On January 8, 1970, in a statement distributed to Mormon leaders around the world, the top leadership of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints reaffirmed its ban on Negroes in the priesthood. All other Mormon men were expected to join the priesthood at age 12.
However, on June 9, 1978, the 148-year-old policy was revoked. Church President Spencer W. Kimball announced in Salt Lake City that the decision had been based on a revelation that had come to church leaders, saying, "The long-promised day has come when every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood." The ban had become a source of tension between the church and minority groups, and the change was expected to facilitate the Mormons' active missionary program. Indeed, to look at today's slickly-produced commercials produced by the LDS to promote family life, you'd never know that such a ban had ever existed.
Wasn't it amazing (and convenient) that such a "revelation" just happened to come at a time when the Mormon church was facing increasing criticism for its practices from non-Mormon society? Just as the revelation to the church's leaders to ban polygamy happened to come at a time (1890) when statehood for Mormon-dominated Utah was being denied because of the long-standing practice. Just one question, Chief: How is it that the LDS leaders receive revelations that contradict previous revelations when all of the original LDS theology and practice was supposedly given by God as a restoration of true worship and a correction of the false doctrine and practice that had corrupted Christianity for centuries until 1830?
Yeah, well.. At least our pastors weren't reading from the Bible during lynchings and KKK rallies. Or making scriptural arguments for why Segregation was a good thing.
ReplyDeleteThat would have been the Protestants.
And ironically, LDS congregations today are less segregated than Protestant congregations are.
To each his own I guess.