Facts About the Priesthood Ban: What We Do Know

• The Prophet Joseph Smith advocated the ban, but he did not prevent brother Elijah Abel from being ordained an elder, a seventy, and a high priest in Kirtland

• On June 4, 1879, President John Taylor ratified the ban based largely on the testimony of brothers Zebedee Coltrin and Abraham Smoot
 
• On August 18, 1900, President Lorenzo Snow stated that he wasn't sure whether the existing explanations for the ban had been personal opinions or actual revelations

Fiction About the Ban: What We Don't Know for Sure--Or Not At All

• The precise historical origin of the ban
• The "pre-existence hypothesis," or the belief that some people were denied the priesthood in mortality because they had been "less valiant" in the pre-mortal world
• How pre-mortal assignments to families, nationalities, ethnic groups, etc. are actually made
• The hereditariness of curses
• The "preparedness hypothesis," or the theory that the priesthood ban existed until caucasian saints would be prepared to accept african-american priesthood leaders

Elder Bruce R. McConkie:

"Forget everything that I have said, or that President Brigham Young or ... whomsoever has said in days past 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. ...

"It doesn't make a particle of difference what anybody ever said about the Negro matter before the first day of June of this year, 1978. ...  As to any slivers of light or any particles of darkness of the past, we forget about them.

"... [When] President [Spencer W.] Kimball finished his prayer, the Lord gave a revelation by the power of the Holy Ghost. ...  On this occasion ... the Lord ... poured out the Holy Ghost in a miraculous and marvelous manner, beyond anything any then present had ever experienced.  The revelation came to the President of the Church; it also came to each individual present.  There were ten members of the Council of the Twelve and three of the First Presidency there assembled." (Address to Religious Educators, 18 August 1978 - brackets added)

Elder David B. Haight:

"I was in the temple when President Spencer W. Kimball received the revelation regarding the priesthood. I was the junior member of the Quorum of the Twelve.  I was there.  I was there with the outpouring of the Spirit in that room so strong that none of us could speak afterward.  We just left quietly to go back to the office.  No one could say anything because of the powerful outpouring of the heavenly spiritual experience." (Conference Report, April 1996)

Elder Dallin H. Oaks:

"... It’s not the pattern of the Lord to give reasons. We can put reasons to commandments. When we do we’re on our own. Some people put reasons to [the ban] and they turned out to be spectacularly wrong. There is a lesson in that. The lesson I’ve drawn from that, I decided a long time ago that I had faith in the command and I had no faith in the reasons that had been suggested for it. ... I'm referring to reasons given by general authorities and reasons elaborated upon [those reasons] by others.

"The whole set of reasons seemed to me to be unnecessary risk taking. ... Let’s [not] make the mistake that’s been made in the past, here and in other areas, trying to put reasons to revelation. The reasons turn out to be man-made to a great extent. The revelations are what we sustain as the will of the Lord and that’s where safety lies."   (Interview to Daily Herald,  Provo, Utah, June 5, 1988 - brackets added for clarification)

 

For more detailed information, including information about heavenly manifestations in connection with the revelation, I recommend two book chapters dealing with the 1978 Revelation: one chapter is in Dr. Leonard Arrington's "Adventures of a Church Historian," and the other in Elder Francis M. Gibbons'  "Spencer W. Kimball: Resolute Disciple, Prophet of God"

Why did the priesthood ban happen?

"... [For] reasons which we believe are known to God, but which he has not made fully known to man." (The First Presidency, 15 December 1969)

Is it true that Blacks will never get to the celestial kingdom?

"... Wherefore, he commandeth none that they shall not partake of his salvation. ... and he inviteth them all to come unto him and partake of his goodness; and he denieth none that come unto him, black and white, bond and free, male and female; ... and all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile." (2 Nephi 26:24,33)

"... the keeper of the gate is the Holy One of Israel; and he employeth no servant there ..." (2 Nephi 9:41)

Is it true that the Brethren are against intermarriage?

"It is morally wrong for any person or group to deny anyone his or her inalienable dignity on the tragic and abhorrent theory of racial or cultural superiority." (Elder Russell M. Nelson, Conference Report, April 1994)

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"We must not be partisans of any doctrine of ethnic superiority. We live in a world of diversity. We can and must be respectful toward those with whose teachings we may not agree. We must be willing to defend the rights of others who may become the victims of bigotry." (President Gordon B. Hinckley, Conference Report, April 1995)

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"We've always counseled members in the Church for our Mexican members to marry Mexicans, our Japanese members to marry Japanese ...  That counsel has been wise.  You may say again, 'Well, I know of exceptions.' I do, too, and they've been very successful marriages.  I know some of them. ... But I say, in the words of [one] sister, 'As for me, I'm going to follow the rule first; and then, should there be an exception, perhaps that will be made known.' " (Elder Boyd K. Packer,  "Follow the Rule"  BYU-Hawaii campus, 14 January 1977)

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"Long and wide experience has seemed to indicate that interracial marriages bring [many] problems.  This, of course, is not a matter of inferiority and superiority; it is a matter of backgrounds and acceptance.  It may well be that in many instances the minority member may be superior to the Anglo member.

We regret exceedingly that there are many members of the Church who do have racial prejudices, and for this we are unhappy, but we deal with human beings and we cannot seem to totally control their thinking and their feeling.

When all is [considered,] it seems wise to counsel our Japanese youth, or Chinese youth, or Maori youth, or Mexican youth, or Indian youth as well as all others to marry within their race for their own greater happiness." (Letter signed by Elder Spencer W. Kimball, no date)
 

For more ideas on the subject, feel free to read my papers:  Considerations on Race, Pre-Existence, and Mortality

                                                                                       Personal Insights from a Black Latter-day Saint

This page is still in experimental form, and is used only as a support for classroom discussion.
(c) Marcus H. Martins, Ph.D.
1994; 1995; 1997; 1998; 1999; 2000
Comments or questions?  Send a message to:  MartinsM@byuh.edu