LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

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Corsair
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LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by Corsair » Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:04 pm

LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Will this be a sensible way to acknowledge the problems and paradoxes of the policy and history of the priesthood and temple ban? Will Mormons move forward on race relations in the LDS church? Or will this be a train wreck?

I'm concerned that this will be logically equivalent to "Let's commemorate that day I stopped beating my wife!" It will take a very careful approach to not point out the obvious problems. Perhaps they simply had to wait until there were no longer any apostles alive who were present in 1978.

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by slavereeno » Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:10 pm

Corsair wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:04 pm
I'm concerned that this will be logically equivalent to "Let's commemorate that day I stopped beating my wife!" It will take a very careful approach to not point out the obvious problems.
+1

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by RubinHighlander » Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:51 pm

Um yeah. Seems to me they should just let this one fade into ugly undesired historical sunset. Bringing it back in to the lime light just feels like they are reopening a can of worms. While they are at it, perhaps they will want to commemorate some other dates (so many to choose from):
- The First Vision
- The revelation on polygamy
- JS found his seer stone
- Lowry Nelson stands up to the bigotry of GAS
“We feel very sure that you understand well the doctrines of the Church. They are either true or not true. Our testimony is that they are true. Under these circumstances we may not permit ourselves to be too much impressed by the reasonings of men however well-founded they may seem to be. We should like to say this to you in all kindness and in all sincerity that you are too fine a man to permit yourself to be led off from the principles of the Gospel by worldly learning. You have too much of a potentiality for doing good and we therefore prayerfully hope that you can reorient your thinking and bring it in line with the revealed word of God.”
“We are not unmindful of the fact that there is a growing tendency, particularly among some educators, as it manifests itself in this area, toward the breaking down of race barriers in the matter of intermarriage between whites and blacks, but it does not have the sanction of the Church and is contrary to Church doctrine.”
(First Presidency letter to Lowry Nelson, 12 November 1947, archive.org)
“You see some classes of the human family that are black, uncouth, uncomely, disagreeable and low in their habits, wild, and seemingly deprived of nearly all the blessings of the intelligence that is generally bestowed upon mankind… That curse will remain upon them, and they never can hold the Priesthood or share in it until all the other descendants of Adam have received the promises and enjoyed the blessings of the Priesthood and the keys thereof.”
(Brigham Young, October 9, 1859, Journal of Discourses 7:290-291)
"I remind you that no man who makes disparaging remarks concerning those of another race can consider himself a true disciple of Christ. Nor can he consider himself to be in harmony with the teachings of the Church of Jesus Christ. How can a man holding the Melchizedek Priesthood arrogantly assume that he is eligible for the priesthood whereas another who lives a righteous life but whose skin is of a different color is ineligible”
(Gordon B. Hinckley, “The Need for Greater Kindness,” Ensign (Conference Edition), May 2005, p. 58).
“How grateful I am that The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints has from its beginnings stood strongly against racism in any of its malignant manifestations.”
(Seventy Alexander Morrison “No more strangers” Ensign Sept 2000)
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by 1smartdodog » Wed Apr 11, 2018 12:58 pm

I agree it would be best to just let this one die. Commemorating it just sheds light on how behind the times the church was. Best to let sleeping dogs lie.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by oliblish » Wed Apr 11, 2018 1:00 pm

This seems to be gospel topics essays step 2. I think this issue has been a big problem for a lot of people when they look into it on their own, so they probably want to put it out there on their terms and describe how it is actually a faith promoting story. This kind of reminds me of how the church released photos of the seer stone as a way to introduce members to some of the issues in the BOM translation essay.

There are a lot of stories like this that are troubling that the church talks about all the time and they seem to be able to get members to accept their positive spin such as:

Handcart disaster
116 pages
Joseph Smith repeatedly going to Jail
Kirtland Bank fiasco

Had they not been talking about all of these things in correlated material over the years, they may have found a need to release essays on the above list.

The 1978 revelation is recent enough that a lot of people remember it (I certainly do). And they love talking about modern revelation recently. I don't think we should expect to see many of the other essay issues handled like this anytime soon though:

JS Polygamy
BOA translation

I am curious if they plan to broadcast this to all of the new stakes and wards in Africa. I am sure they feel like they will need to get this information out to them at some point and they would like to be the ones to do it instead of letting them find out in other ways.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by slavereeno » Wed Apr 11, 2018 1:44 pm

oliblish wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 1:00 pm
This seems to be gospel topics essays step 2.
This is a good point by Oliblish, this is not a commemoration, its a televised rewrite of history. They will talk about how much JS loved people of other races, and how his saintly self wanted to ordain them and bring them into his eternal family etc. They will cite all the positive things ever said and completely ignore, gloss over or flat out lie about the rest.

Then they will beat the drum of "Modern Revelation" and Profits and such! There will be close ups of people of diverse shades of skin in the audience with tear filled eyes singing songs of praise and hosanna and everyone will be filled with happy joyful spiritalness and speak in tongues and burst into fits of unbridled joy and mormon-ness and know a bunch of stuff beyond a shadow of a doubt! :P :P :P
Last edited by slavereeno on Thu Apr 12, 2018 12:09 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by John G. » Wed Apr 11, 2018 4:10 pm

oliblish wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 1:00 pm
This seems to be gospel topics essays step 2. I think this issue has been a big problem for a lot of people when they look into it on their own, so they probably want to put it out there on their terms and describe how it is actually a faith promoting story. This kind of reminds me of how the church released photos of the seer stone as a way to introduce members to some of the issues in the BOM translation essay.

There are a lot of stories like this that are troubling that the church talks about all the time and they seem to be able to get members to accept their positive spin such as:

Handcart disaster
116 pages
Joseph Smith repeatedly going to Jail
Kirtland Bank fiasco

Had they not been talking about all of these things in correlated material over the years, they may have found a need to release essays on the above list.

Great point!
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by Not Buying It » Wed Apr 11, 2018 5:02 pm

Anybody who thinks the 1978 “revelation” (so-called) is something to celebrate hasn’t thought very deeply about it. The Church is the villain in this story, not the hero. What, in 1978 a black man could finally be sealed to his wife and kids in the temple, baptize his kids, and be treated as a white man was treated? Wow, you Mormons are pretty damn impressive on Civil Rights.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by 2bizE » Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:18 pm

I'm planning on attending the celebration. It's an event not to be missed. However, I dont know what costume to wear. I dont want to act racist, yet I want to show my support for God changing his mind about black people. Any thoughts?
~2bizE

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by Corsair » Thu Apr 12, 2018 9:11 am

Another very difficult aspect of this period was just how pervasive the racism actually was. In addition to the priesthood ban for men, black women could not go on missions. Women don't need the priesthood to go on a mission, but black women were definitely not able to go in the temple or go on a mission. The book "A Soul So Rebellious" was published in the early 1980s and has this underlying theme. It is a faithful LDS book, but it would bring up some uncomfortable issues if read by a modern LDS youth.

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by StarbucksMom » Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:12 am

This is so completely absurd that I'm having a hard time believing it's not a hoax.

You want to celebrate God announcing he didn't hate black men, women, and children anymore--in 1978??? Really??? LDS church, are you completely insane?

If this really is the part of the new amped up "modern revelation is alive and well at LDS Inc" rheroric, than that's pretty pathetic. "Hey, since the only revelations we're getting are cancelling HT and VT/ merging men's meetings, let's go back 40 years to when God announced black people could particpate in saving ordinaces to get them into the previously white super VIP Heaven!!!"

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by Reuben » Thu Apr 12, 2018 1:21 pm

2bizE wrote:
Wed Apr 11, 2018 9:18 pm
I'm planning on attending the celebration. It's an event not to be missed. However, I dont know what costume to wear. I dont want to act racist, yet I want to show my support for God changing his mind about black people. Any thoughts?
Jane Manning James?

Black KKK robes?

Elohim in blackface?
Learn to doubt the stories you tell about yourselves and your adversaries.

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by IT_Veteran » Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:51 pm

StarbucksMom wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 11:12 am
This is so completely absurd that I'm having a hard time believing it's not a hoax.

You want to celebrate God announcing he didn't hate black men, women, and children anymore--in 1978??? Really??? LDS church, are you completely insane?

If this really is the part of the new amped up "modern revelation is alive and well at LDS Inc" rheroric, than that's pretty pathetic. "Hey, since the only revelations we're getting are cancelling HT and VT/ merging men's meetings, let's go back 40 years to when God announced black people could particpate in saving ordinaces to get them into the previously white super VIP Heaven!!!"
In other words, members that aren't even grandparents yet can remember growing up in a church that made second-class citizens of its African-American members.

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by oliblish » Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:04 pm

When I was a teenager (maybe about 14) I was in the car with my parents driving though the city that we lived in at the time. My dad turned down a street and proceeded to show me where the prostitutes and strip joints were. My mother was kind of shocked and asked why on earth he was showing me these things.

He said that he wanted to be the one to show me instead of having me find out on my own or from someone else.

I think that is what the church is doing here. It may backfire in some cases but it is overall probably a good strategy.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by RubinHighlander » Thu Apr 12, 2018 4:49 pm

IT_Veteran wrote:
Thu Apr 12, 2018 3:51 pm
In other words, members that aren't even grandparents yet can remember growing up in a church that made second-class citizens of its African-American members.
You mean folks of non-white races were third class citizens. 2nd class citizens are those who are divorced, never married, never served a mission, came home early from a mission, less active, adult non-recommend holders, etc.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by deacon blues » Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:20 am

Imagine this announcement about ten, or fifty years from November, 2015. "The LDS Church is making plans to commemorate the policy to restrict the baptisms of the children of Gay Parents. Church spokesperson Wendy Bednar-McConkie explains' "it was 10/50 years ago this month this that the children of gay parents were blessed by the revelation to the Q15, explaining that they would not need baptism, or maybe they might need it, but not immediately........" :?
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by Corsair » Fri Apr 13, 2018 8:17 am

June 1978 was literally the first item on my shelf. I grew up in small town crackerville, Arizona. But I still had a friend in my fourth grade class who was black and he had come to cub scouts with me. I was a little bit angry for his sake after this incident.

I was nine years old after President Kimball's announcement and my mother came bounding into the front room wanting to share her exitement over the announement. She pulled me over to watch the news and I saw television coverage of the first black man to receive the priesthood (with no mention of Elijah Abel, of course).

At that moment I had a rather uncharitable thought. If I had known that my church had this "policy" I would have been really ticked and would have asked a number of uncomfortable questions to my parents and Primary teachers. But then a much sillier pragmatic thought arose. Thank goodness I didn't know that I was in a racist church and now I get to enjoy my church of total equality since this silly oversight has been put behind us!

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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by mooseman » Fri Apr 13, 2018 11:18 am

Ummm...I can totally see how the church will use this, and it be seen as postive.
The church can be divided into four camps on this issue - 1) those that have no idea about this aspect of church history.
2)those that know of the "modern" essay version of history and accept the leaders where flawed.
3)those that know the "modern" essay version and struggle to reconcile it with the historic teachings on race
4)those that have no idea the doctrine has changed, and believe the 80s version where God just decided it was time to include more of his children and dont really get how racist past doctrines/policies were.

This commemoration wont include the real history--lowery Nelsons letters wont be discussed. Former doctrine wont be mentioned directly. The issues will BYU sports will be ignored. The church will, very publicly re enforce the "modern" essay idea former leaders didnt feel ready, didnt understand, and dont know why it happened. It will be faith promoting, shapes to remind members we HAVE modern revelation that allowed the church to grow ONCE THE PEOPLE WERE READY TO ACCEPT IT God gave it, and if we heed the lords servants more consistently who knows what will be revealed next? It will backlight liberal members into following, and snufferites into seeing God leading the church.
Meanwhile, subtle, backhanded, double speak leads will be given to those who struggle with the doctrine change, just as they always have when thr theology changes. Statements that seem innocent, like "Gods ways are confusing to men, and we dont always understand" will be able to be read as "peoples hearts have hardened and this "simple" truth cannot be taught" will ease cognitive dissonance and keep the white supremacist paying tithing without denying or validating the doctrines that would make other members uncomfortable.
It will largely be ignored by the world, giving the church 100% control of the narrative and thus achieve the objective of strengthening the indoctrination of each of these groups.

Its exactly what the church does best.
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Re: LDS Church sets date to commemorate 40th anniversary of priesthood revelation

Post by wtfluff » Fri Apr 13, 2018 12:58 pm

deacon blues wrote:
Fri Apr 13, 2018 7:20 am
Imagine this announcement about ten, or fifty years from November, 2015. "The LDS Church is making plans to commemorate the policy to restrict the baptisms of the children of Gay Parents. Church spokesperson Wendy Bednar-McConkie explains' "it was 10/50 years ago this month this that the children of gay parents were blessed by the revelation to the Q15, explaining that they would not need baptism, or maybe they might need it, but not immediately........" :?
Well... LDS-Inc. has taken one of the biggest disasters of the Westward Migration in the US, and turned it into something to "celebrate", which Utah folks continue to do every year.

I guess I won't be too surprised if they can figure out how to spin "mormon god stopped being racist in 1978" into something "good". Especially if they figure out how to turn it into a guilt-trip like they do the handcart disaster.
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