{"id":76242,"date":"2019-07-19T21:54:21","date_gmt":"2019-07-20T03:54:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/?p=76242"},"modified":"2019-07-19T21:54:21","modified_gmt":"2019-07-20T03:54:21","slug":"regarding-president-nelsons-imminent-speech-to-the-naacp","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/danpeterson\/2019\/07\/regarding-president-nelsons-imminent-speech-to-the-naacp.html","title":{"rendered":"Regarding President Nelson’s imminent speech to the NAACP"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"Where<\/a>
The 1978 Revelation on Priesthood was received in the Salt Lake City Utah Temple \u00a0(LDS.org)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

The latest installation of the biweekly Deseret News<\/em> column by William J. Hamblin and Daniel C. Peterson has appeared:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201c\u2018Greater love hath no man than this'\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

***<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cPresident Nelson to speak at NAACP national convention on Sunday\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

There\u2019s speculation in some circles about what he might say. \u00a0For example:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cWill the Mormon president apologize to the NAACP for the church\u2019s past racism?\u201d<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t expect an apology, myself, and, if I were the one speaking, I wouldn\u2019t offer one. \u00a0(What President Nelson might do, of course, I do not know.)<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I expect that my disinclination to apologize will earn me considerable flak. \u00a0It\u2019s not a politically correct stance to take, and some, no doubt, will say that it\u2019s an immoral one. \u00a0I get that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

But permit me to explain.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

I found the pre-1978 priesthood ban baffling and, to say the least of it, awkward, and I was absolutely delighted when the news of the revelation rescinding it reached me in Switzerland. \u00a0Now, black men and boys could be ordained to the priesthood, black men and women of the appropriate ages could enter the temples of the Church, and black families could be sealed in those temples for time and all eternity. \u00a0I still remember where I was when I heard the news, and I recall very clearly the glow that enveloped me for days thereafter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That said, though, I tend to resist confident assertions that the priesthood policy was, simply, the product of racism \u2014 whether Brigham Young\u2019s or more general \u2014 that it was an evil mistake, and that the Church should therefore apologize for it. \u00a0I have no theory of its origin to offer, no theological justification to provide for it, no apologetic to make on its behalf. \u00a0I simply point to the fact that at least some Church leaders had hoped to rescind it earlier but felt themselves prevented (by the Lord himself) from doing so.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Now, obviously, such an argument will carry little if any weight with those who believe that the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints<\/a> is led by ordinary mortals (or, even, by less than ordinary mortals) who have no access to the mind of God. \u00a0But for me, since I believe that there is a God and that he stands in a special revelatory relationship with the prophets and apostles at the helm of the Church, it\u2019s pivotal.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Here is a specific illustration of what I have in mind, drawn from\u00a0Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism<\/em> (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005), 103-104, 183:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

It appears that President Hugh B. Brown, the first First Counselor in the First Presidency of the Church of whom I was aware and a man for whom I felt and still feel considerable veneration, really hoped to see the priesthood exclusion policy overturned. \u00a0Therefore, he attempted to persuade President David O. McKay to make that change.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

Reportedly, President McKay told some people that he had prayed about the matter and that the answer was \u201cNot yet.\u201d \u00a0In fact, according to Richard Jackson, President McKay said that he had prayed repeatedly about the question and that he was told by the Lord to not bring the subject up again, that the change would come, but not during his administration. \u00a0The Prophet even seems to have felt himself somewhat rebuked:<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve inquired of the Lord repeatedly. The last time I did it was late last night. \u00a0I was told, with no discussion, not to bring the subject up with the Lord again; that the time will come, but it will not be my time, and\u00a0to leave the subject alone.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

If accurately reported and true, these accounts strongly suggest that, for his own inscrutable reasons, the Lord himself permitted the ban to continue until June 1978. \u00a0And that would tend to suggest that the policy was something more than merely the lamentable product of regrettable (and undeniable) nineteenth-century racism.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\n
\n
\n

The opening sentence of Gregory A. Prince, \u201cDavid O. McKay and Blacks: Building the Foundation for the 1978 Revelation,\u201d Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought<\/em> 35\/1 (June 2010): 145, which quotes a General Authority who served under President McKay, is significant here: \u00a0\u201cIf there was ever a person, in terms of social justice in our society, for fairness, it would have been David O. McKay. Had it been up to him, alone, he would have given the Black the priesthood that quick!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

But President McKay \u2014 like President Spencer W. Kimball after him \u2014 plainly didn\u2019t believe that a resolution of the matter was<\/em>\u00a0simply \u201cup to him, alone.\u201d \u00a0Both President McKay and President Kimball believed that lifting the race-based restriction on access to priesthood ordination would need to be authorized by clear revelation. \u00a0And both \u2014 both<\/em> \u2014 believed themselves to have received<\/em>\u00a0revelation on the subject.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

That is why, deeply happy though I am that the priesthood ban is no longer in place, I find myself unable simply to brush it off as a human mistake or as the simple and glaringly obvious product of human sin \u2014 however much it may look like precisely that.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

And I\u2019m thrilled that President Nelson, successor to Brigham Young and<\/span> to David O. McKay and Spencer W. Kimball, will be addressing the NAACP on Sunday. \u00a0I\u2019m praying for him and for his audience.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u00a0 \u00a0 The latest installation of the biweekly Deseret News column by William J. Hamblin and Daniel C. Peterson has appeared: \u00a0 \u201c\u2018Greater love hath no man than this’\u201d \u00a0 *** \u00a0 \u201cPresident Nelson to speak at NAACP national convention on Sunday\u201d \u00a0 There\u2019s speculation in some circles about what he might say. \u00a0For example: […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1019,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-76242","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nRegarding President Nelson's imminent speech to the NAACP<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"    The latest installation of the biweekly Deseret News column by William J. Hamblin and Daniel C. 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