Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence - Hardcover

Mormonism and White Supremacy: American Religion and the Problem of Racial Innocence

Joanna Brooks delivers an unflinching examination of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints' complex history with race and the priesthood ban that excluded Black Mormons from ordination. This hardcover edition from Oxford University Press confronts the uncomfortable reality that many Mormon congregants continue to hear claims in Sunday meetings that African-Americans are cursed descendants of Cain, marked by their skin color due to insufficient spiritual commitment in a premortal existence.

Brooks documents how the LDS Church has historically managed this difficult subject through avoidance, denial, selective truth-telling, and determined silence. Churchgoers who suggest the priesthood and temple ban resulted from human racism often face more opposition than those perpetuating the curse narrative. This pattern reveals how institutional practices have sustained racial mythology within American religious communities.

Critical Analysis of American Christianity and White Privilege

As America confronts the costs of white privilege to Black lives, this book urges a soul-searching examination of American Christianity's role in sustaining everyday white supremacy by assuring white people of their innocence. Brooks uses her own faith community as a case study with broader implications for scholars of American religion and people of faith across denominations.