Post by Darron Smith.
SOURCE: http://rationalfaiths.com/apology-priesthood-ban/
EXCERPT:
Is this why the essay buries in footnote 13 its one example of a
Church leader writing that the belief was “quite general” among Mormons
that “the Negro race has been cursed for taking a neutral position in
that great contest”? Is this why this lone instance cites to personal
correspondence by Joseph Fielding Smith (pointedly designated as
“Apostle”) in
which he mentions the “fence-sitting” teaching, but hastens to add it
“is not the official position of the Church [and is] merely the opinion
of men”? Is this why the one example comes from an obscure and
unpublished piece of personal correspondence rather than more easily
accessed and published sources such as Joseph Fielding Smith’s “The Way
to Perfection,” “Doctrines of Salvation,”1 or “Answers to Gospel Questions”?2
One can only imagine the degree of document winnowing Church
historians engaged in to find this one cited example from the 1907
personal correspondence of “Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith.” More
germane and more accessible would be the 1949 First Presidency Statement in
which the teaching that blacks are not allowed the Priesthood is
described not as a policy but a doctrine: “It is not a matter of the
declaration of a policy but of direct commandment from the Lord, on
which is founded the doctrine of the Church from the days of its
organization, to the effect that Negroes may become members of the
Church but that they are not entitled to the priesthood at the present
time.”In addition to inheriting the curse of Cain, misbehavior of blacks in premortality is put forth as a rationale for the ban in the 1949 First Presidency Statement: “[F]ailure of the right to enjoy in mortality the blessings of the priesthood is a handicap which spirits are willing to assume in order that they might come to earth. Under this principle there is no injustice whatsoever involved in this deprivation as to the holding of the priesthood by the Negroes.”
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