A Few Questions for Black History Month

A few questions for Black History Month.
What year did the first black (African American) join the church?

1850

1832

1830

The answer is 1830.

Did black members go on missions back then?

Yes

The answer is yes. Several black members went on missions and baptized many new members into the Church.

Were there blacks in Church leadership in the 1830’s?

Yes

The answer is yes. Elijah Abel, and Joseph Ball both had leadership roles. Q Walker Lewis was also an influential member of the Church and an Elder.

What year did blacks get the priesthood after the ban?

1978

1955

1900

1935

To read the surprising answer (It won’t be what you expect) just keep reading.

I am a white male. Well, I really have more of a ruddy complexion that looks red most of the time, but that still counts as “white.” I have found no one in my family history who owned slaves. One family line came from Scotland after the Civil war, and the other family line was simply too poor to be participating in anything like that. So why am I writing about black history? The Church is often criticized for having a “racist past” because of the priesthood ban, plus I think that we currently participate in a lot of unconscious racism and dismissive behavior that doesn’t help welcome our brothers and sisters into the Church.

So, lets step away from the political rhetoric, tightly held positions, and defensiveness just for a moment. Let’s agree that black lives matter (of course they do – we aren’t talking about the political group), and we aren’t going to talk about Critical Race Theory (CRT) in this article. Let’s breathe deeply and step into this.

Continue reading...

Scott Gordon

President, FAIR

Racism

Question: It appears racist of the Church to exclude Blacks from the priesthood. How can we justify that exclusion?

This is an important question on a very important topic. The Lord has repeatedly emphasized that He is no respecter of persons (Acts 10:34; 1 Nephi 17:35; Doctrine and Covenants 1:35). However, this does not mean the Lord does not impose restrictions on various groups or individuals or permit what we may now consider as wrong. Here are two examples:
The law which God gave to Moses explicitly allowed for slavery or involuntary servitude (see Exodus 21). That doesn't make slavery acceptable today, but it did make slavery acceptable during Moses' time.
During His earthly ministry, the Savior restricted His teaching and that of His disciples to the house of Israel (see Matthew 10:5–6; 15:24). That doesn't mean today we restrict our preaching to Israelites, but it did make the restriction acceptable during the Savior's earthly ministry.
We don't know why men of black African descent were restricted from receiving the priesthood. But we do know that when Brigham Young announced the restriction, he promised that one day black Church members would "have [all] the privilege and more" that were available to other Church members. That "long-promised day" came in June 1978.

You can read more in:

· Gospel Topics essay "Race and the Priesthood"

· FairMormon page "The priesthood ban"

Shaken Faith Spotlight

“It is indisputable that Brigham Young and other early LDS leaders through the years have made comments that either supported slavery or sound racist to twenty-first century Americans. The Chapter 5 discussion on presentism should restrain us from judging past generations by the enlightenment of our day. Nevertheless, members and non-members may be pressed to ask why the prophets and Church leaders didn’t know better. LDS sociologist Armand Mauss discussed the topic of race in the Church and posed a number of hypothetical questions and answers. Why, for example, would early LDS leaders such as Brigham Young make seemingly racist comments?

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 really right in the mainstream of American thinking at that time. They were very 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: 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.

As repeatedly pointed out in this book, prophets are not perfect and do not claim to be. They, like all of God’s children, learn line upon line. Until new revelation is given, mistaken assumptions are part of the trials of humanity." — Mike Ash, Shaken Faith Syndrome, pp 301-302

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