So I got a message on YouTube that said this:

"The church was the first in the US to grant people of color the priesthood, It was ahead of it's time and one of the reasons the Mormons were kicked out of Missouri."

I am thinking this is BS, is there any truth in it? I can't see the church being ahead of time in anything!

Joseph Smith did give them the Priesthood (Elijah Abel, for one) but Brigham Young took it away when he got to Utah.

Google UTLM Curse of Cain for an excellent rundown.

The Utah church not only took it away, but quickly started teaching all manner of racist BS which was expounded upon by subsequent Priesthood leaders.

. . . because he was light-skinned and thus incorrectly determined to be White (Abel was actually 1/8th Black, or what is referred to as an "octoroon").

At any rate, Abel was notoriously discriminated against by Mormons because of his "cursed" lineage and not allowed to receive his temple ordinances, under orders of the rabidly racist LDS president Brigham Young.

I have done some detailed research on Elijah Abel and, as usual, Mormon apologists have spun a significantly selective yarn about him.

Will be posting on it in the near future.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2012 01:23AM by steve benson.

'Interesting'; the stmnt about 'the first church in the U.S. may have a technical accuracy. Remember, this was pre- civil war.
However, I have absolutely no idea what other churches were doing; I believe that blacks attended church; did they have their own congregations? I'm not sure on that one. (if they had churches, pretty sure they had (ordained) ministers.


UPDATE: wiki Confirms my suspecions; there certainly were Black churches, and Black ministers. some states passed laws against blacks having meetings, some also stated that churches must have White ministers/clergy.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_church

another (mormon?) claim Bites The Dust...



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/22/2012 01:25AM by guynoirprivateeye.

Leave it to those wacky episcopalians to beat the mormo's hands down:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Absalom_Jones

I call this myth: Busted!

As A Side Note:

women....still don't get the Mo Penishood (correct,Right?)

So then, even tho mo women weren't expected to 'hold' the priesthood....I believe that women were Prevented from being married/sealed in the Temple ( to a white PH member) up until 1978; Correct?

Thanks guys much appreciated. I'm probably wasting my time but there ya go!

>
> "The church was the first in the US to grant
> people of color the priesthood,



Most non LDS churches in the US don't have 'Priesthood'?

Only Catholicism and Anglican? as far as I know. The Protestant denominations believe there is only one Priest ( High Priest Jesus Christ etc) so they just have Pastors etc, like some kind of Spiritual Guides.

Did Catholicism ban people of color from Priesthood until Mormons led the way?

Interesting to look into.