I ask only that you read the entire message before passing judgment.
At the risk of persecution from my brothers and sisters that I love dearly, I submit that I can 100% have faith in the Gospel of Jesus Christ as restored through the Prophet Joseph Smith, believe that the Quorum of the 12 Apostles are all divinely inspired prophets, seers, and revelators, sustain them in their roles, disagree with some of their views as to who will and who won't hold the priesthood, and still have the potential to receive celestial glory.
To support this feeling, I would reference another group of individuals who were kept from holding the priesthood of God for decades. Here are some quotes relating to this;
The first is from Elder Mark E. Peterson, a member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles, Race Problems -- As They Affect The Church; Brigham Young University, Provo, Utah, August 27, 1954.
The reason that one would lose his blessings by marrying a Negro is due to the restriction placed upon them. "No person having the least particle of Negro blood can hold the Priesthood" (Brigham Young). It does not matter if they are one-sixth Negro or one-hundred and sixth, the curse of no Priesthood is the same. If an individual who is entitled to the Priesthood marries a Negro, the Lord has decreed that only spirits who are not eligible for the Priesthood will come to that marriage as children. To intermarry with a Negro is to forfeit a "Nation of Priesthood holders"....
The discussion on civil rights, especially over the last 20 years, has drawn some very sharp lines. It has blinded the thinking of some of our own people, I believe. They have allowed their political affiliations to color their thinking to some extent, and then, of course, they have been persuaded by some of the arguments that have been put forth....We who teach in the Church certainly must have our feet on the ground and not to be led astray by the philosophies of men on this subject....
I think I have read enough to give you an idea of what the Negro is after. He is not just seeking the opportunity of sitting down in a cafe where white people eat. He isn't just trying to ride on the same streetcar or the same Pullman car with white people. It isn't that he just desires to go to the same theater as the white people. From this, and other interviews I have read, it appears that the Negro seeks absorption with the white race. He will not be satisfied until he achieves it by intermarriage. That is his objective and we must face it. We must not allow our feelings to carry us away, nor must we feel so sorry for Negroes that we will open our arms and embrace them with everything we have. Remember the little statement that we used to say about sin, "First we pity, then endure, then embrace"....
Now let's talk about segregation again for a few moments. Was segregation a wrong principle? When the Lord chose the nations to which the spirits were to come, determining that some would be Japanese and some would be Chinese and some Negroes and some Americans, He engaged in an act of segregation....
When he told Enoch not preach the gospel to the descendants of Cain who were black, the Lord engaged in segregation. When He cursed the descendants of Cain as to the Priesthood, He engaged in segregation....
Who placed the Negroes originally in darkest Africa? Was it some man, or was it God? And when He placed them there, He segregated them....
The Lord segregated the people both as to blood and place of residence. At least in the cases of the Lamanites and the Negro we have the definite word of the Lord Himself that he placed a dark skin upon them as a curse -- as a punishment and as a sign to all others. He forbade intermarriage with them under threat of extension of the curse. And He certainly segregated the descendants of Cain when He cursed the Negro as to the Priesthood, and drew an absolute line. You may even say He dropped an Iron curtain there....
Now we are generous with the Negro. We are willing that the Negro have the highest education. I would be willing to let every Negro drive a Cadillac if they could afford it. I would be willing that they have all the advantages they can get out of life in the world. But let them enjoy these things among themselves. I think the Lord segregated the Negro and who is man to change that segregation? It reminds me of the scripture on marriage, "what God hath joined together, let not man put asunder." Only here we have the reverse of the thing -- what God hath separated, let not man bring together again."
Think of the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood.... This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the Lord in sending him to the earth in their lineage of Cain with a black skin, and possibly being born in darkest Africa--if that Negro is willing when he hears the gospel to accept it, he may have many of the blessings of the gospel. In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get celestial glory.
I unequivocally and completely disagree with everything that this Apostle had to say about blacks and the priesthood. Though I do not represent the Church in any way, it is also not my understanding of what the doctrine of the church teaches either. It was and remains his opinion.
Here's another from President Ezra Taft Benson; General Conference Report, October 1967
The Communist program for revolution in America has been in progress for many years and is far advanced. While it can be thwarted in a fairly short period of time merely by sufficient exposure, the evil effects of what has already been accomplished cannot be removed overnight. The animosities, the hatred, the extension of government control into our daily lives -- all this will take time to repair. The already-inflicted wounds will be slow in healing. But they can be healed; that is the important point.
First of all, we must not place the blame upon Negroes. They are merely the unfortunate group that has been selected by professional Communist agitators to be used as the primary source of cannon fodder. Not one in a thousand Americans -- black or white -- really understands the full implications of today's civil rights agitation. The planning, direction, and leadership come from the Communists, and most of those are white men who fully intend to destroy America by spilling Negro blood, rather than their own.
Next, we must not participate in any so-called "blacklash" activity which might tend to further intensify inter-racial friction. Anti-Negro vigilante action, or mob action, of any kind fits perfectly into the Communist plan. This is one of the best ways to force the decent Negro into cooperating with militant Negro groups. The Communists are just as anxious to spearhead such anti-Negro actions as they are to organize demonstrations that are calculated to irritate white people.
We must insist that duly authorized legislative investigating committees launch an even more exhaustive study and expose the degree to which secret Communists have penetrated into the civil rights movement. The same needs to be done with militant anti-Negro groups. This is an effective way for the American people of both races to find out who are the false leaders among them.
He seems to be saying that the civil rights movement, something that was absolutely essential and vital to the progress of our country as a nation, was actually a communist movement, and black americans were simply ignorant pawns in this process, rather than a terribly subjugated population that cried for equality. I find this to be paranoid, and whether or not there were communists that attempted to capitalize on the civil rights movement, the core of the civil rights movement was just that, giving rights to those that had next to none.
This one is from Bruce R. McConkie, member of the Quorum of the 12 Apostles; Mormon Doctrine, p. 114
In a broad general sense, caste systems have their root and origin in the gospel itself, and when they operate according to the divine decree, the resultant restrictions and segregation are right and proper and have the approval of the Lord. To illustrate: Cain, Ham, and the whole Negro race have been cursed with a black skin, the mark of Cain, so they can be identified as a caste apart, a people with whom the other descendants of Adam should not intermarry. (Gen. 4; Moses 5.) The whole house of Israel was chosen as a peculiar people, one set apart from all other nations (Ex. 19:5-6; Deut. 7:6; 14:2); and they were forbidden to marry outside their own caste. (Ex. 34:10-17; Deut. 7:1-5.) In effect the Lamanites belonged to one caste and the Nephites to another, and a mark was put upon the Lamanites to keep the Nephites from intermixing with and marrying them. (Alma 3:6-11.) All this is not to say that any race, creed, or caste should be denied any inalienable rights. But it is to say that Deity in his infinite wisdom, to carry out his inscrutable purposes, has a caste system of his own, a system of segregation of races and peoples. The justice of such a system is evident when life is considered in its true eternal perspective. It is only by a knowledge of pre-existence that it can be known why some persons are born in one race or caste and some in another. "However, in a broad general sense, caste systems have their origin in the gospel itself, and when they operate according to the divine decree, the resultant restrictions and segregation are right and proper and have the approval of the lord.
This is NOT the position of the church as I understand it. I do NOT believe that black people are from the "mark of Cain." While I love Bruce R. McConkie, he was seriously off base. He was drawing from his life experiences, and his own personal feelings, NOT any church doctrine that I have ever read.
From Joseph Fielding Smith Doctrines of Salvation:
There were no neutrals in the war in heaven. All took sides either with Christ or with Satan. Every man had his agency there, and men receive rewards here based upon their actions there, just as they will receive rewards hereafter for deeds done in the body. The Negro, evidently, is receiving the reward he merits.
No doctrine of the church that I have been able to find teaches that "The Negro" or black people, were less righteous than anyone else.
In short, these well-meaning inspired men tried to attach meaning to something that really had none. They didn't know why God didn't want blacks to hold the priesthood, any more than you or I do today. They simply didn't hold it. There were some who were in fact given the priesthood by Joseph Smith. For some reason that stopped, for no reason that we understand, and then given back, again for no reason that we understand. Joseph Smith gave women the authority to give blessings. That practice was also taken away. As stated by Elder Oaks during Priesthood session, women hold the priesthood in the temple under the direction of the temple president in an extremely similar way I hold the priesthood under the direction of my Bishop and Stake President.
As stated by Elder Oaks during the Priesthood session last night:
"...they are not free to alter the divinely decreed pattern that only men will hold offices in the priesthood."
This has been the divine pattern for some time, but I have yet to see anything that says it will always unequivocally be thus. I feel that the issue of women and the priesthood is similar to blacks and the Priesthood. I appreciate much of what Elder Oaks had to say. I appreciate that he feels that women will never hold the priesthood, but it's important for all of us to remember that this is God's priesthood, and He will determine who holds offices within it, and should he reveal that women will hold it, then they will, end of story. It's not our job to speculate why, or declare whether they will or wont, any more than it was the job of these earlier church leaders to speculate on the same topic as it relates to race. The answer should be "no they don't hold the priesthood, I don't know why."
Let me be clear that I am not advocating for trying to force the Prophet to give women the Priesthood. Never has this been the pattern, and never will it be. I'm simply drawing a correlation between two circumstances that I see as similar. Please don't take this as me going apostate, or going rogue, I'm simply voicing my opinion that God will give His Priesthood to whomever He wants, and just because it's "always been this way" doesn't mean it always will.
Many might become frustrated with this post because I'm pointing out some of our ugly past. Well, brothers and sisters, it is our past. Don't be ignorant of it, own it. We are not infallible. One way or another, history will justify the truthfulness of the Gospel. If God really doesn't want his daughters to hold the Priesthood, then they won't. If He does, then they will, and either way it will be right.
In closing, I know that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints is true. I know that it was restored throught he Prophet Joseph Smith. I know that the Book of Mormon is Scripture, and that studying it, and applying it into ones life will bring an individual closer to God than anything else will. I know that President Thomas S. Monson is God's Prophet on the earth today. I am grateful for the power of the Priesthood, and know that it is God's power given to His children to bring about His eternal purposes. In the name of Jesus Christ, Amen.
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