2017.09.18 摩尔门教的种族主义遗产

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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.

By Emma Green
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings in Salt Lake in 2015.
The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sings in Salt Lake in 2015. (Jim Urquhart / Reuters)
SEPTEMBER 18, 2017

So many recent events in American life have been a call for the country to grapple with its legacy of racism and white supremacy, including the violence in Charlottesville and even the 2016 election. These events have created turmoil among some conservative Christian groups, who have tried—in fits and starts—to confront their own racial divisions.

One group, however, has taken a slightly different path: Mormons. While a majority of Mormons voted for Trump in the 2016 election, he fared far worse than previous Republican presidential candidates among the minority religious group. According to The Salt Lake Tribune, many in Mormon-heavy Utah doubted the president’s moral character and strength as a role model.

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Choosing to Stay in the Mormon Church Despite Its Racist Legacy
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Why Several Native Americans Are Suing the Mormon Church
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What Mormon Family Trees Tell Us About Cancer
SARAH ZHANG
Like other religious groups, Mormons have a complicated history around race. Until a few decades ago, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints taught that they “shall be a white and a delightsome people,” a phrase taken from the Book of Mormon. Until the 1970s, the LDS Church also restricted black members’ participation in important rituals and prohibited black men from becoming priests, despite evidence that they had participated more fully in the earliest years of the Church.*

Max Perry Mueller, a historian at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln, argues that Mormonism is a quintessentially American religion. The Book of Mormon re-centers the story of Jesus on the Americas, and the faith, which was founded in the 19th century, also tells the story through a very American lens. Yet, while the story of race and the LDS Church is similar to other American experiences of race, it’s also distinctive, leaving Mormons to grapple with the legacy of racism and white supremacy in their own way.

I spoke with Mueller about his new book, Race and the Making of the Mormon People, which focuses on a few important figures in Mormon history. One of them, Jane Manning James, was part of the first black community in Salt Lake Valley. Despite her close relationship with the family of Joseph Smith, the founder of Mormonism, she was denied access to important religious rites during her lifetime because of her skin color.

Janan Graham-Russell wrote about her personal struggle with the LDS Church’s legacy of racism for The Atlantic in 2016. Lilly Fowler also reported on controversies over the Church’s Indian Student Placement program, which encouraged members to foster and adopt Native American children. My conversation with Mueller, below, has been edited for clarity and length.

Emma Green: There’s been talk about an emerging Mormon alt-right, populated by Mormon white nationalists. Much of this has focused on a Utah woman who blogs under the name “Wife with a Purpose,” who created a “white-baby challenge” for fellow Mormons to perpetuate their putatively white heritage. What do you make of this?

Max Perry Mueller: Within Mormonism’s history is this concept of whiteness as Godliness and purity.

Issues of Christianity are often seen as linear, marching toward a certain direction. But actually, that’s not how history, especially theological history, works. The kind of white supremacy that’s at the heart of a lot of Mormon history, and the contemporary Church that rejects white supremacy, both embody the same space.

Green: In what ways does white supremacy manifest either explicitly or implicitly in Mormon culture?

Mueller: Politics of respectability is huge. Mormons engage in respectability campaigning that is not unlike a lot of black church-going communities in the early 20th century. They’re trying to present themselves to mainstream, white, partisan gatekeepers as pious, patriotic, family-oriented, hardworking, contributing to the society, and willing to fight for the American flag in war. But unlike black Americans, Mormons were more easily accepted because of their skin pigment.

Green: You describe a black woman, Jane Manning James, who leads a conflicted life of aspiring to be a full member of both the Smith family and the Mormon Church. She wanted to be bound eternally with her family, which is an important part of Mormon theology, and yet she was denied this privilege during her lifetime.
She seems to have a complicated relationship with her race. There’s a line you included where she says, “I’m white with the exception of the color of my skin.”

Why would somebody say that, or want to be a part of a culture that makes them aspire toward a different skin color?


Mueller: The question you just raised is one that I still think about and will probably think about for the rest of my life. Why would this woman—who is clearly full of incredible intelligence, skills, and perseverance—throw her lot in with a community that would not have her as a member? I really do believe, at the end of the day, she had faith in the gospel that she dedicated her life to.

She was from Connecticut. Her mother was a slave, and she kind of had a liminal existence—the line between slave and free was not so clearly demarcated in the North. She was a servant girl in a rich household. Apparently, she had some kind of relationship, and a mixed-race child came about. And so maybe she saw a way out of this situation or was looking for a community that would not care about this relationship. She converts, she moves to Nauvoo, Illinois, where she lives with Joseph Smith. She was promised, not just by the Church but by Joseph Smith’s brother, that she could be a full member of the community. He told her, “You can actually overcome your lineage and join a pure lineage.”

Obviously, today, hearing that kind of message makes us squirm because we don’t understand race that way. But more importantly, James really took to this promise. She isn’t looking to save her people. She’s looking to save her family. And to her that means finding community with people that I think she believed would last into the hereafter into the kingdoms to come. I think she heard this message of redemption, of racial redemption, and she held onto that story for the rest of her life—even as the Church, once she gets to Utah, begins to reject people of African descent.

Green: You write about how the text of Book of Mormon helped to create a racialized culture—based on the text, Mormons aspired to being “a white and delightsome people.” How do these notions of white purity end up in a sacred Mormon text?
Mueller: Whatever you want to say about the origins of the Book of Mormon, it fits its time period really well. It’s very American. It tells a story of racial schism and how it came to be, dividing the world into a hierarchy of races, and that’s a standard American story—especially the idea that people born to a so-called darker-skinned race could not be redeemed.

The story of the Book of Mormon is not a black-white story, as Americans know it, where white is European and black is African. It’s an interfamily story. According to the Book of Mormon, an Israelite family came to New York in the 6th century B.C. The two main populations there are the light-skinned population called the Nephites and the dark-skinned population called the Lamanites, and the book traces this elaborate story of the rise and fall of their civilizations. The Lamanites, according to the book, become Native Americans. They’re the native peoples who early European colonizers of America encounter.

For a long, long time, Americans have wondered: To whom do these Native Americans actually belong, in terms of lineage? So the book really fits the 1830s notion that Indian-ness is irreconcilable with whiteness.


Green: Conflicts over race in the Mormon Church have lasted well into the 20th and 21st centuries. Black men were allowed to become priests only starting in the 1970s, and black men and women could not participate in sacred Mormon temple rites until that point. The Mormon Church didn’t repudiate its past teachings on race until 2013.

Why did it take so long for these reforms to emerge?

Mueller: When Mormons disavow their past, it’s not simply disavowing institutional history. It’s pointing out what’s wrong with past leaders. Because of continuing revelation—the Mormon belief that their leaders are speaking messages directly from God—it’s really hard to disavow the prophets. If you start disavowing the prophets of the past, that undercuts the whole premise that God provides revelations to his people in the present day.

Green: The LDS Church historically encouraged its members to buy Native American slaves or to adopt native children and raise them in their homes.** The latter practice extended into the 1990s with a program called the Indian Student Placement Program.

What do you make of these practices, exactly? Were they racist?


Mueller: The first official Mormon mission in history was at the end of 1830, when Joseph Smith sent his most important lieutenants to the Delaware Indians who had been pushed west to what is contemporary Kansas. In other words, the first Mormon mission was to convert Native Americans. That urge to “redeem” the native people of America remains a key feature.

The Indian Student Placement Program was an institutional project, and I do think it was a racially tinged project to “civilize” large numbers of Native American children. That said, at an individual level and at the family level, it’s hard to overestimate how much love and devotion these families felt for their children, and the love and care they provided—not only to the native children but to the native children’s families.

Green: In recent years, other conservative religious groups have pushed for what they call “racial reconciliation.” Are there similar efforts in the Mormon context?
Mueller: Their version of racial reconciliation is what I call “multicultural Mormonism.” There was an ad campaign called “I’m a Mormon” from 2011 to 2012. This was explicitly presenting a multicultural face of Mormonism to the world: multicultural, multinational, multilingual. The Church acknowledged that it did have a problem as a white Church.


But not a lot of kids are raised to save up for years and years to fund a mission to go to places that are often very difficult to live in, where they’re going to get doors slammed in their faces, where they might not speak the language. Kids from Utah are sent to Africa and South America. That’s a huge investment of their lives, and it’s supported by their families and institutional communities. I’m going to sound like a missionary here, but it is very much a message of unifying the world.

Unity is very important for Mormons. Religious unity used to be mapped onto racial unity. Today, it’s celebrating racial difference and racial history as a key part of the Church.

Green: In recent months, people have called on conservative white Christians to grapple with issues of race, in part in response to a perceived resurgence of white nationalists and alt-right groups. What role do you think Mormons should play in this grappling?

Mueller: I’ve been predicting that Mormons will occupy spaces abandoned by white evangelicals: spaces of patriotism, family values, and morality that, unfortunately, some white evangelicals [have abandoned] because they have thrown in their lot and reputation with Trump and his white-Christian-nationalist project in such large numbers.


There are more Mormons outside the U.S. than inside. It’s likely that there are more non-white Mormons than there are white Mormons in the global Church. So the Church has its own future. It’s no longer an American project. It’s a global and international project. In the face of a U.S. political regime that puts white people and America first, a Church that has a global identity has to reject that.

* This article has been updated to clarify the historical role of black Mormons in the LDS Church.

** This article originally stated that Mormon leaders encouraged members to purchase African American slaves. We regret the error.

Emma Green is a staff writer at The New Yorker. Previously, she was a staff writer at The Atlantic, covering politics, policy, and religion.




当摩门教徒渴望成为一个 "白色和令人愉快的 "民族时
一位历史学家研究了耶稣基督后期圣徒教会中的种族主义遗产。

艾玛-格林报道
2015年，摩门教会堂唱诗班在盐湖城演唱。
2015年，摩门会堂唱诗班在盐湖城演唱。(Jim Urquhart / Reuters)
2017年9月18日

美国生活中最近发生的许多事件都在呼吁这个国家努力解决其种族主义和白人至上主义的遗留问题，包括夏洛茨维尔的暴力事件，甚至2016年的选举。这些事件在一些保守的基督教团体中造成了动荡，这些团体曾试图--时不时地--面对自己的种族分裂。

然而，有一个团体采取了稍微不同的路径。摩门教徒。虽然大多数摩门教徒在2016年大选中投票给特朗普，但他在这个少数宗教群体中的表现远不如以前的共和党总统候选人。据《盐湖论坛报》报道，在摩门教重镇犹他州，许多人怀疑总统的道德品质和作为榜样的力量。

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不顾摩门教的种族主义遗产，选择留在摩门教中
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为什么几个美国原住民要起诉摩门教会？
莉莉-福勒（LILLY FOWLER

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与其他宗教团体一样，摩门教徒在种族问题上有一段复杂的历史。直到几十年前，耶稣基督末世圣徒教会还教导他们 "将成为一个白色的、令人愉快的民族"，这句话来自《摩门经》。直到20世纪70年代，后期圣徒教会还限制黑人成员参与重要的仪式，并禁止黑人男子成为牧师，尽管有证据表明他们在教会最早的几年里曾更充分地参与。

内布拉斯加大学林肯分校的历史学家马克斯-佩里-穆勒认为，摩门教是一种典型的美国宗教。摩门经》将耶稣的故事重新集中在美洲，而这个成立于19世纪的信仰也通过一个非常美国化的镜头讲述了这个故事。然而，虽然种族和LDS教会的故事与其他美国人的种族经历相似，但也有其独特之处，让摩门教徒以自己的方式处理种族主义和白人至上主义的遗产。

我和穆勒谈了他的新书《种族和摩门教徒的形成》，书中着重介绍了摩门教历史上的几个重要人物。其中一个人，简-曼宁-詹姆斯，是盐湖谷第一个黑人社区的一员。尽管她与摩门教创始人约瑟夫-斯密的家人关系密切，但由于她的肤色，她在生前被剥夺了参加重要宗教仪式的机会。

贾南-格雷厄姆-拉塞尔(Janan Graham-Russell)在2016年为《大西洋》(The Atlantic)杂志写了她与LDS教会的种族主义遗产的个人斗争。莉莉-福勒也报道了关于教会的印第安学生安置计划的争议，该计划鼓励成员寄养和收养美国本土儿童。以下是我与穆勒的对话，为求清晰和长短，已作了编辑。

艾玛-格林。人们一直在谈论一个新兴的摩门教反右派，由摩门教白人民族主义者组成。其中大部分都集中在一个犹他州的女人身上，她以 "有目的的妻子 "为名发表博客，她为摩门教徒创造了一个 "白种人挑战"，以延续他们所谓的白人遗产。你怎么看这个问题？

马克斯-佩里-穆勒。在摩门教的历史中，有这样一个概念：白色是神性和纯洁。

基督教的问题常常被视为是线性的，朝着某个方向前进。但实际上，历史不是这样的，尤其是神学历史，不是这样的。在很多摩门教历史中处于核心地位的那种白人至上主义，以及拒绝白人至上主义的当代教会，都体现了同一个空间。

绿色。白人至上主义在摩门教文化中以何种方式明确或隐含地表现出来？

穆勒。尊敬的政治是巨大的。摩门教徒从事的受人尊敬的活动与20世纪初的许多黑人教会信徒社区并无不同。他们试图向主流的、白人的、党派的看门人展示自己是虔诚的、爱国的、面向家庭的、勤劳的、对社会有贡献的，并且愿意在战争中为美国国旗而战。但与美国黑人不同的是，摩门教徒因其皮肤色素而更容易被接受。

绿色。你描述了一个黑人妇女简-曼宁-詹姆斯，她过着一种矛盾的生活，既渴望成为史密斯家族的正式成员，又渴望成为摩门教的成员。她希望与她的家人永远结合在一起，这是摩门教神学的一个重要部分，但她在生前却被剥夺了这种特权。
她似乎与她的种族有一种复杂的关系。你有一句话，她说："我是白人，但我的肤色除外。"

为什么有人会这么说，或者想成为一种文化的一部分，使他们向往不同的皮肤颜色？


穆勒。你刚才提出的问题是我仍然在思考的问题，而且可能会在我的余生中思考这个问题。为什么这个女人--她显然充满了令人难以置信的智慧、技能和毅力--要把自己的命运交给一个不愿意让她成为成员的社区？我真的相信，在一天结束的时候，她对她所奉献的福音有信心。

她来自康涅狄格州。她的母亲是个奴隶，她有一种边缘化的存在--在北方，奴隶和自由的界限划分得不是那么清楚。她是一个富裕家庭的女仆。很明显，她有某种关系，于是就有了一个混血儿。因此，也许她看到了摆脱这种情况的方法，或者是在寻找一个不关心这种关系的社区。她皈依了，她搬到了伊利诺伊州的纳乌，在那里她和约瑟夫-斯密住在一起。不僅是教會，還有約瑟‧斯密的兄弟向她承諾，她可以成為社區的正式成員。他告诉她："你实际上可以克服你的血统，加入一个纯粹的血统"。

顯然，在今天，聽到這樣的訊息會讓我們感到不安，因為我們不以這樣的方式理解種族。但更重要的是，詹姆斯真的接受了这个承诺。她不是在寻找拯救她的人民。她在寻找拯救她的家庭。对她来说，这意味着找到与人们的社区，我想她相信这将持续到来世，进入未来的王国。我想她听到了这个救赎的信息，种族救赎的信息，她在她的余生中一直坚持这个故事--即使在她到了犹他州后，教会开始拒绝非洲裔人。

绿色。你写到《摩门经》的文本如何帮助创造了一种种族化的文化，根据该文本，摩门教徒渴望成为 "一个白色的、令人愉快的民族"。这些白色纯洁的概念是如何在神圣的摩门教文本中出现的？
穆勒。无论你想说摩门经的起源是什么，它都非常符合其时代背景。它非常美国化。它讲述了一个种族分裂的故事，以及它是如何形成的，将世界划分为一个种族等级，这是一个标准的美国故事--尤其是生在所谓的黑皮肤种族的人不能被救赎的想法。

摩门经的故事不是美国人所知的黑白故事，即白人是欧洲人，黑人是非洲人。它是一个家族间的故事。根据摩门经，一个以色列人家庭在公元前6世纪来到纽约。那里的两个主要人口是称为尼腓人的浅色皮肤人口和称为拉曼人的深色皮肤人口，该书追溯了他们文明兴衰的这个详尽故事。根据该书，拉曼人成为美国原住民。他们是美国早期欧洲殖民者所遇到的原住民。

在很长很长的时间里，美国人一直想知道 从血统上看，这些美国原住民究竟属于谁？因此，这本书确实符合19世纪30年代的观念，即印第安人的身份与白人的身份是不可调和的。


绿色。摩门教会中关于种族的冲突一直持续到20和21世纪。黑人男子从20世纪70年代开始才被允许成为牧师，黑人男子和妇女在那之前不能参加神圣的摩门教圣殿仪式。摩门教会直到2013年才否定其过去关于种族的教义。

为什么这些改革要花这么长时间才出现？

穆勒。当摩门教徒否定他们的过去时，这并不是简单地否定机构历史。它是在指出过去领导人的错误之处。由于持续的启示--摩门教徒相信他们的领袖是直接来自上帝的信息--所以很难否定先知们的身份。如果你开始否定过去的先知，那就削弱了上帝在今天向他的子民提供启示的整个前提。

绿色。LDS教会在历史上鼓励其成员购买美国原住民的奴隶，或者收养原住民的孩子并在其家中抚养他们。**后一种做法一直延续到20世纪90年代，有一个叫做印第安学生安置计划的项目。

你对这些做法究竟怎么看？他们是种族主义者吗？


穆勒。历史上第一次正式的摩门教传教是在1830年底，当时约瑟夫-斯密把他最重要的副手送到被推到西部的特拉华印第安人那里，也就是当代的堪萨斯州。换句话说，摩门教的第一次传教是为了改变美国原住民。这种 "救赎 "美国原住民的冲动仍然是一个关键特征。

印第安学生安置计划是一个机构项目，我确实认为这是一个带有种族色彩的项目，旨在 "文明化 "大量的美国原住民儿童。尽管如此，在个人层面和家庭层面，很难高估这些家庭对他们孩子的爱和奉献，以及他们提供的爱和关怀--不仅是对原住民儿童，还有对原住民儿童的家庭。

绿色。近年来，其他保守的宗教团体推动了他们所谓的 "种族和解"。在摩门教方面是否也有类似的努力？
穆勒。他们的种族和解版本就是我所说的 "多文化摩门教"。2011年至2012年，有一个名为 "我是摩门教徒 "的广告活动。这明确地向世界展示了摩门教的多元文化面貌：多元文化、多民族、多语言。教会承认，作为一个白人教会，它确实有一个问题。


但是，并不是很多孩子被抚养长大，多年来攒钱资助传教，去那些通常生活非常困难的地方，在那里他们会被关在门外，他们可能不会说当地语言。来自犹他州的孩子们被派往非洲和南美洲。这是对他们生活的巨大投资，而且是由他们的家庭和机构社区支持的。我在这里听起来像个传教士，但这在很大程度上是一个统一世界的信息。

团结对摩门教徒非常重要。宗教的团结曾经被映射到种族的团结上。今天，它正在庆祝种族差异和种族历史，作为教会的一个重要组成部分。

绿色。最近几个月，人们呼吁保守的白人基督徒努力解决种族问题，部分原因是为了应对白人民族主义者和反右团体的重新抬头。你认为摩门教徒应该在这种斗争中扮演什么角色？

穆勒：我一直在预测，摩门教徒将占据被白人福音派抛弃的空间：爱国主义、家庭价值观和道德的空间，不幸的是，一些白人福音派[已经抛弃了]，因为他们与特朗普和他的白人基督教民族主义项目投缘，声名大噪。


美国境外的摩门教徒比美国境内的多。在全球教会中，非白人摩门教徒很可能比白人摩门教徒多。所以教会有自己的未来。它不再是一个美国项目。它是一个全球和国际项目。面对一个把白人和美国放在首位的美国政治体制，一个具有全球身份的教会必须拒绝这种做法。

*本文已被更新，以澄清黑人摩门教徒在LDS教会中的历史角色。

**本文最初说，摩门教领袖鼓励成员购买非裔美国人的奴隶。我们对这一错误表示遗憾。

艾玛-格林是《纽约客》杂志的职员作家。此前，她是《大西洋月刊》的工作人员，报道政治、政策和宗教。