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Is this book available online? Does it answer - Page 5 - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 17th Aug, 2007 - 4:05pm
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Controversial Mormon Issue.Post Date: 17th Aug, 2007 - 12:02am / Post ID: #
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood - Page 5
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| Something that just came to mind... what if a person was mixed before the revelation? What if they had blue eyes, blonde hair and white skin, but the person's grandmother was African, would they have been denied the Priesthood? The reason I ask is to know how strict this was enforced. |
I found this in the "Story of the Latter-day Saints"
Allen, James B., Glen M. Leonard
Something of President McKay's willingness to make at least some adjustments had been seen in 1954 when he became the first President of the Church ever to visit the South African Mission. One of the things weighing heavily on his mind as he went there was the priesthood policy which, by interpretation, had prohibited anyone who could not trace his lineage out of Africa from being ordained. While there President McKay felt inspired to change the policy, so that any man whose physical appearance did not suggest black ancestry was presumed to be eligible for the priesthood.
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Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
JB:
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| but I am not sure I buy into the idea that men were denied the priesthood as just a 'test' simply because the priesthood is not an optional thing, but very necessary for salvation. |
I think is one of those answers that people make up to find a reason WHY and probably they came up with the "test". Just like when a young person dies, there is always someone that says "It's because he was so good, the Lord called him early to go back home". The fact of the matter is that it would be "detrimental" to say that in the "True Church" with "True Prophets" the only reason the Blacks were denied the Priesthood was because of the color of their skin. So psychologically it "helps" them to deal with it better. In my opinion, of course.
Post Date: 17th Aug, 2007 - 12:28am / Post ID: #
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood Studies Doctrine Mormon
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| You meant it is not supported scripturally? The few scriptures I read on the topic never convinced me that it was God's wish to ban the Priesthood to the Blacks as well as deny the chance of black women going to the temple. |
Darius used the scripture from John 9:1-3 as a comparison. That was his basis for the scriptural support. That like the blind man, blacks did not sin in the pre-existence (were not neutral as some have believed) and it was not because of the sins of the parents (Cain), but that the works of God be made manifest.
My personal opinion:
Because Joseph Smith personally ordained Elijah Able, and the fact that he served in the Third Quorum of the Seventy until his death, I don't believe that it was God's decree that the blacks be denied the priesthood. I wish Joseph lived longer than he did and could have clarified this. Many of the early members talked about it as coming from God. I have not found a quote so far that Joseph made declaring such. I think the brethren may have had their own prejudices and for whatever reason relied on the scriptures regarding the posterity of Cain as justification of such.
Maybe there were not a large number of black members that came to Utah. More and more people gathered and brought their prejudices with them. Those early generations of leaders die off and no clear policy is known. The brethren do the best they can based on their knowledge of what past leaders have said. They believed that the policy could not be changed except by direct revelation. I don't know if in 1949 the leaders eagerly sought that revelation to come, or if they just waited for it to happen.
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| "With letters from Nigerians pouring in, by 1961 President McKay concluded that the Church must permit the Nigerians to be baptized and confirmed members of the Church. He cogently observed to his counselors that this problem was even greater than that faced by the Twelve in New Testament times when the question of whether the gentiles should have the gospel shook the Church. The Lord would have to let them know what to do, he said, and when the Lord was ready He would open the door. Until then they could only tell the people they could go so far and no farther. "-Story of the Latter-day Saints Allen, James B., Glen M. Leonard |
I personally agree with this statement from "Self-Blame and the Manifesto," Dialogue, 24 [Fall 1991]: 43-57):
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| "Some Latter-day Saints, after the 1978 revelation allowing black males to hold the priesthood, said that the revelation would have come sooner if the Saints had been willing to be nonracist. This statement put a burden of guilt on the membership-their wickedness had kept a discriminatory practice in place." 2 Nephi 26:33 For none of these iniquities come of the Lord; for he doeth that which is good among the children of men; and he doeth nothing save it be plain unto the children of men; and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; and he remembereth the heathen; and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile. |
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Page 5 Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
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| They believed that the policy could not be changed except by direct revelation. |
Where that policy comes from? We are presented in 1978 with a revelation to allow all worthy males to hold the Priesthood regardless of race, yet we were never presented with the decision of banning the Blacks from the Priesthood. It was never doctrinal in any way because it was never presented to the body of the Church to vote so how come it was "necessary" a revelation about something that wasn't doctrinal in the first place?
Post Date: 17th Aug, 2007 - 1:15am / Post ID: #
Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
I am confused as to policy/doctrine/and how they relate to the Lord's will. Consider this statement from the First Presidency in 1949:
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| "The attitude of the Church with reference to the Negroes remains as it has always stood. It is not a matter of the declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present time." -Statement of the First Presidency of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 17 Aug. 1949, Archives, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Salt Lake City, Utah, as quoted in "Neither White Nor Black": Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church, ed. Lester Bush and Armand Mauss (Midvale, Utah: Signature Books, [1984]), p. 221. |
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood
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| I am confused as to policy/doctrine/and how they relate to the Lord's will. |
Simply, IF it was the Lord's will (such as the case of the Manifesto or extending the Priesthood to all worthy males) we would have a revelation declaring it so and presented to the body of the Church for its vote in order to be binding. Why wasn't never presented?
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| direct commandment from the Lord, on which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its organization |
How the First Presidency at that time justified the Priesthood extended to Bro. Abel as well as other Black LDS members?
Post Date: 17th Aug, 2007 - 3:50am / Post ID: #
Blacks & Mormon Priesthood - Page 5
I just had related to me an incredible description involving some of the 'key players' and events surrounding the 1978 revelation. It answered nearly every question I had on the issue. It is very lengthy, so I'll not repeat, but it is Bruce R McConkie's biography by his son, Joseph Fielding McConkie. published 2003. Beginning on page 373 to 379, and 385. This has almost put my mind to rest on the issue. Worth the read!
TOPIC: Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood