Schwarze und das Priestertum/Aufhebung des Verbots

Kritik

Kritiker machen geltend, dass die Kirche niemals eine Kopie der Offenbarung hergestellt hat, die den Schwarzen garantiert, das Priestertum erhalten zu können.

Quelle(n) der Kritik

• Jerald and Sandra Tanner, The Changing World of Mormonism (Moody Press, 1979), 435.

Aufhebung des Verbots

Notes on the revelatory process

Offenbarung ist ein Prozess, wo im allgemeinen der Mensch um eine Antwort ersucht und Gott dann inspiriert. Mit anderen Worten, Sterbliche müssen normalerweise Führung ersuchen bevor sie Inspiration erhalten. Gott wird im allgemeinen keine Antworten auf Fragen anbieten, die noch nicht gestellt wurden.

Wenn wir außerdem nicht in der Lage sind, eine Antwort zu dem betreffenden Problem zu erhalten und anzuwenden infolge von persönlichen Einschränkungen oder Umständen, die uns am Gehorsam hindern, wird Gott davon absehen, uns darüber etwas mitzuteilen. Das geschieht nicht infolge einer Beschränkung oder eines Mangels oder Begehren seinerseits, sondern infolge von sterblichen Beschränkungen.

Gott gebraucht seine Propheten kaum — wenn überhaupt — als Fernschreiber, die ohne nachzudenken Gottes Willen Wort für Wort übertragen — er verlangt von seinen Propheten, danach zu suchen mit einigen Gedanken als mögliche Antworten ( LuB 9:7-9). Wenn sie dann um Bestätigung ersuchen, kann Der Herr es sachte korrigieren oder bestätigen. Ein treffendes biblisches Beispiel dieses Prinzips kommt von King David: er verkündete Nathan, dem Propheten, dass er einen Tempel Nathan hielt das für eine großartige Idee „und Natan antwortete dem König: Geh nur und tu alles, was du im Sinn hast; denn der Herr ist mit dir." Jedoch trotz Nathans ernsthaften Glaubens, dass Gott den Plänen Davids zustimmen würde, bekam er später eine Offenbarung, die mit seiner anfänglichen Begeisterung im Widerspruch stand.siehe 2. Sam 7:2-17) Gott berichtigte seinen Propheten und verbesserte sein unvollkommenes Verständnis über den göttlichen Willen.

Wenn man Offenbarung als Prozess betrachtet, der geduldige Vorbereitung erfordert, hilft uns das zu verstehen, warum das Priestertumsverbot nicht früher aufgehoben wurde. Lester Bush weist auf drei Grundfaktoren hin, lässt aber auch noch andere Faktoren zu, die Hindernisse in den Weg gelegt haben: „Die Autorität, mit der die Erste Präsidentschaft diese Verfahrensweise über Jahrzehnte streng und unerschütterlich gebilligt hat; eine voreingenommene und sehr buchstäbliche Auslegung einiger Verse in der Köstlichen Perle; und eine umgebende Kultur, die der Einstellung der Mormonen gegenüber den Schwarzen gleichgültig, wenn nicht gar unterstützend, gegenüberstand."^[1]

Gesellschaftliche und kulturelle Hindernisse

Manchmal entschuldigen Kritiker anderer Glaubensrichtungen Glauben und Benehmen in der Vergangenheit ihrer Glaubensgemeinschaft, wohingegen sie meinen, von einer Gemeinschaft, die durch Offenbarung geführt wird, einen viel höheren Standard erwarten zu können. Diese Kritik scheint offensichtlich die Dynamik in biblischen Zeiten zu ignorieren, in denen inspirierte Führer wie Moses und Paulus die Sklaverei als einen Teil kultureller Norm akzeptierten und sogar Rechtsvorschriften dazu anboten Exodus 21:20-27; Lev 25:44-46; Deut 23:15-16; Epheser &:5-9; Pil 1:8-12; 1. Tim 6:1; Titus2:9. Während das, mit dem diese leitenden Brüder konfrontiert waren, nicht völlig vergleichbar mit denen in heutiger Zeit ist, haben diese Männer nicht mehr sozial fortschrittliche Offenbarung erhalten, als der heutige Leser erwarten würde.^[2] Es it klar, dass manchmal weniger ideale Bräuche erlaubt und aufrechterhalten wurden wegen der Hartherzigkeit [der Anhänger Mose.] Mark 10:5."

Die biblische Geschichte ist voll von Beispielen der Schwierigkeit, weitgehende Übereinstimmung zu erzielen, selbst nachdem man eine paradigma-verschiebende Offenbarung erhalten hat. Die Apostel des Neuen Testaments diskutierten darüber, wie man am besten von der ausschließlichen Verkündigung des Evangeliums an die Juden dazu übergeht, Konvertiten der Nichtjuden aufzunehmen (Apg 15). Trotz zahlreicher wundersamer Kundgebungen um sie zu motivieren, mussten die Israeliten 40 Jahre lang umherziehen, Deut 8:2 um allen Götzenglauben auszumerzen, der sie davon abhielt, das versprochene Land zu ererben. Die Geschichte der Mormonen hat auch ihre Beispiele dieser Art, einschließlich der Zeit, die es dauerte, bis die Mitglieder im allgeimeinen das Wort der Weisheit und das Manifest voll erfüllten. Wenn eine Offenbarung, die das Priestertumsverbot beendete hätte,früher gegeben worden wäre, hätten es die Heiligen vielleicht nicht akzeptiert. If a revelation ending the priesthood ban had been received earlier, the Saints might not have accepted it. (Elder Marion D. Hanks is reported to have said "For me it was never that blacks [were unqualified but that] the rest of us had to be brought to a condition of spiritual maturity...to meet the moment of change with grace and goodness.^[3]")

Circumstances which preceded the 1978 revelation

In 1954, after visiting the struggling South African mission, David O. McKay began to consider lifting the ban. In a conversation with Sterling McMurrin, he said, "It is a practice, not a doctrine, and the practice will some day be changed."^[4] This was a departure from a 1949 First Presidency statement defending the ban as doctrinal, indicating a shift in his opinion. Leonard Arrington reported that President McKay formed a special committee of the Twelve that "concluded there was no sound scriptural basis for the policy but that church membership was not prepared for its reversal."^[5] However, David O. McKay felt that only a revelation could end the ban. Sometime between 1968 and his death in 1970 he confided his prayerful attempts to church architect, Richard Jackson, "I’ve inquired of the Lord repeatedly. The last time I did it was late last night. I was told, with no discussion, not to bring the subject up with the Lord again; that the time will come, but it will not be my time, and to leave the subject alone."^[6].

As McKay's health declined, his counselor, Hugh B. Brown, attempted to lift the ban as an administrative decision. However, it became even clearer that a century of precedent was difficult to reverse without a revelation, especially when some members and leaders—echoing George Q. Cannon—felt there might be a revelatory basis for the policy.

President McKay reportedly told Elder Marion D. Hanks that "he had pleaded and pleaded with the Lord, but had not had the answer he sought."^[7]

Harold B. Lee was inclined to reconfirm the ban,^[8] though Church Historian Leonard Arrington

...asserts that President Lee, shortly before his death, sought the Lord's will on the question of blacks and the priesthood during'three days and nights [of] fasting in the upper room of the temple,...but the only answer he received was "not yet." Arrington relied on an unidentified person close to President Lee, but President Lee's son-in-law and biographer found no record of such an incident and thought it doubtful.^[9]

Following Joseph Fielding Smith's death, President Lee did say, "For those who don't believe in modern revelation there is no adequate explanation. Those who do understand revelation stand by and wait until the Lord speaks....It's only a matter of time before the black achieves full status in the Church. We must believe in the justice of God. The black will achieve full status, we're just waiting for that time."^[10]

As the church expanded its missionary outreach and temple building programs, leaders continued to run into problems of black ancestry preventing the building of local leadership in certain areas, most notably Brazil. The prayerful attempts to obtain the will of God intensified. Finally in June 1978, a revelation that "every faithful, worthy man in the Church may receive the holy priesthood" was received and later canonized as Amtliche Erklärung 2.

The Revelation

Many witnesses described the 1978 revelation on the priesthood. Wrote the past LDS Church Historian:

As a historian I sought to learn the particulars and record them in my private diary. The following account is based on dozens of interviews with persons who talked with church officials after the revelation was announced. Although members of the Twelve and the First Presidency with whom I sought interviews felt they should not elaborate on what happened, I learned details from family members and friends to whom they had made comments. . . .

Those in attendance said that as [President Kimball] began his earnest prayer, they suddenly realized that it was not Kimball's prayer, but the Lord speaking through him. A revelation was being declared. Kimball himself realized that the words were not his but the Lord's. During that prayer some of the Twelve -- at least two who have said so publicly -- were transported into a celestial atmosphere, saw a divine presence and the figures of former presidents of the church (portraits of whom were hanging on the walls around them) smiling to indicate their approval and sanction. . . .

At the end of the heavenly manifestation Kimball, weeping for joy, confronted the church members, many of them also sobbing, and asked if they sustained this heavenly instruction. Embracing, all nodded vigorously and jubilantly their sanction. There had been a startling and commanding revelation from God -- an ineffable experience.

Two of the apostles present described the experience as a "day of Pentecost" similar to the one in the Kirtland Temple on April 6, 1836, the day of its dedication. They saw a heavenly personage and heard heavenly music. To the temple-clothed members, the gathering, incredible and without compare, was the greatest single event of their lives. Those I talked with wept as they spoke of it. All were certain they had witnessed a revelation from God.^[11]

Elder David B. Haight said of the same experience:

I would hope someday that our great-grandson Mark and others of our posterity would have similar spiritual experiences and that they would feel the spiritual power and influence of this gospel. I hope that Mark and others will have opportunities such as I had when I was in the temple when President Spencer W. Kimball received the revelation regarding the priesthood. I was the junior member of the Quorum of the Twelve. I was there. I was there with the outpouring of the Spirit in that room so strong that none of us could speak afterwards. We just left quietly to go back to the office. No one could say anything because of the powerful outpouring of the heavenly spiritual experience.

But just a few hours after the announcement was made to the press, I was assigned to attend a stake conference in Detroit, Michigan. When my plane landed in Chicago, I noticed an edition of the Chicago Tribune on the newsstand. The headline in the paper said, "Mormons Give Blacks Priesthood." And the subheading said, "President Kimball Claims to Have Received a Revelation." I bought a copy of the newspaper. I stared at one word in that subheading: claims. It stood out to me just like it was in red neon. As I walked along the hallway to make my plane connection, I thought, Here I am now in Chicago walking through this busy airport, yet I was a witness to this revelation. I was there. I witnessed it. I felt that heavenly influence. I was part of it. Little did the editor of that newspaper realize the truth of that revelation when he wrote, "Claims to Have Received a Revelation." Little did he know, or the printer, or the man who put the ink on the press, or the one who delivered the newspaper -- little did any of them know that it was truly a revelation from God. Little did they know what I knew because I was a witness to it.^[12]

Endnotes

1. [back] Lester E. Bush, Jr. and Armand L. Mauss, eds., Neither White Nor Black: Mormon Scholars Confront the Race Issue in a Universal Church, (Salt Lake City, Signature Books, 1984), 209–210. ISBN 0941214222.
2. [back] For a pre-Civil-Rights-movement Catholic perspective on this issue see the entry on "Philemon" in The Catholic Encyclopedia (1913). Link and "Moral Aspect of Divine Law" Link
3. [back] Edward L. Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), 203–{{{end}}}. ISBN 1590384571 (CD version)
4. [back] Gregory A. Prince and Wm. Robert Wright, David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism (Salt Lake City: University of Utah Press, 2005), 79–80. ISBN 0874808227.
5. [back] Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press 1998), 183.
6. [back] David O. McKay and the Rise of Modern Mormonism, 104.
7. [back]  Edward L. Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride: The Presidency of Spencer W. Kimball (Salt Lake City: Deseret Book, 2005), chapter 20 working draft, 13–{{{end}}}. ISBN 1590384571 (CD version).
8. [back] Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride, 204–205.
9. [back] Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride, working draft chapter 20, page 22, footnote 105; citing for the affirmative Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian and Arrington to author, February 10 and June 15, 1998; for the negative, L. Brent Goates, interview by author, February 9, 1998.
10. [back] Kimball, Lengthen Your Stride, working draft chapter 20, page 22; citing Goates, Harold B. Lee, 506, quoting UPI interview published November 16, 1972.
11. [back]  Leonard J. Arrington, Adventures of a Church Historian (Urbana and Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1998), 176-177
12. [back]  David B. Haight, "This Work Is True," Ensign (May 1996): 22. Link

Zusätzliches Material

FAIRwiki Artikel

Wiki Artikel zur Priestertumsoffenbarung 1978

• Schwarze und das Priestertum (Überblick)
  • Verweigerung des Priestertums aufgrund der Rasse
  • Die Ursache des Priestertumverbots
  • Der Fluch Kains und der Fluch Hams
  • Die Erklärungen von Mitgliedern und Führern der Kirche vor 1978
  • HLT-Schriften und das Priestertumsverbot
  • Aufhebung des Verbots
  • Skin color in LDS thought
  • Gesellschaftlicher/politischer Druck bei der Aufhebung des Verbots
• Propheten sind nicht unfehlbar
• Fluch der Lamaniten
• Protestant critics' double standard on race: a case study
• Rassistische Äußerungen von Kirchenführern
  • Do blacks go to heaven as slaves?
  • Death the penalty for race mixing?

FAIR Website

• den schwarzen Mythos zerstreuen
• ein Schwarzer in Zion
• FAIR Topical Guide: