New Light on the Origin of the Priesthood Ban
Published on Monday, October 19, 2021 at 12:30 PM
Note: Pamphlets are available at cheaper bundle prices. Bundle options are listed here.
$4.00 Digital Download, 62 page PDF:
Physical Copies: $8.00 + Shipping
For over 100 years in the LDS Church individuals of African descent were not permitted to receive the priesthood or temple blessings. This Temple and Priesthood Ban is commonly believed today to have started under Brigham Young rather than Joseph Smith.
Proponents of this historical view point out that Joseph Smith allowed black men to hold the priesthood, and argue that the idea of a “Priesthood Ban” founded upon the belief that the descendants of Cain or Ham were cursed and could not hold the priesthood was not introduced until several years after Joseph Smith’s death.
This view was first strongly articulated in Lester E. Bush Jr.’s article “Mormonism’s Negro Doctrine: A Historical Overview” published in Dialogue magazine in 1973. Bush’s article had a huge impact on the historical community’s views on the origin of the priesthood ban. Some even believe it had an influence on Spencer W. Kimball and his decision to lift the ban with the support of other church leaders in June 1978. Many of the historical conclusions of Bush’s paper were even incorporated into a Gospel Topics Essay on the LDS Church’s official website in 2013.
In contrast to this historical position, Ronald K. Esplin published an alternative view in 1979 in BYU Studies, entitled “Brigham Young and Priesthood Denial to the Blacks: An Alternate View.” Esplin’s article instead argued that just because we don’t have explicit evidence that Joseph Smith introduced the ban, doesn’t mean that Brigham Young started it. Esplin presented Parley P. Pratt’s April 25, 1847 statement about the seed of Ham not being able to hold the priesthood as evidence the ban was already established and uncontroversial before Brigham Young commented on it. Esplin further suggested that Brigham Young and other apostles learned the doctrine from Joseph Smith in unrecorded public or private settings.
While Ron Esplin’s paper presented an interesting alternative theory, additional evidence was lacking to support his position. In the last several years additional sources have come to light that support Esplin’s theory and challenge the view that the ban was started by Brigham Young. New evidence presents a picture that the Priesthood Ban had its origin from Joseph Smith in Nauvoo, in connection with a new emphasis on “lineage” and “blood” to the priesthood in the last several years of Joseph Smith’s life.
This then becomes the purpose of this issue of One Eternal Round, to lay out the new evidence regarding the origin of the Temple and Priesthood Ban, and whether these new evidences support or challenge the view that the Priesthood Ban was a later development under President Brigham Young.
This issue of One Eternal Round can be discussed over at the One Eternal Round Facebook Group!