1988
Church Issues Statement on Racial Equality
February 1988


“Church Issues Statement on Racial Equality,” Ensign, Feb. 1988, 74

Church Issues Statement on Racial Equality

In view of current public interest in the question of equality of men and women of all races, the Church has issued the following statement:

“The concern of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for the well-being and equality of all men and women was well defined by President Ezra Taft Benson as he began his present responsibilities:

“‘My heart has been filled with an overwhelming love and compassion for all members of our Heavenly Father’s children everywhere. I love all our Father’s children.’ (President Ezra Taft Benson, 11 November 1985. Church News, 17 Nov. 1985, pp. 3, 7.)

“‘We say again, as we have said many times before, that we believe that all men are the children of the same God, and that it is a moral evil for any person or group of persons to deny any human being the right to gainful employment, to full educational opportunity, and to every privilege of citizenship.

“‘There is in this Church no doctrine, belief, or practice that is intended to deny the enjoyment of full civil rights by any person regardless of race, color, or creed.

“‘We call upon all men, everywhere, both within and outside the Church, to commit themselves to the establishment of full civil equality for all of God’s children. Anything less than this defeats our high ideal of the brotherhood of man.’ (President Hugh B. Brown, 6 October 1963. Improvement Era, Dec. 1963, p. 1058.)

“We repudiate efforts to deny to any person his or her inalienable dignity and rights on the abhorrent and tragic theory of the superiority of one race or color over another.”