ANSWERS: 9
  • A large and increasing percentage of LDS, Temple-sealed couples are "interracial," including several of my best friends. No problem. Anyone capable of understanding the issue will know that, if the Church opposed interracial marriage, such a marriage could not be solemnized in the Temple.
  • In the past, church leaders spoke out against interracial and inter-religious marriages. The church has no specific doctrine on interracial marriage now and has never practiced discrimination against a person wanting to marry a worthy person just because their races differ. Though Blacks could not attend the temple before 1978, they still married White spouses in chapels. If you read Black LDS history, the church has never barred race from church as an official policy or marriage.
  • I have "crashed" many various churches in my quest for God and even though people told me: "dont go to their church they think that you people are the mark of cain" I slinked late into a meeting at the church in Humboldt county's Arcata, branch. The religion, like all of the others was extremely strange and cloying to me, but when the last bible is placed on our hallway shelf we are basically as diverse as our religions. A lot of folks realize (intelligently so) that there are more substantial things in life to worry about.
  • While the Mormon church does not prohibit interracial marriages, there are still many leaders that discourage it. I myself was counseled to consider very carefully my plans to marry outside of my own race. I was given those words of encouragement (discouragement?) from both my local bishop and stake president months before my marriage. Imagine having that special feeling in your heart that you had been led to the right spouse, and then be told by a church leader that my fiance might not be the one that was "chosen" for me because of their race.
  • "Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so.” – Brigham Young, Journal of Discourses, Vol. 10. You don't hear too much about the Journal of Discourses anymore...
  • My whole family is interracial. None of my brothers-in-law or sisters-in-law is of my own race. Interracial families can face adversity. Race is just one more possible challenge (both from within the family and from without). You should have both eyes wide open when choosing a mate.
  • Once upon a time, the Church would encourage its members to be *very* careful about choosing to marry outside one’s own race. Interracial marriage doesn’t carry the social stigma it once did, but once upon a time it was a *very* controversial subject that affected not only the couple but any children that they might have. In other words, it wasn’t so much “don’t do it” as it was “make sure you know what you’re getting into,” which is good advice for any marriage; it’s just that interracial marriages have just one more thing to consider. Even today, there are things to consider. Take my sister-in-law, for example: she’s essentially Caucasian (though she, like all of the kids in my wife’s family, does have some Native-American in her) while her husband is African-American. Is this bad? Of course not; they make a great couple! However, there *are* issues that each has to deal with. Not only has she had to learn how to fix her stepdaughter’s hair (which is apparently a bigger deal than I would have expected), but they both have to put up with his very racist mother, who still isn’t thrilled to have a white daughter-in-law. So short answer: no, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints does *not* discourage interracial marriage, per se; it just encourages its members to make good choices regarding who to marry, and unfortunately, American society still dictates that race be a consideration.
  • No. In my Ward (Congregation) there are several interracial marriages. No one has a problem. The religion like most other people have gotten over that. I think the leaders of the church near its beginnings very much had the attitude of their contemporaries. After all, these are humans we are talking about here. Like all things this changed.
  • Yes, the Mormon church officially discourages interracial marriage, but it does not prohibit it. This continues to be a part of church doctrine, as evidenced in the content of the 2009 Aaronic Priesthood lesson manual. The lesson titled "Choosing an Eternal Companion" teaches: "We recommend that people marry those who are of the same racial background". Mormon bishops and stake presidents are also instructed to provide counsel against interracial marriages. Some do, some don't.

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