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Previous: The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 1999-2002
The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 2003-2006
Twenty-fifth Anniversary of the Priesthood Revelation
R. Scott Lloyd reported in the Deseret News, "With a 'joyful noise' of abundant praise to God (see Psalm 66:1) in a gospel-music vein, members of the Genesis group joined with a Las Vegas, Nev., choir led by recording artist Gladys Knight in the Salt Lake Tabernacle June 8 to observe the 25th anniversary of the revelation extending the priesthood to all worthy men without regard for race.
"Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Presidency of the Seventy presided and was the concluding speaker at the meeting, which filled the Tabernacle to capacity. He is a General Authority adviser to Genesis, the Church-sponsored support organization for members of African lineage.
"The bulk of the program featured the Saints United Voices, a choir of Church members from Las Vegas organized and led by Sister Knight, who joined the Church about six years ago. She also spoke, declaring her gratitude for the atonement of Christ, for the latter-day restoration of priesthood power and for guidance by living apostles and prophets.
"Quoting President Gordon B. Hinckley, Elder Bateman recounted the circumstances under which the revelation was received on June 1, 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple by President Spencer W. Kimball, his counselors and 10 members of the Quorum of the Twelve. He then shared his personal connection with the revelation.
"Through business and academic work he was a frequent visitor to the West African nations of Ghana, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast between 1963 and 1978, he said. In those days, virtually no Church members lived in West Africa....
"Turning to the revelation itself, Elder Bateman posed some questions: 'Why does the Lord work in stages to take the gospel across the earth? Why did He initially send the Twelve only to the House of Israel and not to the other nations during His ministry? Why did it take a special revelation to Peter to expand the work to the gentiles?... In all candor,... we do not know the full answers to the questions that I've raised. What we do know is the plan of salvation is universal. We are all God's children and the great plan of redemption is organized so that every person who has lived, now lives or will live will have the opportunity to accept it.'
"Other speakers on the program included Gladys Knight's husband, William McDowell, whom she married in April 2001, and her daughter, Kenya Jackson.
"Sister Jackson spoke of her brother, Jimmy, who died three years ago. She said he had been the first in the family to join the Church and then, by the power of priesthood he held, had baptized his sister and then his mother. She also reminisced about her grandmother, who would watch LDS general conference on television and admonish her children and grandchildren to give attention to the wise men who spoke in the conference.
"Brother McDowell, who joined the Church after their marriage, said his wife composed a piece of music and asked him to write words for it. He declined at first, but was overcome by her loving persuasion. Gladys Knight McDowell then performed the song, 'He Lives,' which includes these words:
'Do you want to know about my friend,
About this special man I know?
He is the truth and grace and love
And He gave his life for me
And, yes, for you too.'
"In her talk, she said the 1978 revelation allows God's children to prepare for the Second coming of Jesus Christ.
'I want you to know that I know that this, the Lord's restored gospel, is true,' she declared. 'President Gordon B. Hinckley is the Lord's ordained prophet who holds the priesthood keys of God's kingdom today.'
"She said that she has attended many wards of the Church in her extensive travels and has noticed the face of the Church is changing. 'In my visits to those wards, I notice they're a lot like ice cream. Not only are they sweet, but some congregations are mostly vanilla, some are chocolate, all according to the makeup of their immediate community. But the most enjoyable sight for me has been to see the audiences made of fudge ripple: all that vanilla and chocolate mingled together.'
"Citing 4 Nephi 1:17, she recounted the visit of Christ to the Nephites after His resurrection and the impact it had on the society. 'All divisions among them ceased,' she said. 'There were no more "-ites"; no Nephites, no Lamanites, no kind of "-ites." I like that!'
"She said one reason the gospel has been restored in latter days is 'to prepare a people to be of one heart, one mind and to dwell in righteousness.'
"Giving the invocation for the meeting was Joseph J. Freeman, who was widely recognized in the news media in 1978 as being the first black Latter-day Saint to hold the priesthood. He is now the bishop of the Hillsdale Ward in the Salt Lake Granger North Stake.
"In introductory comments, Darius Gray, president of Genesis, told of the founding of the group, when its first president, Ruffin Bridgeforth, met with him and Eugene Orr, concerned that the Church was losing some of its black members. Remarkably, a journal entry fixes the date of that meeting as June 8, 1971, precisely seven years before the revelation was announced. They approached the Church leadership, and as a result, President Joseph Fielding Smith assigned three members of the Twelve to meet with them and organize the group, Brother Gray said. It has remained in place since then, providing support to Latter-day Saints with African heritage seeking common bonds and fellowship."
"Elder Merrill J. Bateman of the Presidency of the Seventy presided and was the concluding speaker at the meeting, which filled the Tabernacle to capacity. He is a General Authority adviser to Genesis, the Church-sponsored support organization for members of African lineage.
"The bulk of the program featured the Saints United Voices, a choir of Church members from Las Vegas organized and led by Sister Knight, who joined the Church about six years ago. She also spoke, declaring her gratitude for the atonement of Christ, for the latter-day restoration of priesthood power and for guidance by living apostles and prophets.
"Quoting President Gordon B. Hinckley, Elder Bateman recounted the circumstances under which the revelation was received on June 1, 1978, in the Salt Lake Temple by President Spencer W. Kimball, his counselors and 10 members of the Quorum of the Twelve. He then shared his personal connection with the revelation.
"Through business and academic work he was a frequent visitor to the West African nations of Ghana, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast between 1963 and 1978, he said. In those days, virtually no Church members lived in West Africa....
"Turning to the revelation itself, Elder Bateman posed some questions: 'Why does the Lord work in stages to take the gospel across the earth? Why did He initially send the Twelve only to the House of Israel and not to the other nations during His ministry? Why did it take a special revelation to Peter to expand the work to the gentiles?... In all candor,... we do not know the full answers to the questions that I've raised. What we do know is the plan of salvation is universal. We are all God's children and the great plan of redemption is organized so that every person who has lived, now lives or will live will have the opportunity to accept it.'
"Other speakers on the program included Gladys Knight's husband, William McDowell, whom she married in April 2001, and her daughter, Kenya Jackson.
"Sister Jackson spoke of her brother, Jimmy, who died three years ago. She said he had been the first in the family to join the Church and then, by the power of priesthood he held, had baptized his sister and then his mother. She also reminisced about her grandmother, who would watch LDS general conference on television and admonish her children and grandchildren to give attention to the wise men who spoke in the conference.
"Brother McDowell, who joined the Church after their marriage, said his wife composed a piece of music and asked him to write words for it. He declined at first, but was overcome by her loving persuasion. Gladys Knight McDowell then performed the song, 'He Lives,' which includes these words:
'Do you want to know about my friend,
About this special man I know?
He is the truth and grace and love
And He gave his life for me
And, yes, for you too.'
"In her talk, she said the 1978 revelation allows God's children to prepare for the Second coming of Jesus Christ.
'I want you to know that I know that this, the Lord's restored gospel, is true,' she declared. 'President Gordon B. Hinckley is the Lord's ordained prophet who holds the priesthood keys of God's kingdom today.'
"She said that she has attended many wards of the Church in her extensive travels and has noticed the face of the Church is changing. 'In my visits to those wards, I notice they're a lot like ice cream. Not only are they sweet, but some congregations are mostly vanilla, some are chocolate, all according to the makeup of their immediate community. But the most enjoyable sight for me has been to see the audiences made of fudge ripple: all that vanilla and chocolate mingled together.'
"Citing 4 Nephi 1:17, she recounted the visit of Christ to the Nephites after His resurrection and the impact it had on the society. 'All divisions among them ceased,' she said. 'There were no more "-ites"; no Nephites, no Lamanites, no kind of "-ites." I like that!'
"She said one reason the gospel has been restored in latter days is 'to prepare a people to be of one heart, one mind and to dwell in righteousness.'
"Giving the invocation for the meeting was Joseph J. Freeman, who was widely recognized in the news media in 1978 as being the first black Latter-day Saint to hold the priesthood. He is now the bishop of the Hillsdale Ward in the Salt Lake Granger North Stake.
"In introductory comments, Darius Gray, president of Genesis, told of the founding of the group, when its first president, Ruffin Bridgeforth, met with him and Eugene Orr, concerned that the Church was losing some of its black members. Remarkably, a journal entry fixes the date of that meeting as June 8, 1971, precisely seven years before the revelation was announced. They approached the Church leadership, and as a result, President Joseph Fielding Smith assigned three members of the Twelve to meet with them and organize the group, Brother Gray said. It has remained in place since then, providing support to Latter-day Saints with African heritage seeking common bonds and fellowship."
Response to Jon Krakauer
On June 27, 2003, the Mormon Newsroom posted three responses to Jon Krakauer's anti-Mormon book Under the Banner of Heaven. One of these was by Dr. Robert Millet, who mentioned, "To be sure, there are instances in which Church leaders of the 19th century made derogatory comments about blacks which, unfortunately, echoed some of the current thinking of the time, but these in no way reflect the doctrine of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The Book of Mormon attests that God invites '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 all are alike unto God' (2 Nephi 26:33). In our present day the First Presidency and Quorum of the Twelve Apostles have stated that all human beings are created in the image of God and that each is a beloved spirit son or daughter of Deity ('The Family: A Proclamation to the World,' 23 Sept. 1995, published in Ensign, Nov. 1995, 102).
"Krakauer also slips the following into a note: 'A horror of miscegenation is something Mormon Fundamentalists have in common with their Mormon brethren: Even after LDS President Spencer W. Kimball’s 1978 revelation reversing the church doctrine that banned blacks from the priesthood, official LDS policy has continued to strongly admonish white saints not to marry blacks' (331, note). I assume he means by 'official church policy' the Church Handbook of Instructions, which is the guide for all Church leaders on doctrine and practice. There is, in fact, no mention whatsoever in this handbook concerning interracial marriages. In addition, having served as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also certify that I have never received official verbal instructions condemning marriages between black and white members."
"Krakauer also slips the following into a note: 'A horror of miscegenation is something Mormon Fundamentalists have in common with their Mormon brethren: Even after LDS President Spencer W. Kimball’s 1978 revelation reversing the church doctrine that banned blacks from the priesthood, official LDS policy has continued to strongly admonish white saints not to marry blacks' (331, note). I assume he means by 'official church policy' the Church Handbook of Instructions, which is the guide for all Church leaders on doctrine and practice. There is, in fact, no mention whatsoever in this handbook concerning interracial marriages. In addition, having served as a Church leader for almost 30 years, I can also certify that I have never received official verbal instructions condemning marriages between black and white members."
A Study in Misplaced Apologetics
At the August 2003 FAIR Conference, sociologist Armand Mauss gave a presentation titled "The LDS Church and the Race Issue: A Study in Misplaced Apologetics". He gave a hypothetical question and answer session to demonstrate how the priesthood ban could be explained without resorting to racial folklore: "Q: I hear that the Mormon Church is racist, or at least that many Mormons are. Anything to that rumor?
"A: I guess most white people in America have grown up with some racist beliefs, and Mormons have had their share. However, national polling data for more than a decade have revealed that Mormons are actually less likely than other Americans, on average, to support racist ideas and policies.
"Q: But aren't black people unwelcome in the Mormon Church, or subjected to some kind of second-class status?
"A: Not for the past twenty-five years. It is true that from the middle of the nineteenth century until 1978 the few black people who joined the Church could not be given the priesthood.
"Q: Why was that?
"A: The reasons are not entirely clear, but the policy seems to have begun officially in 1852 with an announcement by Brigham Young, who was Church president at that time. He made that announcement as part of the deliberations in the Utah territorial legislature over the legal status of both blacks and Indians, and in particular whether slavery should be permitted in the territory.
"Q: So, was it permitted? A: Yes, for about a decade.
"Q: That sounds pretty racist to me. How can you justify that?
"A: I wouldn't try to justify it. Slavery in America was a racist institution. Brigham Young himself did not actually want slavery in Utah, but he did believe that black people were not the social or intellectual equals of white people, and that slavery should be tolerated for Mormon slave-holders moving to Utah as long as it was tolerated elsewhere in the United States.
"Q: Why would Brigham Young believe such things?
"A: Because he was a nineteenth-century American, and hardly any white people of that time, North or South, believed in equality for blacks. Slavery was still an unsettled issue throughout the nation, with some even in the South opposed to it, and many even in the North who were willing to tolerate it. Brigham Young's ideas were close to the ideas of other prominent Americans from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln, who himself did not even free all slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation.
"Q: I thought most Americans of that time believed in God and the Bible. Where was God in all this?
"A: It is doubtful that God had anything to do with it. Many Americans of the time, including Brigham Young and most other Mormon leaders, believed that the scriptures justified the subordination of black people because they were descendants of Cain or of other biblical figures who had sinned egregiously. Latter-day Saints do not believe that God takes responsibility for the evil in the world, or that He condones the use of his name or of the scriptures to justify evil. Yet he has granted human beings their agency either to operate a society according to His principles or to pay the consequences. The Civil War and the racial strife since then have been the consequences of slavery.
"Q: But don't Mormons believe that their Church is led by prophets of God? How could prophets have permitted racist ideas and practices to become part of their religion?
"A: Prophets are not perfect and don't claim to be; nor do they always act as prophets in what they say and do. People in all ages, including those who become prophets, grow up without questioning much that is assumed by everyone else in their respective cultures, unless some experience motivates them to seek revelation on a given matter.
"Q: Well, maybe so, but racism is such an obvious evil that I would think authentic prophets would have been more sensitive to it.
"A: Why? It seems obvious to all of us now, but not to people who believed in Manifest Destiny, the White Man's Burden, and 'the only good Indian is a dead Indian.' Even the original apostles of Jesus assumed that non-Jews could not become Christians unless they first accepted Judaism and circumcision. The apostle Paul disputed that, but the idea persisted.
"Q: Did all the early Mormon leaders hold racist ideas?
"A: Pretty much - like all other Americans. But there was a range of opinion. Not all of them embraced all of the racist ideas in the culture. For example, Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the LDS Church, saw no reason to keep black people from holding the priesthood, even though he shared the conventional idea that they were descendants of Cain and Ham. We have no record that he ever sought a special revelation on the question; he just accepted blacks into the priesthood. He also believed that the innate inferiority of blacks so widely assumed at that time was as much a result of inferior environment and opportunity as of lineage.
"Q: So why didn't Joseph Smith's views on such matter prevail in the Mormon Church?
"A: Joseph Smith was assassinated while still a young man, and well before the race question led to the Civil War. We can't be sure whether his ideas would have changed later or how. We do know that his successor, Brigham Young, had somewhat different ideas, though not necessarily based on revelation; and he headed the Church for more than thirty years.
"Q: Didn't anyone question Young's views during all that time or later?
"A: All of Brigham Young's successors tended to assume that he had had a good reason for withholding the priesthood from black members and had probably gotten the policy from Joseph Smith. A few black members questioned the policy a time or two, but when they did so, the Church leaders reconsidered and simply reiterated it. By the time the twentieth century arrived, no Church leaders were living who could remember when the policy had been otherwise. Meanwhile, the nation as a whole had become permeated with so-called Jim Crow laws restricting all kinds of privileges for blacks. In that environment, the Mormon restriction on priesthood seemed entirely natural.
"Q: But other religious denominations were critical of such restrictions, weren't they?
"A: Eventually they were, but not until the age of civil rights in the 1960s. Prior to that time, only a miniscule number of blacks were ordained in any denomination - except, of course, in the so-called black denominations such as the AME and the predominantly black Baptist groups.
"Q: But wasn't the Mormon racial policy more pervasive and severe than in other religions?
"A: Not really. In the Mormon case, the policy was simply more conspicuous because of the universal lay priesthood that Mormons extended to all men except blacks. In other churches, the racial restrictions were more subtle. Ordination to the ministry in all major denominations required access to the professional seminaries. Before the age of civil rights, the seminaries, like the schools of law and medicine, were the gatekeepers to these careers, and blacks were rarely admitted to any of the professional schools, including seminaries (except, again, in the black denominations). Most of today’s religious critics of the erstwhile Mormon racial restriction belong to denominations in which there were scarcely any more black ministers or priests than in the Mormon Church. Not many institutions in American society, including religious institutions, can be very proud of their historic treatment of black people.
"Q: So you are saying that the Mormons were really no worse than others in their teachings and policies about black people?
"A: That's about right, small comfort though that might be in retrospect. National surveys comparing Mormons with others in racial attitudes indicate that Mormons in the West, at least, were close to the national averages in all such measures during the 1960s and 1970s - more conservative than some denominations but more liberal than others.
"Q: When did the Mormon Church finally change its policies about blacks?
"A: 1978.
"Q: That seems a little late. Didn't most churches and other institutions drop all their racial restrictions a lot earlier than that?
"A: Yes; generally a little earlier. But Church leaders had the matter under consideration for at least twenty years before 1978.
"Q: What took so long? Why couldn't the prophet just change the policy?
"A: Especially in such important matters as this one, a prophet or president in the LDS Church is not inclined to act alone. The president, his two counselors, and the twelve apostles are all considered 'prophets, seers, and revelators,' and they usually act as a body when deciding on fundamental doctrines and policies. This process is by definition a conservative one, since it requires a relatively long period of discussion, deliberation, and prayer in order to reach a consensus - in order to feel that they have all been moved by the Holy Spirit toward the same decision. The prophets came close to consensus more than once across the years before they finally achieved it in 1978.
"Q: That seems like a very cumbersome process, which might actually constrain God in getting through to the prophet with a revelation. Why couldn't God just speak to the president or prophet and tell him what to do?
"A: Well, of course, God could do anything He wanted to do. In the Mormon tradition, however, the revelatory process normally (not necessarily always, but normally) begins with human initiative, whether that of a prophet or of any other individual seeking divine guidance. The individual formulates a question or proposal and takes that to God in prayer for divine confirmation. This was the pattern followed by Joseph Smith himself in what Mormons call 'the Sacred Grove.' It is the pattern also in Mormon scriptures such as D&C 9 and Moroni 10:4-5. Mormon prophets do not sit around waiting for revelations. They typically take propositions to the Lord for confirmation, and these propositions are the products of a great deal of prayerful deliberation, both individually and collectively.
"Q: So this is what finally happened in 1978?
"A: Yes. President Spencer W. Kimball had anguished for some time over the restriction on black people, and he took a great deal of initiative in persuading his colleagues to make it a matter of the most earnest prayer and deliberation. In response to their collective efforts, he reported on June 8 that 'the Lord (had) confirmed' (my italics) that the priesthood should be extended to all worthy male members (Official Declaration 2).
"Q: Was President Kimball the first prophet to focus so intensely on the issue?
"A: Not necessarily. Most of his predecessors said little or nothing about the matter, except for President David O. McKay. He was clearly deeply concerned about it even in the 1950s, when he visited several parts of the world with black populations, and even black Church members. One of his counselors, Hugh B. Brown, was also publicly anxious to see a change in Church policy. However, they were apparently never able to galvanize the consensus among the other apostles that might have changed the policy ten or fifteen years earlier.
"Q: Too bad. It would have looked a lot better for the Church if the change had come sooner.
"A: Maybe, but not necessarily. During the 1960s, the Church was under a great deal of pressure over its racial restrictions from various national organizations and leaders. Indeed, I recall that period as a public relations nightmare for the Church. Yet if the Church had made the policy change then, the public relations outcome might have been anticlimactic, since the Church would have appeared to be caving in to political expediency, rather than maintaining its own prophetic and procedural integrity, even in the face of public criticism.
"Q: Well, anyway, now that the Church has dropped its earlier racist ideas and policies, is it attracting many black members?
"A: Conversions in Africa are really quite startling, but of course racial conflict in the U.S. has never been especially salient to Africans. The growth of the Church among African Americans, however, has been much slower, largely because of the lingering racist heritage of the past, and the seeming inability of the Church to deal with this heritage candidly. Those black members and investigators who find it hard to look past all that have also found it hard to remain active in the Church. We have a lot yet to do."
"A: I guess most white people in America have grown up with some racist beliefs, and Mormons have had their share. However, national polling data for more than a decade have revealed that Mormons are actually less likely than other Americans, on average, to support racist ideas and policies.
"Q: But aren't black people unwelcome in the Mormon Church, or subjected to some kind of second-class status?
"A: Not for the past twenty-five years. It is true that from the middle of the nineteenth century until 1978 the few black people who joined the Church could not be given the priesthood.
"Q: Why was that?
"A: The reasons are not entirely clear, but the policy seems to have begun officially in 1852 with an announcement by Brigham Young, who was Church president at that time. He made that announcement as part of the deliberations in the Utah territorial legislature over the legal status of both blacks and Indians, and in particular whether slavery should be permitted in the territory.
"Q: So, was it permitted? A: Yes, for about a decade.
"Q: That sounds pretty racist to me. How can you justify that?
"A: I wouldn't try to justify it. Slavery in America was a racist institution. Brigham Young himself did not actually want slavery in Utah, but he did believe that black people were not the social or intellectual equals of white people, and that slavery should be tolerated for Mormon slave-holders moving to Utah as long as it was tolerated elsewhere in the United States.
"Q: Why would Brigham Young believe such things?
"A: Because he was a nineteenth-century American, and hardly any white people of that time, North or South, believed in equality for blacks. Slavery was still an unsettled issue throughout the nation, with some even in the South opposed to it, and many even in the North who were willing to tolerate it. Brigham Young's ideas were close to the ideas of other prominent Americans from Thomas Jefferson to Abraham Lincoln, who himself did not even free all slaves with his Emancipation Proclamation.
"Q: I thought most Americans of that time believed in God and the Bible. Where was God in all this?
"A: It is doubtful that God had anything to do with it. Many Americans of the time, including Brigham Young and most other Mormon leaders, believed that the scriptures justified the subordination of black people because they were descendants of Cain or of other biblical figures who had sinned egregiously. Latter-day Saints do not believe that God takes responsibility for the evil in the world, or that He condones the use of his name or of the scriptures to justify evil. Yet he has granted human beings their agency either to operate a society according to His principles or to pay the consequences. The Civil War and the racial strife since then have been the consequences of slavery.
"Q: But don't Mormons believe that their Church is led by prophets of God? How could prophets have permitted racist ideas and practices to become part of their religion?
"A: Prophets are not perfect and don't claim to be; nor do they always act as prophets in what they say and do. People in all ages, including those who become prophets, grow up without questioning much that is assumed by everyone else in their respective cultures, unless some experience motivates them to seek revelation on a given matter.
"Q: Well, maybe so, but racism is such an obvious evil that I would think authentic prophets would have been more sensitive to it.
"A: Why? It seems obvious to all of us now, but not to people who believed in Manifest Destiny, the White Man's Burden, and 'the only good Indian is a dead Indian.' Even the original apostles of Jesus assumed that non-Jews could not become Christians unless they first accepted Judaism and circumcision. The apostle Paul disputed that, but the idea persisted.
"Q: Did all the early Mormon leaders hold racist ideas?
"A: Pretty much - like all other Americans. But there was a range of opinion. Not all of them embraced all of the racist ideas in the culture. For example, Joseph Smith, the founding prophet of the LDS Church, saw no reason to keep black people from holding the priesthood, even though he shared the conventional idea that they were descendants of Cain and Ham. We have no record that he ever sought a special revelation on the question; he just accepted blacks into the priesthood. He also believed that the innate inferiority of blacks so widely assumed at that time was as much a result of inferior environment and opportunity as of lineage.
"Q: So why didn't Joseph Smith's views on such matter prevail in the Mormon Church?
"A: Joseph Smith was assassinated while still a young man, and well before the race question led to the Civil War. We can't be sure whether his ideas would have changed later or how. We do know that his successor, Brigham Young, had somewhat different ideas, though not necessarily based on revelation; and he headed the Church for more than thirty years.
"Q: Didn't anyone question Young's views during all that time or later?
"A: All of Brigham Young's successors tended to assume that he had had a good reason for withholding the priesthood from black members and had probably gotten the policy from Joseph Smith. A few black members questioned the policy a time or two, but when they did so, the Church leaders reconsidered and simply reiterated it. By the time the twentieth century arrived, no Church leaders were living who could remember when the policy had been otherwise. Meanwhile, the nation as a whole had become permeated with so-called Jim Crow laws restricting all kinds of privileges for blacks. In that environment, the Mormon restriction on priesthood seemed entirely natural.
"Q: But other religious denominations were critical of such restrictions, weren't they?
"A: Eventually they were, but not until the age of civil rights in the 1960s. Prior to that time, only a miniscule number of blacks were ordained in any denomination - except, of course, in the so-called black denominations such as the AME and the predominantly black Baptist groups.
"Q: But wasn't the Mormon racial policy more pervasive and severe than in other religions?
"A: Not really. In the Mormon case, the policy was simply more conspicuous because of the universal lay priesthood that Mormons extended to all men except blacks. In other churches, the racial restrictions were more subtle. Ordination to the ministry in all major denominations required access to the professional seminaries. Before the age of civil rights, the seminaries, like the schools of law and medicine, were the gatekeepers to these careers, and blacks were rarely admitted to any of the professional schools, including seminaries (except, again, in the black denominations). Most of today’s religious critics of the erstwhile Mormon racial restriction belong to denominations in which there were scarcely any more black ministers or priests than in the Mormon Church. Not many institutions in American society, including religious institutions, can be very proud of their historic treatment of black people.
"Q: So you are saying that the Mormons were really no worse than others in their teachings and policies about black people?
"A: That's about right, small comfort though that might be in retrospect. National surveys comparing Mormons with others in racial attitudes indicate that Mormons in the West, at least, were close to the national averages in all such measures during the 1960s and 1970s - more conservative than some denominations but more liberal than others.
"Q: When did the Mormon Church finally change its policies about blacks?
"A: 1978.
"Q: That seems a little late. Didn't most churches and other institutions drop all their racial restrictions a lot earlier than that?
"A: Yes; generally a little earlier. But Church leaders had the matter under consideration for at least twenty years before 1978.
"Q: What took so long? Why couldn't the prophet just change the policy?
"A: Especially in such important matters as this one, a prophet or president in the LDS Church is not inclined to act alone. The president, his two counselors, and the twelve apostles are all considered 'prophets, seers, and revelators,' and they usually act as a body when deciding on fundamental doctrines and policies. This process is by definition a conservative one, since it requires a relatively long period of discussion, deliberation, and prayer in order to reach a consensus - in order to feel that they have all been moved by the Holy Spirit toward the same decision. The prophets came close to consensus more than once across the years before they finally achieved it in 1978.
"Q: That seems like a very cumbersome process, which might actually constrain God in getting through to the prophet with a revelation. Why couldn't God just speak to the president or prophet and tell him what to do?
"A: Well, of course, God could do anything He wanted to do. In the Mormon tradition, however, the revelatory process normally (not necessarily always, but normally) begins with human initiative, whether that of a prophet or of any other individual seeking divine guidance. The individual formulates a question or proposal and takes that to God in prayer for divine confirmation. This was the pattern followed by Joseph Smith himself in what Mormons call 'the Sacred Grove.' It is the pattern also in Mormon scriptures such as D&C 9 and Moroni 10:4-5. Mormon prophets do not sit around waiting for revelations. They typically take propositions to the Lord for confirmation, and these propositions are the products of a great deal of prayerful deliberation, both individually and collectively.
"Q: So this is what finally happened in 1978?
"A: Yes. President Spencer W. Kimball had anguished for some time over the restriction on black people, and he took a great deal of initiative in persuading his colleagues to make it a matter of the most earnest prayer and deliberation. In response to their collective efforts, he reported on June 8 that 'the Lord (had) confirmed' (my italics) that the priesthood should be extended to all worthy male members (Official Declaration 2).
"Q: Was President Kimball the first prophet to focus so intensely on the issue?
"A: Not necessarily. Most of his predecessors said little or nothing about the matter, except for President David O. McKay. He was clearly deeply concerned about it even in the 1950s, when he visited several parts of the world with black populations, and even black Church members. One of his counselors, Hugh B. Brown, was also publicly anxious to see a change in Church policy. However, they were apparently never able to galvanize the consensus among the other apostles that might have changed the policy ten or fifteen years earlier.
"Q: Too bad. It would have looked a lot better for the Church if the change had come sooner.
"A: Maybe, but not necessarily. During the 1960s, the Church was under a great deal of pressure over its racial restrictions from various national organizations and leaders. Indeed, I recall that period as a public relations nightmare for the Church. Yet if the Church had made the policy change then, the public relations outcome might have been anticlimactic, since the Church would have appeared to be caving in to political expediency, rather than maintaining its own prophetic and procedural integrity, even in the face of public criticism.
"Q: Well, anyway, now that the Church has dropped its earlier racist ideas and policies, is it attracting many black members?
"A: Conversions in Africa are really quite startling, but of course racial conflict in the U.S. has never been especially salient to Africans. The growth of the Church among African Americans, however, has been much slower, largely because of the lingering racist heritage of the past, and the seeming inability of the Church to deal with this heritage candidly. Those black members and investigators who find it hard to look past all that have also found it hard to remain active in the Church. We have a lot yet to do."
Accra Ghana Temple
On January 11, 2004, the Accra Ghana Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley and became the first temple in black Africa. On this day Joseph Billy Johnson said, "We will always remember what the missionaries have done for us. My heart is burning with love and appreciation. When I started preaching with the Book of Mormon, everyone said, they [the Mormons] won't come. Leave the Church. I said, 'I know they will come because the Lord has told me.'"
Black and Mormon
In 2004 Newell G. Bringhurst and Darron Smith co-released Black and Mormon, a compilation of essays including "The 'Missouri Thesis' Revisited: Early Mormonism, Slavery, and the Status of Black People" by Newell Bringhurst, "The Traditions of Their Fathers: Myth versus Reality in LDS Scriptural Writings" by Alma Allred, "Two Perspectives: The Religious Hopes of 'Worthy' African American Latter-day Saints before the 1978 Revelation" by Ronald G. Coleman and Darius Gray, "Spanning the Priesthood Revelation (1978): Two Multigenerational Case Studies" by Jessie L. Embry, "Casting off the 'Curse of Cain': The Extent and Limits of Progress Since 1978" by Armand Mauss, "African American Latter-day Saints: A Sociological Perspective" by Cardell K. Jacobson, "'How Do Things Look on the Ground?' The LDS African American Community in Atlanta, Georgia" by Ken Driggs, and "Unpacking Whiteness in Zion: Some Personal Reflections and General Observations" by Darron Smith.
The editors wrote, "The primary goal of this volume is to inform the reader about the current situation of African American Latter-day Saints as it has evolved over the past quarter century. But it is hoped that these essays will also stimulate open discussion concerning persistent problems involving race and racism, along with prospects for future progress. Indeed, the ideal goal for African Americans relative to Mormonism is best articulated in the Book of Mormon passage 2 Nephi 26:33. 'And he [Christ] inviteth them all to 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.'"
The editors wrote, "The primary goal of this volume is to inform the reader about the current situation of African American Latter-day Saints as it has evolved over the past quarter century. But it is hoped that these essays will also stimulate open discussion concerning persistent problems involving race and racism, along with prospects for future progress. Indeed, the ideal goal for African Americans relative to Mormonism is best articulated in the Book of Mormon passage 2 Nephi 26:33. 'And he [Christ] inviteth them all to 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.'"
International Perspectives of a Black Member in a "White" Church
At the August 2004 FAIR Conference, Alex Boyé gave a presentation called "International Perspectives of a Black Member in a 'White' Church". In introduction he said, "I definitely haven't experienced something like this before because I've heard about the FAIR conferences and the people that speak and they have Ph.D.s and about 150,000 different letters on the end of their names and all that kind of stuff and so they asked me to come and I said, 'The only letter I have on the end of my name is like, on the Boyé it has an accent on the "e" - that's it you know. Why do you want me to come and speak to these people? They're just smart and clever, they know everything about everything that needs to know about the Church.'...
"So I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that being a member of the Church for me, it started off more - a lot less about the facts, a lot less about what was in the scriptures, a lot less about what certain things meant and certain books were about and their content. It was about the fact that there were principles in it that I knew that if I embraced those principles it would keep me in a way that I could still keep my promise of keeping myself clean and keeping my family, and keeping my family name above board so to speak.
"I've never regretted making the decision about being a member of the Church no matter what people have said, no matter what opinions or ideas people have said to me.
"I have a gentleman that emails me once a month, he started emailing me last September and actually now he's stepping it up, it's probably about twice a month now, and every single email - he's a very clever man, he has Ph.D.s, he has all these things - all these names behind him and everything, and he tells me outright the reasons why I shouldn't be a member of this Church. And he talks about the curse and he talks about all these things and I read it because I feel that he's spent all this time researching and giving me all that information and I read it but I've never answered him back. I've never sent him an email back.
"Sometimes I kind of think that he thinks that I'm backing down or that I'm powerless or that the things that he's saying are getting to me but the main reason why is that that's not my forte. And so there's nothing that I can say to him that will change his mind. There's that whole thing about - he is of the (what is it?) if you're of the same opinion still - you can't change. If you have an opinion you can't change a person's opinion if that's the same opinion. I know that me as a human being, as an individual, can't do that because maybe I don't have those tools to be able to do that. But I feel something that he doesn't feel. I feel those principles are working in my life, that are keeping me in the right way. And that's put me in a position where this situation where I am right now is better than any other situation that I could be in for me personally. And there's no argument - you can't argue that. You cannot dispute that. You cannot dispute the joy that it's bringing into my life. I remember saying to someone once, 'You know if this whole thing wasn't true, if I didn't believe it anyway, you know what? I would die. I would get to the other side and think, oh! I was wrong. But you know what? I had a heck of a lot of fun while I was down here!'
"And I had a friend, he’s another black member of the Church, I was in Texas and he’d just joined the Church and he joined the Church because of the influence of a 14-year old white boy who every single day he would see him and he’d notice that there was something different about this young white boy than all the other white boys and he didn’t know what it was. Afterwards he started realizing that this young kid was having the time of his life but he had boundaries. The other kids were free to do anything that they wanted but they weren’t necessarily happy.
"I remember when he said that and I was like that is exactly how I feel. I’m having the time of my life - even through my trials and my problems and my girlfriend breaking up with me, but you know, just the things that you go through every day life. The trials - even through that I’m having the time of my life and no one can take that away from me. No amount of philosophy, no amount of clever words, no amount of anti-Mormon literature can change that - for me."
"So I guess what I’m trying to tell you is that being a member of the Church for me, it started off more - a lot less about the facts, a lot less about what was in the scriptures, a lot less about what certain things meant and certain books were about and their content. It was about the fact that there were principles in it that I knew that if I embraced those principles it would keep me in a way that I could still keep my promise of keeping myself clean and keeping my family, and keeping my family name above board so to speak.
"I've never regretted making the decision about being a member of the Church no matter what people have said, no matter what opinions or ideas people have said to me.
"I have a gentleman that emails me once a month, he started emailing me last September and actually now he's stepping it up, it's probably about twice a month now, and every single email - he's a very clever man, he has Ph.D.s, he has all these things - all these names behind him and everything, and he tells me outright the reasons why I shouldn't be a member of this Church. And he talks about the curse and he talks about all these things and I read it because I feel that he's spent all this time researching and giving me all that information and I read it but I've never answered him back. I've never sent him an email back.
"Sometimes I kind of think that he thinks that I'm backing down or that I'm powerless or that the things that he's saying are getting to me but the main reason why is that that's not my forte. And so there's nothing that I can say to him that will change his mind. There's that whole thing about - he is of the (what is it?) if you're of the same opinion still - you can't change. If you have an opinion you can't change a person's opinion if that's the same opinion. I know that me as a human being, as an individual, can't do that because maybe I don't have those tools to be able to do that. But I feel something that he doesn't feel. I feel those principles are working in my life, that are keeping me in the right way. And that's put me in a position where this situation where I am right now is better than any other situation that I could be in for me personally. And there's no argument - you can't argue that. You cannot dispute that. You cannot dispute the joy that it's bringing into my life. I remember saying to someone once, 'You know if this whole thing wasn't true, if I didn't believe it anyway, you know what? I would die. I would get to the other side and think, oh! I was wrong. But you know what? I had a heck of a lot of fun while I was down here!'
"And I had a friend, he’s another black member of the Church, I was in Texas and he’d just joined the Church and he joined the Church because of the influence of a 14-year old white boy who every single day he would see him and he’d notice that there was something different about this young white boy than all the other white boys and he didn’t know what it was. Afterwards he started realizing that this young kid was having the time of his life but he had boundaries. The other kids were free to do anything that they wanted but they weren’t necessarily happy.
"I remember when he said that and I was like that is exactly how I feel. I’m having the time of my life - even through my trials and my problems and my girlfriend breaking up with me, but you know, just the things that you go through every day life. The trials - even through that I’m having the time of my life and no one can take that away from me. No amount of philosophy, no amount of clever words, no amount of anti-Mormon literature can change that - for me."
In 2005, BYU professor Margaret Young released a twenty-minute documentary called "Jane Manning James: Your Sister in the Gospel". It was shown at This is the Place Heritage Park in Salt Lake City, the 2005 FAIR Conference in Sandy, Utah, and on PBS television.
Chicago
On July 26, 2005, Margaret Ramirez reported in the Chicago Tribune, "As sunlight flooded the church from a window above, Brad Hunter brought his 2-week-old baby girl, Leah, in front of the congregation for her first blessing.
"One by one, the male leaders of this Mormon church in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood formed a tight circle around the child. Black, white, Latino, Indian and Japanese Mormons placed their palms under Leah, forming a cradle of hands. Then the men closed their eyes tight and prayed.
"The striking scene provides a modern-day portrait of today's Mormon Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Long perceived as a mostly white institution, the church now counts more than 12 million members worldwide, with nearly a third of its followers in Africa and Latin America.
"This year, as the church celebrates its 175th anniversary and the bicentennial of the birth of its founder, a religion that began in a New York log cabin has emerged as a diverse global faith and the fourth largest church in the U.S. with 5.5 million American members.
"Mormon growth has been fueled by converts of color brought in by the church's missionary zeal and attracted largely, experts say, by the church's focus on family.
'The church has really emphasized the importance of family at a time when families are in trouble. That emphasis has made a great deal of difference,' said Jan Shipps, a prominent Mormon scholar at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis who is not a church member. 'It's an important religious force and it's here to stay.'
"The church's diversity has emerged almost defiantly from the relics of its racist past. Early Mormon teachings spoke of black people as inferior, cursed by God and unworthy to serve as clergy. Not until 1978 did the church lift the ban that barred blacks from the priesthood.
"The American church remains predominantly white, and precise growth patterns are difficult to note because the church says it does not keep statistics on race or ethnicity. But church officials and religious scholars say that in the past 20 years the Mormon message has been well received by middle-class African-Americans and, in particular, Latino immigrants.
"Scholars say the number of black Mormons, miniscule before 1978, is estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 today. The church says 130,000 people belonged to Spanish-speaking U.S. congregations in 2004, up from 92,600 in 1995. Those figures do not include Latinos attending services in English.
"Texts still reflect racism
"Yet despite the increasing presence of minorities in the church, race issues have emerged as part of the church's growing pains.
"Some scholars say the racist doctrine still found in Mormon texts and church leaders' past negative comments are factors in the slow growth of the church among African-Americans and have driven some members to leave in disgust. Other Mormons question whether an increasingly diverse legion of Latter-day Saints can be adequately represented by a leadership still composed mainly of white men.
"Darron Smith, a black Mormon and an adjunct sociology professor at church-owned Brigham Young University in Utah, believes church leaders should formally repudiate all racist doctrines and teachings on blacks, arguing that it is the only way to retain black members.
'Why do Mormons persist in believing that black people were cursed? Many of them do and stubbornly defend racist white sentiment. Why is that?' said Smith, who co-authored a new book of essays titled 'Black and Mormon.' 'I think this is counterproductive to the church's mission.'
"The large majority of black Mormons say they are willing to look beyond the racist teachings and cleave to the church in part because of its powerful, detailed teachings on life after death. Cathy Stokes, a black Mormon who lives in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, said she was drawn by members' strong devotion to living the faith.
'Joining this church was the single most important decision of my life,' said Stokes, a former Baptist who converted in 1979. 'And since I've come, I have never felt more love than I feel here.'
"At church headquarters in Salt Lake City, blacks and Latino Mormons still wield little influence, said Armand Mauss, a Mormon scholar and past president of the Mormon History Association.
'As far as leadership is concerned, the role of the various minorities in Mormonism as a whole is not yet very great, but it is growing, and it is crucial in parts of the world outside the U.S.,' said Mauss, of Irvine, Calif.
"Change will be necessary for the unity of the church, he said.
'Theologically, the presence of minorities is also crucial to Mormonism because of its claim to be a world religion, reaching out to all of God's children,' he said. 'That claim is very important also to most Mormons everywhere, and it will become a reality gradually to the extent that the church succeeds in holding on to its converts over the long haul and integrating them into the highest echelons of church leadership.'...
`Old dogmas die hard'
"Such texts, Mauss believes, will be a burden for the church and its black members until church leaders make an explicit and public disavowal.
'Discredited doctrines about why some people are black have continued to circulate among Mormon whites in various places, despite the fact that no church leaders have taught such things for at least a whole generation,' Mauss said. 'Old dogmas die hard.'
"Asked why leaders have not formally repudiated the teachings, spokeswoman Kim Farah referred to a statement made by Hinckley in 1998: 'The 1978 revelation continues to speak for itself.... I don't see anything further that we need to do.'
"A black woman from the South
"Stokes, a Chicago public health official, said that when she decided to become a Mormon, friends thought she had lost her mind. Why, they wondered, would an intelligent black woman raised in the racial strife of rural Mississippi want to join a church that once taught black people were inferior and cursed by God?
'People said things like, "What's wrong with you? I thought you were smart until you joined the Mormon church,"' Stokes, 69, recalled on a hot summer morning inside the chapel of her Hyde Park church. 'I just laughed it off. It think that's due to the comfort of knowing who you really are.'
"Stokes admits she doesn't understand the references to blacks in the Book of Mormon. Yet, she believes racism is not unique to Mormonism and is a problem that nearly every church has had to confront.
'At some point, I think there will be a correction by church leaders. I do think it will come,' Stokes said. 'But I don't think it's my place to push for it. I think it's my place to be prayerful and follow God.
'I believe this is the true church of Jesus Christ. But, we can't say it's perfect.'
"Jesse Thomas, another black Mormon who lives in Chicago, joined the church in 1989, after the birth of his first child. He now attends Sunday meetings at the Logan Square church, which is officially known as a ward (smaller Mormon congregations are called branches).
"Thomas said he learned about racism in the church texts only after he was baptized into the church. He stayed, he says, because of the way the faith affects almost every aspect of daily life.
'Those things never made me question whether this was the right church for me. It didn't cause me to back-pedal. I have never felt slighted by anyone in this church,' Thomas said. 'You also have to understand this isn't a church where it's just a Sunday stroll. It's a daily walk where your constant companion is the Holy Spirit.'
'I believe the Book of Mormon is true,' said Tony Ratliff, 48, an African-American computer support specialist who joined two years ago and assisted in the baby blessing in Logan Square. 'I have read some of the racist doctrines of the past. But it doesn't bother me.
'I say, let's move on. Our power doesn't come from the past. It comes from our obedience to God.'
"One by one, the male leaders of this Mormon church in Chicago's Logan Square neighborhood formed a tight circle around the child. Black, white, Latino, Indian and Japanese Mormons placed their palms under Leah, forming a cradle of hands. Then the men closed their eyes tight and prayed.
"The striking scene provides a modern-day portrait of today's Mormon Church, officially known as the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Long perceived as a mostly white institution, the church now counts more than 12 million members worldwide, with nearly a third of its followers in Africa and Latin America.
"This year, as the church celebrates its 175th anniversary and the bicentennial of the birth of its founder, a religion that began in a New York log cabin has emerged as a diverse global faith and the fourth largest church in the U.S. with 5.5 million American members.
"Mormon growth has been fueled by converts of color brought in by the church's missionary zeal and attracted largely, experts say, by the church's focus on family.
'The church has really emphasized the importance of family at a time when families are in trouble. That emphasis has made a great deal of difference,' said Jan Shipps, a prominent Mormon scholar at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis who is not a church member. 'It's an important religious force and it's here to stay.'
"The church's diversity has emerged almost defiantly from the relics of its racist past. Early Mormon teachings spoke of black people as inferior, cursed by God and unworthy to serve as clergy. Not until 1978 did the church lift the ban that barred blacks from the priesthood.
"The American church remains predominantly white, and precise growth patterns are difficult to note because the church says it does not keep statistics on race or ethnicity. But church officials and religious scholars say that in the past 20 years the Mormon message has been well received by middle-class African-Americans and, in particular, Latino immigrants.
"Scholars say the number of black Mormons, miniscule before 1978, is estimated at 5,000 to 10,000 today. The church says 130,000 people belonged to Spanish-speaking U.S. congregations in 2004, up from 92,600 in 1995. Those figures do not include Latinos attending services in English.
"Texts still reflect racism
"Yet despite the increasing presence of minorities in the church, race issues have emerged as part of the church's growing pains.
"Some scholars say the racist doctrine still found in Mormon texts and church leaders' past negative comments are factors in the slow growth of the church among African-Americans and have driven some members to leave in disgust. Other Mormons question whether an increasingly diverse legion of Latter-day Saints can be adequately represented by a leadership still composed mainly of white men.
"Darron Smith, a black Mormon and an adjunct sociology professor at church-owned Brigham Young University in Utah, believes church leaders should formally repudiate all racist doctrines and teachings on blacks, arguing that it is the only way to retain black members.
'Why do Mormons persist in believing that black people were cursed? Many of them do and stubbornly defend racist white sentiment. Why is that?' said Smith, who co-authored a new book of essays titled 'Black and Mormon.' 'I think this is counterproductive to the church's mission.'
"The large majority of black Mormons say they are willing to look beyond the racist teachings and cleave to the church in part because of its powerful, detailed teachings on life after death. Cathy Stokes, a black Mormon who lives in Chicago's Hyde Park neighborhood, said she was drawn by members' strong devotion to living the faith.
'Joining this church was the single most important decision of my life,' said Stokes, a former Baptist who converted in 1979. 'And since I've come, I have never felt more love than I feel here.'
"At church headquarters in Salt Lake City, blacks and Latino Mormons still wield little influence, said Armand Mauss, a Mormon scholar and past president of the Mormon History Association.
'As far as leadership is concerned, the role of the various minorities in Mormonism as a whole is not yet very great, but it is growing, and it is crucial in parts of the world outside the U.S.,' said Mauss, of Irvine, Calif.
"Change will be necessary for the unity of the church, he said.
'Theologically, the presence of minorities is also crucial to Mormonism because of its claim to be a world religion, reaching out to all of God's children,' he said. 'That claim is very important also to most Mormons everywhere, and it will become a reality gradually to the extent that the church succeeds in holding on to its converts over the long haul and integrating them into the highest echelons of church leadership.'...
`Old dogmas die hard'
"Such texts, Mauss believes, will be a burden for the church and its black members until church leaders make an explicit and public disavowal.
'Discredited doctrines about why some people are black have continued to circulate among Mormon whites in various places, despite the fact that no church leaders have taught such things for at least a whole generation,' Mauss said. 'Old dogmas die hard.'
"Asked why leaders have not formally repudiated the teachings, spokeswoman Kim Farah referred to a statement made by Hinckley in 1998: 'The 1978 revelation continues to speak for itself.... I don't see anything further that we need to do.'
"A black woman from the South
"Stokes, a Chicago public health official, said that when she decided to become a Mormon, friends thought she had lost her mind. Why, they wondered, would an intelligent black woman raised in the racial strife of rural Mississippi want to join a church that once taught black people were inferior and cursed by God?
'People said things like, "What's wrong with you? I thought you were smart until you joined the Mormon church,"' Stokes, 69, recalled on a hot summer morning inside the chapel of her Hyde Park church. 'I just laughed it off. It think that's due to the comfort of knowing who you really are.'
"Stokes admits she doesn't understand the references to blacks in the Book of Mormon. Yet, she believes racism is not unique to Mormonism and is a problem that nearly every church has had to confront.
'At some point, I think there will be a correction by church leaders. I do think it will come,' Stokes said. 'But I don't think it's my place to push for it. I think it's my place to be prayerful and follow God.
'I believe this is the true church of Jesus Christ. But, we can't say it's perfect.'
"Jesse Thomas, another black Mormon who lives in Chicago, joined the church in 1989, after the birth of his first child. He now attends Sunday meetings at the Logan Square church, which is officially known as a ward (smaller Mormon congregations are called branches).
"Thomas said he learned about racism in the church texts only after he was baptized into the church. He stayed, he says, because of the way the faith affects almost every aspect of daily life.
'Those things never made me question whether this was the right church for me. It didn't cause me to back-pedal. I have never felt slighted by anyone in this church,' Thomas said. 'You also have to understand this isn't a church where it's just a Sunday stroll. It's a daily walk where your constant companion is the Holy Spirit.'
'I believe the Book of Mormon is true,' said Tony Ratliff, 48, an African-American computer support specialist who joined two years ago and assisted in the baby blessing in Logan Square. 'I have read some of the racist doctrines of the past. But it doesn't bother me.
'I say, let's move on. Our power doesn't come from the past. It comes from our obedience to God.'
Aba Nigeria Temple
The Aba Nigeria Temple was dedicated by President Gordon B. Hinckley on August 7, 2005. Two weeks later, Saints from Cameroon crowded into two minibuses and drove for two and a half days over unpaved roads to attend the new temple. The members stayed for three days, and the women getting sealed took turns wearing the same wedding dress.
Mel Hamilton Speaks at the Laramie Institute of Religion
Aaron Shill reported in the Deseret News, "Mel Hamilton took his first step by crossing a street.
"It was 1966, and Hamilton was on campus at the University of Wyoming. Coming in the opposite direction was a woman he passed every school day on his way to class. And just like every other time, the woman walked to the other side of the street when she saw him.
"But this time, Hamilton crossed, too. Soon, they were face to face.
"Hamilton asked the woman if she was trying to avoid him, and if so, why. She apologized, saying she had never talked to a black person.
'That boggled my mind,' Hamilton said.
"As they talked, Hamilton realized that the woman knew nothing about his race other than what she'd seen in the media, which was usually negative. He decided that at every opportunity, he would 'talk about race and try to desensitize racial issues.'
'That was the very first day that I realized that I had a job to do,' Hamilton said.
"So in 2005, when an invitation came from the LDS institute in Laramie to speak on a controversial racial issue, Hamilton accepted.
"It was a seemingly volatile arrangement, considering that Hamilton was one of 14 Wyoming football players thrown off the team in 1969 for deciding to wear black armbands in a game against BYU to protest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The 'Black 14' was a story stoked by the often divisive issues of race, religion and sport - and Hamilton was in the middle of it. But when it comes to the LDS Church, Hamilton is also part of a story about understanding. He is adamant in his position but holds no animosity. He counts Mormons among his friends. His oldest son is now a member of the LDS Church.
"And when he stood in front of a group of students - some LDS, some not - to discuss the Black 14, he encouraged them to 'start the dialogue toward healing.'
'You cannot always sit back and expect somebody else to bring up the issues of race and religion,' Hamilton said. 'You've got to sometimes take the first step.
'It would make things so much better. We would get to understand people so much more.'...
"When Clark Anderson moved to Laramie, he sensed some anti-LDS sentiment that was rooted in the incident. Each time BYU came to town for a football game, the Black 14 story was revived.
"So in November 2005, the Mormons took on the issue.
'We thought we would try to be proactive and try to not have such negativity towards BYU,' said Anderson, director of the LDS institute near the Wyoming campus.
"Anderson had heard about Hamilton, that he had spoken on campus before and was not negative toward the church. He called and extended an invitation for Hamilton to participate in a forum on the Black 14 as part of LDS Awareness Week.
"He knew it was a bold move. Some church members weren't happy about it, and Anderson himself was nervous. But they 'went forward with faith,' he said.
"After warning Anderson that he would speak his mind, Hamilton accepted the invitation.
"On the day of the event, Anderson met Hamilton and his wife at the institute building before walking over to campus. He remembers Hamilton reflecting on coming 'full circle' - from picketing the institute building in 1969 to being welcomed with an olive branch in 2005.
"Hamilton remembers the room being 'packed.' He was direct in his remarks, saying, 'I thought I was right then, and I still think I'm right now.' He told the students he was very offended when he heard Mormons say he was a son of Cain.
"But he also assured them that it was not the religion or the people he was fighting, but the policy.
"Hamilton tried to 'bury the sword that night' and encouraged the students to look ahead - not back.
'It's time to forgive and move ahead,' he told them.
"The question-and-answer session became somewhat contentious when some non-LDS audience members disagreed with Hamilton. One in particular denounced the church, calling it a cult and saying it was oppressive.
"Hamilton's response was: 'Who will take the first step?'
'Sir, who is going to be the first to start the dialogue toward healing?' he asked the man. 'And if it's not you, who? If we keep dwelling on the past, we'll never get to solve anything.'
"For Anderson, it was a step in the right direction.
'I think it was a really, really positive evening,' he said. 'I felt like it kind of helped heal things.'
"According to Anderson, some older church members had been skeptical about the arrangement and were afraid Hamilton would bash the church. After the event, some stopped by his office to say it was 'fantastic.'
'They thought that he handled himself very well, and his perspective on it was nice and refreshing,' Anderson said. 'It wasn't what they expected.'
"It was 1966, and Hamilton was on campus at the University of Wyoming. Coming in the opposite direction was a woman he passed every school day on his way to class. And just like every other time, the woman walked to the other side of the street when she saw him.
"But this time, Hamilton crossed, too. Soon, they were face to face.
"Hamilton asked the woman if she was trying to avoid him, and if so, why. She apologized, saying she had never talked to a black person.
'That boggled my mind,' Hamilton said.
"As they talked, Hamilton realized that the woman knew nothing about his race other than what she'd seen in the media, which was usually negative. He decided that at every opportunity, he would 'talk about race and try to desensitize racial issues.'
'That was the very first day that I realized that I had a job to do,' Hamilton said.
"So in 2005, when an invitation came from the LDS institute in Laramie to speak on a controversial racial issue, Hamilton accepted.
"It was a seemingly volatile arrangement, considering that Hamilton was one of 14 Wyoming football players thrown off the team in 1969 for deciding to wear black armbands in a game against BYU to protest The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
"The 'Black 14' was a story stoked by the often divisive issues of race, religion and sport - and Hamilton was in the middle of it. But when it comes to the LDS Church, Hamilton is also part of a story about understanding. He is adamant in his position but holds no animosity. He counts Mormons among his friends. His oldest son is now a member of the LDS Church.
"And when he stood in front of a group of students - some LDS, some not - to discuss the Black 14, he encouraged them to 'start the dialogue toward healing.'
'You cannot always sit back and expect somebody else to bring up the issues of race and religion,' Hamilton said. 'You've got to sometimes take the first step.
'It would make things so much better. We would get to understand people so much more.'...
"When Clark Anderson moved to Laramie, he sensed some anti-LDS sentiment that was rooted in the incident. Each time BYU came to town for a football game, the Black 14 story was revived.
"So in November 2005, the Mormons took on the issue.
'We thought we would try to be proactive and try to not have such negativity towards BYU,' said Anderson, director of the LDS institute near the Wyoming campus.
"Anderson had heard about Hamilton, that he had spoken on campus before and was not negative toward the church. He called and extended an invitation for Hamilton to participate in a forum on the Black 14 as part of LDS Awareness Week.
"He knew it was a bold move. Some church members weren't happy about it, and Anderson himself was nervous. But they 'went forward with faith,' he said.
"After warning Anderson that he would speak his mind, Hamilton accepted the invitation.
"On the day of the event, Anderson met Hamilton and his wife at the institute building before walking over to campus. He remembers Hamilton reflecting on coming 'full circle' - from picketing the institute building in 1969 to being welcomed with an olive branch in 2005.
"Hamilton remembers the room being 'packed.' He was direct in his remarks, saying, 'I thought I was right then, and I still think I'm right now.' He told the students he was very offended when he heard Mormons say he was a son of Cain.
"But he also assured them that it was not the religion or the people he was fighting, but the policy.
"Hamilton tried to 'bury the sword that night' and encouraged the students to look ahead - not back.
'It's time to forgive and move ahead,' he told them.
"The question-and-answer session became somewhat contentious when some non-LDS audience members disagreed with Hamilton. One in particular denounced the church, calling it a cult and saying it was oppressive.
"Hamilton's response was: 'Who will take the first step?'
'Sir, who is going to be the first to start the dialogue toward healing?' he asked the man. 'And if it's not you, who? If we keep dwelling on the past, we'll never get to solve anything.'
"For Anderson, it was a step in the right direction.
'I think it was a really, really positive evening,' he said. 'I felt like it kind of helped heal things.'
"According to Anderson, some older church members had been skeptical about the arrangement and were afraid Hamilton would bash the church. After the event, some stopped by his office to say it was 'fantastic.'
'They thought that he handled himself very well, and his perspective on it was nice and refreshing,' Anderson said. 'It wasn't what they expected.'
Black History Month
In February 2006, the Washington D.C. Temple visitors' center hosted a celebration of Black History Month, which was covered by the Church's "World Report".
PBS Interviews
In 2006, PBS created a groundbreaking documentary called "The Mormons". Many of its interviews with leaders and members touched on the priesthood ban, and some excerpts have already been quoted here. In one interview on March 4, Elder Jeffrey R. Holland was asked, "I've talked to many blacks and many whites as well about the lingering folklore [about why blacks couldn't have the priesthood]. These are faithful Mormons who are delighted about this revelation, and yet who feel something more should be said about the folklore and even possibly about the mysterious reasons for the ban itself, which was not a revelation; it was a practice. So if you could, briefly address the concerns Mormons have about this folklore and what should be done."
Elder Holland: "One clear-cut position is that the folklore must never be perpetuated.... I have to concede to my earlier colleagues.... They, I'm sure, in their own way, were doing the best they knew to give shape to [the policy], to give context for it, to give even history to it. All I can say is however well intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong....
"It probably would have been advantageous to say nothing, to say we just don't know, and, [as] with many religious matters, whatever was being done was done on the basis of faith at that time. But some explanations were given and had been given for a lot of years.... At the very least, there should be no effort to perpetuate those efforts to explain why that doctrine existed. I think, to the extent that I know anything about it, as one of the newer and younger ones to come along,... we simply do not know why that practice, that policy, that doctrine was in place."
Interviewer: "What is the folklore, quite specifically?"
Elder Holland: "Well, some of the folklore that you must be referring to are suggestions that there were decisions made in the pre-mortal councils where someone had not been as decisive in their loyalty to a Gospel plan or the procedures on earth or what was to unfold in mortality, and that therefore that opportunity and mortality was compromised. I really don't know a lot of the details of those, because fortunately I've been able to live in the period where we're not expressing or teaching them, but I think that's the one I grew up hearing the most, was that it was something to do with the pre-mortal councils.... But I think that's the part that must never be taught until anybody knows a lot more than I know.... We just don't know, in the historical context of the time, why it was practiced.... That's my principal [concern], is that we don't perpetuate explanations about things we don't know....
"We don't pretend that something wasn't taught or practice wasn't pursued for whatever reason. But I think we can be unequivocal and we can be declarative in our current literature, in books that we reproduce, in teachings that go forward, whatever, that from this time forward, from 1978 forward, we can make sure that nothing of that is declared. That may be where we still need to make sure that we're absolutely dutiful, that we put [a] careful eye of scrutiny on anything from earlier writings and teachings, just [to] make sure that that's not perpetuated in the present. That's the least, I think, of our current responsibilities on that topic."
In another interview for the same program on March 7, Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy was asked, "Before the ban was lifted, tell me how the civil rights movement was experienced by your community."
Elder Jensen: "The ban on the blacks in the priesthood was a very big issue. There was a lot of adverse press coverage that the church received, that BYU received because of athletic endeavors. There were books and articles written, even within the church, that were very negative about the church's position on that issue.... We can accept, I think, the indictment that sometimes we have been provincial, and I think we probably were to some extent on this point....
"My opinion at the time [was] it was a matter of timing. I just hoped, I guess, and prayed that they would come sooner than later, because I didn't doubt that it had been instituted under prophetic direction, and my hope was that it would be lifted under prophetic direction, and that's what eventually happened.
"During that intervening time, when there was the turmoil and the tension, it was just an unhappy time, I think, for people who were very civil rights-minded and felt like the Book of Mormon was talking about, 'All are alike unto God, black and white, male and female, bond and freed,' and yet we had a church that had this ban on the priesthood. So everyone, I think, was overjoyed when eventually God saw fit to lift that ban through the prophet. And now as our Scripture says, 'Truly all men can speak in the name of God.'
Interviewer: "There is lingering folklore of the ban, and many active, faithful Mormons think more should be said about it. Could you talk about that?"
Elder Jensen: "Yeah. I was aware of the feelings on the part of many, many good black members of the church, and many white members of the church, that there's this body of writing and recorded speaking that was all well-intentioned. It had its purpose, trying to offer some rationale for why that ban existed, and then once the ban was lifted, that sort of remained in some form in various publications and so on....
"A few years ago I did suggest that something be done, within the realms of my ability, to [address the folklore]. But nothing ensued from that, and one thing I've learned as part of my belief is that when I feel strongly about something, and I've expressed myself on it to the leaders of the church, I leave it then in their hands, when I'm aware that they know all the facts. If they don't happen to pick up on what I feel strongly about, then honestly I don't feel that strongly about it anymore. [Laughs.] That's happened to me here. I think it's an issue, but I think with every passing year it's less of one, and I don't know if the institution will ever do anything about that. That certainly isn't in my hands to say."
Interviewer, "What is that folklore that troubles people?"
Elder Jensen: "The essential idea is that somehow in the life before this life, through some conduct on the part of black people, they were less worthy and had to spend some probationary time waiting then for the priesthood to be given to them. I think it's that idea that somehow they came here with some inherent disability, spiritually speaking, and that bothers them. It would bother me, too. And I don't think it's true. I think those were theories that were advanced, but I don't think there's any scriptural or doctrinal justification for them."
In another interview, scholar Terryl Givens was asked, "[Have you ever considered] that [the Church's position on homosexuality] might not be a wise policy, the way the ban on blacks in the priesthood was not a wise policy?"
He responded, "I think there were many of us that were always comfortable with the idea that the black policy would change one day. There was nothing inherent to Mormon theology that necessitated that. Nobody today would ever try to defend it or argue it on those grounds. But as I said, gender, sexuality, marriage, eternal families - that's the essence and eternal backbone of the church. There's just no logical way to reconcile that with eternal sexuality that I know of, that I can imagine."
In other interviews on June 15 and 22 Greg Prince, author of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, recalled, "I finished my mission in 1969 and went immediately into graduate school at UCLA. Now, the University of California system in 1969 was an interesting place to be, as were many universities in the country at that time.... Certainly civil rights was one of the major issues that was being debated very heatedly. Somehow it didn't make it to the forefront of my radar screen, and I don't know why.... I look back now and think: 'You were really insensitive. You should have been out on the front lines marching on this issue.' But I wasn't. I guess I was a scientific geek, and I was more interested in looking at test tubes than looking around me, but I wasn't part of the fray. In a way I regret that, because I can't look back and tell my kids, 'Gee, because of me they're here instead of there.' It wasn't my battle....
"I was a graduate student there for six years and then went to Washington, D.C., to work at the National Institutes of Health. It wasn't until I got back to Washington that it really came into tight focus for me, because by happenstance, I wound up in the same congregation as the man [Lester Bush] who had written and published the landmark article on this topic, the article that said it isn't doctrinal."
Interviewer: "What was the pressure on the church to get rid of this policy?"
Brother Prince: "Until the early 1960s there had not been overt pressure on the church to reverse this ban on ordaining blacks to the priesthood, but then it started to pop up as the civil rights movement began to mature. The Salt Lake chapter of the NAACP threatened to picket General Conference if the Church didn't come out and make a positive statement on civil rights, not even demanding at that point that they reverse that policy. They just wanted the church to go on record as being supportive of the civil rights movement. And eventually that happened, and it avoided that picketing of the General Conference. A couple years later the same issue emerged, and the church again had to restate its support of the civil rights movement, even though some members of the church, including President McKay, did it begrudgingly.
"On the athletic front, it became an embarrassment, because Stanford University and then other universities announced, 'We will no longer compete with Brigham Young University in intercollegiate athletics because of this ban.' Well, that didn't get it changed, but it put a lot of pressure on.
"Later into the 1970s you now have a new president, Spencer Kimball, and you have new forces at work. Most of these are internal. The decision to build a temple in Brazil was welcomed by the Brazilian members, but it also had some baggage attached to it because, by definition, in order to go into the temple and have certain privileges; you, if you were a male, had to have the priesthood. Guess who that excluded? Now, having spent two years down there, I can tell you it was impossible to say who had black ancestry and who didn't. The races down there are so intermixed that it is impossible [to say], and yet this was the dilemma that now was looming, because that temple was nearing completion. There was also the injunction that had existed for decades, 'Take the Gospel to all the world.' There wasn't an asterisk as the end of it saying, 'Oh, by the way, you can exclude black Africa.' This weighed on Spencer Kimball. All of those things, I think, had a cumulative effect."
Interviewer: "How did that revelation to lift the ban happen?"
Brother Prince: "We talk about revelation assuming we understand it, but it's a difficult thing to understand. It's not a package dropping out of heaven prewrapped and all we need to do is undo the bow and there's the revelation. There's a cost associated with it that very few Mormons understand.... [Spencer Kimball] had to pay a price to get there.... What Spencer Kimball was doing - and we don't know the full extent of the network that he was establishing - was to take soundings in various areas, cover his bases, so that when it came time both to take the question to the Lord and to get the consent of his peers among the General Authorities,... there was no opposition. In fact, there was great joy among his colleagues when he made the announcement. But it wasn't an event. It was a process punctuated by event.... The first of June, 1978, Spencer Kimball, his two counselors, the Quorum from the Twelve Apostles, met at the temple. They engaged in group prayer and it was described as a Pentecostal experience."
Interviewer: "How important was the lifting of the ban on this journey through the 20th century?"
Brother Prince: "The 1978 revelation that lifted the ban took away one of the major stigmas that the Church had. I think it allowed particularly American society to look at us differently,... because we were out there alone on this one. By reversing that ban we did away with the impediment to our inclusion in that larger community of churches, so I think that overall it had enormous positive effect on our public image. Certainly it has had a positive effect on where we can go and what we can do to build the Church. We're in areas now - with established congregations, with bishops, with stake presidents who are black - that we couldn't have dreamed of 40 or 50 years ago, and yet there we are."
Interviewer: "What is the folklore? What should be done?"
Brother Prince: "Let me try to speak a little more broadly first. There is a paradox in this church. If you were to go into any congregation and say, 'Everybody in favor of continuing revelation, vote,' every hand would go up. If you then said, 'Everybody who's comfortable with change, vote,' you'd see very few hands go up. And yet how do you have the one without the other? We have not yet become entirely comfortable with the repercussions of a revelatory experience. We got the revelation, we changed the policy, but we haven't been able to rid ourselves of all of that damaging folklore that accumulated over the years....
"The folklore surrounding the ban on priesthood actually predates Mormonism. The idea that African blacks were a cursed lineage goes back centuries before Mormonism, but we certainly borrowed from it amply. Then we added to it because of our unusual doctrine of pre-mortal life, and said well, if they're cursed now, it must have been that they did something wrong or neutral where the rest of us did something right in that pre-mortal life....
"It needs to be extracted and thrown away. It's a historical anachronism, an anomaly, and it's wrong, and we should just own up to the fact that that's what it was, brush it aside, apologize if we need to, and go on our way. Otherwise it's going to continue to drag certain people down, both inside the Church and outside the Church. They'll glom onto that and say, 'Is this what you still think about us?' And I've heard that from members of the church who are black. And of course it isn't, but as long as it's in print, how are you going to counter that effect? You can't. You have to get rid of it."
Elder Holland: "One clear-cut position is that the folklore must never be perpetuated.... I have to concede to my earlier colleagues.... They, I'm sure, in their own way, were doing the best they knew to give shape to [the policy], to give context for it, to give even history to it. All I can say is however well intended the explanations were, I think almost all of them were inadequate and/or wrong....
"It probably would have been advantageous to say nothing, to say we just don't know, and, [as] with many religious matters, whatever was being done was done on the basis of faith at that time. But some explanations were given and had been given for a lot of years.... At the very least, there should be no effort to perpetuate those efforts to explain why that doctrine existed. I think, to the extent that I know anything about it, as one of the newer and younger ones to come along,... we simply do not know why that practice, that policy, that doctrine was in place."
Interviewer: "What is the folklore, quite specifically?"
Elder Holland: "Well, some of the folklore that you must be referring to are suggestions that there were decisions made in the pre-mortal councils where someone had not been as decisive in their loyalty to a Gospel plan or the procedures on earth or what was to unfold in mortality, and that therefore that opportunity and mortality was compromised. I really don't know a lot of the details of those, because fortunately I've been able to live in the period where we're not expressing or teaching them, but I think that's the one I grew up hearing the most, was that it was something to do with the pre-mortal councils.... But I think that's the part that must never be taught until anybody knows a lot more than I know.... We just don't know, in the historical context of the time, why it was practiced.... That's my principal [concern], is that we don't perpetuate explanations about things we don't know....
"We don't pretend that something wasn't taught or practice wasn't pursued for whatever reason. But I think we can be unequivocal and we can be declarative in our current literature, in books that we reproduce, in teachings that go forward, whatever, that from this time forward, from 1978 forward, we can make sure that nothing of that is declared. That may be where we still need to make sure that we're absolutely dutiful, that we put [a] careful eye of scrutiny on anything from earlier writings and teachings, just [to] make sure that that's not perpetuated in the present. That's the least, I think, of our current responsibilities on that topic."
In another interview for the same program on March 7, Elder Marlin K. Jensen of the Seventy was asked, "Before the ban was lifted, tell me how the civil rights movement was experienced by your community."
Elder Jensen: "The ban on the blacks in the priesthood was a very big issue. There was a lot of adverse press coverage that the church received, that BYU received because of athletic endeavors. There were books and articles written, even within the church, that were very negative about the church's position on that issue.... We can accept, I think, the indictment that sometimes we have been provincial, and I think we probably were to some extent on this point....
"My opinion at the time [was] it was a matter of timing. I just hoped, I guess, and prayed that they would come sooner than later, because I didn't doubt that it had been instituted under prophetic direction, and my hope was that it would be lifted under prophetic direction, and that's what eventually happened.
"During that intervening time, when there was the turmoil and the tension, it was just an unhappy time, I think, for people who were very civil rights-minded and felt like the Book of Mormon was talking about, 'All are alike unto God, black and white, male and female, bond and freed,' and yet we had a church that had this ban on the priesthood. So everyone, I think, was overjoyed when eventually God saw fit to lift that ban through the prophet. And now as our Scripture says, 'Truly all men can speak in the name of God.'
Interviewer: "There is lingering folklore of the ban, and many active, faithful Mormons think more should be said about it. Could you talk about that?"
Elder Jensen: "Yeah. I was aware of the feelings on the part of many, many good black members of the church, and many white members of the church, that there's this body of writing and recorded speaking that was all well-intentioned. It had its purpose, trying to offer some rationale for why that ban existed, and then once the ban was lifted, that sort of remained in some form in various publications and so on....
"A few years ago I did suggest that something be done, within the realms of my ability, to [address the folklore]. But nothing ensued from that, and one thing I've learned as part of my belief is that when I feel strongly about something, and I've expressed myself on it to the leaders of the church, I leave it then in their hands, when I'm aware that they know all the facts. If they don't happen to pick up on what I feel strongly about, then honestly I don't feel that strongly about it anymore. [Laughs.] That's happened to me here. I think it's an issue, but I think with every passing year it's less of one, and I don't know if the institution will ever do anything about that. That certainly isn't in my hands to say."
Interviewer, "What is that folklore that troubles people?"
Elder Jensen: "The essential idea is that somehow in the life before this life, through some conduct on the part of black people, they were less worthy and had to spend some probationary time waiting then for the priesthood to be given to them. I think it's that idea that somehow they came here with some inherent disability, spiritually speaking, and that bothers them. It would bother me, too. And I don't think it's true. I think those were theories that were advanced, but I don't think there's any scriptural or doctrinal justification for them."
In another interview, scholar Terryl Givens was asked, "[Have you ever considered] that [the Church's position on homosexuality] might not be a wise policy, the way the ban on blacks in the priesthood was not a wise policy?"
He responded, "I think there were many of us that were always comfortable with the idea that the black policy would change one day. There was nothing inherent to Mormon theology that necessitated that. Nobody today would ever try to defend it or argue it on those grounds. But as I said, gender, sexuality, marriage, eternal families - that's the essence and eternal backbone of the church. There's just no logical way to reconcile that with eternal sexuality that I know of, that I can imagine."
In other interviews on June 15 and 22 Greg Prince, author of David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, recalled, "I finished my mission in 1969 and went immediately into graduate school at UCLA. Now, the University of California system in 1969 was an interesting place to be, as were many universities in the country at that time.... Certainly civil rights was one of the major issues that was being debated very heatedly. Somehow it didn't make it to the forefront of my radar screen, and I don't know why.... I look back now and think: 'You were really insensitive. You should have been out on the front lines marching on this issue.' But I wasn't. I guess I was a scientific geek, and I was more interested in looking at test tubes than looking around me, but I wasn't part of the fray. In a way I regret that, because I can't look back and tell my kids, 'Gee, because of me they're here instead of there.' It wasn't my battle....
"I was a graduate student there for six years and then went to Washington, D.C., to work at the National Institutes of Health. It wasn't until I got back to Washington that it really came into tight focus for me, because by happenstance, I wound up in the same congregation as the man [Lester Bush] who had written and published the landmark article on this topic, the article that said it isn't doctrinal."
Interviewer: "What was the pressure on the church to get rid of this policy?"
Brother Prince: "Until the early 1960s there had not been overt pressure on the church to reverse this ban on ordaining blacks to the priesthood, but then it started to pop up as the civil rights movement began to mature. The Salt Lake chapter of the NAACP threatened to picket General Conference if the Church didn't come out and make a positive statement on civil rights, not even demanding at that point that they reverse that policy. They just wanted the church to go on record as being supportive of the civil rights movement. And eventually that happened, and it avoided that picketing of the General Conference. A couple years later the same issue emerged, and the church again had to restate its support of the civil rights movement, even though some members of the church, including President McKay, did it begrudgingly.
"On the athletic front, it became an embarrassment, because Stanford University and then other universities announced, 'We will no longer compete with Brigham Young University in intercollegiate athletics because of this ban.' Well, that didn't get it changed, but it put a lot of pressure on.
"Later into the 1970s you now have a new president, Spencer Kimball, and you have new forces at work. Most of these are internal. The decision to build a temple in Brazil was welcomed by the Brazilian members, but it also had some baggage attached to it because, by definition, in order to go into the temple and have certain privileges; you, if you were a male, had to have the priesthood. Guess who that excluded? Now, having spent two years down there, I can tell you it was impossible to say who had black ancestry and who didn't. The races down there are so intermixed that it is impossible [to say], and yet this was the dilemma that now was looming, because that temple was nearing completion. There was also the injunction that had existed for decades, 'Take the Gospel to all the world.' There wasn't an asterisk as the end of it saying, 'Oh, by the way, you can exclude black Africa.' This weighed on Spencer Kimball. All of those things, I think, had a cumulative effect."
Interviewer: "How did that revelation to lift the ban happen?"
Brother Prince: "We talk about revelation assuming we understand it, but it's a difficult thing to understand. It's not a package dropping out of heaven prewrapped and all we need to do is undo the bow and there's the revelation. There's a cost associated with it that very few Mormons understand.... [Spencer Kimball] had to pay a price to get there.... What Spencer Kimball was doing - and we don't know the full extent of the network that he was establishing - was to take soundings in various areas, cover his bases, so that when it came time both to take the question to the Lord and to get the consent of his peers among the General Authorities,... there was no opposition. In fact, there was great joy among his colleagues when he made the announcement. But it wasn't an event. It was a process punctuated by event.... The first of June, 1978, Spencer Kimball, his two counselors, the Quorum from the Twelve Apostles, met at the temple. They engaged in group prayer and it was described as a Pentecostal experience."
Interviewer: "How important was the lifting of the ban on this journey through the 20th century?"
Brother Prince: "The 1978 revelation that lifted the ban took away one of the major stigmas that the Church had. I think it allowed particularly American society to look at us differently,... because we were out there alone on this one. By reversing that ban we did away with the impediment to our inclusion in that larger community of churches, so I think that overall it had enormous positive effect on our public image. Certainly it has had a positive effect on where we can go and what we can do to build the Church. We're in areas now - with established congregations, with bishops, with stake presidents who are black - that we couldn't have dreamed of 40 or 50 years ago, and yet there we are."
Interviewer: "What is the folklore? What should be done?"
Brother Prince: "Let me try to speak a little more broadly first. There is a paradox in this church. If you were to go into any congregation and say, 'Everybody in favor of continuing revelation, vote,' every hand would go up. If you then said, 'Everybody who's comfortable with change, vote,' you'd see very few hands go up. And yet how do you have the one without the other? We have not yet become entirely comfortable with the repercussions of a revelatory experience. We got the revelation, we changed the policy, but we haven't been able to rid ourselves of all of that damaging folklore that accumulated over the years....
"The folklore surrounding the ban on priesthood actually predates Mormonism. The idea that African blacks were a cursed lineage goes back centuries before Mormonism, but we certainly borrowed from it amply. Then we added to it because of our unusual doctrine of pre-mortal life, and said well, if they're cursed now, it must have been that they did something wrong or neutral where the rest of us did something right in that pre-mortal life....
"It needs to be extracted and thrown away. It's a historical anachronism, an anomaly, and it's wrong, and we should just own up to the fact that that's what it was, brush it aside, apologize if we need to, and go on our way. Otherwise it's going to continue to drag certain people down, both inside the Church and outside the Church. They'll glom onto that and say, 'Is this what you still think about us?' And I've heard that from members of the church who are black. And of course it isn't, but as long as it's in print, how are you going to counter that effect? You can't. You have to get rid of it."
The Need for Greater Kindness
In 2006 BYU discontinued the contract of part-time faculty instructor Darron Smith, one of the few black people on campus. He was co-editor of the popular book Black and Mormon and had been calling for the Church to address lingering issues of racism, which he claimed was the reason for his being let go. That April, while speaking on prejudice and hatred in a General Conference talk titled "The Need for Greater Kindness", President Gordon B. Hinckley mentioned racism: "Racial strife still lifts its ugly head. I am advised that even right here among us there is some of this. I cannot understand how it can be. It seemed to me that we all rejoiced in the 1978 revelation given President Kimball. I was there in the temple at the time that that happened. There was no doubt in my mind or in the minds of my associates that what was revealed was the mind and the will of the Lord.
"Now I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us. I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible?
"Throughout my service as a member of the First Presidency, I have recognized and spoken a number of times on the diversity we see in our society. It is all about us, and we must make an effort to accommodate that diversity.
"Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children.
"Brethren, there is no basis for racial hatred among the priesthood of this Church. If any within the sound of my voice is inclined to indulge in this, then let him go before the Lord and ask for forgiveness and be no more involved in such."
"Now I am told that racial slurs and denigrating remarks are sometimes heard among us. I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Christ. How can any man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible?
"Throughout my service as a member of the First Presidency, I have recognized and spoken a number of times on the diversity we see in our society. It is all about us, and we must make an effort to accommodate that diversity.
"Let us all recognize that each of us is a son or daughter of our Father in Heaven, who loves all of His children.
"Brethren, there is no basis for racial hatred among the priesthood of this Church. If any within the sound of my voice is inclined to indulge in this, then let him go before the Lord and ask for forgiveness and be no more involved in such."
A Black Man in Zion: Reflections on Race in the Restored Gospel
At the August 2006 FAIR Conference, Marcus Martins gave a presentation called "A Black Man in Zion: Reflections on Race in the Restored Gospel", based in part on his presentation at an LDSSA fireside at Stanford University on January 18, 2004. He said, "What I’m going to do this afternoon is I’m going to present to you an essay that is sort of a synthesis of what I have experienced and what I have concluded in relation to race in the restored gospel of Jesus Christ. This is sort of a combination of many e-mail messages of people who contact me thinking that I know something about it –which I don’t. It’s not one of my topics of research it’s just that I have lived through the last 34 years in the Church and so I get lots of questions, e-mails, letters; and I’ve got a lot of frequent flyer mileage traveling around the country and speaking on the priesthood ban and race relations which, once again, is not main research topic but I enjoy visiting with the Saints everywhere so it’s good.
"To begin, I think it’s no surprise to any of us that few human traits throughout history have been used more persistently as a justification for so much hatred, brutality, inhumanity, and pain, than race.
"Since its beginnings in the 1830s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also been affected by the issue of race. The Church is managed largely by a lay clergy - in many cases around the world a clergy composed of relatively recent converts - because of that, the Church of Jesus Christ is not entirely immune to the predicaments found in the societies in which the members of the Church live.
"I am a Black man of mixed African and European ancestry, and I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1972. I was the first member of my race to serve a full-time mission after the revelation that extended the priesthood to worthy men with Black African ancestry in 1978. I was also among the first to be ordained a high priest in 1981 and quite possibly - at least outside of Africa - I may have been among the first to be ordained a bishop in 1987. Since 1994 I have been the first of my race (or mixed race, whatever) to work as a religion professor in the Church’s universities: Brigham Young University; then Rick’s College; BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii.
"As a researcher I may have read everything official or semi-official statement available to the public about the priesthood ban. Unfortunately, truth must be told, after reading such documents any reasonable person will agree that Latter-day Saints with some measure of Black African ancestry have carried a heavy burden in addition to whatever they may have had to deal in society. Since I joined the Church in 1972 terms such as: cursed; less valiant; fence-sitter; Cain’s lineage; and others too impolite to be repeated, have been used from time to time by fellow Latter-day Saints to refer to me or those who share my racial background. That’s part of the legacy, if you will, or I would call it more of a burden that members of the Church with Black African ancestry have had to deal with and notice I’m from Brazil - I’m talking about my experiences in Brazil not just in the United States in the last 16 years.
"Back in 1995 President Gordon B. Hinckley stated to CBS reporter Mike Wallace that such things are 'behind us.' One cannot help but wonder how far behind have Latter-day Saints as a people put this shameful tradition? Could it be that some in our midst have been carrying these ideas on their backs, instead of truly leaving them 'behind'? As for me, I am sure that the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young University - which includes members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve - would not have approved my appointment as chair of the department of religious education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii if they believed that I was cursed, less valiant or whatever.
"I decided a number of years ago to leave these matters to the judgment of Him who knows all things. There is enough war, needless contention, and tragic destruction in this world. I certainly don’t want to add to any of those. Therefore, I have focused my attention on teaching the gospel of the Prince of Peace, the Savior Jesus Christ, according to the dictates of our conscience, and bring people to faith, repentance, pure Christ-like love, and obedience to the commandments of God - the only way to peace and happiness in this life.
"Still, every year I receive a number of e-mails and phone calls from people around the world asking me questions - most of the time politely - about race and the priesthood ban. A young African American sister once asked me whether it was 'abnormal' to feel annoyed by the priesthood ban. I told her that all human beings have feelings, and we cannot fully stifle this important part of our humanity, which is race. My only suggestion - and I have done this myself - is to not allow this issue to importune our children and grandchildren. Whether we like it or not, the priesthood ban is an integral part of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation. We can’t hide it. We can’t whitewash it. There’s nothing to do - it’s part of the history. But just like the Mountain Meadows massacre and other unfortunate episodes, the ban may be remembered as an undeniable fact in history - but never as a significant factor to the present.
"Therefore, for the benefit of those who never contacted me, I will share a few of my own insights on the priesthood ban based on my current understanding of the scriptures and doctrines of the Church.
"In my mind the priesthood ban was never part of the everlasting gospel, and I have found peace in the idea that the Lord allowed the ban to remain in his Church in order to fulfill his inscrutable purposes whatever they are. That belief leads me to conclude that the ban never jeopardized my eternal salvation. There were a few significant privileges of membership in the Church that I could not enjoy before June of 1978; a few very significant things, but not very many. I was able to receive the ordinance of baptism, I received the Holy Ghost, I could pay my tithing, I could read the scriptures, I could pray, I could partake of the sacrament, I could hold many callings as my parents and I did all those years between 1972-78, and also keep the commandments of the Lord and be blessed for doing so. None of these privileges of membership was denied me. I simply could not officiate in priesthood ordinances like my peers, nor enter a temple and receive my own endowment, nor be sealed to my parents, but other than that all other privileges of membership were available to me.
"Actually, I would argue that the ban afforded me and other Black Latter-day Saints an still ongoing opportunity to display the depth of our commitment to the Lord and his kingdom in a specific way that our fellow Latter-day Saints of other races will never be able to experience.
"Let me illustrate what I mean by the expression 'ongoing opportunity.' During the three years it took me to complete my Ph.D. at Brigham Young University, I was a part-time lecturer for both the Sociology and the Church History & Doctrine Departments. I remember that every semester at least one African American student would come to my office with a major question because of he or she would have heard somebody saying that since they were from the 'cursed lineage' they would not enter the celestial kingdom. Often I would respond half-jokingly that this was a very well known false doctrine because it could not be found in the scriptures and had never been accepted officially by the Church. And then I would ask those students: Why were you baptized? What do we call baptism? Invariably they would respond that baptism is the gate to the celestial kingdom, to which I would reply, if baptism is the gate to the celestial kingdom how come after living faithfully your whole life you would not be allowed to go there? And those students would see that that idea - that Blacks would not enter the celestial kingdom - was inconsistent with the true doctrines of the restored gospel.
"Although they had been baptized long after the priesthood ban had disappeared, these young people still had to exercise the same faith as the early (i.e. pre-1978) Black converts in order to remain active in the Church. That’s what I meant by an ongoing opportunity to display the depth of one’s commitment to the restored gospel.
In my mind, the priesthood ban and its associated rationales were never part of the restored gospel. I would argue that they constituted educated responses to the social environment in which the Church existed in the late 19th and most of the 20th century. Let me try to expand this insight by resorting to a typology of laws that I conceived a few years ago.
"While attempting to categorize different laws we are subject to, I envisioned different 'levels' which would begin with the eternal the law of the celestial kingdom, and then after that the law of the kingdom of God on the earth. The next level would come from an expression used by Lord himself in the Doctrine & Covenants, moral agency. Growing out of our moral agency we have several mortal laws and customs, including cultural traits and social norms.
"Of course this diagram, this model if you will, would be incomplete if we did not account for the opposite, that is, evil. So I added evil, outside of the diagram, meaning something that does not come from God. And for the lack of a better term I called it wicked laws and customs.
"We begin with the law of the Celestial Kingdom. Here we find the so-called 'laws of nature.' Elder James E. Talmage proposed that the Holy Ghost, as the third member of the Godhead, controls the forces of nature - gravity, sound, heat, electricity, etc. We may assume that electromagnetism and perhaps even the weak and strong nuclear forces might also be controlled by the Holy Ghost.
"Therefore, I call 'laws of nature' those laws that govern the creation or organization of worlds and the maintenance of these planets, solar systems, and galaxies and so on. At that level I also envision the Law of Consecration, which is the law of the celestial kingdom as the Lord stated in a revelation contained in section 78 of the Doctrine & Covenants. Next we find the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, as contained in sections 131 and 132 of the Doctrine & Covenants. These are laws that people everywhere, regardless of religious affiliation, aspire to live, even if their religious denominations do not officially subscribe to such beliefs. Some may call it instinct. Call it whatever it is, these eternal laws are inescapable, overwhelming, and deeply ingrained in us....
"These laws I just mentioned - the laws of nature, consecration, and marriage, constitute the category that I called the law of the celestial kingdom.
"Next we arrive at what I called the law of the kingdom of God on the earth. And this is where we would find the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice and associated with sacrifice we have repentance because in order to repent we need to sacrifice something - some appetite, some passion, some pleasure, in order to conform ourselves to the laws of God that we accepted and covenanted to obey.
"In this level we would find baptism, prayer, chastity, tithing and offerings, the law of the Sabbath, and the Word of Wisdom.
"Next we arrive at moral agency. This characteristic, if you will, is another universal human trait. By nature - regardless of nationality, culture, religion, or philosophy of life - every human being has a natural disposition to respect and revere life, liberty, limb, property and virtue. Everybody has that naturally, although some may fight that influence until they no longer feel its effects.
"Then, growing out of that moral agency we would have then what I call moral laws and customs; and this is where we would find our political, economic, legal, and social systems. These are human developments made in response to circumstances around us under the influence of the moral agency that the Lord gave us.
"In this level we would include constitutions of nations, contracts, associations and civil marriages. We have eternal marriage in the law of the celestial kingdom, and here under mortal laws we have civil marriages for time only, or 'til death do you part'.
"In this level of the diagram we would also find social and cultural norms, or what is considered right and wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, in specific social contexts, and in social interactions.
"As I mentioned earlier, I also had to include wicked laws and wicked customs in this typology. Here we would find unrighteous dominion in all its forms - including tyranny and any form of oppression, and also bondage and slavery. We should realize that there are many types of bondage. Bondage is not limited only to slavery itself, but there are also those who are in bondage to chemical dependency due to substance abuse, including drugs, perhaps even food. We also find people in financial bondage because of excessive debt.
"Considering our lack of additional information on the origins of the priesthood ban, I have used my typology to categorize the ban as a mortal law, or in other words, a rule or regulation established as an educated response to the social environment in which the Church existed in the late 19th and most of the 20th century. This would have been what those Church leaders of 150-or-so years ago felt was the best approach at the time, and they used the keys of the priesthood in their possession to enforce it. And because of his inscrutable purposes, the Lord remained silent about the issue until June 1, 1978. This categorization and hypothesis will be sufficient to me personally until evidence is presented of the existence of a revelation dated in the 19th century establishing the ban.
"The main consequence of seeing the ban as a mortal law, and not part of the everlasting gospel is that in the things that matter most I was not losing anything. I could enjoy every blessing of the restored gospel - with the noted exception of the temple ordinances and officiating in priesthood ordinances. But I could enjoy everything else. I could have a testimony through the power of the Holy Ghost, and indeed I received many testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel and of the message of the restoration. Some individuals might claim that they were not so fortunate as I was, but for such cases, let me explain something about testimonies. In a revelation the Lord said something interesting about spiritual gifts. 'To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful.'...
"So, until 1978 there I was, without the priesthood but having the power of the Holy Ghost and the promise of eternal life. And the question is, wasn’t that enough already? Sure, it would have been wonderful to have enjoyed every available blessing prior to 1978, but we had solemn promises that one day we would enjoy every available blessing. That’s why I ask the question, 'Wasn’t that enough?' Nobody lost anything, no person with Black African ancestry lost anything, by becoming a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints prior to 1978 without being able to hold the priesthood. A person could enjoy most of the blessings of membership in the Church. But here we are, and the good news is that that’s past, and today all of us can enjoy those blessings. So that brings us the next question: 'Where do we stand today?'
"Reflecting on the long-term consequences of the revelation on the priesthood, President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that it created the conditions for the fulfillment of the scripture found in Doctrine & Covenants 1:20, which states: '...that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.'
"In the known history of the dispensations of the gospel, this revelation from 1978 - until we know more about past dispensations including in other places of the world that we may know nothing about - until we know more, this revelation stands next in importance with the revelation that extended the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles in the Meridian of Times. As the words spoken by President Hinckley suggest, the 1978 revelation represented an important step in the restoration of the fulness of the priesthood. The honors and privileges besought by ancient pharaohs and emperors are now available to all those who choose to come unto Christ. This has opened the way for men and women on the entire planet to become one day priests and kings to the Most High by obeying the laws and ordinances of the restored gospel.
"We just saw the end of the 20th century. The scriptures reveal that one thousand of our years is like one day for the Lord, so I don’t suppose he would care that much about our calendar and changes of years, centuries, and so on. '...all these are one year with God, but not with man.' But for us these things are important. We just saw the 20th century come to a close, and it has been a phenomenal century. We saw the best and the worst in humanity. Previously unimaginable heights and depths, world wars, violence and destruction beyond comprehension, horrors that we would not see even in our worst nightmares did in fact take place in many parts of the world. But when we consider also the achievements, the developments, the triumphs of the human spirit, and despite terrorism, drug trafficking, despite everything–when we see what looks like the beginning of a global renaissance, unprecedented, far-reaching, we have to exclaim, 'What a wonderful time to be alive!'
"Therefore, what befalls on us now is to perpetuate whatever is good, and improve it if possible. Teach the people the lessons from the past without reliving or reopening old wounds. That is what I have been trying to do.
"I shared the personal perspective that I did not lose anything of eternal significance prior to 1978. The priesthood is the Lord’s. The Church is the Lord’s. He allows his priesthood to be bestowed upon whoever he wants. He may take away the priesthood whenever he wants. It’s his church he can do whatever he wants, as far as I am concerned.
"This is a time for activity, not for activism. I consider myself and I hope to be worthy of the title of being a humble follower of Jesus Christ, and the honor of being a minister of his gospel. All I want is to serve in his kingdom - to teach, to testify. And that is what I’ve been doing most of my life as a member of this Church. Because of where my wife and I come from, we have had many opportunities to serve in many capacities in the Church. We don’t aspire to positions. We only aspire to be saved in the presence of the Father with our family and loved ones. But the Lord found me at least sufficiently worthy to receive this priesthood, and he granted my wife and me the blessing of being sealed in the house of the Lord for time and all eternity.
"There is a lot of violence and war in this world. All over the world there are those who seem unable to let go of the hatreds and prejudices of the past, and others who cannot stop reliving the pains of the past. My response to both groups today is still the same I have been giving for years.
"For those who may still be unwilling or unprepared to leave the past behind, I only suggest that while they feel so they follow the Apostle Paul’s admonition to be '...an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.' People can over time prove through works - which will have a more powerful and permanent effect than any lingering prejudice - that they are indeed choice spirits kept in reserve for this era to testify to the world through deeds that 'God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.'
"The first temple in West Africa was dedicated in Accra, Ghana, in January of 2004. The Aba Nigeria Temple followed in August of 2005. There is a great significance in having these temples operating in our days. Their presence in Equatorial Africa seem to expand the meaning and applicability of the beautiful prophecy included in a solemn proclamation to the world written by then-Elder Wilford Woodruff and endorsed by the Twelve Apostles in 1845:
'The despised and degraded son of the forest, who has wandered in dejection and sorrow, and suffered reproach, shall then drop his disguise and stand forth in manly dignity, and exclaim to the Gentiles who have envied and sold him - "I am Joseph; does my father yet live?" Or, in other words, I am a descendant of that Joseph who was sold into Egypt. You have hated me, and sold me, and thought I was dead; but lo! I live and am heir to the inheritance, titles, honors, priesthood, scepter, crown, throne, and eternal life and dignity of my fathers, who live for evermore.
'He shall then be ordained, washed, anointed with holy oil, and arrayed in fine linen, even in the glorious and beautiful garments and royal robes of the high priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God; and shall enter into the Holy of Holies, there to be crowned with authority and power which shall never end.
'The spirit of the Lord shall then descend upon him like the dew upon the mountains of Hermon, and like refreshing showers of rain upon the flowers of Paradise. His heart shall expand with knowledge, wide as eternity, and his mind shall comprehend the vast creations of his God, and his eternal purpose of redemption, glory, and exaltation, which was devised in heaven before the worlds were organized; but made manifest in these last days, for the fullness of the Gentiles, and for the exaltation of Israel. He shall also behold his Redeemer, and be filled with His presence, while the cloud of His glory shall be seen in His temple.'
"For many years I had a somber thought in my mind and I’m going to share something very personal with you, something I never disclosed in public before. I have the thought, the somber thought, is that my existence and all the blessings and privileges I enjoy today were the result of some of my ancestors being brought from somewhere in Africa as slaves to a life of horrible suffering and abuse by the hands of others of my ancestors. But then one day I remembered that our father Joseph was also sold as a slave.
"My recent ancestors were no different than Joseph. Joseph also suffered horribly when he was sold to the Midianites and later to the Egyptians. My father Joseph knows what it means to be a slave. But because of the blessings of God, and because of his faithfulness, the Lord placed him as the second in command in Egypt.
"I don’t have any such expectations, of course, since I’m not running for political office or anything. But if I am faithful, I’ll have those thrones, principalities, dominions and exaltations promised to my wife and me when we were sealed in the temple almost three decades ago. If my children and all of us do our part and live faithfully we will have those blessings as well. And together we will be able to stand and ask, 'I am Joseph, does my father yet live?' And then we will claim all our blessings, all the honors, all the prerogatives and privileges of the holy priesthood in the kingdom of heaven. Blessings we can’t fully understand at this time, but enough for all of us and billions and billions of our brothers and sisters.
"I don’t know if my words will make a whole lot of sense to some; I wish I had far more eloquence. But I can tell you this much, that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church on the face of the earth, that it is led by living prophets, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. There are many things we don’t understand, and some may be hard to bear, but this is the place.
"There are many good churches in the world, many great philosophies that provide varying measures of intellectual or spiritual satisfaction to billions of people. But in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have the power of the priesthood, the oracles of the Lord, his living prophets, the ordinances that can prepare us to once again enter the presence of God, clothed in immortality and eternal life to live forever with our fathers Adam and Abraham and Joseph. I testify that these things are true and that this is part of the true gospel of Jesus Christ."
Next: The Church of Jesus Christ and Black People 2007-2010
Main Page: Latter-day Saint Racial History
"To begin, I think it’s no surprise to any of us that few human traits throughout history have been used more persistently as a justification for so much hatred, brutality, inhumanity, and pain, than race.
"Since its beginnings in the 1830s the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has also been affected by the issue of race. The Church is managed largely by a lay clergy - in many cases around the world a clergy composed of relatively recent converts - because of that, the Church of Jesus Christ is not entirely immune to the predicaments found in the societies in which the members of the Church live.
"I am a Black man of mixed African and European ancestry, and I have been a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints since 1972. I was the first member of my race to serve a full-time mission after the revelation that extended the priesthood to worthy men with Black African ancestry in 1978. I was also among the first to be ordained a high priest in 1981 and quite possibly - at least outside of Africa - I may have been among the first to be ordained a bishop in 1987. Since 1994 I have been the first of my race (or mixed race, whatever) to work as a religion professor in the Church’s universities: Brigham Young University; then Rick’s College; BYU-Idaho and BYU-Hawaii.
"As a researcher I may have read everything official or semi-official statement available to the public about the priesthood ban. Unfortunately, truth must be told, after reading such documents any reasonable person will agree that Latter-day Saints with some measure of Black African ancestry have carried a heavy burden in addition to whatever they may have had to deal in society. Since I joined the Church in 1972 terms such as: cursed; less valiant; fence-sitter; Cain’s lineage; and others too impolite to be repeated, have been used from time to time by fellow Latter-day Saints to refer to me or those who share my racial background. That’s part of the legacy, if you will, or I would call it more of a burden that members of the Church with Black African ancestry have had to deal with and notice I’m from Brazil - I’m talking about my experiences in Brazil not just in the United States in the last 16 years.
"Back in 1995 President Gordon B. Hinckley stated to CBS reporter Mike Wallace that such things are 'behind us.' One cannot help but wonder how far behind have Latter-day Saints as a people put this shameful tradition? Could it be that some in our midst have been carrying these ideas on their backs, instead of truly leaving them 'behind'? As for me, I am sure that the Board of Trustees of Brigham Young University - which includes members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve - would not have approved my appointment as chair of the department of religious education at Brigham Young University-Hawaii if they believed that I was cursed, less valiant or whatever.
"I decided a number of years ago to leave these matters to the judgment of Him who knows all things. There is enough war, needless contention, and tragic destruction in this world. I certainly don’t want to add to any of those. Therefore, I have focused my attention on teaching the gospel of the Prince of Peace, the Savior Jesus Christ, according to the dictates of our conscience, and bring people to faith, repentance, pure Christ-like love, and obedience to the commandments of God - the only way to peace and happiness in this life.
"Still, every year I receive a number of e-mails and phone calls from people around the world asking me questions - most of the time politely - about race and the priesthood ban. A young African American sister once asked me whether it was 'abnormal' to feel annoyed by the priesthood ban. I told her that all human beings have feelings, and we cannot fully stifle this important part of our humanity, which is race. My only suggestion - and I have done this myself - is to not allow this issue to importune our children and grandchildren. Whether we like it or not, the priesthood ban is an integral part of the history of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in this dispensation. We can’t hide it. We can’t whitewash it. There’s nothing to do - it’s part of the history. But just like the Mountain Meadows massacre and other unfortunate episodes, the ban may be remembered as an undeniable fact in history - but never as a significant factor to the present.
"Therefore, for the benefit of those who never contacted me, I will share a few of my own insights on the priesthood ban based on my current understanding of the scriptures and doctrines of the Church.
"In my mind the priesthood ban was never part of the everlasting gospel, and I have found peace in the idea that the Lord allowed the ban to remain in his Church in order to fulfill his inscrutable purposes whatever they are. That belief leads me to conclude that the ban never jeopardized my eternal salvation. There were a few significant privileges of membership in the Church that I could not enjoy before June of 1978; a few very significant things, but not very many. I was able to receive the ordinance of baptism, I received the Holy Ghost, I could pay my tithing, I could read the scriptures, I could pray, I could partake of the sacrament, I could hold many callings as my parents and I did all those years between 1972-78, and also keep the commandments of the Lord and be blessed for doing so. None of these privileges of membership was denied me. I simply could not officiate in priesthood ordinances like my peers, nor enter a temple and receive my own endowment, nor be sealed to my parents, but other than that all other privileges of membership were available to me.
"Actually, I would argue that the ban afforded me and other Black Latter-day Saints an still ongoing opportunity to display the depth of our commitment to the Lord and his kingdom in a specific way that our fellow Latter-day Saints of other races will never be able to experience.
"Let me illustrate what I mean by the expression 'ongoing opportunity.' During the three years it took me to complete my Ph.D. at Brigham Young University, I was a part-time lecturer for both the Sociology and the Church History & Doctrine Departments. I remember that every semester at least one African American student would come to my office with a major question because of he or she would have heard somebody saying that since they were from the 'cursed lineage' they would not enter the celestial kingdom. Often I would respond half-jokingly that this was a very well known false doctrine because it could not be found in the scriptures and had never been accepted officially by the Church. And then I would ask those students: Why were you baptized? What do we call baptism? Invariably they would respond that baptism is the gate to the celestial kingdom, to which I would reply, if baptism is the gate to the celestial kingdom how come after living faithfully your whole life you would not be allowed to go there? And those students would see that that idea - that Blacks would not enter the celestial kingdom - was inconsistent with the true doctrines of the restored gospel.
"Although they had been baptized long after the priesthood ban had disappeared, these young people still had to exercise the same faith as the early (i.e. pre-1978) Black converts in order to remain active in the Church. That’s what I meant by an ongoing opportunity to display the depth of one’s commitment to the restored gospel.
In my mind, the priesthood ban and its associated rationales were never part of the restored gospel. I would argue that they constituted educated responses to the social environment in which the Church existed in the late 19th and most of the 20th century. Let me try to expand this insight by resorting to a typology of laws that I conceived a few years ago.
"While attempting to categorize different laws we are subject to, I envisioned different 'levels' which would begin with the eternal the law of the celestial kingdom, and then after that the law of the kingdom of God on the earth. The next level would come from an expression used by Lord himself in the Doctrine & Covenants, moral agency. Growing out of our moral agency we have several mortal laws and customs, including cultural traits and social norms.
"Of course this diagram, this model if you will, would be incomplete if we did not account for the opposite, that is, evil. So I added evil, outside of the diagram, meaning something that does not come from God. And for the lack of a better term I called it wicked laws and customs.
"We begin with the law of the Celestial Kingdom. Here we find the so-called 'laws of nature.' Elder James E. Talmage proposed that the Holy Ghost, as the third member of the Godhead, controls the forces of nature - gravity, sound, heat, electricity, etc. We may assume that electromagnetism and perhaps even the weak and strong nuclear forces might also be controlled by the Holy Ghost.
"Therefore, I call 'laws of nature' those laws that govern the creation or organization of worlds and the maintenance of these planets, solar systems, and galaxies and so on. At that level I also envision the Law of Consecration, which is the law of the celestial kingdom as the Lord stated in a revelation contained in section 78 of the Doctrine & Covenants. Next we find the new and everlasting covenant of marriage, as contained in sections 131 and 132 of the Doctrine & Covenants. These are laws that people everywhere, regardless of religious affiliation, aspire to live, even if their religious denominations do not officially subscribe to such beliefs. Some may call it instinct. Call it whatever it is, these eternal laws are inescapable, overwhelming, and deeply ingrained in us....
"These laws I just mentioned - the laws of nature, consecration, and marriage, constitute the category that I called the law of the celestial kingdom.
"Next we arrive at what I called the law of the kingdom of God on the earth. And this is where we would find the law of obedience, the law of sacrifice and associated with sacrifice we have repentance because in order to repent we need to sacrifice something - some appetite, some passion, some pleasure, in order to conform ourselves to the laws of God that we accepted and covenanted to obey.
"In this level we would find baptism, prayer, chastity, tithing and offerings, the law of the Sabbath, and the Word of Wisdom.
"Next we arrive at moral agency. This characteristic, if you will, is another universal human trait. By nature - regardless of nationality, culture, religion, or philosophy of life - every human being has a natural disposition to respect and revere life, liberty, limb, property and virtue. Everybody has that naturally, although some may fight that influence until they no longer feel its effects.
"Then, growing out of that moral agency we would have then what I call moral laws and customs; and this is where we would find our political, economic, legal, and social systems. These are human developments made in response to circumstances around us under the influence of the moral agency that the Lord gave us.
"In this level we would include constitutions of nations, contracts, associations and civil marriages. We have eternal marriage in the law of the celestial kingdom, and here under mortal laws we have civil marriages for time only, or 'til death do you part'.
"In this level of the diagram we would also find social and cultural norms, or what is considered right and wrong, appropriate or inappropriate, in specific social contexts, and in social interactions.
"As I mentioned earlier, I also had to include wicked laws and wicked customs in this typology. Here we would find unrighteous dominion in all its forms - including tyranny and any form of oppression, and also bondage and slavery. We should realize that there are many types of bondage. Bondage is not limited only to slavery itself, but there are also those who are in bondage to chemical dependency due to substance abuse, including drugs, perhaps even food. We also find people in financial bondage because of excessive debt.
"Considering our lack of additional information on the origins of the priesthood ban, I have used my typology to categorize the ban as a mortal law, or in other words, a rule or regulation established as an educated response to the social environment in which the Church existed in the late 19th and most of the 20th century. This would have been what those Church leaders of 150-or-so years ago felt was the best approach at the time, and they used the keys of the priesthood in their possession to enforce it. And because of his inscrutable purposes, the Lord remained silent about the issue until June 1, 1978. This categorization and hypothesis will be sufficient to me personally until evidence is presented of the existence of a revelation dated in the 19th century establishing the ban.
"The main consequence of seeing the ban as a mortal law, and not part of the everlasting gospel is that in the things that matter most I was not losing anything. I could enjoy every blessing of the restored gospel - with the noted exception of the temple ordinances and officiating in priesthood ordinances. But I could enjoy everything else. I could have a testimony through the power of the Holy Ghost, and indeed I received many testimonies of the truthfulness of the gospel and of the message of the restoration. Some individuals might claim that they were not so fortunate as I was, but for such cases, let me explain something about testimonies. In a revelation the Lord said something interesting about spiritual gifts. 'To some it is given by the Holy Ghost to know that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, and that he was crucified for the sins of the world. To others it is given to believe on their words, that they also might have eternal life if they continue faithful.'...
"So, until 1978 there I was, without the priesthood but having the power of the Holy Ghost and the promise of eternal life. And the question is, wasn’t that enough already? Sure, it would have been wonderful to have enjoyed every available blessing prior to 1978, but we had solemn promises that one day we would enjoy every available blessing. That’s why I ask the question, 'Wasn’t that enough?' Nobody lost anything, no person with Black African ancestry lost anything, by becoming a member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints prior to 1978 without being able to hold the priesthood. A person could enjoy most of the blessings of membership in the Church. But here we are, and the good news is that that’s past, and today all of us can enjoy those blessings. So that brings us the next question: 'Where do we stand today?'
"Reflecting on the long-term consequences of the revelation on the priesthood, President Gordon B. Hinckley stated that it created the conditions for the fulfillment of the scripture found in Doctrine & Covenants 1:20, which states: '...that every man might speak in the name of God the Lord, even the Savior of the world.'
"In the known history of the dispensations of the gospel, this revelation from 1978 - until we know more about past dispensations including in other places of the world that we may know nothing about - until we know more, this revelation stands next in importance with the revelation that extended the preaching of the gospel to the Gentiles in the Meridian of Times. As the words spoken by President Hinckley suggest, the 1978 revelation represented an important step in the restoration of the fulness of the priesthood. The honors and privileges besought by ancient pharaohs and emperors are now available to all those who choose to come unto Christ. This has opened the way for men and women on the entire planet to become one day priests and kings to the Most High by obeying the laws and ordinances of the restored gospel.
"We just saw the end of the 20th century. The scriptures reveal that one thousand of our years is like one day for the Lord, so I don’t suppose he would care that much about our calendar and changes of years, centuries, and so on. '...all these are one year with God, but not with man.' But for us these things are important. We just saw the 20th century come to a close, and it has been a phenomenal century. We saw the best and the worst in humanity. Previously unimaginable heights and depths, world wars, violence and destruction beyond comprehension, horrors that we would not see even in our worst nightmares did in fact take place in many parts of the world. But when we consider also the achievements, the developments, the triumphs of the human spirit, and despite terrorism, drug trafficking, despite everything–when we see what looks like the beginning of a global renaissance, unprecedented, far-reaching, we have to exclaim, 'What a wonderful time to be alive!'
"Therefore, what befalls on us now is to perpetuate whatever is good, and improve it if possible. Teach the people the lessons from the past without reliving or reopening old wounds. That is what I have been trying to do.
"I shared the personal perspective that I did not lose anything of eternal significance prior to 1978. The priesthood is the Lord’s. The Church is the Lord’s. He allows his priesthood to be bestowed upon whoever he wants. He may take away the priesthood whenever he wants. It’s his church he can do whatever he wants, as far as I am concerned.
"This is a time for activity, not for activism. I consider myself and I hope to be worthy of the title of being a humble follower of Jesus Christ, and the honor of being a minister of his gospel. All I want is to serve in his kingdom - to teach, to testify. And that is what I’ve been doing most of my life as a member of this Church. Because of where my wife and I come from, we have had many opportunities to serve in many capacities in the Church. We don’t aspire to positions. We only aspire to be saved in the presence of the Father with our family and loved ones. But the Lord found me at least sufficiently worthy to receive this priesthood, and he granted my wife and me the blessing of being sealed in the house of the Lord for time and all eternity.
"There is a lot of violence and war in this world. All over the world there are those who seem unable to let go of the hatreds and prejudices of the past, and others who cannot stop reliving the pains of the past. My response to both groups today is still the same I have been giving for years.
"For those who may still be unwilling or unprepared to leave the past behind, I only suggest that while they feel so they follow the Apostle Paul’s admonition to be '...an example of the believers, in word, in conversation, in charity, in spirit, in faith, in purity.' People can over time prove through works - which will have a more powerful and permanent effect than any lingering prejudice - that they are indeed choice spirits kept in reserve for this era to testify to the world through deeds that 'God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.'
"The first temple in West Africa was dedicated in Accra, Ghana, in January of 2004. The Aba Nigeria Temple followed in August of 2005. There is a great significance in having these temples operating in our days. Their presence in Equatorial Africa seem to expand the meaning and applicability of the beautiful prophecy included in a solemn proclamation to the world written by then-Elder Wilford Woodruff and endorsed by the Twelve Apostles in 1845:
'The despised and degraded son of the forest, who has wandered in dejection and sorrow, and suffered reproach, shall then drop his disguise and stand forth in manly dignity, and exclaim to the Gentiles who have envied and sold him - "I am Joseph; does my father yet live?" Or, in other words, I am a descendant of that Joseph who was sold into Egypt. You have hated me, and sold me, and thought I was dead; but lo! I live and am heir to the inheritance, titles, honors, priesthood, scepter, crown, throne, and eternal life and dignity of my fathers, who live for evermore.
'He shall then be ordained, washed, anointed with holy oil, and arrayed in fine linen, even in the glorious and beautiful garments and royal robes of the high priesthood, which is after the order of the Son of God; and shall enter into the Holy of Holies, there to be crowned with authority and power which shall never end.
'The spirit of the Lord shall then descend upon him like the dew upon the mountains of Hermon, and like refreshing showers of rain upon the flowers of Paradise. His heart shall expand with knowledge, wide as eternity, and his mind shall comprehend the vast creations of his God, and his eternal purpose of redemption, glory, and exaltation, which was devised in heaven before the worlds were organized; but made manifest in these last days, for the fullness of the Gentiles, and for the exaltation of Israel. He shall also behold his Redeemer, and be filled with His presence, while the cloud of His glory shall be seen in His temple.'
"For many years I had a somber thought in my mind and I’m going to share something very personal with you, something I never disclosed in public before. I have the thought, the somber thought, is that my existence and all the blessings and privileges I enjoy today were the result of some of my ancestors being brought from somewhere in Africa as slaves to a life of horrible suffering and abuse by the hands of others of my ancestors. But then one day I remembered that our father Joseph was also sold as a slave.
"My recent ancestors were no different than Joseph. Joseph also suffered horribly when he was sold to the Midianites and later to the Egyptians. My father Joseph knows what it means to be a slave. But because of the blessings of God, and because of his faithfulness, the Lord placed him as the second in command in Egypt.
"I don’t have any such expectations, of course, since I’m not running for political office or anything. But if I am faithful, I’ll have those thrones, principalities, dominions and exaltations promised to my wife and me when we were sealed in the temple almost three decades ago. If my children and all of us do our part and live faithfully we will have those blessings as well. And together we will be able to stand and ask, 'I am Joseph, does my father yet live?' And then we will claim all our blessings, all the honors, all the prerogatives and privileges of the holy priesthood in the kingdom of heaven. Blessings we can’t fully understand at this time, but enough for all of us and billions and billions of our brothers and sisters.
"I don’t know if my words will make a whole lot of sense to some; I wish I had far more eloquence. But I can tell you this much, that I know that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints is the only true and living church on the face of the earth, that it is led by living prophets, that Joseph Smith was a prophet of God. There are many things we don’t understand, and some may be hard to bear, but this is the place.
"There are many good churches in the world, many great philosophies that provide varying measures of intellectual or spiritual satisfaction to billions of people. But in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we have the power of the priesthood, the oracles of the Lord, his living prophets, the ordinances that can prepare us to once again enter the presence of God, clothed in immortality and eternal life to live forever with our fathers Adam and Abraham and Joseph. I testify that these things are true and that this is part of the true gospel of Jesus Christ."
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Main Page: Latter-day Saint Racial History
