“The mark placed upon the Lamanites was a dark skin (see Alma 3:6). The curse was not the dark skin but being ‘cut off from the presence of the Lord’ (2 Nephi 5:20). Notice that in both Alma 3:7 and Alma 3:14 the conjunction and is used between the curse and the mark. This implies that they are not the same thing. The people brought the curse upon themselves: ‘And even so doth every man that is cursed bring upon himself his own condemnation’ (Alma 3:19). Through righteousness the curse may be removed, but the mark may remain as it has with the Lamanites” (Book of Mormon Student Manual [2009], 174).