TO WHOM IT MAY CONCERN: CIVIL RIGHTS = MORMON REVELATION
former CCite
By JENNIFER DOBNER
June 7, 2008
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Thirty years have passed, but Heber G. Wolsey
still cries when he recalls the day the Mormon church abandoned a
policy that had kept black men out of the priesthood.
"It was one of the greatest days of my life," said Wolsey, who was
head of public affairs at The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day
Saints.
On June 8, 1978, Wolsey was called to a secret rendezvous with N.
Eldon Tanner, a member of the church's First Presidency, in a tunnel
beneath the Salt Lake City temple.
He was handed a slip of paper: "The long-promised day has come when
every faithful, worthy man in the church may receive the holy
priesthood ... without regard for race or color."
"I started to bawl," Wolsey recalled, his eyes again welling with
tears. "It's something we'd all been praying for a long, long time."
Latter-day Saints will mark the 30th anniversary Sunday with an
evening celebration of words and music in the Salt Lake City
Tabernacle.
Heralded as a revelation from God to church President Spencer W.
Kimball, the four-paragraph statement gave blacks full membership in
the church for the first time after nearly 130 years.
Some say it was the most significant change in church policy since
Mormons abandoned polygamy in 1890 to gain statehood for Utah.
Unlike other religions, the Mormon priesthood is not a set of trained
clerics. It is a lay status granted to virtually every Mormon male at
age 12, allowing them to bestow blessings and hold certain church
callings.
Until 1978, black men could attend priesthood meetings but could not
pass sacraments or give blessings, even on their own families. They
could not enter Mormon temples for sacred ceremonies, including
marriage.
"It left you on the outside," said Darius A. Gray, who is black and
joined the church as a young man in 1964.
Gray said he learned about the restriction the day before his baptism.
He was raised to value his race, and the policy went against that. But
prayer and study had left him with a belief in the church that he
couldn't ignore.
"So you go forward and walk through the darkness in faith," he said.
"I never knew if the restriction was of God, or if it was of man, if
it was just or unjust."
Early teachings and sermons by church founder Joseph Smith don't
reflect a racist stance. Blacks were not denied membership, baptism or
the priesthood under his leadership. Smith ordained the former slave
Elijah Able to the priesthood in 1836 and sent him on a proselytizing
mission.
But after Smith's death, Brigham Young reversed the policy, declaring
in 1852 that blacks were the unworthy descendants of Cain and could
not hold the priesthood, Mormon historian Newell Bringhurst said.
"Brigham Young cites divine sanctification and that's pretty hard to
refute," said Bringhurst, who is white and the co-editor of the book
"Black and Mormon."
Although Young's policy was never considered doctrine, his teachings
left the church so entrenched that it was unable to change, even
during the civil rights era of the 1960s and despite pressure from
inside and outside the faith, Bringhurst said.
"It's a tragedy in a way," said Bringhurst, who left the Mormon church
partly because of its stance on blacks. "There was this missed
opportunity in the 1960s where they could have easily changed."
Labeled as racist, the church suffered years of repeated drumming in
the news media and from people angered by the divisive policy, Wolsey
said.
"Every day I was working with people who were highly antagonistic to
the church," said Wolsey, who recalled some schools in the '60s
wouldn't compete against Brigham Young University sports teams.
Prior to 1978, Wolsey and Gray spent nearly five years touring the
country to answer questions about the church's position during
meetings that often would spark angry, contentious words.
"I said, 'I am not a racist. I don't have any racial feelings against
the blacks at all. I have a part of my belief that says the blacks
can't hold the priesthood,'" Wolsey said. "Women can't hold the
priesthood either; children can't. But I said I believe in the church,
so I accept it."
Church statisticians don't track membership by race, but scholars
believe there were less than 3,000 black Mormons in 1978.
Since then, the church has expanded its missionary work in
predominantly black nations, including the Caribbean, South America
and Africa, where it now claims more than 250,000 members out of 13.1
million worldwide.
There are no blacks in the senior leadership tiers of the Salt Lake
City-based church. A black Brazilian, Helvecio Martins, was a member
of the Second Quorum of Seventy from 1990-95. He died in 2005.
In Africa, more than 2,000 men serve in local and regional leadership
posts, spokeswoman Kim Farah said.
Gray and Wolsey said the change in 1978 was good for all members of
the church, not just for blacks.
"It removed an impediment that stood between the brotherhood and
sisterhood that needed to be removed," Gray said. "It has allowed
blacks and whites — not just blacks — to be more open about these
issues, to embrace one another and to be the Christians that God
intended us to be."
William R. Cousert
"former CCite" <summerov...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
news:da4a73b9-7314-447c...@s21g2000prm.googlegroups.com...
Mormons to mark 30 years of blacks in priesthood
Hey Lance Ferm,
Does this look like a fucking mormon news group to you? Why don't you take
your fucking mormon spam elsewhere?
former CCite
wrote:
> "former CCite" <summeroverwin...@yahoo.com> wrote in message
...and it is not a cursing newsgroup either.
William R. Cousert
On Jun 9, 8:08 am, "William R. Cousert" <wrcous...@NOSPAMyahoo.com>
wrote:
...and it is not a cursing newsgroup either.
You won't win....