Early Mormon views on marriage, race, and progeny provide a background to consider the church’s new policy banning gay families from church membership. Brigham Young taught that interracial marriage of white Mormon men to black women would bring a curse upon the church, reducing the Mormon people below the descendants of Cain, and recommended execution to these families. 19th century teachings on race and marriage provide a context to the concepts of a cursed people and unholy marriage. In this paper, I will explore teachings of the past that parallel today’s policy.

Clair Barrus, Newell G. Bringhurst