“Dear President Benson:

“Through the General Board of the Relief Society, who reported to the Presiding Bishopric, and they to us, it comes to us that you have in the Capitol Reef Ward in Washington two colored sisters who apparently are faithful members of the Church.

“The report comes to us that prior to a meeting which was to be held between the Relief Societies of the Washington Ward and the Capitol Ward, Bishop Brossard of the Washington Ward called up the President of the Relief Society of the Capitol Ward and told her that these two colored sisters should [not] be permitted to attend because the President of the Capitol Ward Relief Society failed to carry out the request made of her by the Bishop of the other ward.

“We can appreciate that the situation may present a problem in Washington, but President Clark recalls that in the Catholic churches in Washington at the time he lived there, colored and white communicants used the same church at the same time. He never entered the church to see how the matter was carried out, but he knew that the facts were as stated.

“From this fact we are assuming that there is not in Washington any such feeling as exists in the South where the colored people are apparently not permitted by their white brethren and sisters to come into the meeting houses and worship with them. We feel that we cannot refuse baptism to a colored person who is otherwise worthy, and we feel that we cannot refuses to permit these people to come into our meeting houses and worship once we baptize them.

“It seems to us that it ought to be possible to work this situation out without causing any feelings on the part of anybody. If the white sisters feel that they may not sit with them or near them, we fell very sure that if the colored sisters were discreetly approached, they would be happy to sit at one side in the rear or somewhere where they would not wound the sensibilities of the complaining sisters. We will rely upon your tact and discretion to work this out so as not to hurt the feelings on the part of anyone.

“Of course, probably each one of the sisters who can afford it, has a colored maid in her house to do the work and to do the cooking for her, and it would seem that under these circumstances they should be willing to let them sit in Church and worship with them.

“Faithfully your brethren,

[signed]

“Heber J. Grant
J. Reuben Clark, Jr.
David O. McKay”

"In the official First Vision story Smith questioned, 'Who of all these parties are right; or are they all wrong together?' ('Pearl of Great Price,' 'Joseph Smith History,' 1:10). Later he said, 'I asked the Personages who stood above me in the light which of all the sects was right (for at this time it had never entered into my heart that they were all wrong) - and which I should join" (ibid., vs. 18). . . .

"In response to his question concerning which church was the right one to join, Smith said, 'I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong . . . He again forbade me to join any of them' (ibid., vs. 19-20). . . .

"Wesley Walters found . . . that in 1822 Joseph Smith 'caught a spark of Methodism and became a very passible exhorter in the evening meetings' ('History of the Pioneer Settlement of Phelps and Gorham's Purchase,' 1851, p. 214).

"In order to be teaching in a Methodist church, Joseph must have been accepted rather than persecuted as he claimed in the 'Pearl of Great Price,' 'Joseph Smith History,' 1:21-22.

"In 1828, Joseph sought membership in the Methodist church where his wife, Emma, had belonged since she was seven years old. The death of their firstborn son on June 15, 1828, may have motivated him to do that.

"Emma Smith's cousins, Joseph and Heil Lewis, were members of the Methodist church which Joseph tried to join in Harmony, Pennsylvania.

"They said, 'Joseph presented himself in a very serious and humble manner, and the minister, not suspecting evil, put his name on the class book, in the absence of some of the official members' ('The Amboy Journal,' April 30, 1879).

"Joseph Lewis later added, 'I, with Joshua McKune, a local preacher at the time, I think in June, 1828, heard on Saturday that Joe Smith had joined the church on Wednesday afternoon (as it was customary in those days to have circuit preaching at my father's house on week day).

"'We thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer, a dealer in enchantments and bleeding ghosts, in it.

"'So on Sunday, we went to father's, the place of meeting that day, and got there in season to see Smith and talked to him some time in father's shop before meeting. Told him that his occupation, habits, and moral character were at variance with the discipline, that his name would be a disgrace to the church, and there should have been recantation, confession and at least promised reformation - that he could that day publicly ask that his name be stricken from the class book, or stand investigation.

"'He chose the former, and did that very day make request that his name be taken off the class book' ('The Amboy Journal,' June 11, 1879).

"Joseph Smith's brother-in-law, Michael Morse, said that Smith's name remained on the class book for about six months (ibid., May 21, 1879).

"Since Morse was the class leader who enrolled Smith, he may be right. But why did Joseph Smith seek to join the Methodist church in 1828 if Jesus Christ told him not to join any church in 1820? . . ."

"In June 1828 Joseph Smith, Jr., the founder of Mormonism, joined the Methodist Church [probationary class] in Harmony, Pennsylvania. This was a strange thing for this prophet of a new religion to do, and seriously challenges the story he put out ten years later about the origin of his work.

"That later story claims that in 1820 Joseph Smith had seen two glorious personages, identified as the Father and the Son, and was informed that the creeds of all the 'sects,' or various denominations, 'were an abomination' and he was twice forbidden to join any of them.

"In retelling this same tale to Alexander Neibaur on May 24, 1844, Joseph specifically singled out the Methodist Church as being unworthy of his membership. Mr. Neibaur's diary recorded the divine warning as related by Joseph: 'Mr. Smith then asked, "Must I join the Methodist Church?" [Smith replied}, "No - they are not my people. They have gone astray there is none that doeth good no not one."' (quoted in 'The Improvement Era,' April 1970, p.12).

"Perhaps the death of his first-born son on June 15, 1828 induced him to seek membership in the church his wife had belonged to since she was seven years old.

"Joseph had told his neighbor, Joshua McKune, that 'his (Smith's) first born child was to translate the characters and hieroglyphics upon the plates, into our language, at the age of three years.' ('The Susquehanna Register,' May 1, 1834, p.1).

"When this child died at birth instead, and his wife's life also hung in danger, Smith may have considered entirely abandoning his project of writing a book and decided to join the Methodist Church.

"At least Martin Harris later told Rev. Ezra Booth that when he went to Pennsylvania to see Joseph about the translation that 'Joseph had given it up on account of the opposition of his wife and others,' and Martin 'told Joseph, "I have not come down here for nothing, we will go on with it."'" ('The Story of the Mormons,' by William Alexander Linn, New York: Macmillan Co. 1902, p.36).

"The young prophet's role as a Methodist member did not last very long, however - only three days according to statements made by his wife's cousins, Joseph and Hiel Lewis. In their local newspaper at Amboy, Illinois, they told of their earlier years with Joseph Smith in Pennsylvania and of his uniting with their Methodist class:

"'He presented himself in a very serious and humble manner, and the minister, not suspecting evil, put his name on the class book, in the absence of some of the official members.' ("The Amboy Journal," Amboy, Illinois, April 30, 1879, p.1).

"When Joseph Lewis, who was twenty one at the time (about a year and a half younger than Smith), learned of this act, he felt that Joseph's manner of life rendered him unfit to be a member and told him either to 'publicly ask to have his name stricken from the class book, or stand a disciplinary investigation.'

"Mr. Lewis gave further details about the incident a month after the first article appeared in the Amboy paper, and he wrote:

"'I, with Joshua McKune, a local preacher at that time, I think in June, 1828, heard on Saturday, that Joe Smith had joined the church on Wednesday afternoon, (as it was customary in those days to have circuit preaching at my father's house on week-day).

"'We thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer, a dealer in enchantments and bleeding ghosts, in it.

"So on Sunday we went to father's, the place of meeting that day, and got there in season to see Smith and talked with him some time in father's shop before the meeting. Told him that his occupation, habits, and moral character were at variance with the discipline, that his name would be a disgrace to the church, that there should have been recantation, confession and at least promised reformation-. That he could that day publicly ask that his name be stricken from the class book, or stand an investigation.

"'He chose the former, and did that very day make the request that his name be taken off the class book.' ('The Amboy Journal,' June 11, 1879, p.1).

"Like so many of the early Methodist records, the early class books of the Harmony (now Lanesboro) Church are lost, so we will never know for certain whether Joseph Smith remained a member for only three days or six months.

"However, there was never any dispute that he had become a member, and by this one act he undercut the story he later put forth that God in a special vision had instructed him specifically not to join the Methodist Church."

"Emma's uncle, Nathaniel Lewis, preached as a lay minister of the local Methodist Episcopal church. His congregation met in the homes of the members for Sunday services. On Wednesdays a regular circuit preacher visited Harmony.

"In the spring or summer of 1828 Joseph asked the circuit rider if his name could be included on the class roll of the church. Joseph "presented himself in a very serious and humble manner," and the minister obliged him.

"When Emma's cousin, Joseph Lewis, discovered Joseph's name on the roll, he "thought it was a disgrace to the church to have a practicing necromancer" as a member.

"He took the matter up with a friend, and the following Sunday, when Joseph and Emma arrived for church, the two men steered Joseph aside and into the family shop. 'They told him plainly that such character as he . . . could not be a member of the church unless he broke off his sins by repentance, made public confession, renounced his fraudulent and hypocritical practices, and gave some evidence that he intended to reform and conduct himself somewhat nearer like a christian than he had done. They gave him his choice to go before the class, and publicly ask to have his name stricken from the class book, or stand a disciplinary investigation." Joseph refused to comply with the humiliating demands and withdrew from the class. His name, however, stayed on the roll for about six more months, either from oversight or because Emma's brother-in-law, Michael Morse, who taught the class, did not know of the confrontation. When Joseph did not seek full membership, Morse finally dropped his name.'"

"It's true that, prior to 1978, blacks could not be ordained to the Mormon priesthood. But here, too, a more nuanced view is helpful. Joseph Smith is now known to have ordained African-American men in the 1830s and 1840s. The prohibition evolved in later decades, propped up by a series of racist folk doctrines.

"Mormons were relieved when those teachings were repudiated. (It adds context but little comfort to note that other major U.S. denominations had racist and segregationist dogma on their books until the 1970s as well.)"