the subject. To the best of my knowledge, no such statistics are kept.

But I know a number of interracial Mormon couples -- there are several in my immediate neighborhood, as well as several in the reading groups to which my wife and I belong, two or three in my academic department, several among my students and former students, and others in my wider group of acquaintances -- have been involved as a Church leader in sending several such couples to the temple, will likely soon be sending at least a few more, etc.

Obviously, I don't disapprove of these, and, just as obviously, I don't think the Church disapproves of these. In fact, I can think of at least one interracial marriage (and there may be others) among the General Authorities.

I'm not going down this path again with you, Scratch. Those interested in reading the virtually interminable exchange we had on it some years ago on the board formerly known as FAIR are welcome to do so. It's still there in the archives.

[_Mister Scratch]

I'm not going down this path again with you, Scratch. Those interested in reading the virtually interminable exchange we had on it some years ago on the board formerly known as FAIR are welcome to do so. It's still there in the archives.

I agree there's no need to go "down the path." I asked for doctrinal evidence then, and no one was able to provide it. (That's why I was placed on the queue.) The only reason you're labeling my point "interminable" is because you have no counter to it. The meat of the exchange can be summed up rather simply: Has the LDS Church provided a doctrinal justification in favor of interracial marriage---a justification which would undo decades of from-the-pulpit denunciations of such marriages? No. It never has, and presumably it never will. To no small extent, this basic fact sums up what "LDS generally believe about interracial marriage," at least from a doctrinal standpoint. Feel free to cite all the anecdotal evidence you can muster. I'm sure we all know how valuable such evidence is when it comes to doctrine in the LDS Church.

That said, with all your connections, don't you think you ought to try and persuade the General Authorities to issue an "offical" lifting of the ban? Or, do you think they're better off keeping things quiet?

[_Dr. Shades]

Here are some more examples to aid us in our quest to understand LDS race relations:

When informed that a black Mormon in Massachusetts had married a white woman, Brigham Young told the apostles in December 1847 that he would have both of them killed "if they were far away from the Gentiles." (Quinn, D. Michael. The Mormon Heirarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997. p. 247.)

In December 1866 Brigham Young, Jr., wrote that "a nigger" was found dead in Salt Lake City, with a note pinned to the corpse: "Let this be a warning to all niggers that they meddle not with white women." The non-Mormon newspaper identified the victim as Thomas Coleman, "a member of the Mormon Church." Brigham Jr., then an ordained apostle and special counselor in the First Presidency, recorded no value judgment about this killing. (Quinn, D. Michael. The Mormon Heirarchy: Extensions of Power. Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1997. p. 256.)