The church celebrates its own decision to stop the racially discriminatory practice of banning the priesthood from anyone of African descent in 1978. To show that they are not racist, they wanted to point out that it has now been 40 years since they stopped being racist. There was a big self-congratulatory spectacle planned for …
Tag Archives: Byron Marchant
Byron Marchant publicly opposed the priesthood ban in 1977, and he was excommunicated for it. Less than 1 year later the priesthood ban was lifted. He exposed the 1969 First Presidency message as a lie since when considering Joseph Smith personally approved Elijah Abel’s (a black man) priesthood ordination, that the ban did not originate with Joseph as the First Presidency of 1969 stated.
President Gordon B Hinckley Interview with San Francisco Chronicle
Gordon B Hinckley, then church president, was interviewed by Don Lattin on April 13, 1997 for SFGate, the digital home of the San Francisco Chronicle. The interview was in his room at the Santa Clara Marriott Hotel, just before he delivered an address to the World Forum of Silicon Valley. Here is the transcript of the interview as reported …
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First Presidency Urged for Segregation
Let’s examine the common Mormon apologist argument that leaders are simply “men of their times” through a story of racist thoughts and practices in the church. Priesthood Ban The church enjoys celebrating the lifting of the priesthood ban in 1978. But we can’t give them any credit for doing it either, since it was the …
Men Of Their Times
Church leaders assert that they directly follow God’s guidance, exempting themselves from apologies and social pressure, like for example addressing racism within church doctrine and culture. Apologists claim that church leaders are merely “men of their times” and can’t be judged by today’s standards. These two ideas don’t work together. Either the leaders are led …
Standing Against Racism?
Unfortunately, racism—the abhorrent and morally destructive theory that claims superiority of one person over another by reason of race, color, ethnicity, or cultural background—remains one of the abiding sins of societies the world over. The cause of much of the strife and conflict in the world, racism is an offense against God and a tool …
Elijah Able, Early Black Mormon Received Priesthood via Joseph Smith
Elijah Abel was an early African American member of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, commonly known as the Mormon Church. He is notable for being one of the few black individuals ordained to the priesthood before the church implemented a policy that restricted black men of African descent from receiving the priesthood. …
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!["After Abel's death, LDS Church president Joseph F. Smith on multiple occasions declared Abel's ordination to the priesthood as "null and void by [Joseph Smith] himself because of his blackness", suggesting based on Coltrin's previous testimony that Joseph Smith before his death had indeed repented of his initial decision that Abel receive the priesthood. Scarcely a few years had passed since Joseph F. Smith had himself been the one to ordain Abel and to set him apart to serve his final church mission. Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, who later became president of the church, went so far as to suggest that there had been two Elijah Abels – one white and one black." - Elijah Abel, Disputes over priesthood, Posthumous commentary on Abel's priesthood, Wikipedia.org | wasmormon.org](https://i0.wp.com/wasmormon.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/06/Elijah-Abel-church-president-declared-Abels-priesthood-null-and-void-because-of-his-blackness-or-suggest-two-Elijah-Abels.jpg?fit=640%2C640&ssl=1)
Apostles Discuss Reasons For Lifting the Priesthood Ban
There has been a lot of discussion in Mormondom regarding race and the priesthood. The church denied the priesthood from black members (specifically those of African descent) from the 1850s until 1978. They did not relent through the end of slavery, through the proposed State of Deseret joining the United States as Utah, and through …
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1969 Official First Presidency Statement on the Doctrines of Banning Blacks from the Priesthood
Just as the statement from the First Presidency in 1949, there was another statement issued in 1969 regarding the stance of the church on denying the priesthood to any black member of the church. In 1949, the First Presidency consisted of George Albert Smith, J Reuben Clark & David O McKay. In 1969, the presidency …
Byron Marchant, Accused Dissident, Unjustifiably Excommunicated for Opposing Priesthood Ban in 1977
Among the first votes of dissent in the modern Mormon church occurred in 1977, in opposition to the church doctrine banning blacks from any priesthood ordination and temple endowment. A member voted opposed to sustaining church leadership in General Conference 1977 and was subsequently excommunicated. Then less than 1 year later the church downgraded the …
