Big Development: Come Follow Me, 2 Nephi 5, and the rejection of Joseph Fielding Smith

 In July 2019, the digital edition of the Home and Family edition of the Church's unified study curriculum "Come Follow Me" went online at the Church's official website. Having a specific interest in how the Church has been interpreting and covering how the Church is teaching , interpreting, and approaching the Book of Mormon's account of "a skin of blackness" coming upon the Lamanites, I quickly flipped over to the section covering 2 Nephi 5.

What I found deeply disappointed me. 

2 Nephi 5:2-21: What is the "curse" that came upon the Lamanites?

"The dark skin was placed upon the Lamanites so that they could be distinguished from the Nephites and to keep the two peoples from mixing . . . The dark skin was the sign of the curse.  The curse was the withdrawal of the Spirit of the Lord ... Dark skin ... is no longer to be considered a sign of the curse" (Joseph Fielding Smith, Answers to Gospel Questions, comp. Joseph Fielding Smith Jr. [1960], 3:122-23).

Using the Joseph Fielding Smith quote was problematic from several reasons. The first was in recognizing that when this was written, the Priesthood and Temple Restriction on Black Latter-day Saints was very much in effect, and Joseph Fielding Smith taught that "dark skin" was indeed a sign of what he believed was a currently-in-effect "curse". The association between what was going on in the Nephite narrative was absolutely being related to what was happening in the contemporary Church with the ongoing Priesthood and Temple Restriction.

In late 2013, the Church made major waves in its publication of "Race and the Priesthood", a new official statement on the history of the racial restriction in its historical context. This essay included a paragraph which was powerful, clear, and very, very new:

"Today, the Church disavows the theories advanced in the past that black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse, or that it reflects unrighteous actions in a premortal life; that mixed-race marriages are a sin; or that blacks or people of any other race or ethnicity are inferior in any way to anyone else. Church leaders today unequivocally condemn all racism, past and present, in any form."

Notice that key phrase, that the Church disavows past theories "advanced in the past" that "black skin is a sign of divine disfavor or curse". It directly disavows the 1960 Joseph Fielding Smith assertion that "the dark skin was the sign of the curse". This, for me, created a powerful space for also applying this teaching to the Book of Mormon, and how we interpreted what was happening distinct from how those in the narrative understood or spoke about what was going on.

The problem is that now, on the eve of 2020, the Church was again using the 1960 Joseph Fielding Smith language that was disavowed in 2013.

As has been requested in many years in the opening pages of Curriculum, I sent messages of feedback to the Curriculum department, and contacted associates I knew who had connections in the Church Office Building in related departments explaining my concern at the contradiction, and the problem going forward (and also noting that it probably wasn't going to be in the Church's best interest in any way to have a Church lesson explaining that Dark Skin was legitimately a sign of a Curse just as we were heading into 2020's Black History Month).

The people I contacted expressed gratitude for letting them know, and I learned that there had been a lot of internal discussion about these passages. I didn't know if anything was going to happen.

But then .. suddenly the passage was gone from the online edition. Completely removed. I figured this would be the end of the story, but then I was shocked to discover several days later that it has been completely replaced by a lengthy passage:

2 Nephi 5:20–21

What was the curse that came upon the Lamanites?

In Nephi’s day the curse of the Lamanites was that they were “cut off from [the Lord’s] presence … because of their iniquity” (2 Nephi 5:20–21). This meant the Spirit of the Lord was withdrawn from their lives. When Lamanites later embraced the gospel of Jesus Christ, “the curse of God did no more follow them” (Alma 23:18).

The Book of Mormon also states that a mark of dark skin came upon the Lamanites after the Nephites separated from them. The nature and appearance of this mark are not fully understood. The mark initially distinguished the Lamanites from the Nephites. Later, as both the Nephites and Lamanites each went through periods of wickedness and righteousness, the mark became irrelevant as an indicator of the Lamanites’ standing before God.

Prophets affirm in our day that dark skin is not a sign of divine disfavor or cursing. The Church embraces Nephi’s teaching that the Lord “denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female” (2 Nephi 26:33). President Russell M. Nelson declared: “The Lord has stressed His essential doctrine of equal opportunity for His children. … Differences in culture, language, gender, race, and nationality fade into insignificance as the faithful enter the covenant path and come unto our beloved Redeemer” (“President Nelson Remarks at Worldwide Priesthood Celebration” [June 1, 2018], newsroom.ChurchofJesusChrist.org).

Two massive developments occurred there.

First, the language from the earlier edition was absolutely negated in preference to the language from the 2013 essay, "Prophets affirm in our day that dark skin is not a sign of divine disfavor or cursing."

Second, there is presented space for interpreting the nature of the mark itself beyond the traditional change in skin pigment. They did this with the line, "The nature and appearance of this mark are not fully understood."

This was a massive step in Book of Mormon interpretation, but there were no announcements, and nothing drew its attention to this revision. 

This became even more problematic when it became clear the the original edition was the version that went to press, and in many wards was hand-distributed to every family to study. There was no not or comment to see the online edition for an important correction.

So any family or teacher who used the physical resource in 2020 for personal study, and to prepare lessons for Church classes would have had no reason to know there was a revision.

But now, in preparation for 2024, the Church has published a consolidated edition of Come Follow Me (called Come Follow Me for Home and Church)  that will be used for Home, Primary, Youth, and Sunday School preparation. It is the only edition online (which is encouraged to be used), and will have a print edition. And this new edition contains the revised online edition of the 2 Nephi 5 passage, along with a new more recent quote from President Nelson.

President Russell M. Nelson declared: “I assure you that your standing before God is not determined by the color of your skin. Favor or disfavor with God is dependent upon your devotion to God and His commandments and not the color of your skin” (“Let God Prevail,” Ensign or Liahona, Nov. 2020, 94).

This is a massive new development in Book of Mormon interpretation, active response to a passage that has long been allowed to silently stand as support for racist ideas, and is opening up new avenues of understanding the narrative text in ways that had previously not been given official or authoritative 'clearance' to do so in printed curriculum or teachings.