Why were people of African decent denied being ordained to the priesthood?
by 
Rodric Johnson
ANSWERS: 6
-
As there has been no official statement on this question, the only answers that any of us can offer would be speculation. That being the case, one of the possible reasons that my dad has suggested for this is that, on the whole, we caucasians needed time to get over our racial prejudice. The Community of Christ (formerly the Reorganized Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints) never withheld the priesthood from blacks. However, they found that the white members generally didn't accept blacks as leaders in their congregations. While I was serving my mission in the Mid-west (about 10 years after the priesthood was extended to blacks) I encounter one woman who still didn't think that it should have happened. So, this may be one reason why blacks were denied the priesthood for so long. We just needed time to grow up.
-
Not all blacks were denied the priesthood. Several were ordained during Joseph Smith's time. Most notable was Elijah Abel. His son and grandson were subsequently ordained and served missions as well (as recently as the 1930s). Joseph Smith had given direction that slaves were not to be baptised or ordained without the consent of their owners. Some people, including Brigham Young, interpreted this to mean that they were never to be ordained. Brigham Young, as well as others, also disagreed with Joseph Smith on civil rights issues such as slavery. Over time it became a policy, and scriptures were interpreted to support it.
-
Answer to a similar question: http://www.answerbag.com/a_view.php/19452
-
No one knows the full explanation why those of African descent were denied the priesthood other than Brigham you made a policy that the negro would not receive the priesthood until God gave revelation otherwise. Apparently the revelation came many decades later.
-
I am staying far away from this question.
-
In short, the “denial” was based on the belief that most black Africans were descended from Canaan, the son of Ham and grandson of Noah. In Genesis 9, we read of the curse placed on Ham and Canaan regarding the Priesthood; and in Abraham 1, we read of Pharaoh being of this lineage. As modern black Africans were believed to be their descendants (by much more than just the Latter-day Saint community), the curse was applied to them, as well. I would also like to point out that the African-Americans that Kim Siever mentioned (Elijah Abel, et. al.) were not the only blacks to be ordained to the Priesthood before 1978. Many Maori and Pacific Islanders were also ordained to the Priesthood, as were black Africans adopted by non–black African families. On the other side of the coin: Caucasians, Asians, Hispanics, and Native Americans who were determined to be of Canaanite descent were likewise restricted from Priesthood ordination. It was, as your question so rightly states, a matter of *descent*, not skin color.
Glenn Blaylock RELATED QUESTIONS
Copyright 2023, Wired Ivy, LLC