Church History

Clear, sourced answers to the questions people actually ask about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

6 articles · 8 videos

Are Mormons Racist? The Teaching, the Members, the Record

Are Mormons racist? A question about people deserves an answer about people — in three honest parts: what the Church teaches, what its members are, and which direction the record runs. This article gives all three, at full strength.

Black Latter-day Saints: A History

The history of Black Latter-day Saints, told through its people: Elijah Abel, Jane Manning James, Green Flake, Samuel Chambers, the Genesis Group, Ghana's waiting congregations, and today's leaders — from 1830 to now.

Blacks & the Priesthood: The Mormon Ban, 1978 & Why

Blacks and the priesthood: why couldn't Black Latter-day Saints hold it until 1978? What happened is documented; the explanations are disavowed by name; the origin is officially unrevealed. The full record, every faithful position, and the 1978 revelation.

Is the Book of Mormon Racist? Every Verse, Every Reading

Is the Book of Mormon racist? The hard verses quoted in full — 2 Nephi 5:21, Alma 3:6 — the arc that rebukes the racial reading, the readers who taught it for generations, and the correction: the mark is officially 'not fully understood.'

What Is the Curse of Cain? The Bible, the Myth & the Record

The curse of Cain in Genesis is a failed harvest and a wanderer's life — the mark is protection, never skin. How three texts were spliced into a racial theory, how Latter-day Saints taught it, and the 2013 disavowal by name.

Blacks in Mormonism: Race, the Priesthood Ban & the Church

From Elijah Abel's 1836 ordination to the 1978 revelation and today's global church — the complete, documented history of Black Latter-day Saints.