From Policy to Doctrine: The Mormon Priesthood and Temple Ban on Black Members | Ep. 1910

The Legacy of Exclusion: Unraveling the Priesthood and Temple Ban on Black Mormons

The priesthood and temple ban on Black members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stands as a poignant case of religious policy morphing into misunderstood doctrine. For over a century, the notion that people of African descent were unworthy of priesthood blessings permeated Mormon teachings, only to be lifted in 1978. Yet, the story’s unfolding reveals neither divine mandate nor prophetic clarity but rather a tangled web of prejudice and institutional inertia.

Mormonism and Racial Exclusion: A Historical Context

Beginning in 1852, under the leadership of Brigham Young, the ban on Black members receiving the priesthood was instituted without a clear revelatory basis. The racial policies enforced by the LDS Church mirrored societal prejudices of the time, as evidenced by Utah's 1888 laws restricting interracial marriage. These parallels underscore a troubling entanglement between religious practices and contemporaneous racial ideologies.

Dr. Matthew Harris's detailed account in his book, "Second Class Saints: Black Mormons and the Struggle for Racial Equality," highlights the church’s historical complicity in propagating racial inequality. John Dehlin’s Mormon Stories interview with Dr. Harris explores how early Latter-day Saints theologians often extrapolated Scriptural references, such as the Curse of Ham, to justify the ban. Such rationalizations, however, lacked theological consensus or clarity.

Seeking Justification: The Quest for Doctrinal Authority