Tuesday Jul 25, 2023
021 How the Priesthood-Temple Ban Became Fully Entrenched Policy in the Church
Once people come to terms with the uncomfortable idea that Brigham Young committed an error in endorsing a priesthood ban on church members with black African ancestry, a puzzling question naturally follows: “If the ban was an error, then why didn’t it get corrected earlier than 1978?! There were nine Church presidents between Brigham Young and Spencer W. Kimball and 101 years between President Young’s death in 1877 and President Kimball’s revelation in 1978. So why did it take so long to correct this mistake and again offer full privileges to black Africans in the Church as they had enjoyed in Joseph Smith’s day?”
In today’s episode of Church History Matters, we attempt to offer at least the beginning of an answer to this question by tracing the key moments and decisions in the leadership councils of the Church when, instead of correcting this error, they came to conclusions that led to an unfortunate hardening in place of the priesthood ban. In this episode, the years 1879, 1904, 1907, and 1908 will sadly be added alongside the year 1852 as we piece together both the timeline and the reasoning behind this ban.
For show notes and transcript for this and other episodes go to https://doctrineandcovenantscentral.org/church-history-matters-podcast/
Comments (3)
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You conclude that President Smith’s memory was faulty, but that’s not the only interpretation of events. Maybe, instead, his understanding of the situation had increased during the interim; maybe he had received additional inspiration from the Lord by virtue of his keys and office. Why don’t you conclude that or at least offer it as a possibility? It makes sense given our belief that he only is/was entitled to revelation incumbent on the whole church.
Monday Mar 11, 2024
Great info & research! And a fair and balanced presentation of a very difficult topic. But I have one critique: how do you know that John Taylor’s decision to deny Elijah Abel access to Temple ordinances was wrong? No one in authority, dead or now living, has ever said that. So, I question why you state your opinion on the matter as fact. Shouldn’t we assume that the Q15 acted according to the will of the Lord until/unless someone in authority says otherwise?
Saturday Mar 09, 2024
love
Saturday Jul 29, 2023
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