I think that generally, the LDS were not racists in and around the times that the 1978 Revelation came about. In fact, I recently read some articles from the Deseret News archives from the weeks after. Interesting stuff. Many LDS in fact thought that “it was about time” for this to happen. So while generally the LDS people were not racist, many did see the priesthood ban as a racist teaching, and unfortunately, no other Christian church has had such an institutionalized teaching, especially when it relates to something so foundational to a faith.
It MAY be that (and this is the purest speculation on my part, mind you, evidenced by nothing at all but my own instinct) that the policy was put in place as a result of the racist context of the time; both of the non-Mormon neighbors and that which Mormons brought into the church when they converted. I think, perhaps, that it was left in place until the members of the church were not only ready, but were actively praying, for it to be removed. We had to earn it, in other words. Not the blacks…they were ultimately fine. After all, this mortal life isn’t all that big a slice of eternity.
but WE, the ‘whites’…we had to earn it.
I could be completely wrong about that, but I have a sneaking suspicion that I’m not, or at least, not wholly.
OK, we have two groups here, mine and yours.
Mine had a racist policy in place for a hundred and fifty years. We supported it and enforced it. Then it was changed; we claim it was changed through revelation; divine inspiration. That change was greeted almost universally with “HALLELUJAH!” and “it’s about time” and joy. Since that day there has been no hint, not even the merest whisper, of racism in our policies or our practices; we have black bishops, stake presidents, general authorities, probably an apostle fairly soon.
Yours has several proclamations from Rome about the equality of men; that blacks were equal to whites in all ways; that slavery was an excommunicatable offense, that slave owners were to be excommunicated. You have given me examples of this from…what was it…1300 or so? Something like that. Certainly no later than the 1400’s.
However, in spite of that declaration, no slave owner has ever been excommunicated. In spite of that declaration, priests and organizations of priests owned slaves. In spite of that declaration, it took three hundred years for a black priest to be ordained in North America. In spite of that declaration, it is not at all certain that there have been any black Popes, and the first confirmed black Cardinal was not ordained until the late twentieth century.
Individual Catholics have fought for the slave, and for people of color…but as an institution? Not so much. Consider; doing so was so rare an experience that those who did were made Saints.
You cannot dispute the timelines, or the facts of the matter for either group, Rebecca. I COULD say that you, as a Catholic, have no right to criticize Mormons for racism, and on a purely emotional level, I would be correct. However, whether either one of us likes it or not, both our respective belief systems have been racist. You claim that ours was worse than yours because ours was ‘official…’ and I can claim that yours is worse than ours because your entire organization didn’t even bother to pay lip service to your official statement regarding race, and in practice you were far more racist than we ever were…and it took you three times longer, even with your official proclamation of racial equality, to make that an actual policy, than it did with us.
I could do that.
In fact, I just did.
But the real point is, we are both the products of faiths that make similar claims for ourselves; similar claims of authority; we think we are right, you think you are. Any criticism of one by the other (especially in this area) can be turned right around…if ‘racism’ proves that Mormonism is false, then your own history of it proves that Catholicism is false.
I suggest we both take joy in the progress both faiths have made, and let it alone now.
