When Mormons Aspired to Be a ‘White and Delightsome’ People

It’s probably pure coincidence, but The Atlantic, one of America’s better and more serious magazines, has published two fairly substantial articles of late that have dealt, to some degree or another, with Mormonism.  This one, an interview with the non-LDS (but not, I think, anti-LDS) historian Max Perry Mueller, likely won’t altogether please us, but it’s worthy of our attention:

“When Mormons Aspired to Be a ‘White and Delightsome’ People:  A historian looks at the legacy of racism in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”

Incidentally, I would like to compliment The Atlantic on its choice of its principal photo.  There aren’t, it’s true, very many black people in the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, but there are a few.  To have selected a photograph showing no blacks was essential to making this article’s point.  The photograph actually used shows (by my count) fifty-three (53) members of the Choir (in addition to its director), all of them white.  Well done!  The photo isn’t quite perfect, though, as — way down in the lower right hand corner — there is an Asian man.

I’m not sure that the narrative of the Book of Mormon fits this narrative quite as well as many think, though.  After all, the Lamanites and the Nephites don’t, in the Book of Mormon’s terms, represent two distinct races; they are closely related to each other.  And it’s not a simplistic story of “Lamanites bad” and “Nephites good,” either.  Neither is intrinsically righteous or wicked.  Calls to Nephite repentance permeate the narrative throughout, for example.  Moreover, the redemption of the Lamanites is a principal theme of the Book, even ultimately and beyond its own history, and there are significant portions of the Book in which the Lamanites are far preferable to the Nephites.  Moreover, the history of early Mormon missions to the Lamanites — on which there is important new information in the recently released minutes of the Council of Fifty, by the way — and of relatively early missions to Polynesia works somewhat against a simple binary opposition of “dark=bad” versus “light=good.”

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It’s interesting that the Book of Mormon contains a denunciation of racism that’s as explicit as — and, in fact, arguably more direct than — any other passage in scripture:

13 And that he manifesteth himself unto all those who believe in him, by the power of the Holy Ghost; yea, unto every nation, kindred, tongue, and people, working mighty miracles, signs, and wonders, among the children of men according to their faith. . . .

24 He doeth not anything save it be for the benefit of the world; for he loveth the world, even that he layeth down his own life that he may draw all men unto him. Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation.

25 Behold, doth he cry unto any, saying: Depart from me? Behold, I say unto you, Nay; but he saith: Come unto me all ye ends of the earth, buy milk and honey, without money and without price.

26 Behold, hath he commanded any that they should depart out of the synagogues, or out of the houses of worship? Behold, I say unto you, Nay.

27 Hath he commanded any that they should not partake of his salvation? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but he hath given it free for all men; and he hath commanded his people that they should persuade all men to repentance.

28 Behold, hath the Lord commanded any that they should not partake of his goodness? Behold I say unto you, Nay; but all men are privileged the one like unto the other, and none are forbidden. . . .

33 . . . and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile.

2 Nephi 26