Racist Mormon Toys

04 April

Racist Mormon Toys

I received an e-mail from a Christian friend of mine earlier this week pointing out something very disturbing in the world of Mormon toys. (Thank you Rebecca!)

A company by the name of Latter*Day Designs sells action figures depicting characters from the Book of Mormon.  One set of these toys includes 33 action figures that can be purchased with a special carrying case they’ve named “My Book of Mormon Heroes”.

The 3” figures come with various skin colors which at first looks like the Church is accepting of all people, but behind the scenes and between the pages of the racist teachings in the Book of Mormon we find the truth.

The little figurines depict the major characters in the Book of Mormon, including the brothers Laman, Lemuel and their younger brother Nephi.  Sounds great so far, right? Wait up, there’s more.

There are two Lamans and two Lemuels.  One set is white and the other is dark-er.  One set is a representation of what they looked like before they sinned and the other is well, you guessed it. Here’s how the brochure describes their characters:

“Lemuel was the second son of Lehi and Sariah. He was a lot like his older brother Laman. He too, was stubborn and rebellious. Lemuel was jealous of his younger brother Nephi and was disobedient and spiteful to his parents. He did not believe in the righteous teachings of his father, Lehi. Lemuels example in The Book of Mormon teaches us what happens when we do not choose the right.

http://lehi.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=44&osCsid=tnpckvir5j5pnqguo9jviobmt6

“Laman, the oldest son of Lehi and Sariah, was stubborn, hard-hearted, and did not believe in the righteous teachings of his father, Lehi. The Book of Mormon records that Laman was so rebellious that he refused to listen when an angel from the Lord told him to change his behavior. Laman was a troublemaker and seldom helped his family. His wickedness caused his parents a great deal of pain and sorrow.”

http://lehi.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=41&osCsid=tnpckvir5j5pnqguo9jviobmt6

You’ll notice on their product ordering page there are two separate links for each character. One says Laman, the other says Laman (Lamanite) and the same goes for Lemuel.

http://lehi.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=118&osCsid=tnpckvir5j5pnqguo9jviobmt6

http://lehi.com/product_info.php?cPath=22&products_id=119&osCsid=tnpckvir5j5pnqguo9jviobmt6

This is so Mormon. I’ve been writing about this for seventeen years now and have spoken at countless events about the teachings of the Church that do nothing but shame anyone who isn’t white and delightsome.  It’s not that I’m out looking for ways to dog on the Church. It breaks my heart they do these things and I’m finding it hard to believe it’s because of an oversight.  I’m sickened my people are caught in these lies that never seem to end.  These teachings permeate everything in their lives and now even the toys children play with are literally saturated with it.

These toys remind me of the years I sat in Sacrament meetings being taught that I had sided with Satan and rejected Jesus in the pre-existence.  My dark and loathsome coloring was proof of the bad choices I had made.

Imagine the child you give these toys to being taught the Mormon lies!  The child grows up believing that because of sin they’re the same color as Laman or Lemuel the Lamanites.  And here they have toys showing them and reminding them of this every single day of their little lives as they grow up with these toys in their toy boxes.  Hmmm…not as light and delightsome as one of your siblings? What did you do in the pre-existence to incur such shame here on earth?

Don’t think this is farfetched.  It’s what went on in my home.  My younger brothers were light and delightsome taking after my mother and I inherited my father’s genes – dark and loathsome or as they used to always tell me – just dark enough to be dangerous.

The message to the kids is that dark people are dark because of poor choices in life, just as the product description points out.  This is racism through and through.  To its very core, the Mormon Church is racist in its teachings. Even with the advent of accepting blacks into the priesthood in 1978 they still left the teachings in their “sacred canon”.  All you have to do is read the book of Moses in the Pearl of Great Price.  While I loved my heritage at one time, it was something I knew deep down inside there was something seriously wrong.

Apparently the Church was catching some grief over it at some point because the dark versions of Laman and Lemuel were pulled in 2010 but much to my friend Rebecca’s surprise, they’re back because she ordered a set of them yesterday.  Hmmm…it looks like they may have pulled them from pressure before and then perhaps let the dust settle before putting them back on the market.

http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=150592804991545&comments&ref

For more on the Book of Mormon toys see Peggy Fletcher Stack’s article here in the Salt Lake Trib http://www.sltrib.com/sltrib/blogsfaithblog/53848758-180/figures-mormon-book-lemuel.html.csp

These toys need to be pulled from every single shelf they sit upon and from what their site says there are a lot of shelves nationwide they need to take care of.

If you find this offensive contact the company and let them know!  http://lehi.com/contact_us.php

With Love in Christ;

Michelle Grim

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9 Responses to “Racist Mormon Toys”

  1. thegardensofboxwoodmanor April 4, 2012 at 10:04 pm #

    Brainwashing starting with young children? Horrible.

  2. camdenc April 5, 2012 at 5:24 pm #

    It was interesting that when I clicked on one of the links, they had a statue-ette for sale called “young love, Joseph and Emma”.

    I wonder if they offer the complete set of figurines with all of his other wives…

    “Call now and get the complete set of 50… with free shipping!”

  3. Rebecca April 7, 2012 at 1:23 am #

    Michelle-

    Great article and well written! Thank you for bringing attention to this kind of racism.

    It’s disheartening to think about any child being made to feel that their skin color is less than beautiful to God.

    BTW camdenc- you’re funny. I can’t help but wonder if that set comes with a special carrying bag too.

  4. camdenc April 7, 2012 at 5:22 pm #

    Well you can also order the beautiful acacia wood shadow box that highlights and displays all of the figurines…

  5. Rebecca April 7, 2012 at 8:25 pm #

    Camdenc-

    If I order the Brigham Young version of the wives set, does it come with a Beehive House play-set?

  6. camdenc April 9, 2012 at 2:51 pm #

    Haha…

    But seriously folks, racism and polygamy are serious issues and we should all pray for those still trapped in “celestial marriages”.

    I thank our Great God and Savior, Jesus Christ, for freeing me from the bondage of racism that was ingrained into me while growing up in the LDS church.

    And sure there are times in the past when “Christians” didn’t behave or treat others very well at all… BUT that was their sinful fallen nature rearing its ugly head, not Christian doctrine. The Bible teaches that we are all equal and nobody should esteem themselves greater or better than anyone else.

  7. Rebecca April 9, 2012 at 6:22 pm #

    Camdenc-

    Well, if anyone does order both sets of the 3″ wives; make sure to buy the Young collection piecemeal. Otherwise- you end up with too many duplicate figurines like Louisa Beaman and Zina Huntington.

    Yes, the racism is wrong. I find it sad and ironic that Latter-day Designs would produce a set of figures based on fictional “skin changing” BOM characters. The company would never consider creating a collection of Smith’s wives.

    Funny thing is, those people really existed. Why not teach children real history?

  8. Kelly October 7, 2017 at 8:43 am #

    REALLY, do NONE of you see that your prejudice and judgments are the same hate against which you’re supposedly preaching?

  9. Brent April 8, 2018 at 11:58 am #

    I grew up in the LDS church and was always taught to love and except everyone regardless of what they’ve done or where they came from from. The Book of Mormon in my opinion teaches the same message.

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