Priesthood ban until 1978

They say

A true church would never have a race ban.

Acts 10 is the destination verse: God is no respecter of persons. Israel had lineage restrictions too. A restriction in history is not the same as a revealed eternal caste. We do not defend every 19th-century sermon. We defend Official Declaration 2 and the 2013 essay that disavows the old theories.

• Acts 10:34–35

  KJV · God is no respecter of persons: But in every nation he that feareth him, and worketh righteousness, is accepted with him.

  NRSVUE · God shows no partiality, but in every people anyone who fears him and practices righteousness is acceptable to him.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Race and the Priesthood

  “None of the old explanations for the restriction is accepted as Church doctrine today.”

• Gal1:8 library

  Race and the Church

They say

2 Nephi 5 cursed people with black skin — that’s the ban.

Do not drag 2 Nephi 5 into 1978. That page is about covenant idiom, not the priesthood restriction. 2 Nephi 26:33 is the book’s punch line: black and white, all are alike unto God. If they mix them, split them. Open the Skin of Blackness library page for the text. Open the Race essay for 1978.

• 2 Nephi 26:33

  He inviteth them all to come unto him… black and white, bond and free, male and female… and all are alike unto God.

• Gal1:8 library

  Priesthood ban

• Gal1:8 library

  Skin of blackness (different question)

They say

1978 was PR, not revelation.

Official Declaration 2 is canon. The essay is blunt: none of the old explanations is accepted as doctrine today. All worthy males. Do not invent a defense of Brigham’s worst lines. Honesty is the essay.

• Official Declaration 2

  All worthy male members of the Church may be ordained to the priesthood without regard for race or color.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Race and the Priesthood

  “None of the old explanations for the restriction is accepted as Church doctrine today.”

• FAIR

  Race and the priesthood

They say

Joseph started it. You hid it.

Mormonr has Joseph-era Black ordinations in the documents. The essay tells the later restriction and the 1978 revelation. Use the essay in the lesson. Use Mormonr when they want the chronology. Do not argue Brigham in the first lesson.

• Gospel Topics Essays

  Race and the Priesthood

  “None of the old explanations for the restriction is accepted as Church doctrine today.”

• FAIR

  Race and the priesthood