By Sandra Tanner

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One year ago, at the April 2009 conference of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Joseph Sitati became the first black African to be appointed to their top leadership. Sitati, an experienced businessman with a degree in mechanical engineering and a diploma in accounting and finance, was installed in the First Quorum of Seventy, the LDS Church’s second most important tier of leaders. Prior to 1978, when the LDS priesthood ban on ordaining blacks was lifted, such an event would have been impossible.

While blacks have always been able to join the LDS Church (and a few blacks were given the priesthood under Joseph Smith¹), up until June of 1978 the LDS Church would not allow blacks to be ordained to the priesthood, thus barring them from the temple ordinances necessary for one to achieve eternal life—i.e., exaltation.

Brigham Young, second president of the LDS Church, had been very adamant that blacks were not to be given the priesthood until “all the other children of Adam have had the privilege” and they were to be “the last to share the joys of the kingdom of God.”² In 1868 an article in the LDS magazine Juvenile Instructor declared that “black skin is a mark of the curse of Heaven.”³

Speaking in 1954, LDS Apostle Mark E. Petersen concluded that due to poor performance in the pre-mortal life some were born black, while the righteous were born white. “These are rewards and punishments,” Petersen declared.⁴ In 1963 Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith explained:

According to the doctrine of the church, the Negro, because of some condition of unfaithfulness in the spirit—or pre-existence, was not valiant and hence was not denied the mortal probation, but was denied the blessings of the priesthood.⁵

After the priesthood ban was lifted, Apostle Bruce R. McConkie advised church employees to

Forget everything that I have said, or what President Brigham Young or President George Q. Cannon or whomsoever has said in days past that is contrary to the present revelation [giving priesthood to blacks]. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world. . . . It doesn’t make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year [1978].⁶

While we applaud the LDS Church’s repudiation of their racial teachings, it leaves the question of how much to trust doctrinal statements made by their prophets and apostles. If they were wrong here, where else have they been wrong?

Although the LDS Church is trying to distance itself from its racist past, their scriptures still contain passages equating black or dark skin with a curse from God.⁷ While the LDS Church dropped the priesthood ban on blacks, they have never repudiated their underlying concept of why different races and colors exist.

In response to the growing number of converts in Africa, three LDS temples have been opened on that continent: Johannesburg, South Africa; Aba, Nigeria; and Accra, Ghana.

Every April at the general conference of the LDS Church a report is read giving the growth figures for the past year. As of December 2009 Mormonism claimed a world-wide membership of 13,824,854. This included 280,106 convert baptisms, and 119,722 new children of members added to the rolls in 2009.⁸ According to the LDS web site, church membership in all of Africa is slightly over 300,000, while the population of Africa is approximately one billion.

The Salt Lake Tribune, April 16, 2010, ran an article entitled, “Africa, Caribbean lead way in LDS growth.”⁹ If one only looks at the percentage of growth it can give a false impression of large numbers. For instance, Uganda was reported to have experienced an 18.7% LDS growth rate. However, the number of members in Uganda at the end of 2009 was only 8,216. Even though Africa was reported to be among the fastest-growing areas of the LDS Church, the numbers are still relatively small compared to the total population. The largest number of Mormons in Africa is in Nigeria, with over 93,000 members.¹⁰ When this number is compared to the estimated total population of Nigeria of 155,000,000, the LDS presence loses its impact.

After the LDS priesthood ban was lifted, missionary efforts in Africa started to bear fruit. However, the growth was not as impressive as they might have expected. There are certain concepts within Mormonism that resonate with Africans (prophets, gifts of the spirit, healings), however this has not lead to wide acceptance. One problem seems to be the LDS Church hierarchal priesthood structure, thus ruling out any local man’s ability to claim prophetic utterances. Another problem has been the language barrier. According to Salt Lake Tribune reporter, Peggy Stack, “Though many Africans speak ‘colonial’ languages—English, French, and Portuguese—others speak primarily tribal languages.”¹¹ While many men in the work place speak one of the colonial languages, most women tend to speak their tribal languages. Also, the services in Africa are conducted in the same manner as in America—no drums, dancing, or clapping, and the men are expected to come to church in a white shirt and tie.¹² Philip Jenkins, professor at Pennsylvania State University, commented:

Despite what might appear to be vast structural and ideological advantages, Mormonism is doing nothing like as well as Pentecostal churches such as the Assemblies of God, not to mention cases like the Mennonite and Lutheran churches . . . Based on the standard of many other churches, it simply is not true to describe Mormon growth in Africa as spectacular, amazing, or in any of the other standard superlatives. A balanced comment would place Mormon growth as moderate at best, and limited to some small areas. I see no likelihood that Mormons will account for as much as 1 percent of the continental population, at least in the next century. Quite possible, even as LDS membership in Africa grows in absolute numbers, it will actually decline as a proportion of overall continental population.¹³

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Footnotes:

1. Jerald and Sandra Tanner, Curse of Cain? Racism in the Mormon Church, (Salt Lake City: Utah Lighthouse Ministry, 2004), pp. 37-39. ↩︎
2. Journal of Discourses, vol. 2, p. 143. ↩︎
3. Juvenile Instructor (October 15, 1868): p. 157. ↩︎
4. Mark E. Petersen, “Race Problems—As They Affect the Church,” BYU, August 27, 1954. The entire speech is reproduced in Tanners’ Curse of Cain? pp. 104-113. ↩︎
5. Photo of Smith’s letter [in which this quote appeared] is reproduced in Appendix C of Curse of Cain? ↩︎
6. As quoted in Black Saints in a White Church, Jessie Embry (Salt Lake City: Signature Books, 1994), pp. 34-35. ↩︎
7. See 2 Nephi 5:21; Alma 3:6; Moses 7:8, 22; Abraham 1:21, 27. For a longer list, see Racial Statements in LDS Scriptures. ↩︎
8. 2009 Statistical Report for 2010 April General Conference. ↩︎
9. Salt Lake Tribune (April 16, 2010). ↩︎
10. http://www.newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/contact-us/nigeria ↩︎
11. “LDS in Africa: Growing Membership Sees American Church with Unique Vision,” Salt Lake Tribune (April 4, 1998), as quoted in Sunstone (June 1998): p. 71. ↩︎
12. “LDS in Africa” Sunstone (June 1998): p. 71. ↩︎
13. Philip Jenkins, “Letting God: Understanding Mormon Growth in Africa,” Journal of Mormon History (Spring 2009): p. 18. ↩︎

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