Interracial marriage and the LDS Church

In the past, leaders of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), including Brigham Young, have opposed marriages between members of different ethnicities.

In 1977, one of the church's apostles, Boyd K. Packer, publicly stated: "We've always counseled in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese, our Caucasians to marry Caucasians, our Polynesian members to marry Polynesians... The counsel has been wise." According to historian Lester E. Bush Jr., nearly every decade for over a century—beginning with the church's formation in the 1830s until the 1970s—has seen some denunciations of interracial marriages (miscegenation), with most statements focusing on Black–White marriages.

Church president Brigham Young taught on multiple occasions that Black–White marriage merited death for the couple and their children. Early church leaders made an exception to the interracial marriage ban by allowing White LDS men to marry Native American women, because Native Americans were viewed as being descended from the Israelites. Church leaders did not sanction White LDS women marrying Native American men, however.

In 2013, the LDS Church disavowed the teachings that interracial marriage was a sin. Until at least the 1960s, the LDS Church penalized some White members who married Black individuals by prohibiting both spouses from entering its temples. After the temple and priesthood ban was lifted for Black members in 1978, the church started allowing Black interracial temple marriages, but still officially discouraged marriages across ethnic lines. Until 2013, at least one official church manual in use continued discouraging interracial marriages. Past teachings of church leaders on race and interracial marriage have stemmed from racist beliefs of the time and have seen criticism and controversy.