LDS Prophets tag-teamed at BCC about the pre-1978 priesthood restriction

Over at BCC, J. Stapley and Margaret Young are tag-teaming the Prophets about the pre-1978 priesthood restriction (click here and here).

It would be difficult for a person to have followed discussions at LDSBlogs.org for any length of time without already being aware of the evidence being discussed by these two BCC bloggers. However, readers should be aware of this: J. Stapley and Margaret Young do NOT speak for the Church when they accuse a dozen Church Presidents of wrongful conduct regarding the pre-1978 priesthood restriction.

By contrast, President Spencer W. Kimball *did* speak for the Church when he made the following statement about the priesthood restriction in 1974:

"Blacks and the priesthood: I am not sure that there will be a change, although there could be. We are under the dictates of our Heavenly Father, and this is not my policy or the Church’s policy. It is the policy of the Lord who has established it, and I know of no change, although we are subject to revelations of the Lord in case he should ever wish to make a change." (Ensign Feb. 1974, 2.)

President Kimball also said:

"This restriction has been imposed by the Lord." (Teachings of Spencer W. Kimball, p.237.)

Question for Margaret Young: Was the restriction imposed by the Lord, as President Kimball taught?

BCC's tag-team should make a more clear distinction between the priesthood restriction itself (from God) and the ideas and teachings that grew up to explain it (from man). President Gordon B. Hinckley made just such a distinction in 1997 when he was interviewed by ABC Television in Australia:

ABCTV: Now up until 1978 I understand Blacks were not allowed to be priests in your Church?

President Hinckley: That is correct. Although we have Black members of the Church. They felt that they would gain more in this Church than any other with which they were acquainted and they were members of the Church. In 1978 we (the president of the Church) received a revelation under which all worthy men would receive all the blessings of the Church available to them as well as to any others. So across the world now we are teaching the Gospel to Blacks, Whites, everyone else who will listen.

ABCTV: So in retrospect was the Church wrong in that?

President Hinckley: No I don’t think it was wrong. It things, various things happened in different periods. There’s a reason for them.

ABCTV: What was the reason for that?

President Hinckley: I don’t know what the reason was.

Question for J. Stapley: Was the Church wrong about the pre-1978 priesthood restriction?

President Gordon B. Hinckley doesn't know the reason for the restriction, but he clearly states, "I don’t think it was wrong."

When discussing this subject, BCC bloggers could at least mention the Church's current official statement:

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Our heavenly parents gave birth to our spirits

Yesterday, Papa D asked: "Who Gave Birth to God's Spirit Children?" The answer is that man's spirit is a child of God, born to heavenly parents. Here are a few examples of that teaching.

"Within every human body dwells a living spirit born to our loving, eternal heavenly parents." (M. Russell Ballard, Ensign, Nov. 1978.)

"God is not the Father of the earth as one of the worlds in space, nor of the heavenly bodies in whole or in part, not of the inanimate objects and the plants and the animals upon the earth, in the literal sense in which He is the Father of the spirits of mankind." (A Doctrinal Exposition by the First Presidency and the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles, Ensign, April 2002.)

"Mortals are, by inheritance, spirits. They are the natural-born spirit children of God." (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, Jan. 1980.)

"As members of Christ’s true church we must stand firm today and always for human rights and the dignity of man who is the literal offspring of God in the spirit." (Spencer W. Kimball, Ensign, May 1979.)

"Men are eternal beings, spirit children of God. They were born to Him in the spirit world." (Marion G. Romney, Ensign, Feb. 1977.)

"We are the children of God, our Heavenly Father. We are members of his family. We are his spirit offspring. We were born in the premortal life as spirit beings, sons and daughters of a glorified, perfected, exalted being." (Bruce R. McCconkie, Ensign, April 1971.)

"We are the literal spiritual offspring of our Heavenly Father." (L. Tom Perry, Ensign, Feb. 2009.)

"You are literally spirit [sons and] daughters of Deity, offspring of exalted parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny." (Julie B. Beck, Ensign, Aug. 2008.)

"You [young women] are literally spirit daughters of Deity, offspring of exalted parents with a divine nature and an eternal destiny." (Julie B. Beck, Ensign, May 2006.)

"All men and women are in the similitude of the universal Father and Mother and are literally the sons and daughters of Deity." (The First Presidency, "The Origin of Man," Ensign, Feb. 2002.)

"To be a daughter of God means that you are the offspring of Deity, literal descendants of a Divine Father, inheriting godly attributes and potential." (James E. Faust, Ensign, Jan. 2002.)

"We are literally the offspring of God, His begotten sons and daughters, with the potential of exaltation (see Acts 17:29; D&C 76:24). ‘The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ’ (Rom. 8:16–17)." (Sheri L. Dew, Ensign, July 2000.)

"The brotherhood of man is literal. We are all of one blood and the literal spirit offspring of our eternal Heavenly Father. Before we came to earth we belonged to his eternal family. We associated and knew each other there. Our common paternity makes us not only literal sons and daughters of eternal parentage, but literal brothers and sisters as well. This is a fundamental teaching of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints." (Howard W. Hunter, Ensign, June 1979.)

"You and I must learn, as we walk through this life, how to become powerful spiritually. The spirit that dwells within this tabernacle of flesh and bone is the literal offspring of our eternal, heavenly parents. We know that; we have all talked about it in Sunday School. Because of that spiritual side of our existence, we have a spark of divinity within us. We trace our common parentage back to our heavenly parents, making us all brothers and sisters." (M. Russell Ballard, New Era, June 1984.)

"You are a child of God. He is the father of your spirit. Spiritually you are of noble birth, the offspring of the King of Heaven." (Boyd K. Packer, Ensign, June 1992.)

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