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The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, informally known as the LDS Church or Mormon Church, is a restorationist nontrinitarian Christian denomination belonging to Mormonism. The church is headquartered in the United States in Salt Lake City, Utah and has established congregations and built temples worldwide. According to the church, it has over 17 million members and 62,544 full-time volunteer missionaries. Based on these numbers, the church is the fourth-largest Christian denomination in the United States as of 2012, after the Catholic Church, Southern Baptist Convention and United Methodist Church, and reported over 6.7 million US members as of 2021. It is by far the largest denomination in the Latter Day Saint movement founded by Joseph Smith during the early 19th-century period of religious revival known as the Second Great Awakening.
Mormonism is the religious tradition and theology of the Latter Day Saint movement of Restorationist Christianity started by Joseph Smith in Western New York in the 1820s and 1830s. As a label, Mormonism has been applied to various aspects of the Latter Day Saint movement, although there has been a recent push from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to distance themselves from this label. A historian, Sydney E. Ahlstrom, wrote in 1982, "One cannot even be sure, whether [Mormonism] is a sect, a mystery cult, a new religion, a church, a people, a nation, or an American subculture; indeed, at different times and places it is all of these."
In Mormonism, the restoration refers to a return of the authentic priesthood power, spiritual gifts, ordinances, living prophets and revelation of the primitive Church of Christ after a long period of apostasy. While in some contexts the term may also refer to the early history of Mormonism, in other contexts the term is used in a way to include the time that has elapsed from the church's earliest beginnings until the present day. Especially in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints "the restoration" is often used also as a term to encompass the corpus of religious messages from its general leaders down to the present.
Boyd Kenneth Packer was an American religious leader and educator who served as president of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2008 until his death. He also served as the quorum's acting president from 1994 to 2008, and was an apostle and member of the Quorum of the Twelve from 1970 until his death. He served as a general authority of the church from 1961 until his death.
During the history of the Latter Day Saint movement, the relationship between Black people and Mormonism has included enslavement, exclusion and inclusion, official and unofficial discrimination, and friendly ties. Black people have been involved with the Latter Day Saint movement since its inception in the 1830s. Their experiences have varied widely depending on the specific denomination within Mormonism, and the time in history of their involvement. From the mid-1800s to 1978, Mormonism's largest denomination, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints barred Black women and men from participating in ordinances of its temples necessary for the highest level of salvation, prevented most men of Black African descent from being ordained to the church's lay, all-male priesthood, supported racial segregation in its communities and schools, taught that righteous Black people would be made White after death, and opposed interracial marriage. The temple and priesthood racial restrictions were lifted by top leaders in 1978. In 2013 the church disavowed its previous teachings on race for the first time.
This is a timeline of major events in Mormonism in the 20th century.
The curse of Cain and the mark of Cain are phrases that originated in the story of Cain and Abel in the Book of Genesis. In the stories, if someone harmed Cain, the damage would come back sevenfold. Some interpretations view this as a physical mark, whereas other interpretations see the "mark" as a sign, and not as a physical mark on Cain himself. The King James Version of the Bible reads "set a mark upon Cain."
The Genesis Group is an auxiliary organization of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for African-American members and their families.
Marlin Keith Jensen is an American attorney who has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1989. He served as the official Church Historian and Recorder of the church from 2005 to 2012. He was the 19th man to hold that calling since it was established in 1830. Jensen was made an emeritus general authority in the October 2012 general conference.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has been subject to criticism and sometimes discrimination since its inception.
The 1978 Revelation on Priesthood was a revelation announced by leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints that reversed a long-standing policy excluding men of black African descent from the priesthood.
Richard Eyring "Rick" Turley Jr. is an American historian and genealogist. He previously served as both an Assistant Church Historian of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and as managing director of the church's public affairs department.
Marvin Perkins is an American Latter-day Saint record and video producer. As an African-American he has sought to change the perceptions of Latter-day Saints towards African-Americans, and African-Americans towards Latter-day Saints. Along with Darius Gray, Perkins has produced a set of DVDs titled Blacks in the Scriptures. He also has written a paper titled "How to Reach African-Americans".
Joseph Wafula Sitati has been a general authority of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 2009, when he became a member of the First Quorum of the Seventy. He is the church's first black African general authority and the second general authority of black African descent.
From 1852 to 1978, temple and priesthood policies in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints prohibited women and men of Black African descent from temple ordinances and ordination in the all-male priesthood. In 1978, the church's highest governing body, the First Presidency, declared in the statement "Official Declaration 2" that the restriction had been lifted. Between 1830 and 1852, a few black men had been ordained to the Mormon priesthood in the Latter Day Saint movement under Joseph Smith.
Since Mormonism’s foundation, Black people have been members, however the church placed restrictions on proselytization efforts among black people. Before 1978, black membership was small. It has since grown, and in 1997, there were approximately 500,000 black members of the church, mostly in Africa, Brazil and the Caribbean. Black membership has continued to grow substantially, especially in West Africa, where two temples have been built. By 2018, an estimated 6% of members were black worldwide. In the United States, approximately 1% of members are black.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints was established in Brazil in 1926 with the opening of the South American Mission. Missionary work was focused on small German immigrant colonies in South Brazil. The LDS Church was forced to expand missionary work to Brazilians and Portuguese speakers when non-Portuguese languages were banned in public meetings in 1938. The Brazil Mission was opened on February 9, 1935, with Rulon S. Howells as mission president. The first Portuguese translation of the Book of Mormon was published in 1939.
Three missionaries of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints started proselyting to white English-speaking people in Cape Town in 1853. Most converts from this time emigrated to the United States. The mission was closed in 1865, but reopened in 1903.The South African government limited the amount of missionaries allowed to enter the country in 1921 and in 1955. Starting around 1930, a man had to trace his genealogy out of Africa to be eligible for the priesthood, since black people were not permitted to be ordained. In 1954 when church president David O. McKay visited South Africa, he removed the requirement for genealogical research for a man to be ordained, stipulating only that "there is no evidence of his having Negro blood in his veins".
Reid Larkin Neilson was the managing director of the Church History Department of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 2010 to 2019. On January 23, 2015, he became an Assistant Church Historian and Recorder, still retaining his duties as managing director.
References
- ↑ Stack, Peggy Fletcher. "Mormon and Black: Darius Gray is tired", The Salt Lake Tribune , 8 June 2008. Retrieved on 22 March 2020.
- ↑ Carole Mikita, "Romney's Faith an Issue on the National Scene", 2007-02-20, ksl.com, accessed 2008-04-21.
- ↑ "Annual African American Family History Research series to be part of Black History Month events", Church News , January 26, 2010
- ↑ "The Genesis Group: History of Genesis" Archived 2012-10-10 at the Wayback Machine , ldsgenesisgroup.org, accessed 2008-04-21.
- ↑ "Chapter 15: Ending the Ban on Black Priests", The Mormons (Part 2), Frontline and American Experience, PBS, 2007, archived from the original on 2008-07-18
- ↑ The Rhema: Renowned Author and Genealogist Darius A. Gray Presents 'Blacks in the Bible' and 'African American Roots'
- ↑ Blacklds.org about us page
- ↑ Reach the Children listing of members of various boards Archived 2011-07-27 at the Wayback Machine
- ↑ "Gospel Topics: Race and the Priesthood", churchofjesuschrist.org, LDS Church
- ↑ Walch, Tad (June 8, 2014), "LDS blacks, scholars cheer church's essay on priesthood", Deseret News
- ↑ Lloyd, R. Scott (June 7, 2014), "Mormon history group honors Darius Gray", Deseret News
