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Black Mormon Women And The Temple Denial

Prior to 1978, Black Men in the Church were not allowed to hold the Priesthood or enter any type of Temple Covenants. (We have a thread within this board about it) But my question is: Why Black Women were denied access to the Temple? They were women, no Priesthood involved then why could not accessed the Temple?

I have some possible answers for this (feel free to share yours)

1. Could it be that the ban had some sort of two components, one the race and the other Temple covenants? (If you think about it, there is not a "good" reason why a Black male could not get his own endowments)

2. Could it be that certain covenants made in the Temple in the past were seen as a kind of Priesthood to women, therefore Black women were not entitled to participate? Check these quotes:

(James E. Talmage, The House of the Lord (Salt Lake City: The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 1912), p. 94.)

(Prophet Joseph F. Smith, Improvement Era 10 (February 1907), page 308.)

Thoughts?

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My first response is that the Temple Covenants are essentially based on married couples, man and woman. Men and women cannot be saved without the other. (1 Cor 11:11 "Nevertheless neither is the man without the woman, neither the woman without the man, in the Lord.") There are specific covenants made in relation to married relationships.

Second, if a woman is married and "shares" the priesthood jointly with her husband, then if black men were unable to hold the priesthood and subsequently ineligible to be endowed, their wives would also be ineligible.

Along that same idea, it wasn't so long ago that single women didn't receive their endowments until their wedding/sealing day. Of course, now with so many singles in the church and with sisters serving missions before marriage, the church has had to change that policy.

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What about if the Black sister was indeed married but to a non-member? What would be the reason for denying her access to the Temple if the husband gave her the "ok" to enter the Temple and receive her own endowments?

Edited: LDS_forever on 11th Jan, 2007 - 12:58pm

Denial Temple The Women Mormon Black

Because, like it or not, our early brethren of the church leadership were biased - much as a lot of the population of the United States were biased/prejudiced/ignorant about African-Americans.

And of course the "Curse of Cain" doctrine.

https://www.angelfire.com/mo2/blackmormon/homepage2.html

Edited: FarSeer on 12th Jan, 2007 - 5:56am

Denial Temple The Women Mormon Black

Thank you Roz, that's what I was looking for. Really, I always thought that it was never about these women not married, or about these women married men who could not hold the Priesthood or about the Blacks and not able to hold the Priesthood, but just simple racial prejudice held by Brigham Young and the rest of leaders after him. It is CLEAR that Joseph Smith never taught such "doctrine" of the "curse" or denied the Priesthood to Black men or in this case, entrance to the Temple to Black Women.

Rather off topic, but... Then the question remains: How could this possibly happened? We are talking about Prophets here. It's a little disturbing.

Black Mormon Women And The Temple Denial

Well, it's not something I had ever researched before, and frankly my earlier post was just my first reaction/opinion to the question. It had never occurred to me before that black women were so affected by the ban on the Priesthood! I can understand lacking the Priesthood in the home, because as a single woman I experience that, but to deny temple blessings? Very hard indeed for those women, children, and families.

Rather off topic, but... Prophets of God, but men nonetheless, and NOT infallible. The website that I noted above actually discusses the fact that Joseph Smith was very vocal in his ideas about Equal Rights for Negroes - it was part of his platform when he ran for president - and that it was his position on that, perhaps more than Mormonism, that caused the angry mob to assassinate him in jail. (I also found it very interesting that the author also believes it may have been Joseph Smith's writings on this topic that inspired Abraham Lincoln's views on slavery.)

Black Mormon Women The Temple Denial

Well, I kind of take issue. I don't agree with this statement:

If you look at our history, most of our early church leaders were far more open to equal treatment of blacks than were other Christian leaders.

But skipping over that and going back more to the point, I think the reason is that women actually partake of the priesthood in going to the temple. While they are neither "ordained" to an office nor have the priesthood "conferred" upon them, I have heard it expressed many times that women who have been endowed participate in the priesthood in a very real sense.

The more that statement is taken literally, it would mean that by bringing in a black woman while there is a prohibition on the conferral of the priesthood on those who are black, you are actually achieving that very end.

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Tortdog:

There may have been, nonetheless they showed prejudice and ignorant statements towards Blacks (I am sure you read the quotes from early Church leaders concerning Blacks). I am not sure what equality you are speaking about, because until the 1978 declaration there was not such thing. (Feel free to "attack" the Blacks and the Priesthood thread which we discuss this in detail).

Yes, I agree with your reasoning of why Black women were not allowed to go to the Temple. Sad state of affairs back then.