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| | #REDIRECT[[Repudiated ideas about race#In the 1950s, did the Church teach that the only way a black man could get into heaven was as a slave?]] |
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| ==Criticism==
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| "...[I]n the [19]50s, the Mormons preached that the only way a black man could get into heaven was as a slave."
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| ===Source(s) of the criticism===
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| * Bill Maher, ''Real Time with Bill Maher'', HBO, 16 February 2007. {{link|url=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7xqNbZKIQUs}}
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| ==Response==
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| Maher was probably referring to an address given by Elder Mark E. Petersen at Brigham Young University on 27 August 1954 entitled "Race Problems—As They Affect the Church." Elder Petersen said in this address:
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| :Think of the Negro, cursed as to the priesthood.... This Negro, who, in the pre-existence lived the type of life which justified the lord in sending him to earth in the lineage of Cain with a black skin.... In spite of all he did in the pre-existent life, the Lord is willing, if the Negro accepts the gospel with real, sincere faith, and is really converted, to give him the blessings of baptism and the gift of the Holy Ghost. If that Negro is faithful all his days, he can and will enter the celestial kingdom. He will go there as a servant, but he will get a celestial resurrection. He will get a place in the celestial glory. He will not go then even with the honorable men of the earth to the Terrestrial glory, nor with the ones spoken of as being without law.{{ref|petersen1}}
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| ===The context of Elder Petersen's remarks===
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| In this speech Elder Petersen considered several points that add a great deal to understanding his remarks about the status of blacks and how the lessons apply to all peoples on the earth. He discussed first of all, the pre-mortal existence. He spoke of how, in the pre-mortal world, there was a great deal of difference between the various spiritual children of our Father in Heaven that lived there:
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| :For sins we commit here [on this earth], we will be given places in the eternal world....
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| :Is there any reason to think that the same principle of rewards and punishments did not apply to us and our deeds in the pre-existent world as will apply hereafter?"
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| He presented the view that our placement here on earth reflected what we had become and how we acted in the pre-mortal world. Some were born into one sort of circumstance and another into some other set of circumstances. These placements were based upon our life in the pre-mortal existence and reflected the purpose of this earth life in God's great plan of salvation. The requirements for righteous living in order to qualify for the Celestial kingdom are the same for all men of all races. In this there is no difference in the requirements based on race or gender or any other factor of life. All must come to Christ and live a life worthy of the Celestial glory.
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| Elder Petersen told of many times and circumstances in this life and in the life to follow when there was justifiable segregation. He did not use the term "segregation" to mean ''legal discrimination,'' which anyone should find objectionable. Rather, he maintained that sometimes separation between people in different circumstances is appropriate. There will certainly be a separation of people in the life hereafter based on their righteous living—not on the race they were born into during this mortal life, but rather the kind of mortal life they have lived.
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| His primary concern for continued separation seemed to have been based on the concern that with large scale intermarriage the blessings of the priesthood would not be available to large numbers of people and that the work of the Church would thereby be hampered.
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| He never used the term "slave" anywhere in his speech.
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| It is important to recognize that in many ways Elder Petersen was ahead of his times. At the time Petersen made this remark, the priesthood and temple blessings were not available to people with black ancestry and there was no expectation that this would be changed in mortality. Yet he made a point of quoting early leaders of the Church who taught that those who were currently banned from holding the priesthood would receive the full blessings of the priesthood in the life to come. Brigham Young was quoted as saying, speaking of the priesthood ban: "...the day will come when all that race will be redeemed and possess all the blessings which we now have." The blessing which we now possess are the opportunity to gain full exaltation in the Celestial kingdom. When all of those blessings are received there will be no difference in the individuals that have been exalted.
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| Elder Petersen acknowledged that we did not have full information on the removal of the curse and that those who spoke of the timing of the removal were expressing their own ideas. In 1978, as a result of the revelation on the priesthood, further knowledge was available and the change was welcomed by members of the Church.
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| ==Conclusion==
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| Elder Peterson's comments were made during a very different time from our own. Much of American society believed that blacks were socially and culturally inferior, and that the nascent American civil rights movement was a bad idea. The 1978 revelation on the priesthood was almost 25 years in the future.
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| Elder Petersen's comments were, to some degree, a reflection of the prevailing beliefs of his time, and were based on his interpretation of the limited light and knowledge he had available. Many of the expressions he used in his speech would be found objectionable in today's world, but his teachings about the pre-mortal existence and its relationship to this life give understanding to the thinking that was prevalent prior to the 1978 revelation.
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| It is clear from the context of this talk that Elder Petersen did not believe that any group or race would be slaves in heaven. That notion goes against all teachings concerning the nature of the Celestial kingdom. It is a notion that is completely reprehensible to any responsible member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.
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| ==Endnotes==
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| #{{note|petersen1}}Mark E. Petersen, "Race Problems—As They Affect The Church," address at Brigham Young University, 27 August 1954. This address is not available at the [http://speeches.byu.edu BYU Speeches] web site. The text is, unfortunately, only available on various anti-Mormon web sites.
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| ==Further reading==
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| ===FAIR wiki articles===
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| {{BlacksPriesthoodWiki}}
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| ===FAIR web site===
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| {{BlacksPriesthoodFAIR}}
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| ===External links===
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| {{BlacksPriesthoodLinks}}
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| ===Printed material===
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| {{BlacksPriesthoodPrint}}
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