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.