We Don't Know Why

Why Noah cursed Canaan and his descendants is not made clear in the Bible. LDS General Authorities have provided no guidance as well. So we Latter-day Saints are left without an explanation as to why this restriction was put in place in the first place. There has been a lot of speculation by members and nonmembers alike as to the cause. But as far as I know, the Lord has never spoken of His reasons for the restriction. I certainly am not willing to speculate.

The Lifting of the Priesthood Restriction

In a previous post a couple of months ago I addressed the topics of whether Mormons were/are racist. In that post I quoted Harold B. Lee who in answering a question from the press regarding the priesthood restriction against men of African descent said the following:

For those who understand revelation, there is no problem. For those who do not, there is no answer.

That is the point that I have been trying to make in these recent posts covering the religious history of priesthood restrictions. It is a matter of faith, not race.

In 1977 when I was investigating the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints I was greatly troubled by this priesthood restriction. It bothered me so much that I almost wasn't baptized because of it. I had the same reaction of many people; that it was racist. The young missionary who was teaching me explained it something like this.

If the Mormon Church truly is divine then it has the priesthood, and God who decides who can hold it. However if the Mormon Church is false, then its priesthood is also false, and we are denying those of African descent nothing. If true, then God has His reasons; if false, then we are sparing these men the indignity of ordaining them to a false priesthood.

I found his reasoning to be persuasive. We were denying these men nothing if the Church isn't truly divine. However, if the Church is truly the Kingdom of God on the earth; then the Lord is free to do as He sees fit.

I took comfort in the teaching that the day would come when all men would be eligible to hold the priesthood if they simply met the worthiness requirements. At the time we didn't know that the promised day would come in less than a year. Wikipedia tells of the events leading up to the revelation.

In the early 1970s, LDS Church president Spencer W. Kimball announced the construction of a number of new temples to be built both in the United States and abroad. On March 1, 1975, he announced plans to build a temple in São Paulo, Brazil.

The problem of determining priesthood eligibility in Brazil was thought to be nearly impossible due to the mixing of races in that country. When the temple was announced, church leaders realized the difficulty of restricting persons with black African descent from attending the temple in Brazil.

According to first-person accounts, after much discussion among the members of the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles on this matter, they engaged the Lord in prayer. According to the writing of one of those present, Bruce R. McConkie of the Twelve: "It was during this prayer that the revelation came. The Spirit of the Lord rested upon us all; we felt something akin to what happened on the day of Pentecost and at the Kirtland Temple. From the midst of eternity, the voice of God, conveyed by the power of the Spirit, spoke to his prophet. The message was that the time had now come to offer the fullness of the everlasting gospel, including celestial marriage, and the priesthood, and the blessings of the temple, to all men, without reference to race or color, solely on the basis of personal worthiness. And we all heard the same voice, received the same message, and became personal witnesses that the word received was the mind and will and voice of the Lord."

Gordon B. Hinckley, a participant in the meetings to reverse the ban, said, "Not one of us who was present on that occasion was ever quite the same after that. Nor has the Church been quite the same. All of us knew that the time had come for a change and that the decision had come from the heavens. The answer was clear. There was perfect unity among us in our experience and in our understanding."

Saints throughout the world rejoiced that the final priesthood restriction was finally lifted. None celebrated quite so much as the faithful in Africa.

Restoration of All Things

In our most recent post we commented on the priesthood restrictions that have been in place from the time of Adam (women were excluded) down until the time of Christ (only the sons of Levi could hold the priesthood).

A point that I failed to make in my last post was that after the time of Abraham the priesthood and its availability seems to have been limited to the Hebrews only. I am unaware of any scriptural injunction for this, but since the family of Abraham; and later the children of Israel were the only worshipers of the true God, the priesthood naturally was limited to them. (This is a de facto limitation, not a legal one as far as I know)

At the birth of Christ eligibility for ordination to the priesthood was limited to the male descendants of Levi, the same standard that had existed from the time of Moses. Jesus started to reverse this trend and commenced an expansion of priesthood eligibility that wasn't completed until 1978. While recognizing the legitimacy of the Levitical Priesthood, Jesus expanded priesthood eligibility by ordaining men who were not of the tribe of Levi (apostles, deacons, priests, evangelists, bishops, etc...) . This expanded and restored eligibility for priesthood ordination to a level similar to the time of Abraham.

In quick order Peter received a revelation restoring the gospel (and its priesthood) to the Gentiles, thereby expanding priesthood eligibility to a level that existed from the time of Noah to Moses. Just as the limitations were revealed to prophets (Noah and Moses) so has its reversal been revealed through prophets (Jesus, Peter, and Spencer W. Kimball).

What I find fascinating is that the priesthood restrictions that started with Adam and were gradually put in place until the time of Christ were reversed in exactly the opposite order in which they were applied. A timeline of restrictions and the lifting of those restrictions goes something like this:

1. The priesthood was available to all men for 2000 years (Adam - Noah).
2. The limitation on the descendants of Canaan was the first limitation and that lasted as the only limitation for approximately 1000 years (Noah - Moses).
3. The next limitation was restricting the priesthood to Levites which stayed in place for over 1000 years (Moses to Christ).
4. The priesthood was restored to all men except the sons of Canaan for nearly 2000 years (Peter to Spencer W. Kimball).
5. In 1978 the restriction against the sons of Canaan was lifted (Spencer W. Kimball through the end of time).

It has taken 2000 years for all of the restrictions to be reversed (Christ to 1978) to a point in time where now the priesthood is as widely available as it was at the time of Adam. The only standard at the time of Adam was worthiness among the sons of men; a standard that has been restored in our day. It truly is evidence of the "restoration of all things" predicted by the prophets.

Our next post will address more of the details involving the lifting of the final restriction in 1978. Stay tuned!

Priesthood Restrictions Through the Ages

There have always been restrictions on who could hold the priesthood. For example, women have never been able to hold the priesthood. It is a matter of faith, not sexism, that governs this practice. The belief is that the priesthood is a male responsibility - it is simply a matter of belief (faith).

As Latter-day Saints we believe that in the beginning of this world, Adam was given the priesthood and that all worthy males were eligible to hold the priesthood for centuries. But the world rejected righteousness (and its accompanying priesthood) and the Lord had to cleanse the earth of all but 8 souls; Noah and his family.

The first restriction to the priesthood came when Noah cursed Canaan, the son of Ham, and all of his descendants. This curse is found in the Book of Genesis 9:20-26 which reads as follows in the King James version.

20 And Noah began to be an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard:

21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent.

22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.

23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father's nakedness.

24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him.

25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.

At this point in time the priesthood was available to all men, not women (first restriction) except the descendants of Canaan (second restriction).

The next restriction came once again as the result of sin as the world rejected the true religion and went after false gods. Moses entered into history and gave the Hebrews the Law of Moses. This law defined a priesthood, a lesser priesthood, the Aaronic Priesthood. The only men eligible to hold this priesthood were Levites, members of the Tribe of Levi. This excluded most of humanity (third restriction), and this exclusivity continued until the time of Christ.

At this point the trend from a very broad priesthood where all men could bear it to a very narrow one (Levites only) started to reverse itself. We will cover the gradual restoration of the priesthood to all worthy men in our next post.

Are Mormons Racist?

The next topic we will address in this blog will be "Blacks and the Priesthood". Mormons have long been charged with being racist. In this era of supersensitivity about issues of race and ethnicity, that is paramount to being called a Nazi. It is the ultimate insult. Are Mormons racists? We will cover that subject in the next series of posts. Stay tuned.

Mormons Are Racist?

One of the common accusations against Latter-day Saints is that we are racist. That word is thrown around so much that it's meaning has become perverted. I'm sure that this perversion is beneficial to some groups, but for my purposes I will restrict the definition of racism to a form of bigotry that has race as the sole reason for that bigotry.

I know that bigots exist. Certainly one of the reasons Mitt Romney lost the South Carolina was the result of religious bigots - people who refused to vote for him simply because of his religion. If they didn't vote for him because of his political views, they are not bigots. But many South Carolinians actually agreed with his views; they simply hated his religion. That makes them religious bigots.

Lets examine the question of LDS bigotry in regards to race. This matter often comes up in connection with men of African descent being denied the priesthood for so many years. This is arguably racial bigotry. But was race the sole reason for this denial? I don't think so.

Harold B. Lee probably said it best when answering the question of a member of the press upon being named President of the Church. He said essentially the following "For those who understand revelation, there is no problem. For those who do not, there is no answer." Was Joseph Smith a bigot for teaching that black men were ineligible for the priesthood or did he have some other reason. Was he, or the Church by extension, racist? It all depends on the reason(s) for doing so. If race was the only factor, then yes he was a racist. If there were other reasons, then the answer is no.

The position of the Church from the 1830's thru the present is that God rules in the heavens and guides the leaders of this Church through revelation. We have scripture in the Pearl of Great Price that explains this doctrine. If the Pearl of Great Price is true, then the issue is God's. Ultimately this issue has always been one of belief. Is that bigotry? Racist? I don't think so.

I believe that God had his own reasons for this restriction; reasons that He has never shared with his children. If He doesn't guide us, if we are deceived in that way, then we are no different than the rest of Christendom and it doesn't matter. Enemies of the Church have never been able to provide any evidence of personal anomous based on race by any Church leader, or the Church as an institution. They always complain about what is in the end, a religious belief, extrapolating from it racial intent that simply is not there. The problem with race is theirs, not ours. We simply accepted it on faith because we were not given any reason.

At worst, we were misguided by uninspired leaders (which would also be true today). At best we were following divine counsel without ever getting an explanation why. Bigotry (or racism) was never the issue.