(RNS) — Several Black clergymen who are alumni of Morehouse College, a historically Black men’s college, have written an open letter to their alma mater objecting to a new portrait of Mormon Church founder Joseph Smith hung in the campus chapel. The chapel, named after famous civil rights activist the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., should not feature a portrait of a man who once sought to appease slave owners and who practiced polygamy, the men argue in their letter.
“We represent three generations of Morehouse Men (graduates from the Classes of 1967, 1984 and 2012) who are publicly expressing opposition to the college’s recent decision to install an oil portrait of Joseph Smith, founder of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints,” wrote the Revs. C. Vernon Mason Sr., Mark L. Chapman and Rashad Raymond Moore, in an op-ed published Thursday (Feb. 26) in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“What lesson are we teaching when we elevate a man because he ostensibly shifted his stance on slavery late in life — during a political campaign — while minimizing or overlooking his exploitation of women and children?”
Mason is a civil rights leader and minister in residence at a Baptist church in Harlem, N.Y.; Chapman is a pastor of a Presbyterian Church in Manhattan and an associate professor at Fordham University; and Moore is the pastor of a Baptist church in Brooklyn.
Others have welcomed the portrait of Smith that was unveiled on Feb. 1 at a vespers service attended by descendants of the Smith family who “sponsored the commission” of the portrait, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints announced. It said Smith’s portrait would be placed between those of Abraham Lincoln and former Mormon President Russell M. Nelson, whose portrait was added in 2023. The church told RNS it did not fund the commission.
“We have not given a financial donation to Morehouse College,” said Doug Andersen, a church spokesperson. “Additionally, the Church did not pay for the portrait.”
During the ceremony on the first day of Black History Month, the Rev. Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., longtime dean of the chapel, highlighted Smith’s six-year plan to end slavery proposed in his 1844 presidential campaign platform.
“Joseph Smith’s plan to abolish slavery stands among the most morally ambitious proposals,” said Carter. “Though never realized, it endures as a prophetic witness to what America might have been.”
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The oped writers cited numerous reasons they believe Smith is not worthy of the honor, including that members of his church continued to own enslaved people after his campaign. The writers went on to note that Smith married an estimated “dozens of women” including at least one who was as young as 14.
An article on plural marriage on the Mormon church’s website noted that “Marriage at such an age, inappropriate by today’s standards, was legal in that era, and some women married in their mid-teens.” It said that Smith took part in both “sealings for time and eternity and sealings for eternity only,” the latter of which would not have included the possibility of sexual relations, and the number of sealings in which he participated in his lifetime is not known due to “fragmentary” evidence.
Weeks before the clergymen’s oped, two students who serve as chapel assistants at Morehouse expressed opposition to the plans to place Smith’s portrait among the many of leaders known for their advocacy of civil and human rights across the globe. The students said the move did not reflect the standards of their program or their college.
“Honoring a figure associated with a religious tradition whose early history includes racially exclusionary teachings and practices does not align with Morehouse’s mission or heritage,” wrote Alonzo Brinson and Damarion King, the president and vice president, respectively, of the chapel assistants program, in a statement posted on Instagram on Feb. 4.
“With righteous indignation, we have submitted a letter to Dean Lawrence Edward Carter Sr., respectfully requesting the immediate return of the oil portrait of Joseph Smith Jr. and the revocation of his induction. This request is not rooted in hostility toward any faith tradition, but in faithfulness to the story, values, and enduring legacy of Morehouse College,” they wrote.
In 1978, the Mormon Church announced the reversal of a policy that had prevented, for more than a century, ordination of men of African descent to the Mormon priesthood and all members of African descent from access to temple rituals.
Morehouse officials declined or were not immediately available for comment.
In an interview with The Maroon Tiger, Morehouse’s student newspaper, Carter defended the chapel’s actions.
“Smith wanted to free the enslaved Africans, and he wanted to have the federal government pay reparations to slave owners,” Carter said, adding the LDS founder could have prevented the Civil War had he been elected.
Carter also cited financial reasons for the decision.
“Donors are hard to find who are willing to pay for oil portraits of people they don’t know,” he told The Maroon Tiger. “I haven’t been able to find money for almost everybody you can name in Black history.”
On Friday, another Black clergyman and 2001 Morehouse graduate weighed in on the debate in an oped in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“We do not hang a portrait to say, ‘Be exactly like this person,’” wrote the Rev. Keyon S. Payton, senior pastor of a Baptist church in Pontiac, Michigan.
“We hang it to ask, ‘What did they see that others missed — and where did they fail where we must succeed?’ If we cannot examine courage and contradiction within the same frame inside a chapel dedicated to moral leadership, then we have misunderstood the prophetic tradition of the Black Social Gospel that shaped it.”
In a video posted on X by the church, some Black LDS members spoke with pride about the placement of a painting of the founder of their faith at the well-known college.
“He fought for peace,” said Cassie Van Dyke, an Atlanta LDS member. “He was against slavery. So the fact that that is recognized in a historically Black college and town means a lot to us as members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.”
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