From Light to White: The Place and Race of Jesus in Antebellum America

• Published in: Historically speaking 2012-09, Vol.13 (4), p.13-15
• Main Authors: Blum, Edward J, Harvey, Paul
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Christianity; Mormonism; Native North Americans
• ISSN: 1941-4188; 1944-6438; 1944-6438
• DOI: 10.1353/hsp.2012.0043

For whites, blacks, and Native Americans, Presbyterians, Baptists, Methodists, and Mormons, Jesus was becoming a white man, not just in visions but also in pamphlets and prints. Perhaps his discussion of Christ's color and his challenge to opponents of interracial marriage cut too close to the core of white supremacist spirituality and sexuality. Used by permission of the publisher. http://uncpress.unc.edu/books /T-8436.html 1 Joseph Smith and B. H. Roberts, History of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (Kessinger Publications, 2004), 3-6; Richard Abanes, One Nation Under Gods: A History of the Mormon Church (Thunder's Mouth Press, 2003), 12, 17, 47-57, 484-85, notes 47-48; Richard Lyman Bushman, Joseph Smith: Rough Stone Rolling (Alfred A. Knopf, 2005), 39-43. Edward J. Blum, associate professor of history at San Diego State University, and Paul Harvey, professor of history and Presidential Teaching Scholar at the University of Colorado at Boulder, are coauthors of The Color of Christ: The Son of God and the Saga of Race in America (University of North Carolina Press, 2012).