“My dear friends, I made a serious mistake last
night, and I am truly sorry,” Brother Wilcox wrote. “The illustration I
attempted to use about the timing of the revelation on the priesthood for Black
members was wrong. I’ve reviewed what I said and I recognize that what I hoped
to express about trusting God’s timing did NOT come through as I intended. To
those I offended, especially my dear Black friends, I offer my sincere
apologies, and ask for your forgiveness. I am committed to do better.”[1]
What
was it that Brad Wilcox said that meant he was forced to apologise not once,
but twice?
After
accusing the non-LDS churches of playing at church because they don’t have the
priesthood, Brad decides to have a swipe at those within Mormonism who also
struggle with the idea of priesthood.
What
Brad said
Now,
sadly, you live in a time where a lot of people get uptight about priesthood
issues. It’s one of the most glorious things we have in the church, and yet
people want to sit and fight about it and get uptight about it. Now, I don’t
mean to oversimplify a complex issue, but I sure think we make it a little
harder than it needs to be. “How come the blacks didn’t get the priesthood
until 1978? What’s up with that, Brother Wilcox? What? Brigham Young was a jerk?
Members of the Church were prejudiced?” Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.
Maybe
instead of saying, “Why did the Blacks have to wait until 1978?”, maybe what we
should be asking is “Why did the whites and other races have to wait until
1829?” 1,829 years they waited. And why did the Gentiles have to wait until
after the Jews? And why did everybody in the House of Israel except the tribe
of Levi have to wait until — when you look at it like that, then instead of
trying to feel like you have to figure out God’s timeline, we can just be
grateful. Grateful right down to our socks that the blacks received the
priesthood in ’78. Grateful, right down to our socks that Joseph Smith and
Oliver Cowdery had the priest to restore to them in 1829. Maybe we should just
feel grateful.
It
appears that the LDS leadership were not as grateful as Brad suggested they
should be. Although he had a swipe at non-LDS Christians who, he says, have no
authority and then going on to challenge and quieten any women who may have a
problem with an all-male priesthood, it was his comment about Blacks and the
priesthood that was to cause offence.
. “How
come the blacks didn’t get the priesthood until 1978? What’s up with that,
Brother Wilcox? What? Brigham Young was a jerk? Members of the Church were
prejudiced?” Maybe we’re asking the wrong question.
I want to extend the question, Brad. How come
the blacks didn’t get the priesthood until 1978, when the Bible says that:
And hath
made of one blood all nations of men for to dwell on all the face of the earth,
and hath determined the times before appointed, and the bounds of their
habitation (Acts 17:26)
For there
is no respect of persons with God. (Romans 2:11)
There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither bond nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in Christ Jesus. (Galatians 3:28)
The answer to why the blacks had to wait
until 1978 lies, not in God’s timing nor in a prophetic revelation, but in the inherent
racism which has existed within the Mormon church since its inception. The time
then came for them to distance themselves from it.
Mormonism and Racism
What
are non-Mormons to think when they read the following quotes?
‘Had I anything to do with the negro, I would confine them by strict law to their own species and put them on national equalization’. Joseph Smith History of the Church 5:217-218
‘Shall I tell you the law of God in regard to the African race? If the white man who belongs to the chosen seed mixes his blood with the seed of Cain, the penalty, under the law of God, is death on the spot. This will always be so’ (Brigham Young, March 8, 1863, Journal of Discourses 10:110).
There is a reason why one man is born black and with other disadvantages, while another is born white with great advantages. The reason is that we once had an estate before we came here, and were obedient; more or less, to the laws that were given us there. Those who were faithful in all things there received greater blessings here, and those who were not faithful received less. (Joseph Fielding Smith, Doctrines of Salvation 1:61)
‘The Negroes will receive the Priesthood in the next life, if they prove worthy during their mortal existence’ (John Lewis Lund, The Church and the Negro, 1967 p.109)
The Book of Mormon
1 Nephi 11:13 (Mary):
“She was exceedingly fair and white.”
1 Nephi 12:23 (prophecy
of the Lamanites): “Became a dark, and loathsome, and
a filthy people, full of idleness and all
manner of abominations.”
1 Nephi 13:15 (Gentiles):
“They were white, and exceedingly fair and beautiful, like
unto my people [Nephites] before they were slain.”
2 Nephi 5:21:
“A sore cursing … as they were white, and exceedingly fair and
delightsome, that they might not be enticing unto my people the Lord God did cause a skin of
blackness to come upon them.”
2 Nephi 30:6 (prophecy to the Lamanites if they repented): “Scales of darkness shall begin to fall … they shall be a white and delightsome people” (“white and delightsome” was changed to “pure and delightsome” in 1981).
Perhaps Brad would respond, as many other Mormons do,
by saying – but that was then, and this is now. Does that response work? Does it
absolve Mormons from the charge of racism? Certainly not.
If, as they claim, the Book of Mormon is the Word of God,
and the Leaders of the LDS Church are prophets, seers and revelators then the
quotes and verses above should never have been uttered.
Honest Brad
The context of Brad’s comment about the blacks and priesthood was about God’s timing. He was trying to point out that all things happen according to Heavenly Father’s determination, so people should not be questioning God, but rather all should be grateful. He has a point. If Mormons believe that the blacks gained the priesthood through revelation in 1978, they should thank God for this. The trouble for Brad was that he re-opened a can of worms from Mormon history that the modern-day LDS Church want to keep buried.
As
much as they would love to, Mormons cannot extricate themselves from their Scriptures
and their past. What honest Brad said demonstrates that Mormonism has no authority from God. Rather
than P standing for Priesthood Authority, Brad showed that P is for Patent Falsehood.
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