The following comes from a sermon dated September 21, 1856, from Brigham Young:
Do you understand this? I have
told you many times that there are multitudes of pure and holy spirits waiting
to take tabernacles, now what is our duty?—to prepare tabernacles for them; to
take a course that will not tend to drive those spirits into the families of
the wicked, where they will be trained in wickedness, debauchery, and every
species of crime. It is the duty of every righteous man and woman to prepare
tabernacles for all the spirits they can; hence if my women leave, I will go
and search up others who will abide the celestial law, and let all I now have
go where they please; though I will send the Gospel to them.
This is the reason why the
doctrine of plurality of wives was revealed, that the noble spirits which are
waiting for tabernacles might be brought forth.
If the men of the world were
right, or if they were anywhere near right, there might not be the necessity
which there now is. But they are wholly given up to idolatry, and to all manner
of wickedness. (JOD 4:56)
Note that Brigham did not believe that the spirit of those who would be born into non-LDS families was not pleasing in the eyes of God and that the question of which family a spirit would be born into was an open
question (ranging from dyed-in-the-wool LDS family to the polar opposite). This
militates against the idea that, at least here, Brigham (and a number of his
contemporaries) believed that those who were born into non-LDS families and
those of African descent were “neutral” or even cursed in the pre-existence.
This should be read also in light
of the following the minutes for the Salt Lake School of the Prophets:
December 25, 1869;
Saturday
The School of the
Prophets met. Many questions were asked by the members and answered by
President Brigham Young. Elder Lorenzo Snow asked if the spirits of negroes
were neutral in Heaven, as some one had said that the Prophet Joseph [Smith]
said they were? President Young said; No, they were not, there were no
neutral spirits in Heaven at the time of the rebellion, all took sides. If
any one says they heard the Prophet Joseph say that the spirit of the blacks
were neutral in Heaven, he would not believe them, for he heard Joseph say to
the contrary. All spirits are pure that came from the presence of
God. The posterity of Cain are black because he committed murder. He killed
Abel and God set a mark upon his posterity. But the spirits are pure
that enter their tabernacles and there will be a chance for the
redemption of all the children of Adam, except the sons of perdition. Wilford
Woodruff made a speech upon apostasy. (Salt Lake School of the Prophets,
1867-1883 [ed. Devery S. Anderson; Salt Lake City: Signature Books,
2018], 44, emphasis added)
