John Taylor's racist teachings about black people

John Taylor's Racist Theology: What Church Leaders Said About Black People and Why It Matters Today

For members seeking to understand the full historical record of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, few topics prove more challenging than the racist theological frameworks articulated by church leaders in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Among the most troubling examples are John Taylor's teachings about black people, claims documented in historical records and later repeated by LDS educators to students. Understanding what Taylor taught, how these ideas circulated within church institutions, and why this history remains relevant requires examining both the original statements and their ongoing presence in Mormon intellectual life.

The Third Church President and Theological Racism

John Taylor served as the third president of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints from 1880 until his death in 1887. During his tenure and in his earlier writings, Taylor developed and promoted a cosmological theory that attributed the origin of black people to a theological punishment rooted in post-flood mythology.

According to research presented on the Mormon Stories Podcast, Taylor taught that after the biblical flood, divine law required the devil to have earthly representation. Taylor's framework held that black people constituted this diabolical representation, a claim so extreme that modern observers struggle to comprehend how such doctrine gained any institutional traction whatsoever.

This was not marginal commentary. Taylor's theological pronouncements carried significant weight within Mormon communities, shaping how members understood race, divine will, and their own place in a supposedly restored religious hierarchy.