The mistake Latter-day Saints made with the Priesthood restriction and how we are repeating it.
The Mistake Latter-day Saints Made With The Priesthood Restriction.
We as mortals desire to know 'the why' for anything and everything. The curiosity of little kids is the hallmark of this aspect of human nature. In 1852 Brigham Young announced that men of black African descent could no longer be ordained to the priesthood. The Lord did not give his reasons as to why this revelation was given to Brigham Young. In fact, the Lord seldom gives 'the why' behind a commandment. That is where faith comes in. The biggest problem that we as members of the church face is accepting that often no reason given, rather than attributing a reason ourselves.
With no reason given for the restriction, people started to advance and teach their theories explaining 'the why' behind the restriction; this became a widespread practice even among the seventies and apostles. Sadly, these philosophies of men mingled with scripture gained a foothold. It is one of the tragedies of this era of church history that these theorize of men were advanced and taught; from these theories comes every damaging and disparaging quote about Blacks and the Priesthood. People even used these theories to justify repugnant racism.
I wish to share what Elder McConkie said regarding the theories, including the theories he propagated, “Forget everything I have said, or what…Brigham Young…or whomsoever has said…that is contrary to the present revelation. We spoke with a limited understanding and without the light and knowledge that now has come into the world.”~ Bruce R. McConkie
Rather than speculate on 'the why' behind the Priesthood restriction, members and especially leaders should've said: "We don't know why it is restricted, The Lord has not revealed that. But He has revealed that in His own due time it will be lifted." After all, there are dozens of quotes about the end of the restriction by Church leaders as far back as Brigham Young, who said, "At some future day, black Church members would “have [all] the privilege and more” enjoyed by other members." If we had but done this, we would've been saved from most of the heartache related to the Priesthood restriction.
We have not learned the lesson, and history is repeating.
After all the damage done by speculating on why blacks were restricted from holding the priesthood, you would think that members would stay clear of speculating on 'the why' behind commandments; but sadly that is not the case. Many times we still speculate on 'the why,' and it causes a lot of damage. There are multiple examples of this, but the classic example is the Word of Wisdom: With the Word of Wisdom, we have been taught to abstain from hot drinks. Hyrum and Joseph Smith both explained that by 'hot drinks' the Lord meant tea and coffee, but the Lord does not give 'the why' for the prohibition on tea and coffee.
I wish that members of the Church would be a little more Jewish when asked why we don't drink tea or coffee. What do I mean? Could you imagine a Jew being asked, "Why can't you eat pork?" Replying with, "Well, pork has a lot of carcinogens" or "It is super fatty" or "It is high in cholesterol and is bad for your heart." Even the thought of a Jew replying that way is laughable! They would answer, "It is not Kosher, and in the Law of Moses, we were commanded not to eat it." They are not ashamed to be a peculiar covenant people.
Instead of boldly declaring that God asked us not drink tea or coffee in the Word of Wisdom, often we give a temporal reason like, "It's because of the Tannic Acid" or "It's the caffeine" or "it is bad for you!" But once again, speculating brings in a multitude of problems. One of the biggest challenges is the fact that reasons like caffeine and tannic acid bring the follow-up questions of "What about other things that have caffeine?" Then suddenly, like blacks and the priesthood, we start to mingle the doctrines of men with scripture, and we begin to have fads and theories taught instead of the doctrine, We have faux commandments being taught by members that caffeinated soda is against the word of wisdom, or decaffeinated coffee is ok.
Let us learn from the mistakes made by our predecessors and not attribute our theories to God's actions. Above that, let us refuse to propagate the opinions of men. Ours is the duty to ensure we follow the Prophet and do not mingle philosophies of men with scripture. Elder Hartman Rector, Jr, taught this when he said, "We are not called to preach the philosophies of men mingled with scripture or our own ideas or the mysteries of the kingdom, nor are we called to bring forth new doctrine. The president of the Church will do that. But we are to stick to the basic fundamental principles of the gospel." (January 1974 Ensign). In the coming years, there will be times when the Lord will give the church commandments through the prophet, or you will receive personal revelation, and the only reasoning we will have is the witness of the Spirit and "because God has commanded me to do so." Our real test is to follow God and His prophet even when 'the why' is withheld on His commands.
Revelation comes from the Godhead.
I do not believe we made any "mistakes" by waiting on Gods timing.
Everything we do is deliberate and based on clear promptings from the Holy Spirit and not whatever the political movement of the time is.
You need to decide yourself....
Do you know better than God? Can you run his restored church on the earth better than he can? If you think you can, that might be the real problem.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
I will stand with the Prophet and Apostles and STAND AGAINST those that criticize and slander the church making claims we made mistakes and continue to make more mistakes. All you are doing is keeping old issues alive and keeping the church in a bad light.
The article is nothing but social justice and political agenda calling members "racists" and slandering their character. There will be no future for the church in a socialist America. Socialism or Social Justice is in no way compatible with Christianity either. They oppose one another.
The only thing I am ashamed of, is that this article was allowed on an LDS Facebook group.
Its just garbage.
Michael, did you even read this article? I am saying the only mistake made was when we advanced our own theories as to why the ban was put in place. Some of these theories gave Creedence to racists, these theories are ALL disavowed by the church. I am simply saying rather than advance theories to justify keeping the commandments keep them out of faith, even if you don't know why God is wanting you to do it.
It is an expression of God's justice and mercy towards His children and the Church's love for its members for the Church to prioritize telling the truth above maintaining a flawless image. If you choose to stand with the Prophet and Apostles, please also stand with their decisions to openly discuss the failings of previous Church leaders and members in the Gospel Topics essays. Please stand with their pleas to be honest and trustworthy to God and our fellow brothers and sisters in the world. Your worth and value before God and to yourself does not depend on how others choose to perceive the Church and God's servants. You're worth more than that.
@Michael Kirk, I don't think you understand the article
@Michael Kirk, The beginning of your comment basically repeated what the author of this article said and then you make a comment like you didn't read the article. What?
The statement putting the priesthood ban all on Brigham's shoulders in 1852 is FALSE!
It astounds me at the amount of false doctrine and false history that this blob promotes.
That is the date the Church historians peg it on. As per https://www.churchofjesuschrist.org/study/manual/gospel-topics-essays/race-and-the-priesthood?lang=eng
Jeremy, thank you for this! It is such a good reminder for me to show the Lord my faith, trust and love for Him through my obedience to His commandments without questioning the whys. I think of Adam and Eve offering sacrafices to the Lord despite not knowing why. They were obedient and the why was later revealed.
Excellent, and the timing of this is article perfect.
I thought the article was enlightening as I can see our tendency to do just that --- to always be asking "why?" I have several kids who can pronounce that word the best and sometimes I just can't give them an answer.
I have often wondered if, if for no other reason, following the Word of Wisdom keep us from blending in with the rest of the world (aka, avoiding worldliness). But there I go, that's just my theory. Bottom line is that I strive to live the Word of Wisdom regardless of what I think some of the reasons for doing so might be.
Is it possible that the Lord, just as he allows us as individual members in His Church to make mistakes, also allows the leaders of His Church to make mistakes? In saying this, I emphasize that I fully sustain and support my Church leaders, both past and present. I personally believe that God, fully respecting the agency of both leaders and members, allows us to make mistakes and learn and grow from them. I love Brigham Young, but I believe his own personal biases, together with the predominant thoughts in his culture at the time, affected Church policy, which later became mistaken for Church doctrine. We as members give lip service to allowing our leaders to make mistakes, but many really don't believe it in practice.
A big reason we try to figure out the ‘why’ behind commandments is because something important we are taught and encouraged to do is gain personal revelation and testimony of each commandment. We are taught that we shouldn’t have to blindly follow any one commandment.
The problem here isn’t that we assign individual ‘why’s to commandments, it’s that we share personal revelation that Heavenly Father gave to us to help us better accept and follow a commandment. Personal revelation isn’t supposed to be spread to everyone, it is specific to the one receiving it.
We must listen to those who are called to preside over us and have the proper authority. We also need to ignore everone else.
Anyone that is puzzled or concerned about "the priesthood ban" needs to watch and carefully think about "Pioneers of Africa" by Dale le Baron.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QokRiFtYzzY&t=27s
There were important reasons why the Lord delayed extending the priesthood to the blacks until 1978 - and they had absolutely nothing at all to do with race.
We might have to ask why is the Priesthood was given only to the Tribe of Levi which is commonly called the Levitical Priesthood which is the lesser Priesthood and appendage to the Higher Priesthood? God has His own which beyond our understanding. Maybe our Heavenly Father has reason why it's not given to blacks. One reason that I came to understand that nobody was ready for the Holy Priesthood when Apostasy took place so our Heavenly Father extended that privilege to fair skin but not because their better and nothing to do with race but because they were prepare first.
This is the best part of this article:
'I wish that members of the Church would be a little more Jewish when asked why we don’t drink tea or coffee. What do I mean? Could you imagine a Jew being asked, “Why can’t you eat pork?”'
This is golden! I had never put it in perspective this way!
To ask the question, "How does a church lead by living prophets allow the priesthood ban to be perpetuated for 150 years? is a very valid question. Leaders and apologist may not like the question but it is valid for any thinking person. In the church we hide behind the word "Faith" and forget that faith is the placeholder for the knowledge we have not yet received. We are seeking knowledge and we infantilize the process when we encourage ourselves and others to stop at faith.
The glory of God is intelligence. Eve partook that that she might have knowledge. It is not healthy to encourage people to hold faith when asking question and seeking understanding is the purpose of our existence.
If leaders and apologist are uncomfortable with seeking and asking questions, it says more about them that it does the truth seeker.
The root of your question is based on an assumption, which is the VERY POINT OF THIS ARTICLE!!! You are assuming the prohibition was due to BY being racists. The whole point of this article is that we don't know why the Lord prescribed that there should be a prohibition, nor do we know why we should abstain from tea and coffee, when we assume, the assumptions do more harm than good as the lead people to make comments like yours.
When I was investigating the church, my black friends could not understand why I would want to join what they saw as a racist church. I had prayed about it and what was revealed to me was "It will be all right." Seven years later, I was listening to the radio when the revelation lifting the restriction was announced. The Spirit reminded me of what I was told when I first prayed about it. It all centers around faith. I don't believe in blind obedience, I believe in getting answers to prayers and acting on my beliefs.
I, for one, enjoyed your thoughtful points you made. I didn't read anything inappropriate in your remarks. Maybe because I'm 71 years of age, and I have had many an opportunity to hear first hand statements of members that were out of line about people not like themselves. Today, speculating, even believing conspiracy theories because they agree with our prejudices are still a problem. (It's a nation-wide horror show now). If one thinks we are not guilty of these human traits, look at the Church's General Handbook . After all is said, and no matter how awesome we think we have become, we are in God's eyes - children.
When I read the title, I expected an "Anti" type of message, but was happy to see that I was wrong. I agree that we need to boldly accept that we may not know, and don't need to understand the why's of The Lords commandments. We just need to be humble and faithful enough to obey His commandments. Thank you for sharing your testimony with us.
Happy that you liked it!
Where did it say that Brigham Young had received a revelation implementing the priesthood ban? I saw no mention of that in the Gospel Topic article. I think the reason it was implemented will be one of those mysteries that we'll have to wait for a future day to solve, as well as the question as to why it required a revelation to rescind it.
I think we should show Brigham Young the same grace we hope future generations will show toward us when they question why we did what we did in our age.
I have family members who drink coffee. One of them frequently criticizes my choice, saying that I'd like it, that it's good for me and on and on. I just nod and smile and say,"maybe you're right. I'd probably enjoy it. But, i promised God I wouldn't drink it. So I don't. "
Excellent! This has been one of my tabs for weeks, and I am glad I finally read it. My thoughts exactly.