Article overview
This archival essay examines scriptural language that has been interpreted in racial terms. Because the subject involves discriminatory ideas, the original quotations are not reproduced here. The relevant passages and historical claims are summarized in calm, non-derogatory language.
Background: inherited-curse interpretations
During earlier centuries, some Christian interpreters connected African ancestry with the biblical stories of Cain and Ham. These theories were later used to defend racial hierarchy and enslavement. They were interpretations imposed upon biblical narratives, not findings about human ancestry.
Genesis presents Cain as killing his brother Abel. A separate narrative describes Noah pronouncing servitude upon Canaan, one of Ham’s sons. Later interpreters combined and expanded these stories into a racial theory, even though the texts do not establish a modern racial classification.
Such readings became influential among parts of American Christianity before the Civil War. They helped provide religious cover for slavery and persisted after abolition, although many denominations eventually rejected them. For additional context, see the archive’s discussions of Ham in biblical interpretation, the Bible and slavery, and the history of slavery.
Important distinction
Ancient narratives, nineteenth-century racial theories and present-day communities are not interchangeable. This page describes the history of particular interpretations; it does not treat those interpretations as factual accounts of race.
Passages in the Book of Mormon
Several passages in the Book of Mormon use contrasts involving darkness and light, purity and transgression, or changes in appearance. Some readers have understood these expressions metaphorically. Others have read them as descriptions of skin color and attached racial meanings to them.
These texts concern groups within the Book of Mormon narrative, particularly Lamanites and Nephites. Historically, some Latter-day Saint readers connected Lamanites with Indigenous peoples of the Americas. Care is therefore required when distinguishing the wording of the text, later teachings and claims about living communities.
Passages emphasizing universal inclusion
The same volume also includes teachings that present divine invitation and judgment as open to everyone, without racial or social exclusion.
These inclusive teachings are often cited when readers argue that the book’s central theology is universal. Critics respond that universal access to salvation does not, by itself, remove the discriminatory implications they see in other passages. Responsible analysis should acknowledge both sets of texts rather than selecting only one.
Reading the historical record
Scriptures are interpreted within communities, and meanings can change as translation choices, institutional teachings and social assumptions change. A historical assessment should therefore separate at least three questions:
- What does a passage say in its literary setting?
- How did influential readers interpret it in a particular period?
- How do present-day readers and institutions understand it?
It is also important not to assign historical teachings automatically to every present-day member. Individual Latter-day Saints hold a range of views about these passages and their relationship to former racial restrictions.
Archive note
This page preserves the subject and principal references of an older essay while removing demeaning descriptions and unsupported generalizations. It is educational context, not a statement about the character or beliefs of individual church members.
References noted in the archived essay
- A 1998 newspaper report discussing Black Latter-day Saints, historical explanations for racial teachings and debate about institutional acknowledgment.
- An article comparing the wording “white and delightsome” with “pure and delightsome” in 2 Nephi 30:6.
- The Book of Mormon, 2 Nephi 26:24 and 26:33.
- The Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 27:14–15.
Links in the archived source were described as potentially inactive. Readers should consult current critical editions and official scripture publications when verifying wording and edition history.