Comments on a conversation with President David O. McKay in the Spring of 1954.

Our discussion centered on the question of orthodoxy and heresy and the general problem of dissent in the Church. The views which President McKay expressed to me on these matters were remarkably liberal and deserve to be known by the general membership of the Church.

At one point in the conversation I introduced the subject of the common belief among the Church membership that Negroes are under a divine curse. I told him that I regarded this doctrine as both false and morally abhorrent and that some weeks earlier, in a class in my own Ward, I had made it clear that I did not accept the doctrine and that I wanted to be known as a dissenter from the class instructor's statements about "our beliefs" in this matter.

President McKay replied that he was "glad" that I had taken this stand, as he also did not believe this teaching. He stated his position in the matter very forcefully and clearly said with considerable feeling that "there is not now, and there never has been, a doctrine in this Church that the Negroes are under a divine curse." He insisted that there is no doctrine of any kind pertaining to the Negro. "We believe," he said, "that we have scriptural precedent for withholding the priesthood from the Negro. It is a practice, not a doctrine, and the practice will some day be changed. And that's all there is to it." He made it clear what scripture he had in mind by mentioning the well known passage in the Pearl of Great Price, Abraham 1: 26-27. He made no reference to the Bible or the Cain and Abel story.

I told President McKay that I thought his statement on the Negro issue was of major importance and that it should be made public both in print and in a Conference statement in order to clear up the confusion of thousands of people in the Church believing in the "divine curse" teaching. To this he gave no reply except to reiterate his position, saying, "There is no such doctrine and as far as I am concerned there never was."

[Signature]

Sterling M. McMurrin