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Unintended consequences
Nov. 16th, 2015 09:23 am The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints just issued a press release celebrating "over thirty years" of non-white men being allowed the priesthood. Which.... just reminds us all that the Mormons' official doctrine -- as opposed to practice, which I'm told is still ongoing in some areas -- treated black people as lesser until nineteen-seventy-eight.
“They’ve just announced blacks can get the priesthood!” James Dawson, one of two black members of the famed Mormon Tabernacle Choir, told fellow Saints: ‘My faith is strengthened, I am very happy.”
...
n fact, nothing like that [segregated congregations] happened in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There was never any policy of segregated congregations. Where Mormons of various racial or ethnic backgrounds have lived as neighbors, they have always worshiped together throughout Church history. Blacks had long before 1978 been baptized as members, preached from the pulpit and offered prayers in largely white congregations — none of which required the member to hold priesthood office.
...
n fact, nothing like that [segregated congregations] happened in The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. There was never any policy of segregated congregations. Where Mormons of various racial or ethnic backgrounds have lived as neighbors, they have always worshiped together throughout Church history. Blacks had long before 1978 been baptized as members, preached from the pulpit and offered prayers in largely white congregations — none of which required the member to hold priesthood office.
