3rd Nephi 2:14-16

And it came to pass that those Lamanites who had united with the Nephites were numbered among the Nephites.  And their curse was taken from them, and their skin became white like unto the Nephites.  And their young men and daughters became exceedingly fair, and they were numbered among the Nephites and were called Nephites.

You cannot read the book of Mormon and ignore this issue of skin color. It just keeps repeating.

How do we deal with it? I wish there could be a change of verbiage here. However there are some key book of Mormon scriptures that help us to understand.

And Jacob 3:8 Jacob is talking about the Lamanites and he says,

Oh, my brethren (my fellow Nephites), I fear that unless ye shall repent of your sins that their (the Lamanites) skins will be whiter than yours when you shall be brought with them before the throne of God.

Jacob is making an analogy here about whiteness meaning purity and darkness meaning sin. I interpret that to mean in this scripture that their countenances will be purer.  He is not only suggesting that white equals pure but that degrees of whiteness indicate degrees of purity. It would be unreasonable to even suggest that he is talking about skin color changing.

So let's now go to second Nephi 5:20 to 21

And behold, they were cut off from his presence. And he had caused the cursing to come upon them, yes, even a sore cursing, because of their iniquity. For behold, they had hardened their hearts against him, that they had become like unto flint; wherefore as they were white and exceedingly fair and delightsome that they might not be enticing unto my people, the Lord God did cause a skin of blackness to come upon them.

And lastly we'll look at second Nephi 3:6

And then shall they rejoice for they shall know that it is a blessing unto them from the Lord hand of God, and their scales of darkness shall begin to fall from their eyes, and many generations shall not pass away among them, save they shall be a pure and delightsome people.

It is really important that do we have the tools to interpret and understand these scriptures.

The very first interpretation that I heard in my early years of the church was this:. When the people of the Book of Mormon sinned, God reached out and cursed them. The curse was that he caused their skin to become dark. Therefore anyone with white skin was a "good guy", while anyone with dark skin was a "bad guy".  This made it very easy to decide who you should associate with and who you should marry.

It is sad to realize that this interpretation was an interpretation born out of racist thought in the United States during a time when most of the membership of the church lived in the United States.

Interestingly enough, it was two faithful black American members of the church who did the work of helping us to reinterpret and understand the true principles taught in these scriptures. If you are not familiar with them, please check out Darius Gray and Marvin Perkins. (see below)

#1.  Curse = a separation from God and we do this to ourselves! We separate ourselves from God when we choose to live unrighteously.  We bring this upon ourselves.  God does not "curse" people.

#2. Skin = countenance. Skin color does not instantly change when we sin - or do good. But our countenances do! We each know that personally - we have experienced it. We know what it feels like when we do something wrong. It's a heavy darkness that seems to come over us, a guilty conscience that makes us withdraw inwardly. But when we are free from sin we are filled with light and joy. We probably wouldn't say "I feel so pure and delightsome" but actually that is a great description of what it feels like when we are living in accordance with God's commands.

I pray always for a change in the words in the scriptures. Why not ask the Lord for permission to change words that may have been common symbols in 550 BC but have become racially charged and too easily misunderstood in 2020? They were used to justify racism by members of the church for too long and that history haunts us still. Why not substitute "countenance" and "lightness" and "darkness" as the true meanings intended and be sure that no one can justify their racist beliefs by quoting LDS scripture.

This is my sincere prayer.

To learn more about Darius Gray and Marvin Perkins click this link: blacksinthescriptures

You can learn a lot on this site!