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QUOTE (Shyloh)I must say that hearing this - Page 4 - Mormon Doctrine Studies - Posted: 16th Aug, 2007 - 11:51pm
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Controversial Mormon Issue.Post Date: 19th Nov, 2005 - 1:00am / Post ID: #
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood - Page 4
CHURCH MEMBERSHIP GROWING AMONG AFRICAN AMERICANS
See https://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article...80392/1001/NEWS
DETROIT, Michigan - Over the past 15 years, Detroit membership in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has grown from a handful to more than 1,000. Around the world, the rapidly growing Church has 12 million members, about half of them outside the United States. "As a black person who comes out of the inner city myself, I think African Americans are coming to see this Church as really welcoming us as brothers and sisters," said Church member Ahmad Corbitt.
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Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
Today we had an interesting District Conference. As you all are aware of, the Church recently started having these broadcast Conferences for different areas around the world with one of the First Presidency members speaking. We belong to the Caribbean so they specifically spoke about this area (with a huge Black population).
Pres. Monson started by giving some remarks that quite surprised me (basically because the Church does not speak publicly about it at all). He started by saying that Pres. Hinckley, Pres. Faust and Elder Boyd K. Packer are in charge of helping those who do not hold the Priesthood, to hold it one day. Then, he made the comparison to those who could not hold the Priesthood prior to 1978 (he made NO mention of ANY race). He shared testimonies of members when they found out they could now hold the Priesthood. He referred to the Black members of the Church at that time as "those members of a particular race who could not hold the Priesthood" (he said this sentence nervously, he was going to say Black but chose to say "particular race") Then he went on by saying that he had the privilege to seal one of the first families of that "particular race" in the Temple. The last name of this family was Freeman and then he said "Think about it Brothers and Sisters, Freeman. They were now FREE man and women".
Thoughts?
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood Studies Doctrine Mormon
An emotional Elder Oaks talks about when he found out the ban had been lifted and all worthy males were now able to receive the Priesthood regardless of their race:
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| I can't remember any time in my life when I felt greater joy and relief than when I learned that the priesthood was going to be available to all worthy males, whatever their ancestry. I had been troubled by this subject through college and my graduate school, at the University of Chicago where I went to law school. I had many black acquaintances when I lived in Chicago, the years "54 through "71. I had many times that my heart ached for that, and it ached for my Church, which I knew to be true and yet blessings of that Church were not available to a significant segment of our Heavenly Father's children. And I didn't understand why; I couldn't identify with any of the explanations that were given. Yet I sustained the action; I was confident that in the time of the Lord I would know more about it, so I went along on faith. Nobody was more relieved or more pleased when the word came. I remember where I was when I learned that the priesthood would be available to all worthy males, whatever their ancestry. I was at a mountain home that our family had purchased to have a place of refuge. I had my sons up there, and we were digging something. We had a big pile of dirt there. I"ve forgotten what it was now, but the phone rang in the house. I went inside, and it was Elder Boyd K. Packer. He said: "I have been appointed to advise you as a representative of the academic people, many of whom have been troubled by the ban on the priesthood, professors, and students, and so on. As president of Brigham Young University and as their representative [Elder Oaks was president of BYU at this time], I"ve been appointed to advise you that the revelation has been received that all worthy male members will be eligible to receive the priesthood, whatever their ancestry." I thanked him, and I went outside and I told my boys, and I sat down [voice cracks with emotion] on that pile of dirt and cried. And I still feel emotion for that moment. I cried for joy and relief that the Lord had spoken through His prophet, that His blessings were now available to all: the blessings of the priesthood, the blessings of the temple, the blessings of eternity. That's what we desired. I praise God for it. What I heard about the revelation on the priesthood can't add anything to the eyewitnesses that were there.But I would like to speak of that in terms of what I know about revelation. Revelation comes in a lot of different ways. God speaks to His children in many ways. A face-to-face vision of God is very rare. That was the First Vision of God to Joseph Smith. Another way that revelation comes is by the appearance of an angel. The Apostle Paul had that kind of experience. Revelation can also come in a dream or a vision. None of those were the experience in the revelation on the priesthood. Other ways that revelation comes are in comfort, (feeling of comfort), information, communicating restraint, or impeling one to do something, or to give a feeling. I think in the context of the descriptions that I have heard from my Brethren in the Quorum of the Twelve about the revelation on the priesthood, that was revelation that confirmed what they desired and gave them a feeling of rightness about the time. The prophet of the Lord, President Spencer W. Kimball, had pleaded with the Lord for guidance on this problem the Church faced as it became a worldwide church. It came in contact with more and more good and worthy and wonderful people who desired the blessings of the restored gospel and were blocked by the Church's position that they could not receive the priesthood. And I think everyone in that room desired and wished and hoped that the Lord would say, "This is the time." So they went to the Lord, I think with a semi-proposal, that this be done. But I was not there. I didn't hear the words spoken. But I have the feeling that everyone felt the need, everyone felt the rightness of it. I say a 'semi-proposal" because often when we pray for guidance we say, "I"m inclined to do this, is this right?" We look for confirmation. I"ve had that experience many times of confirming an action. Sometimes I"ll feel a restraint. I propose to do something and the feeling is profound: "Don't do it!" And I think that as I"ve heard the explanations that this was a profound feeling to confirm the rightness and the timing of what was being asked, and the feeling was sufficiently profound and sufficiently individual that people have described it in different ways. But it fits for me within many revelatory experiences I"ve had in my life. |
https://www.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/v/index.jsp...0004e94610aRCRD
This is what Elder Packer said about the experience:
| QUOTE |
| Well, we had the challenge and the restriction having to do with the priesthood. We thought, "Well, we can't change that, except it be by revelation." President Kimball was concerned about that for several years. He was praying about it, going to the temple about it, and then he called a meeting of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles in the temple. We counseled together - we do a lot of counseling - and then we had a prayer circle around the altar of the temple. The answer came. We all knew what the answer was - we didn't have to have it explained to us. No great lights went on, no voice was heard, we didn't know when we began that this would be the result. It began years before as an inspiration, a thought. Members of the Church can always put to the test things they don't understand or have a feeling they need inspiration about a thing. They can go pray about it. We"re given assurance that we are fairly safe when we act in that way. |
Page 4 Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
I found this very interesting in Deseret News (Church-owned newspaper). Read the whole article, specially the parts in bold.
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| Latter-day Saints and others still puzzled about the history of African-Americans within The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints will get a close-up look once a new documentary film is finished. Clips from "Nobody Knows: The Untold Story of Black Mormons," were previewed for participants at an annual apologetics conference for Latter-day Saints on Thursday, and producers are still seeking money to finish the independent film. Darius Gray and Margaret Young, authors of a historical fiction trilogy that traces the history of black LDS pioneers, have long dreamed about the project but began working in earnest two years ago after securing a $10,000 grant from the University of Utah. They told an audience at the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research at the South Towne Expo Center that they hope to have the "rough cut" of the documentary ready by Aug. 31, but they spent the last of their money this week and are seeking additional funding for the film's completion. Before June 1978, the LDS Church had a policy in place that denied the faith's priesthood to black males. That year, then-church President Spencer W. Kimball announced that he had received a revelation from God lifting the ban, and today the church actively proselytizes to African-Americans. But the history remains a sore spot for many potential converts and some church members. Folklore about the reasons for the ban persists in some quarters, and is something the producers - both active Latter-day Saints - are anxious to dispel. "The official answer (from the church) is, 'we don't know why"' the ban was in place, Gray said. "And that's important. It does away with the rationale that Cain killed Abel, or that blacks were less valiant (in a pre-Earth life), or that Noah's son, Ham, was cursed" with black skin that marked his descendants as unworthy. "The brethren (top LDS leaders) have disavowed that." In fact, a few black Latter-day Saints did hold the faith's priesthood during the nearly 150 years since the church was founded in 1830, Gray said, though that fact was not well-known among church members, either then or now. Gray, a black man who joined the church before the ban was lifted and who was among the first to receive the faith's priesthood in 1978, has long worked with top LDS leaders to help facilitate ministry among African-Americans. He said he's been given permission by those same church leaders to share his belief that the ban "was not imposed by God but was allowed by God" as a test for Latter-day Saints of all ethnic backgrounds. He believes it was "not a curse but a calling." |
Post Date: 16th Aug, 2007 - 11:21pm / Post ID: #
Priesthood Mormon and Blacks
| QUOTE |
| "Darius Gray and Margaret Young, authors of a historical fiction trilogy that traces the history of black LDS pioneers, have long dreamed about the project but began working in earnest two years ago after securing a $10,000 grant from the University of Utah. They told an audience at the Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research at the South Towne Expo Center that they hope to have the "rough cut" of the documentary ready by Aug. 31, but they spent the last of their money this week and are seeking additional funding for the film's completion." |
I was present at the FAIR conference and after a short presentation of this new film, Darius Gray and Margaret Young entertained some questions. One audience member asked why blacks were ever denied the priesthood. I was impressed with his answer. He gave a preface before stating his views, 1, that it was not church doctrine, 2, that it was supported scripturally, and 3, that he had been granted permission from the brethren to give this answer.
He began using John 9:2-3, in which Jesus' disciples question him about a blind man. "And his disciples asked him, saying, Master, who did sin, this man, or his parents, that he was born blind? Jesus answered, Neither hath this man sinned, nor his parents: but that the works of God should be made manifest in him."
He said the denial "was not imposed by God, but allowed by God" as a test to see how we would treat one another. Would those members of the church who could hold the priesthood become arrogant? Would those who were denied remain faithful or become bitter? He said the challenge would be the same for both groups. Would we maintain a love of God in our hearts?
I must say that hearing this view left me with more questions than it did answers.
Post Date: 16th Aug, 2007 - 11:43pm / Post ID: #
Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood
Journal of Discourses 2:142-143 by Brigham Young says:
When all the other children of Adam have had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood, and of coming into the kingdom of God, and of being redeemed from the four quarters of the earth, and have received their resurrection from the dead, then it will be time enough to remove the curse from Cain and his posterity. He deprived his brother of the privilege of pursuing his journey through life, and of extending his kingdom by multiplying upon the earth; and because he did this, he is the last to share the joys of the kingdom of God.
President Woodruff, in his journal, records the words of President Young as follows:
The Lord said, I will not kill Cain, but I will put a mark upon him, and that mark will be seen upon the face of every negro upon the face of the earth; and it is the decree of God that that mark shall remain upon the seed of Cain until the seed of Abel shall be redeemed, and Cain shall not receive the Priesthood, until the time of that redemption. Any man having one drop of the seed of Cain in him cannot receive the Priesthood; but the day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings which we now have.-History of Wilford Woodruff, p. 351.
At a meeting of the general authorities of the Church, held August 22, 1895, the question of the status of the negro in relation to the Priesthood was asked and the minutes of that meeting say:
"President George Q. Cannon remarked that the Prophet (Joseph) taught this doctrine: That the seed of Cain could not receive the Priesthood nor act in any of the offices of the Priesthood until the seed of Abel should come forward and take precedence over Cain's offspring."
I wonder about this because obviously "all the other children of Adam have" NOT "had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood", and won't until the millennium (at the earliest). This seems to contradict what has happened in the church with the 1978 revelation. I wonder why the Lord appears to have changed his stance. Was it the faithfulness of the people in their pleadings? Or were the early church brethren incorrect in their teachings, perhaps because if their prejudices?
Blacks & Mormon Priesthood - Page 4
shyloh, this topic fascinates me. I am glad you had the chance to attend FAIR conference.
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| I was impressed with his answer. He gave a preface before stating his views, 1, that it was not church doctrine, 2, that it was supported scripturally, and 3, that he had been granted permission from the brethren to give this answer. |
You meant it is not supported scripturally? The few scriptures I read on the topic never convinced me that it was God's wish to ban the Priesthood to the Blacks as well as deny the chance of black women going to the temple.
I researched quite a bit on this topic and came to the conclusion that our leaders at that time were "victims" of the beliefs that most people held. It was purely prejudice and racism in my opinion.
| QUOTE |
| I wonder about this because obviously "all the other children of Adam have" NOT "had the privilege of receiving the Priesthood", and won't until the millennium (at the earliest). This seems to contradict what has happened in the church with the 1978 revelation |
That's correct. Bruce R. Mc Conkie had also preached about the Blacks not able to have the Priesthood until the millennium many times until after the 1978, he had to stand up in General Conference and said (I am paraphrasing here) "Forget everything I or anybody else have said about this issue. The Lord have spoken".
Blacks & Mormon Priesthood Mormon Doctrine Studies - Page 4
| QUOTE (Shyloh) |
| I must say that hearing this view left me with more questions than it did answers. |
I know what you mean. Some years back when I was visiting Utah (1997) I met Darrius along with Ozwald Balfour, a person with the media part of the Church emphasizing Blacks, and they took me to a Genesis meeting which basically brought the Blacks together to talk about whatever feelings they had because of being Black and a Member of the Church. After the meeting I could not help but wonder what it was about really, but I guess it was doing something for some people who felt there are current 'issues' with their place in the Church.
The answers Darrius gave (as above) seemed interesting, but I am not sure I buy into the idea that men were denied the priesthood as just a 'test' simply because the priesthood is not an optional thing, but very necessary for salvation. You have to consider that this 'test' would have meant that generations of people could not be sealed, go to the temple or participate in the most basic of ordinances.
TOPIC: Blacks & The Mormon Priesthood